Juneau, AK miniatures

More of my series of Juneau, AK in miniature. I decided these photograph better when I put them in groups of 4 and do not have to get so close to them. Each one of these is just an every day scene in Juneau. It is a small community and the mountains are in your face no matter where you go. It is such a gorgeous place! And I really love the low winter light. It is wonderful for filming or painting.

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These are all the same mountains that surround the Mendenhall glacier, but each from a different part of town. It is almost like you cannot get away from it. These views are everywhere!

Juneau, AK in Miniature

I’m finding that it is not only fun to paint in miniature but it is still a good way to learn and practice. I still have to work on what details to leave out and consider all the same composition rules. But I can play with color without much investment if it turns out to be a failure. There is very little investment at all whether it is financial or time. I am even finding that I would like to reproduce some of them in a larger scale. All around good practice. (These are each 2.5×3.5 inch)

Juneau, AK in Miniature

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I am continuing my miniature landscape series of Juneau, AK. I’ve taken so many wonderful photos of the beautiful scenery here and now I am getting to use it. It would be nice to have a set of 4 of them displayed together, maybe 4 seasons or just 4 different areas of Juneau. The pic on the left is a view from Harris Harbor. I just loved the light vs. shadow on this. The other picture is Point Retreat Lighthouse. I particularly liked the lighting on the mountain in the distance here. These are both 2.5xx3.5 inch stretched canvas and painted on the sides as well. (I actually sold the lighthouse this seek, the other is for sale)

Frosty Mendenhall Evening

Frosty Mendenhall MorningThis 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.

Mendenhall Loop Road II

IMG_0806This 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 ( =

Strong, Warm Light

IMG_7714This is a little (5×7) study that I did to practice the color, temperature and value of the light.The sun hits the mountain peaks like this in the winter here in Juneau. (on one of the maybe 10 sunny days we get) It is so beautiful! I want to be able to capture the extreme impact that it has. I think this is quite close to how it looks. I’m am going to do several more this week. It will be my focus.

Winter Storage

Maine farmThis is a small painting of a farm in Corinth, Maine. It is set way back from the road and has all its pasture up front. I like to see who is in the fields when I go by. Often there are horses and colts out there. I think this car has been there as long as I can remember. This was my first successful attempt at painting a car. I was pretty happy with it. Usually they do not look at all like a car.

Winter Damage

Winter damageThis is another effort to employ the looser style of painting that I like so much. I really tried to go about this in a more reckless abandon fashion. I did not want to be fussy with detail but wanted to focus on the larger value differences. About mid way through I almost tossed it, but in the end I think it came out rather well.

6 Minis

6 minisThis is a collection of 4×4 paintings that I did this week. They are copies of larger paintings by a friend who’s work I particularly like. His brush strokes are quick and sketchy and his paint is quite thick and textural. Another thing I like about it is his color choices. He uses a few different colors than I was using and I enjoyed adding these to my pallet. (the new ones were sap green, cad orange light, and yellow ochre)

I really enjoyed these little studies. I got a feel for the look and light, as well as a bit more texture. I think this was very helpful.