November has been a rough month for me. Right off the bat, I had an unbelievable case of the flu. After 4 weeks, I think I'm finally recovering. Then to really make my life miserable, my hard drive crashed - total burial! - and naturally, I hadn't backed it up. My iMac was one week past the warranty period so since it was my own dollar, I decided to upgrade the memory and hard drive. I just now finished reloading all the software. I had saved my painting photos so I only lost everything else!! lucky me! Today is the first time I've been able to post here in the last 2 weeks because I had no way to get at my photos til I reinstalled everything.

During the month of flu I worked on small paintings of trees - they were easy to do without major compositional issues and were fun as well.


The first few were done with reds - autumnal colours, then I switched to blues, greens and violets, going for that soft moonlit or spring feel.

Fall Colours 1
12 x 12


Spring Trees 1
9 x 12


Trees in Moonlight 1
8 x 16

Yellow series

The violet I had been using left me in need of a change, these next pieces focused on yellow as the primary colour

they are 12" square

I worked with a compositional focus again - overlapping frames (not a favorite)



this one was based on curves



and ... another diagonal

Workshop Results

Whoops! Here it is a month later and I am just finally checking in. In the intervening time I went to a workshop in Northern Wisconsin with my buddy Lauren. The instructor was Bob Burridge - an excellent teacher! If you ever get an opportunity to take one of his workshops - DO!
I found his routine really enlightening - who would have thought that after painting for a few years, I really didn't have one.
The rest of my delinquency was a result of life catching up with me once we returned home. Appointments and the flu ate up the next 2 weeks - then when I thought I was finally in the clear, Pat ( dh) went through the kidney stone passage!
Oh well - I can show you some of the work from workshop.

One assignment/challenge was to work with colours you didn't care for; or combinations with that colour as the primary/main focus. I choose violet - I still really hate violet - and these are three of the results.
10 x 11 acrylic on paper


we also were working with different compositional arrangements in each painting - this one was basically the golden section


this one uses the cruciform



this one uses a diagonal composition

The Last Day

We drove up to the peninsula to paint this day. The first stop at around 10:30 am was a winery that has a spectacular view out over the bay, They were kind enough to permit our incursions - with a time limit - they were expecting a tour group at 1pm.

This is 6 x 11, on 300 lb Fabriano hp. Looking at it now I think I may go back and deepen some of the darks, other than that - this one was fun.
In the afternoon we drove out to the tip of the penisula and found a shady spot (for a change) to paint. You could see a wide panorama of shallow, rock filled lowland with an inlet and land forms beyond on the one side. In the other direction the treed shoreline was set against a backdrop of water, islands and mainland. I tried this view first with much fuss and bother - not permanent pen again! I never learn; so a second attempt in pencil.


My last effort was much more satisfying. I had started it by masking out some of the rocks, then had set it aside to dry. I washed in some sky and foreground before I set it aside. After removing the masking - I know - why did I use it at all? - I finished the painting at home.

Thursday, September 18th 2008







This morning found us trekking up a 1 1/2 mile hill to get to this view - peace and beauty! The first painting was done on a 300 lb hot press fabriano - a paper I am getting quite fond of. The paint moves well and the surface tolerates a fair bit of abuse.




I decided to do a second quick study in my moleskin sketch book - not satisfied with either painting - but the site made it all worth while.

In the afternoon we explored a bit and found this lighthouse at Port Betsie. I chose a close up view, which got tighter then I like, so after it was completed - I did a quick sketch from a bit further away. The tree was sketched facing in the opposite direction. I will probably wash some colour into both of these sketches.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, Wednesday September 24








The morning was beautiful and the view was spectacular. Again I went for an ink and wash, but this time my ink wasn't waterproof!! I went with it and did a value study instead. Maybe someone is trying to tell me to give up on the whole ink thing!
I turned around and liked the perspective of the walkway and trees and decided to do a sketch and wash of that. A bit more than I had planned on - too much ambiguity in the greenery, but not everything need be a masterpiece. I enjoyed the challenge of the vertical format and might revisit this image again in a full painting.









In the afternoon we found another spot further along the park. This time I opted for a closer look at a stand of trees. There were a LOT of tourists passing through all day; many made comments on our painting venture, not always kind.

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Peterson Road area (I think)








That first afternoon (I think) we went to this quiet beach - no one else around!
I wanted to do an ink and wash, but grabbed the wrong pen - decided to finish it anyway. It was the full width of the little moleskin watercolour book I had with me - 5" x 16" - and to make matters interesting, I opened to the center of the book, thinking I could avoid page edges in the middle. What was I thinking? These aren't going to be framed!