Waiting, Might As Well Sketch!

Hate waiting for the dryer. I have to admit either the time went faster because I was sketching or the clothes dried faster because it was a warm day!!  Worked from a photo  but see if I could make it look as though it was from life.  I don't think too many life sketches have their subject smiling this much but it was worth a try.

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Color Thumbnail Sketches

Cleaning out some stuff today and found these.  They were painted fast and simple.

Frame These Up

Time to frame!  These were completed during last month's paint outs and now to be included in August shows in the Utrecht store located in The Pearl and Walters Cultural center in Hillsboro.

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Journaling

Pretty close to sketching in a sketch book but if you add a verse or a couple lines as a caption they call it 'Journaling.' 

Plum Crostata

Cafe Autogrill;  

Capitol Highway. between Hillsdale and Multnomah Village.

Wi-Fi

I pretty consistently reserve Tuesday mornings for some art related activity with art friends. This morning I took a different bus over to the village for the  breakfast with fellow plein air painters. You can't miss the awning on the front of this little Euro style cafe and suggested to Celeste we do a couple sketches there while she waits for a phone call. I knew what I had to sketch when I saw the little plum pastry - My niece makes a similar version of these from her own backyard plum tree! It was a nice little escape. The managers say they are interested in showing art upstairs in a few months.

Chicken Challenge

Chicken Challenge...

Finally, we have a chicken

I offered up a photo of one of my sister's chickens for the monthly challenge on the Behind the Scenes Blog.  I finally completed  my painting in Acrylic of Henrietta Chicken; check here for the rest of the participants as they are posted sometime Monday.....

I should have given you some brief info last week about my computer having an internal cookout  which extended to the backup and external hard drive. I find out tomorrow if I have permanently lost about three years or so of pictures and miscellaneous files.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. ....

Tomorrow

   

Watercolor Batik on rice paper 15" x 15"

List for Tomorrow

1. Drop off Art Work OSA
2. Bastille Day Plen Air At Jamison Fountain and Square
3. Utrecht sponsored Plein Air event in North Park Blocks (Everett St)
4. Water Scott's tomatoes
5. Feed Olivia's kitten
6. I'll fill this when I remember what it was.

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Lavender Fields

A group of Portland Plein Air Painters traveled  to Washington County landmark, Helvetia Lavender Farm and Gardens above the Helvetia Tavern. We all had a great day of painting and breathing the scent of freshly cut lavender.For a change the weather cooperated all day with well timed sun breaks which meant moderate temps and no need for sunscreen.Owner Nancy escorted us on a personal garden tour and invited us to paint on their private deck. We were entrtained by the two family St. Bernards; Mudly (shown below) and Penny.  Enjoy some of the bird house collection in the garden! To see more paintings from todays outing check out our group blog, Behind The Scenes!

 Celeste and Mudly

Penny could be lady-like if she thought you would scratch her ear too.

 Alpacas across the road

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I Never Know What to Expect

This started out as an experiment to work out a color palette.  I should know better than try to go with yellow.  It is just too light and I never get the mood I expect so I obliterate the light with a complement. What I like about this is using a broad flat dry stroke that introduced a bit of broken color.  I seldom use dry brush but I'm going to bring that into some more work in the future.  

A Daily Pencil Portrait

 

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On-Line for the I-Phone

I really wanted to sketch on the sidewalk downtown but didn't want to look so conspicuous out there on my own.  When my niece started making noise last week about spending the night in line for an i-phone I thought I could inconspicuously sketch in line.  I need more practice or I just had way to much time to get bogged down with detail.  It was fun listening to all the tech talk among  these 20 somethings and realize they have no memory of those old computer punch cards you used to get from the airlines as  a boarding pass or college registration packets.  One of these guys looked at me quizzically and asked if I was going to actually get an i-phone. When I asked why he wanted to know he said he thought it was mostly the younger generation that was interested in the new gadgets. Well, I guess he is a little right - I mainly talk on the phone, but I do send a few texts a month and take advantage of the camera.

Below are some other sketchs from the week , various times and locations. It's almost the weekend!

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