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JTMB's Bird Art (1 Viewer)

John,

Such travelogue treasures!

Gonna come back and study these more...

Very nice landscapes, with nice understanding of colour...

I'm a big fan of notebooks and diaries, the earlier entries are superb, thanks for posting these, nice to read and even nicer to look at the wonderful drawings...
 
Plein Air Landscapes

Thanks Tim, Phil, Alan, Gaby, Colleen and Ken!

Wow, I let my thread fall onto the second page - shame on me! The reason is that after my river trip and sketching a lot of birds from life, I've been focusing on plein air landscapes - my goal for September is one per day (weather permitting). We've had a very late, cool and wet summer (unlike pretty much the whole rest of the country) and so once summer arrived I had to get out and do some landscapes. I've also been focusing more on oils, having only previously done about 40 of them and a number of which were class projects. [Colleen - I'll shortly be taking a four day workshop on the Oregon coast, focused on plein air coastal landscapes and seascapes.]

Here are three recent oils, the first two are 9 x 12 and the third one 8 x 10 and all done in a couple hours plein air. The first was done during a plein air paintout event in our little town during its big annual Railroad Days festival. It is of the Snoqualmie River from a park right in town, looking upriver toward Mount Washington. The second is of a slough that borders an off-leash dog park and natural area in our town. The second one was photographed while still wet so not the best photo. The third is of the 4th fairway and hole of the golf course in our neighborhood that just hosted a Champions (senior) Tour PGA event. I found a spot right by the course, and snugged up against a tree for shade and to be as inconspicuous as possible and painted this in about and hour and a half. None of these, of course, are finished pieces. The first two I'm considering doing as studio pieces - when our winter monsoon season hits here, the very short days and soggy climate pretty much means painting inside.

104-0948-PAN-SandyCovePAPaintout-Aug20,11.jpg104-0983-PAN-ThreeForksSloughEAFA-Aug23,11.jpg105-0011-PAN-Hole4TPC-Aug28,11.jpg
 
you're a natural for plein air...these are terriffic...and that coastal painting workshop sounds great....who is teaching it?
 
you're a natural for plein air...these are terriffic...

Exactly right. Colleen has hit the nail on the head. These are both accomplished and natural, no feeling of being forced or struggling. Seems as Coleen says that you're a natural for plein air.

I skipped a chance to get involved with a similar plein air exhibit about a month ago. Now I'm beginning to think I shouldn't pass up the next opportunity, at least not if I can get work that looks slightly reminiscent of this.
 
Thanks Colleen and Ken! I'm definitely enjoying plein air, and hoping that the on-site studies will help with my studio pieces over the winter. Time will tell...

Colleen - the workshop is through the Sitka Center (www.sitkacenter.org) and the instructor is Phyllis Trowbridge (http://www.phyllistrowbridge.com/). I don't think the instructor is particularly well known, but I like her work and the location is just spectacular. So the worst case is that I get to spend a week in a gorgeous location, and I always get something from every instructor and every workshop, so it will be good.
 
Terrific work John - you have an uncanny ability to see the hue changes as well as the tonal variation as light meets dark. Top class mate - I wish my plein air work were half as good! Good lck with the workshop - definitely an area to nurture and allow to bloom.
 
Terrific work John - you have an uncanny ability to see the hue changes as well as the tonal variation as light meets dark. Top class mate - I wish my plein air work were half as good! Good lck with the workshop - definitely an area to nurture and allow to bloom.

Yes, I'm a huge admirer of those who can do this. I woudn't have a either the inclination or any idea where to start with something like this. Very nice indeed.

Russ
 
Thanks very much Tim, Russ and Mike! My goal in the month of September is one plein air painting per day, weather permitting...one of the reasons I haven't been doing as many birds. But I'll be back to birds as well, of course.
 
Thanks very much Tim, Russ and Mike! My goal in the month of September is one plein air painting per day, weather permitting...one of the reasons I haven't been doing as many birds. But I'll be back to birds as well, of course.
Just keep showing them here, John. Great stuff!
 
Hi everyone - well, I managed to drop off the first page again, due to being on the Oregon coast for a week. However, I had a great time painting plein air oil pieces, but also managed to fit in a bit of bird sketching.

Following are some sketches of Western Gulls that were the common species there. The first one here is done from life - a gull was hunkered down in the sand taking it easy, and I was able to walk within about 8 feet of him, sitting down in the portable chair and sketch him. These were done with fountain pen, following by washing cross-hatched areas with water to give the grayish mantle color (most of the time I use water soluble fountain pen inks, to allow some tones to be washed in). The bill color was watercolor added later - it mixed too well with the ink in the first sketch and so the bill is too dark. The remainder are very quick sketches done from photos I took earlier in the day. They are done with fountain pen. Finally, there are two small (8 x 10 inch) oils that I did which were to depict birds, not just the landscape. The birds in them look a bit wonky, but it was good practice to work quickly in oils. The one with the two gulls standing is an oil paint sketch - no preliminary drawing was done on the canvas, I just went for it with oil.

105-0320-PAN-WEGUatNeskowin-Sep14,11.jpg105-0324-PAN-WEGUfromPhotoBoilerBay-Sep14,11.jpg105-0325-PAN-WEGUfromPhotosBoilerBay-Sep14,11.jpg105-0327-PAN-WEGUfromBoilerBay-Sep14,11.jpg105-0330-PAN-WEGUonBoilerBayRocks-Sep11,11.jpg
 
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