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.
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.
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.
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.
This small 4″ x 4″ demo sold. There is another partially done one that I intend to finish in the studio. I’ll share about that when it is done.
We received a surprise treasure in the mail today. It is a perfect rendering of a magnificent ‘BLUEBIRD DAY OF SKIING” at 
Spokane in Bloom 2023 is this Saturday from 10am-5pm. This year’s theme is, “Journey Through the Senses“. Come and experience 6 truly beautiful gardens on the south side of Spokane. Tickets are $15 and can be 
Noticing the remnants of life around me. After a great visit with our family in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, we started the long drive home. Aspen are magical, as they transform the color of an entire mountainside in Fall. They take my breath away. My husband and I stopped on the side of the road and took a short walk to stretch our legs and reenergize. We followed what looked like an old game trail meandering up the hill.
I wondered what kind of stories that old fence post could tell if he could talk. That post was where a gate had hung, at the base of a beautiful expanse of grazing land. Was this a large farm or ranch in the past? Were there cattle, horses, gardens, homes, and barns? This artist’s mind kicked into high gear then. Wouldn’t it be great to explore and see if the story from a long time ago could be found? Are there pioneer cabins back there? Big ole’ log barns? Ponds?
Where did all the people go? Standing there, we were very much alone as the sun sank further down in the sky. I took some photographs of this sturdy old cracked fence guardian before leaving.
His, “Remnants of Life” will remain a secret, but the beauty of the land that he guards will be seen by whoever views this painting.
Homeless Solutions were the topic. Thursday night was chilly at Whitworth college but the lecture hall was warm and full of concerned local residents. There weren’t many seats left open. 
Communities voluntarily have worked together to handle finances, planning, and permits, along with materials and labor costs. Working together they have successfully built communities where homeless people have a roof over their heads with a locking door. By providing a safe place to live we allow a person to connect with neighbors and build a community. “Villages” become a place of transition where disconnected homeless people can manage themselves, and then become part of society again.
Charles Durrett revealed methods to solve homelessness now. He talked with many people afterward. We left with a mood full of hope and the motivation to step out and make a difference. Become a part of Homeless Solutions in Spokane WA, and attend a public meeting tomorrow at the North Spokane County Library starting at 9:30 am.
A 2nd table for the children’s church is painted for the kids at CCOB (Country Church of the Open Bible). It has a mountain and animal theme and a quote, “I lift my eyes to the mountains,” from 
Now the winding river leads down to a small pond or lake surface where I will paint a reflection of the mountain on the smooth water surface.
The fun starts here as I put various animals in the scenery which I will hide so that a “Where is Waldo” game can be played. There is a total of how many animals are on the table. Only the children will know.
Now I can start to add leaves to the tree going up the right side of the table which will help to hide the critters in the tree and in the sky.
The moose is hiding behind the “s” in the word mountains.
There are many more added grass blades in many colors, and lots of leaves until it seems right. The final step is doing two coats of polyurethane varnish so that the table top is easy to clean.
He was always a truly kind soul and full of fun all of his life. I don’t think he had a mean bone in his body.
Here is a picture of him when he did not want his picture taken. This big guy came to us with many allergy problems but after we got them figured out, he was a joy to have in our home. He enjoyed getting dirty every day and splashing in his doggie pool often during the hot months so that the dust he’d lay in would stick well. Our house is never spotless. He was the first guy in the water at Elk Park.
He loved cold weather, and he would chase snowballs all day long. He’d go outside and roll all over in the snow and then just lay in it with a smile on his face.
We were truly blessed to be able to share so much of his life with him. He is already greatly missed.
The children’s church tables needed a facelift because the veneer on top was damaged and yucky looking and getting hard to clean. Linda spent a whole day stripping the top surface off, then scraping and sanding so there was clean wood. I got both the tables on my deck then and began restoring the tabletops. First, there is the primer layer to seal the particle board that was exposed. You should have seen how fast the primer is absorbed into that type of wood, especially when you are painting in 100 degree farenheight weather.
Wa La! we are finished after two coats of polyurethane to seal and protect everything.
I made a Big Fish Craft for our church VBS program. The backdrop was made from a 4×8 sheet of mylar that Allison Kromer gave me, she had painted a Riverside High School backdrop on it. Allison your mylar is now, “the big orange fish” at the 
There were paper plates and about 100 clothespins used. 
To the best of my figuring ability, I was able to find that 6″ diameter plates would fit in a “scale” configuration and allow for about 100 kids to do the fish. 
It was a quick and fun craft to fill any free time that the children had during their program day. This image shows a very helpful assistant next to “Mr. Big Fish” who is about 1/3 complete.