Tuesday, August 28, 2012

SUMMER POSTCARDS

Considering how many days without rain this summer, I don't feel bad about not getting out and painting much.   Here are a few things I've done.

                                    

On one of my trips to Juneau on the ferry this summer,  I painted this while waiting for departure from Juneau Juneau.




I've stayed a few times on my Juneau visits  with my artist friend Sharron Lobaugh  and this is the view from her front porch in Auk Bay.  Sharron and I will be traveling to Spain next month and it will be inspiring to be painting with her there.

  In July, a Fairbanks artist, Vladimir Zhikhartsev, showed up at my doorsteps looking for another painter and really gave me a shot of inspiration.  He is an excellent plein aire painter and fun and congenial person to be around..  I took him to two of my favorite places to paint.  He painted beautiful half sheet watercolors both times while I painted 2 or 3 little ones each time.



This one was at the beach.....


and this another at Good River where I also painted some in June.


                                          
This I did in June on a rainy day from the car with the windshield wipers going on and off.  The sun had come out for awhile and off I went with my paints and stool, but then the clouds came.  This tree is next to out airport.  It is a freak of nature with part of the tree having no chlorophyll.  It was saved when the runway was extended a few years ago, but had in the last month had its lower branches trimmed.

 

 Out my back door is a trail to the beach where I use to walk a lot, usually about an hour round trip.  I kind of stopped going the last few years, leery of bear  but have walked out with friends a couple of times in the last few month (bear spray hanging on my pack) and sworn to go more.  This was done quickly, but a nice reminder of how beautiful it is there.