Summer workshops

Please join me this summer to paint beautiful, northwest Michigan. I’ll be teaching three workshops.

The first is a one-day, plein air basics class at the Oliver Art Center in Frankfort, on June 24. An easy way to get your feet wet for beginners, and good practice for others. I’ll do demonstrations and we’ll paint at a couple of nearby sites.

In August I’ll again be teaching for the Glen Arbor Art Association. A three-day workshop at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Thorsen Farm and nearby spots, August 7-9. More in-depth, with demos and concentration on light and color.

From August 14-16 I will be with the Leelanau Community Cultural Center at the Old Art Building, in Leland. My first time teaching here, but it’s a location I love to paint. I have participated in “Leland Air,” their annual plein air event for the past three years. Below are the two paintings I did there a couple of weeks ago.

Hope to see you up north. Visit the sponsors websites to sign up.

Toward Pyramid Point, oil, 12" x 16"
Lakeside birch, oil 13" x 10"

Cruising with Gouache

Our spring-break this year was a wonderful, southern caribbean cruise. I knew there would be lots of subjects I’d like painting, but not a lot of time and bringing oil paints was not practical for going on and off a cruise ship. I don’t have much experience with gouache, so I thought this was a good opportunity. An opaque form of watercolor, it allows you to rework and paint over areas.

Here’s some of what I did. I used a 7" x 10" watercolor pad. Each of these took about a half hour.

Palm studies and a view from the deck of Fort de France bay on Martinique.

For Mackinac Island

Continuing winter studio work for the coming summer season in Michigan. These two are headed to Mackinac's Little Gallery on Mackinac Island.

Side By Side, oil, 14" x 16"
Harbor View, oil, 8" x 8"

Shipped to Hawaii

Here's some new and touched up work from my last trip to Maui that were just shipped to Village Galleries in Lahaina. I'm making plans now for another trip in the Fall.

Morning stroll, oil, 8" x 8"
Sailing along the shore, oil, 12" x 9"
Between the Islands, oil, 12" x 16"
Canoes on the beach, oil, 11" x 14"

  

Winter work

It's easy to get out of the habit of posting when you are busy. Busy with work (I’m still a part-time graphic designer), family, travel, and all of the other necessities of life.

I have been painting a lot though. Large paintings, studies, and finishing past starts. Here’s a study for a commission I’m about to begin of the Michigan shore and plein air start from last summer that I couldn’t complete at the time because of an impending storm.

More coming soon.

View from Arcadia, oil on paper,
8" x 6"


Storm over the Bay, oil 9" x 12"

New small works

I had a beautiful November day last week for plein air on the Lake Michigan shore. Hard to believe it was a sunny 65 degrees, I enjoyed every minute. Also a couple of small, studio pieces.

Dunes and shadows, oil, 10" x 8"

Beside the wetlands, oil on paper, 6" x 10"

Morning over Sleeping Bear Bay, oil, 8" x 10"

ArtPrize—Grand Rapids

After a couple years off, I again have a piece in ArtPrize, the giant art event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. One of my largest paintings, 40" x 78", Footprints in the dune, is a depiction of a morning at Warren Dunes.

Grand Rapids is a great town to visit especially during ArtPrize. My painting is hanging in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Downtown for a couple more weeks.

The busiest summer

I commute to Michigan a lot, especially in the summer, because I love it and love to paint there. This year those trips have been even more frequent because we are building a cottage near Glen Arbor. Monitoring its progress just gave me another excuse to be up there painting. That, and participating in four plein air events, teaching two workshops, as well as keeping a steady stream of work heading to galleries.

Here are some of the fruits of my summer labors.

Day Sailor, painted at the Fishtown Preservation Society plein air event. Oil, 12" x 10"

Summer Dusk, Glen Haven, oil 10" x 8"















Afternoon Dunes, oil, 9" x 12" Received 2nd place at the Glen Arbor Art Association’s August paint-out

Two of my demo paintings for a workshop:

Thorsen Farm Grainary, oil, 10" x 10" and Sunset Beach Morning, 

oil, 11" x 10"

Leland Air

Last Saturday was my first plein air event of the season. Leland Air in Leland, Michigan. A bit of a gray start, but it turned into a beautiful day.

I did two paintings for the show. The first was south of the harbor at Van's Beach. The second at north beach.

I was honored to have Whale back and Pyramid Point chosen “Best in Show.”

Whale back and Pyramid Point, oil, 11" x 14"


Black Dog, oil, 12" x 9

Summer Workshops

This summer I am giving two workshops on plein air painting.

