Provence

I returned last week from a wonderful trip to Provence, France where I attended an oil painting workshop taught by Carol Marine.  My neighbor Aimee and I flew to Paris and took a train to Avignon where we got picked up  and taken to nearby beautiful Chateauneuf de Gadagne where the 10 day workshop was held.  Other than learning from Carol, we toured the area, painted in different places, shopped, and enjoyed amazing food and wine.  Carol is an excellent teacher.  Her demos and suggestions for my painting were very helpful and I'm home with inspiration to paint every day.

 Julie Snyder who runs Workshops in France and her helpers Shirley Hemlick and Balinda del Pesco (all three are artists) did a fabulous job keeping us happily busy and comfortable.  

Here are 2 of the paintings I brought home.  They are both on Gessobord.

View from the Chateau  oil painting 8x8 inches

Lavender at Clinique Van Gogh oil painting 8x8 inches

After the workshop, Aimee and I met our friend Carolyn and went to Aix in Provence where we rented a lovely apartment and enjoyed the city and surrounding area for a week.

As on all my trips, I make a book of watercolors. I was so concentrating on oil painting that I didn't get much done in it, but there are a few pages on my Watercolor Postcard blog here. 

Point Retreat

oil painting 6x6

This painting is of Point Retreat Light house on the north end of Admiralty Island .  I pass it or go over it every time I go to or from Juneau on the ferry or by air.  It is no longer used for navigation and the quarters are rented out for overnight stays.  I painted this from a photo I took last month from the ferry, coming home one beautiful morning.

It's the 22nd day of Leslie Seata's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge and though I've hardly missed a day of painting, I have completed only 8 oil painting and 4 little watercolors.  They will get posted eventually.  I have yet to figure out how to get a decent photo of my little oil paintings, and wait until they are dry and scan them.

Aimee's House

oil painting 5x7 inches

One morning a couple of weeks ago, I walked over to my neighbor Aimee's house to visit, in hopes for a visit and a cup of coffee.  But she was getting ready to go somewhere else.  I did get a nice photo of her house as the sun was rising behind it and went home and started this painting. 

Salmon River From the Boat Harbor

oil painting 6x8 inches

We've had spectacular sunsets this winter and I've been going down to the beach most afternoons when we've had sun.   Just after the sun went down one night last month, I stopped at the boat harbor and took some photo which I used for painting this.

This is not what most towns have for a boat harbor.   We don't have any protective waters on our shoreline, so we bring boats up this small river on a high tide and the boats sit on the sand when the tide goes out.  The tide is out in this painting.  I took the photo from the parking lot.

I've been painting most days, but a long ways from producing 30 paintings in 30 days as I'd hope to do.  I am happy though with the few I've done so far.

My First Painting of the Year

oil painting 6x6 inches

 I signed up for Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge and am finding myself way behind.  First, I was in Juneau on the first and spent most of the second on the ferry coming home and at least a couple of days recuperating and catching up from the tiring time in Juneau.  And now that I am getting down to the studio and painting, it is very slow.  And every time I start to snap a shot of one, I see something that I want to paint over and  then I do so.  Well, this one I think is finished and though it isn't a very good photo I will put it on the site today. 

Two More Knife Paintings

oil painting 6x6 inches

After doing a painting with a knife because I forgot my brushes a while back,  I've been doing some more.  These are both keepers. This one I did from my car at the beach which is the only place I seem to be painting at lately.

oil painting 6x6 inches

And this one from a photo I took at the beach.  It took a long time to get the foreground to where I liked it.

Article about Me

oil painting 6x6 inches

A writer friend, Fran Kelso has written a post about me on her new blog where she writes amongst other things about people in our small community.   You can read the post here.

And while I'm here for a change, I've included on of my newer paintings. I painted at the beach with a palette knife when I had forgotten to take my brushes with me.   There are more new paintings on my website at DPW.

Along the Lane

oil 8x8

This is a fairly recent oil painting, a summer view along a lane near my home.

In the Woods

oil on linen

 This is one of several paintings done in the last couple of years in plein aire in the woods next to our house.  The path wanders through the woods to the main road.

Some Books

Two friends have recently published books that have included some of my paintings.  In Judith Aftergut's memoir, Everything They Wanted, she writes of her discovering Glacier Bay, Gustavus, and the surrounding area in the 70's which was the same time I moved here, and it brings to mind my own introduction to this amazing place I call home.  Above is one of the paintings included in the book, painted in 1996.

 

 Above is the cover of the book.  The photo on the cover was taken by local photographer, Fritz Koschman.  You can click here for more information on Judith and her book.

Fran Kelso built a cabin where she lived on Spruce Island, near Kodiak, and wrote about building it and her life and neighbors in her book, Alaskan Attitudes.  I had the pleasure of visiting the  cabin in 2014 and painted the cabin and the view from the beach which she used for the back and front cover of the book.

Above is the cover of Fran's book and below the cabin which is on the back of the book.

You can read more about her book here.  Fran also wrote a very informative book on foraging wild plants which you can read about here.

I might as well add two other books by local friends that I've done illustrations for.

I did several pen and ink illustrations in this one as well as the cover which wraps around to the back cover.  It was published in 2096 and is out of print.

And I did the pen and ink drawing on the cover of this one.  It was published in 1988.  

Both of these are out of print  but available used on Amazon.