This type of old tree has to be my favorite type of subject to paint. It just has so much character and probably a very interesting history of all it has endured.
This painting was done on 8×8 Gesso board which I like very much. It seems to force me to paint in a looser style, which I also like.
If you know anything about Maine, you should be familiar with the whoopie pie. These are delicious, sweet, chocolate cake filled with marshmallow creme frosting. They are awesome! There is a festival just to celebrate these wonderful treats. Everyone makes them just a little bit differently, but my kids all think mine are the best.
I was inspired to paint this fun picture when my daughter was telling me that she was going to the Whoopie Pie festival about a week ago. I was jealous that I wasn’t there to go with her. And I surely could have sold this little painting had I had it there.
Ziggy is a very lucky little dog who goes fishing with her master on a Gilnet boat in Juneau, Alaska. She is very small for a miniature Schnauzer and is just adorable, and I was told she always has her little tongue sticking out just a little.
This was a commissioned piece, and as usual with dogs, she was very fun to paint!
This is a very typical scene here in Juneau, AK. We are in the Tongass National Rain-forest and the days are mostly gray as in this painting. Though I miss the sunshine most of the time, I love how the fog hangs over the mountains like this. It has its own beauty. The building in the front is the old pump house from the now extinct Tredwell Mine.
Another morning walk to Mendenhall Glacier. It is beautiful no matter what the weather. On this morning the fog was just clearing. I liked the warm reds on the peaks contrasted with the deep purple in the shadow from another mountain. And of course the little bits of left over fog are always interesting. This is a 5×7 oil on canvas…mostly meant to be a study of the light effects.
This is a 5×7 oil painting of a point outside Juneau, AK. When I took this photo, I just loved how the blue reflection on the shady parts of the rock seemed so blue and complemented to bright, vivid green of the grassy knoll. But when I started this picture I was really intending to practice my skies. I have trouble keeping them light enough, and I’d like to be able to get better blues into them. So on this one I was trying to use some Cerulean Blue…I usually use Pthalo. I used both here, starting with Cerulean near the mountain peaks and gradually going to Pthalo as the sky got higher. this is not how my photo looked, but I was happy with it. After the sky was done I figured I’d just add the rest…and here it is. I think I will try to do some quick practice though of mainly skies. Because I started with the sky I ended up running out of the proper proportion of water at the bottom. I think this would be much more pleasing to the eye if it had a couple more inches of water, but there’s always next time.
This is the view from my dining room windows. It is not always visible because of all the low clouds and rain that we get, but when it is, it is spectacular! During winter the low sun creates the most beautiful lighting effects on everything. On this evening the frost was really thick on everything. It tends to build up because the sun doesn’t get high enough to melt it off things. So the hoarfrost almost seems to grow. This made everything seem so cool and gray and soft compared to the bright warm glow on the mountain peaks. I cannot seem to get a photo of this painting that really shows the coloring well, but this isn’t too bad. As with a few of my paintings now, I have painted this a couple times (or pretty close to this) and it gets a little better each time.
This is the valley in Juneau where I live. It is the main road that goes to the glacier. In the summertime there is a constant stream of tour buses that run from the cruise ships downtown out to the Mendenhall Glacier. This is the road they take. On a clear day, when you get to this point it can be so beautiful that it makes your heart leap! Tourists must have their jaws drop as they approach. It is about 4 miles from this point but you cannot wait to get there to see it when you are given this glimpse beforehand. I have also painted this a couple times trying to get the values just right. The mountain is difficult to get just right. It seems darker than you have to paint it in order to put it into the distance. I’m learning ( =
Someone let me borrow a photo they took of a beautiful lookout spot here in Juneau, AK. I can just imagine how awesome it would be to sit here in the evening and watch the whales and seals and other wildlife out on the water. Beautiful spot! It was a pleasure to paint.
I’ve been wanting to paint this for quite some time now. Those reflections just have an abstract quality to them that I like. For a long time I didn’t think I knew how to approach all that is going on in this picture. I finally decided to jump in, and I’m fairly happy with it.
Art with my Coffee 