A raft of mostly new paintings

28 Jan A raft of mostly new paintings

Posted January 27, 2022 from Seattle, updated March 24, 2022

I’ve been painting as though nothing was going wrong in the world. For some reason, I’m concentrating on ducks at the moment, but I did my first fish in a while and I think I got a Painted Redstart painting under control. Above is “Friday Harbor.” This is a big painting and I’m eager to get it finished enough to bring the original into the store. More than the current painting there, this catches your attention. (March 24).

This painting had a sitting Kingfisher in it, but it had been sitting for too long. I got the bird to fly and now my next move might be to re-shoot the painting, or have that done professionally, or else just work the file in the computer.

This painting has the unfortunate distinction of being the painting I have worked on the longest of any painting ever in my entire career over the last 41 years, and I’ve worked a long time on a lot of paintings. I never cease to wonder if it’s because there is something untenable about it from the start, i.e., I should maybe just start a new painting. The S-lines in the painting are complex and some would say they fail. However, it’s never easy to paint a two-equal-subjects painting and I am using the headlands to create the S-curve and to camouflage the fact that it is a 2-subject painting. There are also just plain technical issues everywhere that I have been working on for the last 20 years or more.. However, this latest version has begun to resolve some of the issues and I came across it at one point when I wasn’t expecting to see it and I liked what I saw. However, it has always been a slow-seller at the store, but I am planning a couple new “pulls” at 12 x 16 and 18 x 24 and I still have hope that it will end up being well-received.. (march 24)

This I am hoping to rush into print, First at 9 x 12 . It’s a King Salmon, my first fish painting in a while. My fish paintings do ok and I owe Fish another painting. The King Salmon is at the center of our conservation difficulties here in the Northwest. Hatcheries may be contributing to the problem, and overharvest probably is. You can love harvesters without ever believing a word they say about how great the resource is doing and how there don’t need to be any more restrictions. Our King Salmon go up to Alaska and get caught with those fish, which now are also in trouble.

This is a Painted Redstart painting that has looked terrible for several years now. I’ve worked hard on all aspects of it and I think it is getting under control. It only seems fair to paint this bird, come to think of it, I’ve never painted a Painted Bunting.

A Downy Woodpecker here is working a tree with telltale signs that a Sapsucker has been there. This risks people thinking I don’t realize that Downys don’t make these holes. I’m thinking about it for a Note card, where I could explain it. The ref photos are from Granite Creek on the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie and the tree is a Red Alder..

This is the new Wood Duck painting, which may need a little more work. I like it, but I’m not sure the water looks convincing.

I started this Green-winged Teal group painting many years ago but have reworked every square inch and may be getting close to where I could add it to a duck skinny.

This Canvasback painting needs a little more work

I have a Mallard pair painting but I don’t like it and so I started this new one for the medium duck skinny.

I started a painting of Kingston. I’m thinking of a Washington towns skinny with Republic, Leavenworth, Friday Harbor and either Tacoma or Seattle or Gig Harbor.

This is a painting I started in 2008 and then worked on in 2011 a little but I had never finished it. Now I’m looking to see if more work in 2022 will result in a competitor to Pike Place Flowers, which has ruled the roost for too long. This may or may not be the one, I still have more work to do, but I’m looking to put another Market Flower painting into the lineup before summer. I added bench at the bottom of the painting in an attempt to give the image more weighting at the bottom and offset the jumble of color at the top.