Harbor Tourboat, 10x10

The quirky shape of this little boat was attractive to me so I spent a lazy afternoon doing a quick sketch of it.  Oil on gessoed museum board works well for fast work as the board tends to absorb the oils making it easy to paint over the top of other paint.  This board was coated with a red gesso that is peeking through in places.

Another drawing for a free painting is beginning soon.  You will be able to enter by commenting on any postings after I announce it.....but why not practice and make a comment now by going to: http://darrellanderson.blogspot.com/  and putting in your two cents.  You could even put in three cents if you wanted to....

Cathe Gill Webinar:  If you go to: http://www.catherinegill.com/webinars.php , Cathe and Beth Means give a free one hour lecture on Powerful Watercolor Landscapes, based upon their new book.  This is like getting a workshop for free!  (Be sure and click the icon for full screen mode so you can see it well.)

Above the Dam, 10x12

The Spring runoff looks so calm before it plunges into whitewater chaos going over the dam.  Just under the glassy surface can be seen subtle movements of the current as it rushes to join the maelstrom.  The roar was constant.

Buckets of rain began coming down half way through this piece and I huddled under some protective branches to finish it.  Walking back to the car my solvent spilled in the backpack giving me a chemical burn.  The discomfort, however, was well worth the result and not all plein air painting is so riddled with difficulty.

I like the orange buoys against the green background.  They complement and compliment each other.  "Hey, you are looking especially spiffy today!"  "Like that color.  Where did you get it?"

I'm starting another painting give-away soon.  This time I will enter anyone who goes to the blog and puts in a comment.  The more comments, the better your chance to win.  Additional info to follow....

Alamos Alley, 10x10

This is another 'stumbled upon' painting that was done a few years ago in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico at the home of some friends.  Originally intrigued by the bougainvillea I began this with the intention of minimizing that door.....only people kept going in and out and slowly it became more interesting.  One person would go in, a different one come out.  It opened for a dog and two minutes later a child skipped through.  This went on for the 90 minutes it took to make the painting.  I have no idea what it was all about.....should have named it 'Sonoran Mystery Door'.

Anyway, I didn't like it and threw it in one of my boxes.  Pulling it out today I have no idea why I originally didn't find some value in it.

'Boots' and a Great Day

 

 'Boots' is an old painting that showed up as I was digging through a box and it reminded me of a magical day.  We (family and some other painters) were on a week long plein air trip aboard an old wooden boat (the Hyak) going around the Queen Charlotte islands.  We were headed to visit Boots later in the day.  A friend of Cathe Gill, Boots lived with her dog in an inlet only serviced by boat or float plane somewhere across from Ketchikan.

On the way to her house the skipper anchored by an abandoned seldom visited Haida village.  The totems were on the ground, the roofs were off the long houses and the moss was taking over, but the paths were still there as were the shucked shells and other signs of long habitation.  The skipper said you could sometimes find small Venetian glass beads brought by the Spanish explorers by sorting through the beach sand.....so of course I did and found four.  It was like reaching back three hundred years to another time.  I imagined all the hands, from Venice to these Northwest islands, that had touched such small gems and felt the depth of time and change that has occurred.   What must it have been like to live there?

With rain approaching we hopped back aboard the Hyak and continued on to see Boots and to spend an hour painting in her kitchen, out of the rain and cold.  She is no longer with us but her independent spirit, as well as all the other spirits I felt around me that day, are not forgotten.