Ranch Land Plein Air

Sues RAnch We were able to do some ranch land plein air painting near Hauser Lake on Saturday afternoon. We had a good time. All enjoyed the view from Sue’s house and pasture lands. There was abundant pasture, livestock, tractors, and heavily wooded hills to choose from.

Hauser Ranch Creek I began by walking down to right next to the creek. After setting up for a little while in the direct sun I found that I did not have the stamina to continue kneeling next to the log. A conversation with my knees cut it short to rescue my knee joints and escape the heat.

Trees off of the deck Next, I set up in the comfort of her upper deck and just fell in love with the way the light was on her trees.

People from the Inland Northwest Outdoor Painting Group were invited. Others were there from the Spokane Watercolors Member Group (must be a member) and the Spokane Sketchers too. If you would like to know, when the next plein air event date is set, please check out the Inland Northwest Outdoor Painting Group mentioned above.

Visiting with the other artists there was a lot of fun. Everyone getting together at the end of the day to do a little show-and-tell was inspiring. There were so many gorgeous views I had to take a lot of photographs to work on later. The other artists were doing the same.

All-in-all it was a great way to spend my Saturday. The next event is Rimrock View Palisades Park, Spokane next Saturday.

Tubbs Hill Coeur d’Alene

I had my first plein air paint out with Inland Northwest Outdoor Painting group members on Saturday. It was a beautiful morning, and as I sat on my rock perch I had shade from a nearby tree and a light breeze. Heavenly.

Many people and dogs enter the Coeur d’Alene Lake from here for a morning swim. It kind of made me wish I could jump in too, but…

Here is the end product, it was fun.

Thomas Lake ID

ThomasLakeBirdRefuge Thomas Lake Bird Refuge in Northern ID is beautiful. Full of forest shores, lilypnds floating and wetland grasses and lots and lots of birds. Egret, eagle, hawk, duck, geese and much more.

The adventure started at 3 am when I hopped in the car, driving to meet my friend in Coeur d’Alene by 4:30 am. We continued carpooling from there in her great red van. Bet anyone who knows her already knows who my Plein Air buddy is. We did arrive in Time to see dawn and it was just spectacular. We will go there again together, it was a blast.

This is the latest oil painting from a plein air day spent there. It was a challenge and is the first time I used oil paints since the fire in August 2023. Aren’t the reflections in the water great storytellers?

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.

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.

Slavin Conservation Area

Slavin Conservation Area South We went to the James T. Slavin Conservation Area just, off of highway 195 yesterday. I was able to go and paint Plein air with some friends from our Spokane Watercolor Club. It was really chilly 24º F, but did warm up to 40º around noon. It was surprising how close to Spokane this park is. The conservation area covers a lot of ground (600+ acres) with a lot of different natural wonders to see. I was able to paint two sketch images while I stood on a little knoll directly in front of the parking lot.

First a Watercolor Sketch

I painted while looking south standing upon the first knoll near the parking lot for the first plein air image. It had meadow grasses with scattered burgundy bunches of bush, then going off into into where the forest pine and birch tree line appears. I made a rudimentary watercolor sketch of this scene, but stopped there, as my watercolors and water were freezing. But, when the other artist’s arrived, I learned about a trick that stops that from happening. I love painting with other artists, because, you always learn something helpful from each other. If you want to know the secret, you’ll have to come paint with us to learn. 🙂

Slavin Conserv 02 — Slavin Conservation Area 02

Second is an Acrylic Sketch

The second image is painted using acrylic paint on a canvas board. Standing at the same location but turned to face west where a pair of pines flanked the left side, with grasslands reaching off into a distant treeline and hill silhouette behind. These colors are a little tricky to get right, but are quite beautiful when it comes out right. Neither of these plein air sketches are any way near finished, but the scenes are embedded in my mind and I am sure I’ll be able to finish them in my studio.

I am not up to strenuous hiking, but thankfully this area is easily accessible with parking close by so it was a totally rejuvenating day. Being able to paint with other painters has revitalized the artist in me. It was surprising how many people walk their dogs there. There is also evidence of a lot of horse hoof prints on the trails. In about a month, that whole field is going to be covered with wildflowers, one of the local ladies told me .

EYE CANDY SURPRISE!

Next month sounds like a great time to schedule another plein air painting trip there. Yep, I’m looking forward to it.

