Video Demo of a Pastel Landscape

I was proud to have a one woman show at the Sequim Museum in Sequim, Washington during the month of June. On June 17th I held a demonstration of a pastel landscape. I really enjoy doing demos because it's a great opportunity to meet the public in a way that introduces them to my work and also helps to enlighten and teach others about the art making process.

This painting was done from a small oil plein air study I painted a couple of years ago at Ediz Hook in Port Angeles, Washington.  It's a long spit that goes out for about two miles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  It was overcast that day and very windy. I actually did this small piece as a demo for the paper and my small plein air class. I used a very limited palette for the oil. I always liked the study and thought it would be fun to try as a pastel. So I used it for the demo.

I didn't have a videographer to work my camera so I set the camera up on a tripod and asked a friend to just monitor it and make sure it kept running.  Unfortunately, I do step a bit out of the camera range but only for a second or two.  It's been edited down and fixed as much as possible.  Hope you enjoy it!

A Day at Hurricane Ridge

We've had some of the best weather this summer on the Peninsula than we've had in three years. I recently spent the day up on Hurricane Ridge with some friends painting. It's just a stone's throw from where I live.  The weather was perfect and aside from the birds that were roosting on my easel (and even my hand!), we had only a couple of deer for company. It brought to mind what Kevin Macpherson said: "Just think...this is your job. How cool is that?" 

A Day in the Sun

"A Sultry Afternoon"

Summer has finally arrived on the Olympic Peninsula, late albeit. Well it hardly ever gets here before mid July anyway. But it was quite warm at 80 or so here last week so I took off with some friends to do some painting. We found a lovely spot out near Gardner right on the water that had a great view of two areas bordered by salt marshes on one side, forest on the other and Ocean off to the rear. We were able to bring our truck right up to the spot where we rolled out our easels and set up for a glorious evening of painting. My vitamin D got a super charge and I believe I may actually have even turned a little coppery despite a ton of sun block. We went for two days in a row as the weather was holding and we loved the spot so much.

My friend Monika brought along a friend of her's from out of town (Dave) on day two. Dave is still a puppy painter and was having a hard time on his first attempt at painting in the great outdoors. 

I took pity and being the pushy teacher that I am, I jumped in and asked if he would like some help. Dave was more than happy to get some guidance and so I pointed out a few things he could do to improve his approach. For one, he was using too many colors on his palette so I squeezed out just three colors plus black and white to get him started. Then I illustrated on the side of his board how he could block out the major shapes and just jigsaw the simple landscape together. Dave proved an apt pupil and jumped right in following directions carefully. The improvement in his work was startling but I couldn't convince him to let me take a photo of it. He promises though that by next year he'll be good competition for me.  My friend Monika did a great piece - I gave her a lesson also and above is my evening's work.

 Here's Monika at work. You can see the marsh off to the right with the ocean beyond on the left (well, sort of). Here's one of Dave getting a lesson from your's truly. 

Dave getting a lesson

Me - looks like I'm talking to someone there - or catching flies.  Hmm. Think it's time for Weight Watchers again. This was on Day 1 when I painted the above piece.