Posted Dec 22, 2014 from Seattle WA When I start a painting that I have high hopes for it’s full speed ahead at first. But on my best paintings I pass through a phase where they look pretty good (at least to me) really early and that’s...
Posted Dec. 17, 2014 from Seattle WA A recent trip to the Skagit/Samish flats inspired a new painting start. I’m beside myself with excitement about it, and have high hopes. I’m trying to make time to move fast on it and hope to have something at...
Posted Nov 21, 2014 from Seattle, WA I started a painting of Sunrise Point at Mt. Rainier in 2012 and published it that same year. It had an American Kestrel sitting on a snag, foothills in the background and Mt. Rainier on the left. I liked...
Posted October 5, 2014 from Seattle, WA It’s almost the norm in art class to be told to be swift and decisive. Figure drawing classes like to go with the two-minute pose—get it done and go for fresh and expressive while at all costs avoiding that...
Posted August 28, 2014 from Seattle, WA An article in the Seattle Times on the sighting of a Basking Shark in the Puget Sound did half the work for me. It contained a sidebar on Sharks that occur regularly in the Sound and I was very...
Posted July 24, 2014 from Seattle, WA I’m closing down my first 1/3 century effort at painting and beginning my second. My motto for the second, unlike the first, will be “Don’t paint hard, paint smart.” No the problem with that is I'd have to be smart. I’m just going...
Posted April 17, 2014 from Seattle, WA In 1998 I started the painting Birds of Beacon Hill. Thankfully, I started it on canvas. I got really excited about it for a while, but as often happens, I ran out of steam and into severe technical difficulties. ...
Posted March 13, 2014 from Seattle WA I rushed to get the painting Bottle Beach ready for last year’s Shorebird Festival in Hoquiam. I published a few copies of the early version and they were on sale at the Festival and at the store, but I...
Posted from Seattle, WA June 5, 2013 The Bottle Beach painting that I force-marched into production for the Shorebird Festival is back on the easel (see last blog.) The two big Sandpipers in the left center have left for Copper River, leaving more of an open...
Posted April 12, 2013 from Seattle, WA Scroll down for April 17 Update! It's official!!! I'm going to be at the Gray’s Harbor Shorebird Festival, the big shindig in honor of the thousands of shorebirds that migrate through the Gray’s Harbor area in April and May. The...
Posted March 17, 2013 from Seattle, WA If I had asked an expert in the 1970s if the Parakeet Auklet should be included on a Seabirds of the Northwest Poster, I’m sure they would have said, “No, you don’t run into those until you get pretty...
Posted March 2, 2013 from Seattle, WA Seabirds of the Northwest is finished and will be available in 12 x 16 and 18 x 24 soon at the store. The 12 x 16 should be on the website soon. Seabirds represented a departure in that I painted...
Posted Feb.11, 2013 from Seattle WA. It’s the Year of the Snake and I’m jumping on the bandwagon! I have my own photo ref of only three or four species of snakes. It comes from living in the Northwest, where snakes can be an afterthought. But we...
Posted Jan 28, 2013 from Seattle, WA. The Poulsbo painting, which can’t be titled “Last Tango in Poulsbo,” because the name on the boat “Tango” in the current version isn’t quite legible, will be at the store by Jan 29, 2013 in an 18 x 24...
Posted from Seattle Jan.17, 2013 I started a painting last year of boats in the Poulsbo Marina and I thought it might turn into a really good painting. I made a movie about it but ended up just saying that I hadn’t maybe finished it but...
Posted December 20, 2012 from Seattle, WA In my last post I wrote about how I’m going to paint seabirds first, then worry about the arrangement when I get the scans into the computer. I’m a long way from the finish line, but there are now...
Posted Nov. 28, 2012 from Seattle, WA A 14 x 18 poster of Seabirds of the Northwest has been on my mind for years now. Indeed, in 2009 I went to the trouble of making cutouts of Seabirds and posting them to a board for...
posted Nov.2, 2012 from Seattle, WA See the Movie "Last Tango in Poulsbo," at YouTube or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhiOrvxzOWs&feature=youtu.be The title makes reference to the fact that the last boat in the lineup is named the Tango, and the boats are in Poulsbo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhiOrvxzOWs&feature=youtu.be In the five-plus minute movie, I discuss...
posted Oct 12, 2012 from Seattle, WA Since I’m running out of notecards, I’m going to have to publish a new batch. I’ve been painting lately with one eye on the goal of good notecard-paintings. But there’s an ever-present danger here. Inevitably, when you paint, you...
Posted Sept. 21, 2012 from Seattle, WA Maybe about 20 years ago I did a painting on Gatorboard. I had trouble in one area—probably some animal’s head—and there the gatorboard bubbled up. I told myself: Take Gatorboard off the list of usable substrates. But recently I had...
Posted June 17, 2012 from Seattle, WA The first Seattle from the Bay painting I did has sold very well but when I went to make changes or improvements on it, the painting felt too small. Working in miniature is no fun when you're painting buildings...
Posted April 12, 2012 from Seattle After a couple years of work I finally called it quits on the Rockfish painting and it will be available as an offset-litho signed 14 x 18 poster within 2 weeks. I’ll be thrilled a little more even than usual...