MID SUMMER

I'd better get with a posting here before the summer is over. The internet is still slow as molasses and new scanner is giving me difficulty.

Since I last posted, my granddaughter, Alyssa, came to visit, the 4th of July happened and I've continued to open my gallery every day but Sunday.... well all but one Monday when Alyssa and I went to the beach and picked wild strawberries, picnicked and sketched. Van has been home a bit, but left a couple of days ago to fish cohos until the August closure.

Its been raining a lot.... making up for the dry warm May and early June. The slugs are out in droves.... I spoon up dozens everyday and still my poor cabbages are full of holes. My lettuce and arugula are in a galvanized tub and so far the slimy things haven't ventured in.

Brown bears have come to town. Black bears are common here, but only rarely a brown. One was killed last week, sparking a State Trooper investigation as to who shot it. Another one was seen today and there is fresh scat near my house. I don't worry much about the black bears, but the brown ones are a different matter.

I haven't been very productive painting. It seems I'm just getting ready to get started with something and its 2 p.m. and time to open the gallery. Some days no one comes and other days I'm talking to people most of the afternoon. I've put a table out there and have been able to do some sketching.

A few weeks ago, I got a small Guerilla paint box that I had ordered last month. It goes on a tripod, but so far haven't had a chance with decent weather to go outside with it. I have done a couple of little paintings inside using it painting from photographs. This is one of them:


Lupines at the Beach 5x7 gouache painting

It is a whole different experience painting on an easel.... something I find awkward. I paint all my watercolors and until now, my gouache with the painting on a table, and being left handed and always an overhand writer, I tend to paint overhanded too, especially in the details and want to rest my wrist on the painting. I've made a mahl stick to try next time and trying to paint more with my hand under. After over 60 years of trying I still can't write that way, but hope springs eternal.

I've started a larger painting of this same scene in watercolor. I'll probably pull out the gouache when I get into the flowers.

Its way past time to make a block print for the Year of the Tiger exchange at Baren. I have the design figured out and might have time to start carving my block tomorrow.... I can probably work on it in the gallery.

I'll be going to Juneau next week, but promising myself and whomever else might care that I will start blogging more often... and painting more often too.

ANOTHER GOUACHE PAINTING AND FRUSTRATING INTERNET CONNECTION

Any time I try painting something larger than about 6 inches wide or high with gouache, I end up with having to wipe out a lot and struggling with the sky. I can usually get a large area of flat color, though I'm still having trouble predicting what its going to look like dry, but I really have trouble when there is some gradation...as in the painting posted last week.


gouache painting on black gessoed 300# Arches, about 51/2 x 6 inches

This one came a little easier than the last one being smaller. In fact I was surprised how quickly I did it. Its from a photo I took last winter at the beach. I love the way the grasses and willow glowed from the light of the setting sun.

I did another one from a photo from that same afternoon and was going to link to it here but after waiting for the archives to load for a half hour, we'll forget that. I guess its from just too many people using the system here in the summer that makes it so much slower than in the winter. Some times I can't even get connected. I could have gotten a good start on a painting in the time I've spent with this entry and am asking myself why I do this.

LATER: Well, it dawned on me after publishing this that I could just go to older posts and find the painting I was looking for, so I did and couldn't find it. So then, in the depths of my brain, I remembered my other blog and looked and found it there. The stuff on the side of my blog still isn't coming up. Maybe its blogger.

VIEW FROM THE HYDRO ROAD

As usual, the summer is flying by.... just a few days until solstice and the days will start getting shorter. We finally had some rain but most days are sunny. I've been opening my gallery every day and having a few people come by. I've moved a table out here and have been drawing and painting between visitors. The internet comes slower out here, but I've got lots of time.

Today was the dedication of the hydro-electric plant here that has been in the works for many years and came on line last year. Until the hydro, we relied on oil powered generators for electricity. For the first few years we lived here, there wasn't even that and we used propane lamps and only used our little generator for washing clothes.... those were the days.

Anyway, most of the town folk walked or got a ride up the hill and were treated with burgers and hotdogs and listened to speeches and got a tour of the facilities and best of all got to look at the falls and the view of Icy Strait from about 600 feet.