Crocus Plein Air

The previous post was photographs of the first crocus buds appearing 4.14.2019, following these are the first plein air paintings in a new sketchbook of these purple & white buds. A new 50 page 7″ x 5″ 130lb watercolor sketchbook inspires sketching to begin.

crocus Buds 01 crocus Buds 02 crocus Buds 03

I have not done this kind of on-the-spot painting in a while and the blossoms seem a little rough. Next, here are some shots of the bright blossoms today. Check out the sleepy, little fuzzy guy in the blossom. Bzzzzz said the bee. He really is lethargic in the cool spring air but already covered with pollen.

Aren’t the colors vibrant?

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crocus blossom with a bee — Crocus with a bee

Happy Easter…. from me to you, with crocus plein air sketches in the yard today.

First sketch seems a bit mushy but the second one is getting to be a style I could really come to love. Let me know what you think….

Clock Tower from Above

Plein Air Landscape

This is a view of the Riverfront Clock Tower from above at a bridge railing. Looking from above the Washington Street viaduct with a constant flow of cars entering downtown underneath seemed almost surreal. This specific view is a cozy little oasis (off-the-beaten-path) with its own cool bench. Virtually, a perfect place to set up water, brushes, and paint to your heart’s content with minimal interference from foot traffic. Initially, I was worried there would be no interesting views to paint at Riverfront park but I was proven so very wrong. I only had to open my eyes, to see great nature views, or people enjoying the nature views.

clock tower reference photo — above the clock tower

I am a member of the Spokane Watercolor Society, and we have a group of Plein air painters meeting once a month on the last Friday of the month at high noon to paint together. If you’d like to join us feel free to contact us and let us know at our Facebook page Plein Air and Urban Sketching – Members of SWS. It is a monthly art event that I look forward to every month. Fellow artists share ideas and methods and challenge each other to continue to improve.

It is simply a lot of fun!

I took some time to sketch the clock tower carefully before heading down to the riverside level. Subsequently, trying another view, nearer where the rest of the group was painting next.

clock tower above sketch — clock tower sketch

Working from memories and pictures taken at the scene, I finished this painting back at the studio on 4/5/2019.

Riverfront Clock Tower from Above — 9″w x 12″h watercolor. Riverfront Park’s Clock Tower from Above D2219

Painting at Riverfront

Plein Air Off the Beaten Path

Spent the afternoon (Friday) Plein air painting at Riverfront Park in Spokane WA. Painting outside in a beautiful park with friends. We were a group from the Spokane Watercolor Society who met near the clock tower at high noon. Sounds like the meet-up at the OK corral doesn’t it? It is amazing how many people use this park, it was full of people. They were a constant stream of people running, walking dogs, sitting, and admiring the scenery.

I was able to discover a great view of the tower a little off the beaten path, and overhead. It was truly sublime. Initially, trying to render that clock tower in an impressionistic manner proved impossible. Paintbrush sketches produced awkward, leaning towers. There are so many angles and doo-dads on that riverside brick tower with a clock. As a result, another tactic was required. Architectural subjects need accuracy, don’t they? Finally, resorting to using the old artist pencil measure trick with an outstretched arm, got the job done. It was worth it to take the time to do that sketch. The layout is in pencil now, and ready to work on in the studio. I took a ton of photos, to be able to finish it up.

Second Painting Location

pavilion reference photo — pavilion willow photo

I joined the gang from SWS at the ground level down by the river next. Next to Gay W. Finding a great view of the pavilion cables over the ice rink, that had a willow tree getting orange branches in spring. What a vision. Hope it comes out, cause it was quite a cool view. Luckily, I was able to get some washes down before I had to pack up and leave.

Artist Thoughts…

Unfortunately, there was a man playing the bongos next to the river. I kept thinking, he needs to get some other musicians to sing and play instruments with him to break up the monotony. The “bong, bong, bong” started to get on my nerves later in the afternoon, so, I cut the outing short.

While spending the day in that beautiful riverside park I noticed a sad thing. There were couples and friends sitting or walking together, not looking at each other or the view, but instead looking at their phones.

What is with that?

Going to a beautiful park, to walk and sit next to the river with beautiful waterfalls cascading all around. Then choosing to enter into oblivion? Are we loosing our humanity by getting together, to ignore each other and nature’s beauty around us?

As a society, are we so addicted to “blue screen” time that we miss important things?

In conclusion, this Friday painting day outside in the warm air was a beautiful nature wonderful “artist date”!