Art Blog

Rose Trio

A rose trio is the next blossom subject for me in watercolor. The question is, can I realistically render three different colored roses?

Rose Trio 02 After rendering a “Sharon” rose, I felt inspired. The next morning I did a search and rescue mission for photographic images to work with on my computer and phone. Finding 3 separate pictures that I liked from my garden last year, I sketched a layout for them and here we go. A multi-colored one, a white, and one yellow blossom. You can see from the image above how I begin by applying a dark wash to where I see the shadows on each of the petal surfaces. Then, I can add some of the gorgeous colors, layer after layer.
Rose Trio 03

The multi-colored one on the top left gets yellow, then Opera Pink, some alizarine crimson, and darkened more with dioxin purple. Purple also shows me where shadows are darkest in the background.

Rose Trio 04

The white is a long-lasting blossom named, “Abraham Lincoln”. Each Presidential petal base has a slight touch of tan shade at the base. A tiny touch of Azo yellow is added to show this subtle color change. The yellow rose is brought to life with more yellow and small touches of burnt amber.

Rose Trio 05 The yellow beauty in the front is from my spice garden. It may have survived the fire, but we won’t know until things warm up in spring. The name tag for the yellow rose is long gone. I darken the background using blues, greens, and splashes of alizaron crimson with purple.

Rose Trio 06

The colors used as a background are purposely not boring and rendered in a fun wet-on-wet texture. I only want to hint at the dense foliage behind. Remember that, roses are one thing that always brings joy. If I am holding them, smelling them, looking at them in person, or painting/drawing them there is most likely a smile on my face.

Single Rose Demo

Rose Demo with Lisa Hill

This single rose reminds me of one I had in my garden named, “Sharon”. It was a bright character with a wonderful fragrance. I will be replacing some of my roses this year, and this multi-color one is high on the list.

While attending a Spokane Watercolor meeting at Spokane Art Supply on Saturday, we painted with Lisa Hill. She had this picture of a beautiful rose that we all painted as she demoed her style of mixing colors. It was a fun morning full of painting with other artists.

There were so many curves, shadows, and highlights when I began working on this. I had to be careful not to let the challenge overwhelm me. It is a real challenge to get the values right so that the three-dimensional effects become apparent. I have to just take it one petal at a time, it is the best way for me to work it for these types of paintings.

The dark background was added later and turned out to be a fun and dramatic ending. I like the way it reveals the silhouette of the rose. I plan to dig out my photographs from my garden last year and keep practicing roses for awhile.

Dahlia Beauty

A Dahlia beauty in pink experience right after our home burned down August 13, 2023. Our neighbor, Jennifer, is an absolute green thumb who regularly does magic in her garden every year.
dahlia Pink Two 10
Her garden (it survived) after the fire, was still beautiful and abundant. Jerry made sure to bring their generator out, to be able to keep watering it. Jen shared all the tomatoes and flowers we could pick from her garden, it was a real blessing. It made me feel as though we would be okay.

dahlia Pink Two 03 This painting is from one of those dinner plate Dahlia’s that we picked and I took many many pictures of. So, I could paint them later on. I hope to someday be able to produce the beauty she does every year.
dahlia Pink Two 02

Nighttime at the Cathedral

Nighttime at the Cathedral. This is an oil painting completed while attending the week of painting in Eagle Idaho, just north of Boise. It was a great time for artists and full of adventures in plein air.

Night time painting of cathedral

I have never tried to paint at night so this was an unfamiliar setup and subject. Outside in the dark, downtown Boise all alone in a parking lot across from a cathedral that had lighting that caught my eye. Cathedral of the Rockies10

Progressive stage. I will be painting at night again… it is a challenge. It feels like an opposite approach, rendering the highlights on a dark background. Drawing is usually rendering shadows on a light background.

Arbor Crest Plein Air

Arbor Crest Wine Cellar View 01

Arbor Crest Wine Cellars is a beautiful historic estate on top of the hill, just north of the Spokane River in the Inland Northwest. It is an absolutely perfect place to have a plein air paint out. A fun group of friends from the Spokane Watercolor Society met up here for an artist’s day out. This place is full of surprises that catch your eye. There are so many beautiful settings, gardens and views that it is hard to choose the best one to paint.

Arbor Crest Wine Cellar 2 This view captured me, and as I settled down to paint, I wondered about that brave soul who selected this amazing location to settle and and admire the view. What a daring free spirited individual that must have been.

Can you imaging sitting here with your morning coffee? I can.

Arbor Crest Wine Cellar 3 Here is one of those unfinished paintings (7) on my desk that is now part of the ash where our house used to be. Since I do have pictures to work from I may recreate this one. Maybe even spend another day at the Arbor Crest Wine Celler grounds to get the colors right.

August 18th 2023

Home we built — A watercolor study of our home that was burned 08/13/2023.

August 18th 2023 was a date that will stay in my memory. The day began normally with a trip into town for a chiropractor appointment for Pete and I. Afterwards, we did grocery shopping followed by getting other supplies at North 40 on the way home. When you live out-of-town you tend to get all of the errands done in one trip.