Here's a painting I painted last week from a photo I took from up there last year.

View From the Hydro Road gouache painting 6 1/2 x 10 1/2

This doesn't look like I'd envisioned but after getting away from it, I kind of think its OK.

STRANGE WEATHER

The warm sunny weather continues. What little rain we've had has been at night and not very much. We did have a thunder storm one day (but not much rain with it) which was quite unusual for this time of year.... most years go by without any thunder being heard around here. It is an El Nino year, but despite what our former governor and other yahoos say our globe is warming. Oops, getting political so I'll go to other matters.

This summer is quite different than most.... Van has gone to Sitka to fish every one of the last 30+ Junes since we've lived here, but this year he has fished nearer to home and has actually been home some. And the weather is keeping me outside more than usual..... I've been waiting for a cool raining day to do several things (like keeping up with this blog) and those days just aren't happening. Today is cloudier than usual so here I am.

I opened my gallery last week, and this year I am opening 6 days a week for 3 hours rather than being just on call or sporadic. I've spent a lot of time matting my new paintings and getting things ready and very little painting.... but my work is cut out for me for the next year.

I had applied for a one person show at the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council last April and expected to hear something at the beginning of May and had about decided I wasn't accepted but at the end of the month I got a letter accepting my proposal and am scheduled for a show next April. I'm going to have to put a lot more time into painting than I have been these last few years and am happy to have some goal.

And I might be taking on an other project doing some botanical illustration with pen and ink. Its not quite a sure thing yet, but I'd really like to do them.

Well, I need to put a picture on here.


YELLOW IRIS watercolor 14 x 7 1/2

I painted this several years ago..... it never really finished it to my liking, and at some point I had outlined everything with a red Nexus pen. Yesterday I cropped it and fit it into a mat that I had cut wrong for another painting and it seems to work now and its hanging in the gallery.

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.

JOURNEY DAYBOOK ADVENTURE

It's been really busy around here. Our son and grand-daughter were here for 10 days. We did a lot of driving, Disney World, visiting family, perusing antique and junk stores (a family addiction), enjoying the warm weather and water when it was near, swimming a couple of times, and just enjoying each others company.

Last year here in Cedar Key, I attended a class on keeping an illustrated journal with local artist Margaret Herrick. .... no, actually the class was at Fanning Springs and I wrote about it here. Last Friday, I joined her and several other journal keepers on their monthly Journey Daybook adventure at Rainbow Springs State Park.



This is my journal page from the day.... the heron is a photo from a brochure, and the dragon fly is the stamp that they put on your hand when you pay your admission.

Journey, contemplation, being present, and working alone are the process of Journey Daybook.
The Journey Daybook site is here and Margaret's beautiful work is here. Both sites are very inspiring and well worth a look.

TRAVELS CONTINUE

So busy! We spent a pleasant 10 days in Cedar Key.... have done a lot of walking, not much time on the water as the wind has blown a lot, made a trip to the Suwanee River Refuge on Van's birthday on the 7th, and I've done a bit of painting.


I scanned some of my sketches then Photoshop E crashed and I only had one saved and here it is:


watercolor about 5 x 5"

This is along the road into town. I sat on an old dock below the bridge in very hot sun to draw it and partly paint it. It rained the next couple of days and I finished from a photo.

Last Sunday, we went back to Central Florida to my brother's in Lake Wales. Lee and Alyssa were suppose to get to Orlando on Saturday night, but the plane they were on had mechanical problems in Ketchikan and they missed their connection in Seattle, spent the night there and flew to LA on Sunday for a 12 hour wait and finally got to Orlando at 5:30 Monday morning. After a day of mostly rest, Lee, Alyssa, and I went to Disney's Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. I was lots of fun, and Alyssa loved it. Me to except for getting on the Thunder Mountain Railroad. We will go again to Disney next week before Lee and Alyssa leave.

Yesterday, we drove to Palmetto and are visiting more relatives. Undecided at this point whether to spend another day here or drive on up to Cedar Key today.