#310 Japanese Maple on Halloween

For the last few days I've been working on a large acrylic painting of this tree, with a gray sky.  Today, the sun came out and the tree was so beautiful that I decided to post a (non-enhanced) picture of it.  As you can see, it shades the half-buried greenhouse.  Maybe more practical people would cut it down, but that would just haunt me.  Happy Halloween-ing!

#309 Kathy and Lemons

Kathy in her studio, painting a still life onto a small canvas. It was a great painting day, although some of us were worried about friends or family on the east coast.

#308 Haughty Camel

I missed painting apples with the PT group, so in a pale imitation of the experience I put some apples and an asian pear in a basket and set a haughty ceramic camel nearby. 

#307 Collaged Fall Scene

The previous painting seemed insipid so I changed it into a collage, and used ink and watercolor crayons to draw lines and push the values.  Same size!

#306 Autumn Tree

From a photo taken about a year ago on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula. W/C, with w/c crayons, 12x16.

#305 Oregon Farm

I first painted this farm in summer, using oil paints.  It seemed like a good subject for watercolor, and I decided to leave the sky white as if it were a rainy, bright overcast day.  About 6" x 9".

#304 Smoke Tree on Lawrence

A smoke tree, in a pot, on Lawrence Street, in uptown Port Townsend. W/C on masa paper.

#303 Big Valley

This is a bigger w/c- about 14 x 22, and on rice paper. That's not a tube black, but it looks like it.

#302 PT Street in September

Another watercolor on rice paper- about 11" x 15", based on a photo of a Port Townsend street in late summer.

#301 Dungeness on Rice

It could have been crab risotto, with this name, but instead it's a watercolor of the Dungeness river on "rice" paper.  I did two wcs today- this was the first and more loose one. I'll definitely use this paper more often.

#300 Poplar Curve

I decided to concentrate on the poplars along the path.  7" x 7", w/c and ink.

#299 First Rain

Watercolor plus the orange Inktense pencil sitting on the drawing table.  I looked across the bay, on the first day of rain this fall, before walking to the studio.

#298 Old Lava

A studio painting of Lava Beds...watercolor and ink pen, 6" x 9".

#297 Kah Tai in October

I used some liquid watercolor to saturate the yellows in this plein air watercolor done yesterday at Kah Tai Lagoon park in Port Townsend.  I tried another version in the studio today and it wasn't as relaxed as this painting.  Still, I want to do a few more poplar paintings, and they probably will be done in the studio.

#296 Off Ward Road

It was another warm, calm, clear October day on the peninsula.  This is the Dungeness River off Ward Road. Watercolor, 11"x14".

#295 More Thistles

I tried the thistles in the clearing again, on bigger paper, and with the same sky pattern as before.

#294 Point Hudson Marina

Another "quick" studio experiment.  I need to dedicate an entire half day at least to painting, for a change.  In this one I tried using some slivers of masking tape to mask out some shapes.  I was out of drafting tape, and the results reminded me of how important it is to use drafting tape.  Anyway, it was fun- I started with transparents but eventually used whatever seemed right.  I don't have the patience for stretching watercolor paper and glazing, etc- I just want to paint in a burst of energy and (hopefully) inspiration!

#293 Sweet Laurette's

Done quickly in the courtyard of Sweet Laurette's in Port Townsend.  Anne brought up the topic of transparent watercolors, and it reminded me to use them more next time.  Cad yellow is remarkably opaque.