Pete got a new pair of slippers at North 40 taking a little while talking and it was making me nervous about making it home in time. I had a 3:30 Zoom Board Meeting for the Spokane Watercolor Society. When we got home I rushed and turned the computer on and was only about 5 minutes late. The meeting was short maybe 30 minutes.

As I was getting ready to shut down the computer, there was a pounding on our front door. It was our neighbor Travis G. from just above us on the hill. He was saying did we see the fire

Then Everything Changed

What fire? Then all of our cell phones started beeping that spooky evacuation alert. A spooky incessant sound. Looking off of the front deck with Travis there was a great big cloud of smoke going high into the sky. Travis saw 200 ft high flames from his house. The smoke was going away from us, when suddenly, the wind changed and it started to come straight at us.

Another neighbor, Brian C. came up our driveway saying the same thing and asking if we had notified everyone. He had let his next door neighbor know, and she had already evacuated. He said he would make sure the Eastmans knew on his way back.

I went inside and notified all of the people in our neighborhood watch group via email, and we all started making calls to whoever we already had on our phones. Just then, I noticed a folder of pictures on my desktop that I had taken for the insurance company after our last wildfire scare a few years prior. It was 150 pictures and I opened Google Drive and started an “upload” saying a little prayer, it could send it in time.

I found backpacks and bags and begin dumping medicines, medical gear, and bathroom drawers, just dumping them in. Packed a weekend backpack with clothes like I was going on a weekend trip. And Pete grabbed his suitcases and put clothes and stuff in them.

Pete grabbed the box of our important papers, and then started carrying loads of guns and ammo upstairs into the back of the truck. Every time I made a trip into the car, I watched for small electronic devices that could fit in and charger plugs and anything else along the way. I got Max’s dog food bag, his brushes, and his leash but forgot his dish. I grabbed the cooler off of the deck and pulled the soups out of the pantry that were ready to eat thinking, I did not do all that work for nothing. Someone was going to be hungry. The car was getting full fast. Then, the electricity went out.

No More

My next load from inside was going to be computers, keepsakes, and treasures. I paused for a second to look at the pictures, Grandpa’s clock, and the piano OMG! Then, a pound on the door revealed the sheriff returning yelling, EVACUATE NOW! We followed him out and as I was heading to the car I noticed the chainsaw and gas weedeater with a blade hanging on the back of our Kubota tractor. I stepped over there and started unwiring them. Pete came and helped me, grabbing them and putting them in the back of the truck. We gotta go!

We followed the sheriff out with all our neighbors behind, Guy was driving his tractor and as we turned the corner where the mailboxes were, the flames were crossing the road around us. Just a little too close for comfort. We all just kept going through a thick curtain of smoke.

The Oregon Road Wildfire on August 18th, 2023 was a day forever impressed into our memories. Peter, myself, and Max made it out alive and uninjured.

Rediscovery

The rediscovery of my love for Plein Air Painting is now complete. I spent 2 weeks driving around Coeur d’Alene ID and painting outside. The beauty of where we live has brought my artist’s soul back to life. The art expedition involved multiple trips, cruising around, and sightseeing till I noticed a great view. Then, stopping to hop out, set up the easel, and paint my heart out.

Barn Elkhorn Flats H0523 — 10″w x 8″h watercolor on 140lb wc paper/board cradle. Old barn in the prairie where Elkhorn Flats Wildlife Mitigation Unit is in Idaho.

3 Paintings

This was the first plein air I did during the art expedition. An old barn stopped me on the road and I had to back up to go see it. The old barn won an honorable mention ribbon and was the first painting sold in our booth.

Roadside Centurian Stump — 11″h x 14″ w oil on stretched canvas. Stump on slow vehicle turnout from Hwy 97 E side of Lake Coeur d’Alene ID 23.2 miles from I-90

I pulled into a slow vehicle turn out to let traffic go by, and this guy greeted me right up front and center. What a personality this tree stump has. He didn’t win a ribbon but there was one young man who fell in love with it. He went off and brought back his whole family to vote for it as the people’s choice.

Blooming Wet H0723 — 11″w x 14″h x .75″d watercolor, acrylic & ink on 140lb wc paper/board cradle. A wetland about 25 miles south on Hwy 97, full of blooming lilly ponds, grasses and wildlife named Thompson Refuge in Idaho.

This painting won the “People’s Choice” award for the plein air booth. Bloomin Wet is a close-up view from the bank of the water full of blooming lily pods, grasses, reeds, and lots of mosquitos.

1 Demo Painting

As described in a previous post, I did a demo of plein air painting from some fresh sunflowers in the booth during the Art on the Green show.

Single Sunflower — 4″ x 4″ wc on 140 lb paper from a plein air demo at the Art on the Green booth.

This small 4″ x 4″ demo sold.

Sunflower Plein Air Demo 2023 — 11″w x 14″h watercolor sunflowers demo at our booth in Art on the Green in Coeur d’Alene ID 2023.

