On the beach

I spent a day last week at Warren Dunes State park in southwest Michigan. Lots of great painting opportunities: forest, dunes, beach. I took the first couple of hours to explore locations and unfortunately missed the best of the morning light. But it was such a beautiful day it didn't really mater. I found some shade to stand in and paint this one. More exploring in the late afternoon and now I'm ready to go back and start painting right away.

A walk to the water, oil, 10" x 8"

MacBeth & Co.

A great little Home & Gift shop, MacBeth & Co. in Onekama and Glen Arbor, Michigan, has been selling my North M22 print for a couple of years. They are now also going to carry some small paintings of mine, like these.

Point, oil, 6" x 6" SOLD

Northern Shore--at Watervale, oil, 8" x 10"

Afternoon Coast, oil, 8" x 6"

Saugatuck/Douglas plein air event

I was invited again to participate in Water Street Gallery's annual paint-out in Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan. A very quaint and picturesque pair of towns on the west side of the state just separated by the Kalamazoo River. The day started out nice enough, but the sky didn't look too promising. A three-quarter mile hike with a couple of other artists, Brian Smith and Kristian Matthews, through the woods of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park lead me to this dune/beach scene. I had to do a little bit of shadow inventing with the sky turning overcast, but it was coming along for an hour or so till the rain started. I made it back to the car before the downpour and headed to a park pavilion in town to finish it. I would like to have done another, but with limited locations and time, I didn't have the chance. The sun came back out before the evening opening which had a great turn-out. Talking with other artists and gallery visitors made for an enjoyable night, and my painting sold.

Saugatuck Dunes morning, oil 12" x 10" SOLD

Wildflowers by the corn shed

This was my morning painting at the Glen Arbor paint-out. I saw this shed among the buildings at one of the historic farms in the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore a few weeks before. So I went straight there after check-in. I started about 8:30 in the morning hoping for bright sunshine and long shadows. I got some sun in between high clouds for the first hour so I established the shadows a values right away. It then became mostly overcast so I had to do some from memory but I was able to finish it pretty true to where I started.

Wildflowers by the corn shed, oil, 12" x 12"

Glen Arbor Paint-out Award

I'm honored to have received the 1st Place award for one of my paintings on Saturday at the Glen Arbor Art Association's Plein Air Paint-out. 66 artists got their canvases, boards, and papers stamped at 8 in the morning and were back at 4 pm with two, framed and ready to hang paintings. My afternoon painting was of the Pine Cone, a long-time favorite spot in Glen Arbor for hot dogs and ice cream. Lots of big pines around, of course, and two of them grow right through the building.

Flat light and iffy weather all day. I had to grab my umbrella for a few minutes of raindrops. But the sun came out as I was finishing, just in time to show me the shadow on the roof.

I was also happy to see the red dot appear soon after start of the reception. A woman visiting from Arizona with childhood memories of summer visits to the Pine Cone bought it.

The Pine Cone, oil, 16" x 10" SOLD

Paint-out

Today I'm heading back up to Michigan for the Glen Arbor Art Associations plein air paint-out and show on Saturday. I had a great time at it last year, made some new artist friends, and sold one of the two paintings I did. This year about 60 artists will paint for the day around Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Glen Lakes and the surrounding area. Then an evening reception and sale complete with Leelanau Peninsula Wine and hor d'oeuvres.

This one is from the same area, painted at the Homestead Resort where we stayed a couple of weeks ago.

Toward Sleeping Bear Point, oil, 10" x 8"

From the dock

Morning plein air standing on a friend's dock on Portage Lake. On the other side of the lake is the historic Portage Point Inn catching the early sunshine. I tried to keep it quick and simple to capture the moment. I will definitely think about a larger, studio version of this one.

Morning Mooring, oil, 12" x 12"