AN AWESOME TRIP

Last Saturday, my friend Kim and I caught a ride with my husband Van to Cross Sound where he was going to fish for a 3 day King opening. We took our kayaks and got off the boat at Elfin Cove and paddled over to Granite Beach on George Island and camped for 3 nights.

On Sunday our friend Jane boated over from her home, a very special place that you can read about here, and spent the afternoon with us.


Here's sweet Jane.


On Monday we paddled around another island (Three Hill) which took most of the day. Fantastic weather.... sun and not much wind, and the tides were right. Here's Kim thinking about going through the arch. She didn't.

We stopped at a couple of beaches and explored and had lunch.


Here we are at the far end of the island watching nesting cormorants on the cliffs. Weird sounds coming from them.



A 20 minute walk from where we camped took us to this cannon which was part of a military installation protecting the northern entrance to the inside passage during WWII. There were also some remnants of buildings.


And here is an overlook from one of the trails. For years I've passed by these islands in our boat and never saw them from the inside... quite a different experience.


Many pleasant hours were spent on the beach. A humpback whale was in the cove much of the time.


Oh yes, I also did a few sketches.

And now I'm home getting the garden planted and my little gallery ready to open and a zillion other things on my list. And we're having a heat wave. I'm sure we must be breaking records with the weather this year. It has hardly rained at all since I came back home a month ago.

A PAINTING DONE IN MARCH

Juneau in February 7x10 inches

Here is a painting I did in March while in Florida,from a photo I had taken when we passed through Juneau on our way South. The big house with the green roof is the governor's mansion.

I'm still not back to work in the studio. About all I've done are some little flower studies which I'll get scanned and on here next time, maybe. Staying busy with the garden and getting the gallery ready to open next month. And tomorrow, I'm going paddling and camping for a few days.

ARTIST BLOCK

I've been home for almost 2 weeks and still not into the swing of things, certainly not in the studio. I'm busy with other things like gardening and spring cleaning, but do have time to spend in the studio. However, the most I manage to do are a few little "postcards" and a very bad start of a larger piece from a photo. Oh yes, and lots of looking for things, sorting through my stuff, rearranging the room. The muse just isn't around. Very little I've ever done seems very good to me and there's nothing I want to paint. It's a perennial thing that happens about this time of year, especially after I've just come back from a trip..

I just read Robert Genn's latest letter which is on artist blocks. He says one should identify ones species of artist block, listing the main ones:

".... fear of failure after previous success, fear of success due to a sense of unworthiness, lack of potential venue, jaded attitude, crisis of confidence, evidence of persistent poor quality, lackadaisical motivation and common everyday shortage of ideas."

I seem to suffer from most of these at some time or other ... right now it's probably just lackadaisical motivation... and I just don't have the will to overcome this inertia. He advises one to get out the paint first thing in the morning and go to work. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow. But first, I've got to sort out another drawer.

I guess I'd better put a couple of my poor efforts from the last couple of weeks:

gouache on arches 140 gessoed with black 5x5"

This was looking out the window..... hardly any color in the willow when I first painted it, then yesterday I splattered on the new leaves..... should have left it alone.


ink on Yupo 4x6"

I did this after going through my paper and finding some Yupo paper, and trying out some non-waterproof ink in my pen.

SOME TRAVEL JOURNAL PAGES

Back home last week and back to my blog! We left Florida a month ago.... heading west then north. Here are some pages from my journal.


I did this while still in Florida, at my brother's in Lake Wales. We left Van's rowboat there.



After stopping to visit cousins and aunt in north Florida, we headed towards San Antonio to visit my other brother. East Texas was beautiful and I wish I'd had time to paint the fields of wild flowers. This one little blue bonnet was all I had time for.



The back yard of friends we visited in Las Cruces NM



The Grand Canyon was amazing.



Another back yard,

More days on the road, stops in Twin Falls, ID; Zillah, WA, and Bellingham, visiting friends and relatives. Some sketching in the car, but pretty shaky lines.



Finally to Prince Rupert, BC where we got on the ferry heading for Juneau.




Across from the ferry terminal in Wrangell.




We got to Juneau on the 26th. Van flew home and got the boat and came back to Juneau where we did our spring shopping. Wonderful trip, but sure am glad to be home.