Here is another sunflower demo that I intend to finish later in the studio.

55th Art on the Green

Jessica Bryant Art on the Green — Jessica Bryant is a watercolorist worth knowing and fun too!

The 55th Art on the Green ( AoG) Festival was a pleasure to experience. We had the distinct pleasure of being right next to Jessica Bryant’s booth making it possible to get to know her over the weekend. She is an amazing watercolor artist doing landscapes that just blow you away. A fascinating individual with so many interesting stories about traveling and painting in her life. Jessica’s beautiful brainchild started two years ago, to help with the KEA fundraising and increasing public awareness.

The Plein Air show was sponsored by both “Art on the Green” (AoG) and the “Kootenai Environmental Alliance” (KEA) non-profit. They promote, “clean water efforts” in the Lake Coeur d’Alene water drainage basin area. The booth celebrated area artists who participate in the creation of art that is created outside while experiencing the beautiful surroundings around the lake.

We were located in the middle, close to the food booths and the stage. The entertainment included great music and phenomenal singers all day. The music inspired people to get up and dance, and even some toddlers got up to dance to the music. A great family fun day for everyone.

Even though the plein air painting contest requires that I spend a lot of time in the two weeks prior looking for views and painting outside. It is worth putting up with the “sun and bugs” because I love painting outside so much.

Each day Fanie Van (first place winner), and I did plein air painting demos, using fresh sunflowers from my garden. People were relaxed and easy to talk with and were eager to cast their votes on their favorites for “People’s Choice”. A lot of the paintings were sold and it was a successful show all around. This will remain an event that I look forward to being a part of next year.

Surprise Treasure

Kylie's Bluebird Day We received a surprise treasure in the mail today. It is a perfect rendering of a magnificent ‘BLUEBIRD DAY OF SKIING” at 49 Degrees North Ski Resort in Chewelah last year. Kylie, you are an amazing artist, thank you! I look forward to more art by you, especially in this subject.

Pete and I had the privilege of teaching our granddaughters to ski years ago on this same hill. Many years have passed and both of these great girls have families of their own now. They are some of the dearest individuals in our lives.

Last year, we had the triple privilege of helping to teach Nick, Jace, and Kylie skiing fundamentals. Can you believe it, grandson, and great-grandkids? We were able to ski with all four of them while we enjoyed some of the most beautiful days up on that hill last year. It ain’t easy to learn how to ski but it is truly worth the effort. It is unexpressible to try and describe the happiness that they all had. Pete and I always have loved to ski.

“Ski Bums” and proud of it. We are addicts, that is all there is to it. Any day of skiing beats almost anything else out in winter. We are aging and sometimes the aches and pains get our attention in the evenings, but that does not take the joy away that skiing down pristine winter landscapes gives us. The views, endless gorgeous skyline, crisp wind in the face, and the butterflies fluttering in your belly as you challenge yourself coming down the slope. The absolute best fun you can have without having to worry about having bail money handy.

Sarah, you still ski like a dream. Thank you for including us in your family outings, we love sharing this fun with you.

SIB Garden Show

We set up for the SIB (Spokane In Bloom) garden show this year at a beautiful local residence on the south hill.

SIB Garden Tour 01 “Hear the Wind Garden” is the creation of Jody & Todd Hechtman at 2020 E 23rd Ave, Spokane, WA. This is the front of their home where people entered the garden. The Hechtmans have a beautiful garden and home that is truly a hidden gem on the south hill. SIB Garden Tour 03 There are a lot of shady tree areas surrounded by beautiful landscaping and it feels almost like walking through a park. SIB Garden Tour 02

As you start down the path a very peaceful mood envelopes you. There are large trees, with equally impressive boulders with moss as you walk on the winding concrete walkway. SIB Garden Tour 04 SIB Garden Tour 05 You can’t help but notice the amazing assortment of beautiful blossoms and plants all around. SIB Garden Tour 06 SIB Garden Tour 07 SIB Garden Tour 08 Artisan booths are strategically placed encouraging talking and picture-taking of the wonderful horticulture skills on exhibit. SIB Garden Tour 11 There are gorgeous massive planters filled with a bright array of foliage. SIB Garden Tour 10 SIB Garden Tour 09 Stairs climb the small hills showing you what surprise hides around the next bend. SIB Garden Tour 12 It is a very worthwhile, and interesting little stroll to take. SIB Garden Tour 15 This is the real jewel to enjoy. It is a private little retreat to relax and enjoy a quiet little respite from city life. The back deck is a little piece of heaven to take a rest. SIB Garden Tour 14 SIB Garden Tour 13 SIB Garden Tour 16 More steps lead up to the exit walkway on the other side of the house where our booth was located. I did not get any pictures of our own booth after setup. Hopefully, someone at, “The Inland Empire Gardeners“ group got some pictures and would feel like sharing. If that is you please be sure to contact me and let us know.

This is one of the most enjoyable local events that we look forward to taking part in each year. The people visiting the gardens are interesting and intelligent. Talking about gardening with other gardeners is a lot of fun.