#292 Columbia Gorge Memory

This is small- only 7" x 5", and done in the studio from memories of two places.  The white ink pen is so easy to reach for at the end- maybe I need to set it down and back slowly away...

#291 Palo Alto Road

I recently discovered a cleared area on Palo Alto Road above Sequim Bay, with a place to pull off the road.  Instead of facing north towards the bay, I painted this scene to the west, with the sun behind me.  The logged area had thistles going to seed, which was interesting in front of the wall of remaining trees. Watercolor, about 7" x 8".

#290 Tree in Deep Woods

I painted this from memory, from the hike to Tubal Cain.  Painting a scene in the deep woods is difficult in watercolor, because the little bits of light tend to be scattered- and watercolor needs light. I do remember looking at a great tree near the creek, that happened to have a big patch of light on its trunk and some branches, sorta like this.

#289 Copper Creek Tree

We hiked up to the Tubal Cain mine in Buckhorn Wilderness yesterday, and I brought my watercolors in my daypack.  This is where the creek splits into many little rivelets, below one of the mine entrances.  I hadn't hiked on this trail since it became legal to carry weapons into wilderness areas- so it was kind of surprising to pass people in camo with big rifles. 8" x 6".

#288 Columbia River Gorge

Painted from the Memeloose overlook on Highway 30 in Oregon.  It was a hazy day due to the smoke from wildfires- mostly the one on Mt. Adams.

#287 Painted Hills, Oregon

We went camping last week, with Kathy Francis et al, in east/central Oregon.  This is from the Painted Hills part of John Day National Monument.  The red bands are tuff layers representing millions of years of volcanic ash flows.  This is a studio watercolor painting based on the plein air, which ended up being too much the same value. About 5" x 8".

#286 Dungeness Redo

I decided to redo the scene in my plein air painting, in the studio.  I can't decide which I like better- the plein air probably feels more natural.  I got some new colors of watercolor today- one is Daniel Smith "Sticklerite" and the other a lightfast indigo.  The indigo is in the shadow of the tree above, but the sticklerite was mixed with some other browns so there isn't a particular spot in which to see it.