The first is Plein Air Basics, a one-day workshop hosted by the Oliver Art Center in Frankfort, Michigan, on July 23. More info here: Oliver Art Center 

The second, Plein air: An introduction to painting on location, is for three-days with the Glen Arbor Art Association, in Glen Arbor, Michigan, August 8, 9, & 10. More here: Glen Arbor Art Association

Please consider joining me. Great locations, prime, summer-time in Michigan.

Back from Maui

It was 18 months since I was last on Maui, Hawaii. It didn’t seem like it. I love being there and painting. A good time of year, near perfect weather, just a bit of wind. Most of the spring-breakers had left, but sadly, so had the whales.

Friday night is Friday Art Night in Lahaina, so I spent the evening at The Village Gallery, where I am represented. Visited with Lynn Shue the owner, and a couple other of the artists. Betty Freeland and Carleton Kinkade.

Spectacular views, as usual. Here are a few from my week.

Morning shadows at Kamaole I, oil, 8" x 10"

Coconut on the Beach, oil,
16" x 12"

Afternoon Mauka, oil, 8" x 10"

North toward Molokai, oil, 12" x 12"

Mackinac Island

Getting some new small ones ready for the summer season at Mackinac’s Little Gallery.

Arriving, oil, 9" x 12"

Into Mackinac, oil, 8" x 16"

Under the bridge, oil, 9" x 12"

South and North

Sometimes there’s not enough time to finish a plein air painting. Or the weather changes, or the breakfast bell is calling. After finishing one small one, I started this painting of a cottage, but it didn’t get finished. That was two years ago. With winter studio time, I finally got around to it.

The cottage was to the south of the dune I was standing on. The second painting is a new studio work looking north from about the same spot.

Cottage at the shore, oil, 9" x 12"

Favorite view, oil, 16 x 12"

Dot to Dot

Water Street Gallery’s newest exhibit is Dot to Dot, a show with patterns as its theme. I have two paintings in the show which opened this past weekend in Douglas, Michigan, Harbor Buoys and Patterns in the Woods.

Harbor Buoys, oil, 16" x 16"

Catching up

Sometimes when I return from a plein air trip I have several unfinished paintings. When I get back to the home/studio routine there’s other things to do so I don’t always jump right in to finish what I started.

This one was started last October in California at Goleta Beach on the north side of Santa Barbara. Tecolotita and Atascadero creeks come together creating the Goleta Slough. When there is regular rain, these flow to the ocean. But with the drought they have been having, the beach sands are enough to block that from happening.

The Goleta Slough, oil, 12" x 16"

In the woods

Winter studio time. This is a recently completed study for a possible large painting.

Patterns in the woods, oil, 12" x 12"

A Summer Morning

The early morning and late-day light always grab my attention. The shadows that rake across the landscape and the golden hues of the light call me to paint.

This is a barn in northwest Michigan that I drive by regularly, always seeing it at different times of the day. I have done a couple of small paintings of it now and have in-mind a large one.

Early light, white barn, oil, 8" x 10"

A trip to California

Last month I had the great pleasure to spend a week in and around Santa Barbara, California, with local, resident painter Marcia Burtt.

I first met Marcia when I took one of her workshops in Sedona, Arizona, in 2007. That was really the start of plein air painting for me. After admiring her work online for quite a while, and dreaming of spending more time painting, I took the plunge and was hooked. I've kept in-touch with her since and last year saw that she was offering kind of a mentoring, one-on-one time of painting together for artists, so I took her up on it. I stayed a few nights in the apartment connected to her Gallery in-town and then a few nights at her ranch about an hour-and-a-half up in the hills. We painted together every day, first at some of the Santa Barbara beaches that I have come to know from her decades of painting there, and then familiar scenes around her ranch.

Marcia paints with acrylic, which have always frustrated me with their quick drying time, but it's still great to watch and learn from her.

Here are some of the paintings I completed there. I have several more that need some touch-up.

Butterfly Beach, oil, 11" x 14"
Late-afternoon, oil, 8" x 10"
Afternoon field, oil, 9" x 12"
Oak on Quail Mountain, oil, 12" x 16" SOLD

A couple new ones

I have been traveling to Michigan nearly every weekend for the past couple of months. Weather has been great. Trees are just starting to show color. Hopefully paint that next weekend. Here are a couple from recent trips.

Last of summer, oil 11" x 14"

Looking toward Pyramid Point, oil 8" x 8"


September sun, oil 12" x 9"