Hurricane Ridge, Mt Vernon, and Deception Pass

Well, we had a fun couple of paint outs since I last posted. The Hurricane Ridge paint out had a surprisingly large number of people come out and paint, maybe 20 of us were there over the weekend. I was there on Saturday that weekend, and has a really nice time painting the scene with the dramatic clouds over the mountains.

Towards the end of the day Karen Bakke and I were starting to paint a mountain slope, when it started raining really hard! My painting did not do well in the deluge and ended up looking like this:

Karen had better luck with the oils, and while we had to pack up quick, she finished the painting in the studio:

The next week, we had a nice sunny weekend in Mt. Vernon/Deception Pass paint out. I was only able to go to the Mt. Vernon one, but it was nice to paint side by side with Sharon Curran, who did this lovely painting of the Skagit River:

Couple more from the paint out:

(Kathleen Ritz)

(Brooke Borcherding)

By the way, the deadline for the upcoming art show and competition coming pretty soon.  This year's theme is Meadows to Mountains, and will be juried by Michael Situ. The deadline is September 15. Here's the prospectus. Happy painting!

Featured Artist: Sylvia Carlton

I'm glad to say that the second in our planned regular series of posts highlighting our advertising members is Sylvia Carlton. As the founder of Plein Air Washington Artists, all of us in PAWA owe Sylvia a great debt of gratitude. If not for her founding PAWA and being its president for a large part of its existence, we would not be the organization that we are now.

More in Sylvia's own words:

As PAWA founder, I am passionate about painting outside on location. I love being outside painting what I see and how it moves me. The beauty of the landscape is like music to me. I want to paint the day’s light in all of its subtleties and its glory. 

I am also a studio painter inspired by what I see outside and through inspirations by ‘painting from life’  usually florals. I rarely paint from photographs but rather from smaller paintings, sketches and still life. 

Always eclectic, my style will change depending on how my painting unfolds or how my subject speaks to me. My work can range from traditional to whimsical and abstract. I interchange materials such as Oils, Acrylics, and occasionally Oil Pastel. 

When others are able to experience the beauty of the natural world through my artwork I am happy. I was honored to have been chosen to show a number of my plein air paintings in the inaugural exhibit at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.

Here's a sampling of Sylvia's work:

Poppy Daze

Rainy Day At Skagit Wildlife

Orchid Splendor

Coastal Storm

Personally as someone who likes to paint in acrylics, I find it inspiring and comforting whenever I see Sylvia painting in acrylics in our paint outs, among the sea of oil painters (not that there's anything wrong with oil painters). Regardless of medium, there is a directness to Sylvia's work that I really appreciate.

Sylvia's work is available online, www.sylviacarlton.com, at her studio on Bainbridge Island by appointment anytime, or through Blue Water Artworks, Poulsbo WA.

---

In other PAWA news: our prospectus for the upcoming art show and competition is up.  This year's theme is Meadows to Mountains, and will be juried by Michael Situ. The deadline is September 15. Here's the prospectus. Happy painting!

Summer Fun

Well, it's summer in the Pacific Northwest, and it's difficult to make myself sit still indoors and do a blog post. But here's a recap of our summer activities so far:

First, a big thank you to our paint out faciliators! Larry Walden faciliated a paintout in Seabrook in the Olympic Peninsula. Blanche Niznik facilitated a fun paintout at Bastyr University. Plus Paula Ensign and Kathryn Townsend facilitated the big trip to Jasper National Park. I only got to paint in the Bastyr University paint out, but the pictures posted in our facebook group have been pretty amazing.

(Jan Jewell)

(Brooke Borcherding)

(Robin Weiss)

Aside from the official paint outs, our various members have been out and about painting by themselves or with groups as well. Our artist members were everywhere from Mt. Baker to Mt. Hood, to the Olympic Peninsula, or just to the local park. Come paint with us! Our Eventbrite page has the upcoming paint outs.

Finally, I should note that our prospectus for the upcoming art show and competition is up.  This year's theme is Meadows to Mountains, and will be juried by Michael Situ. The deadline is September 15, which if you think about it is coming up really quickly. Here's the prospectus. Happy painting!

Featured Artist: Jan Jewell

This is the first in a planned series to regularly feature a profile of one of our advertising members. And who better to start with current president, Jan Jewell. 

Jan has expressed her creativity with different art forms throughout her life. From winning a high school art competition, to an accomplished career in jewelry making, to becoming a wildly successful entrepreneur, to designing her own timber frame home in the Olympic peninsula. Except from her full Bio:

Since 2010, Jan has focused on representational oil painting. She has studied with Scott Christensen, Jeremy Lipking, Ovanes Berberian, Ned Mueller, Kathleen Dunphy, Alexander Zimin and David Gray, among others. A year after joining Plein Air Washington (PAWA), Jan joined its board as webmaster, and this year serves as its president. She found plein air painting to be exhilarating, and has traveled on painting adventures either with groups, or solo to France, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Glacier National Park, the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Arches National Monument, the Grand Tetons, California, Hawaii and all over her home of Washington State. She was granted a one-month artist’s residency in Dinan, France for the month of September, 2013. She is a mother of four, living with her husband Mike in Bellevue.

I get super envious of Jan's stories and pictures of her hobnobbing with some serious world class artists. Here's Jan painting with Jeremy Lipking in Hawaii:

 

Having a chat with esteemed portrait artist, Everett Raymond Kinstler:

Spending time with Rosemary Thompson of the famous Rosemary brushes:

Of course, Jan is a fabulous artist in her own right. Here's a sampling of her art:

More at Jan's website, and in her PAWA gallery.

Woodinville Paint Out

I caught the tail end of this paint out, and met the last few painters by the pond at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Despite being less than 5 miles from my home, I've never painted on the lovely grounds of the winery, well known for being the pioneer that established the Washington wine industry. Close by the winery grounds are the Sammamish River, the trail right beside it, a lavander farm, and other wineries, breweries, and distilleries. So many things to paint in Woodinville, and certainly our paint out participants took advantage.

Thanks so much to Sue Thim for facilitating!

Here's some lovely artists:

And some lovely artwork:

(Robin Weiss)

(Jan Jewell)

(Brooke Borcherding)

Palouse

I wasn't able to go to Eastern Washington for the Palouse Falls paint out this year. I went to the Walla Walla paint out last year, and Palouse the year before, so I knew people would really enjoy painting over on the sunny side of the state. And from what people shared in our facebook group, it looked like a ton of fun! Or as Karen Bakke said "If this is what PAWA is all about, I'm HOOKED!!" Needless to say, I'm quite jealous of everyone who were able to make it there.

Here are some artists hard at work painting the majestic views by Palouse Falls:

 

:) Ok, some serious painting got done too:

I love Larry Walden's spicy apron! Big thank you to Melanie Thompson for facilitating, I think the Eastern Washington paint outs have turned into one of those "must-go" PAWA paint outs.

Blue Poppy Days

I never would have known about this gem, the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way, had they not invited PAWA to join in their Blue Poppy Days event. The Rhody Garden folks  were gracious hosts and even got PAWA members in for free! There is also a super fascinating bonsai museum attached to the garden.

The star of the event, the blue poppy

Jan Jewell painting the blue poppies

Jan also did this amazing bonsai painting!

I'm trying to keep this blog updated as much as I can, but as you can see, I can be a little behind. You can keep up to date with what our members are doing by joining our Facebook Group. Also, the PAWA Eventbrite page has our upcoming paint-outs. Speaking of which, the Woodinvile paint out is tomorrow June 5, and Saturday, June 6! I will be there on Saturday.