Winter Gang

Here is a video of the neighbor dogs that like to play in our driveway from time to time. This particular day I am out shoveling the deck and the gang shows up wanting to play fetch. I dropped the shovel and decided to film their visit. They were looking for some attention but more than likely it was treats. Don't worry they did get their treats.

More Studies

Annabelle's Pub, Ketchikan - August 2007

Mountain Point, Ketchikan - Sept 2007

Mardi, Ketchikan - Sept 2007

Kodiak Harbor, Kodiak - Sept 2007

Ducks at Ward Lake, Ketchikan - 2007

New York Cafe, Ketchikan - 2007

Deer Mountain, Audrey - August 2007

Baggage Carts, Juneau - 2006

Crossword Puzzle, Juneau Airport - 2006

Thayer's Gulls

Thayer's Gulls

September 2007

Last night I decided to experiment a little using paint thinner and hard pastels. First thing was to rub on some pastel in large blocks of color for the background and then I brushed paint thinner over top. This washed the pastel into the paper which give it a water color look. Instead of waiting to let the paint thinner and pastel mixture dry completely, I decide to start in with a outline drawing of the gulls. Then I started to apply the middle ground colors to the wet paper which really felt like painting with an oil stick. The drawing strokes went on with a painterly look and feel. Think I enjoyed the process more than the completed study of the gulls.

Pastel - Lunch Creek

Early Spring Morning

Lunch Creek - Settlers Cove

September 2007

Pastels - Settlers Cove

Beach Stroll - Settlers Cove

September 2007

Summer Storm

This storm came rolling in from across the Alaska/Canadian border late this evening. As you can see the storm front was huge, the thunder was quite long and loud. We drove down to the water front just down the road from the house and took this video. These type of storms are pretty rare around here so when it happens they really grab your attention. We drove back up to the house to unplug the electronic equipment just in the event the storm knocks out power.

Blueberry Juried Art Show

The Blueberry Juried Art Show opening reception took place on August 3 from 5-7pm with some amazing visual art works and tasty blueberry treats. The Show features works from established and emerging artists from the Ketchikan area and beyond working in a variety of media: stained glass, oil, jewelry, textile, wood carving and more. During the opening reception dishes for the Best Blueberry Dish contest were available for tasting.

Took home second place honors with a pastel piece titled ‘Summer’s Drift’. The piece captures a lazy summer day with two young boys. One in a small row boat the other taking a swim. The pastel appealed to the public as well as the judges by winning the ‘Viewers Choice’ award. It was a very exciting evening!

Totem Bight Dancers

Above is a video taken this summer when we attended an event at the Totem Bight State Park of the Xaadas Takanlang Haida Descendant Dancers. The Northwest Coast Dancers are performing one Friday per month through September at Totem Bight Clan House. The Haida dancers perform traditional and contemporary songs in traditional regalia with the guidance of Gloria Burns. We learned about Haida culture, lineage, and storytelling, blessing, honor, and lessons conveyed through dance. Here are a few pictures of the totems at the park.

Thunderbird and Whale: A similar carving of this Haida mortuary pole was originally from the old village of Klinkwan on Prince of Whales Island. The pole was first copied for Totem Bight by John Wallace during the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1990 Nathan Jackson was commissioned to carve a second replica.

The intent of the carving is to illustrate the mythological conception of thunder. Thunder is created by the beating of the bird’s wings, and lightening by the blink of its eyes. This huge bird lives high on the mountaintop. The whale at the base of the pole symbolizes the mountaintop where the bird rests before devouring his prey. It is said that whale bones may be found on many mountain tops that have been carried there from ages past.

Halibut Pole: This Tlingit pole honors the Halibut House people of the Nexadi clan. The original pole stood in the park from the CCC period until 1970, when it was replaced by carver Nathan Jackson.

The Clan House: A community house or clanhouse of this size could have housed 30 to 50 people. Although it is doubtful a clanhouse existed on this site (originally a fish camp), this design is representative of the type in many Indian villages built in the early 19th century.

Inside is one large room with a central fireplace surrounded by a planked platform. The walls and floors were hand-adzed to smooth the surface and remove splinters. The dwelling served as living quarters for several families of a particular lineage. Each was allotted its own space but shared a common fire. Housewares, treasured items, and blankets were stored under the removable floor boards, and food items were hung from the beams and rafters. The members belonging to the house would be headed by a house chief of the same lineage.

The carved house posts supporting the beams inside symbolize the exploits of Duk-toothl. He is a man of Raven phratry wearing a weasel skin hat who showed his strength by tearing a sea lion in two. The painting on the house front was designed by Charles Brown. It is a stylized Raven with each eye elaborated into a face. Designs on the house fronts were rare, and occurred only in cases of great wealth.

On the front corner posts sits a man in a spruce root hat with the crest design on his face and cane in hand. He is ready for a dance or potlatch.

New Pastel Painting

Couldn't ask for a better subject to paint for one to get through the long wet winter months here in Ketchikan, Alaska. While out for a stroll early last summer I came upon several kids playing in a row boat at the Knudson Cove Marina north of town. After snapping a few quick pictures of the kids playing in the boat I sat down to make a few notes in my sketchbook about the light and local colors.

Having just finished the painting this year I still haven't thought much about a title for the painting. Not sure if other artist struggle to title completed art work? Hope to have this painting framed by mid-July for submittal at a local art show which is held during our annual Blueberry Arts Festival in August. The painting is roughly 33 X 24 and was done on Arches water color paper. Still may work a little more on a few highlights in the water. Thanks for any feed back.

Eagle

Patricia & I had company today while eating lunch, sitting in the truck looking out over the Tongass Narrows. There was a juvenile Baldheaded Eagle perched on top of a delivery truck resting his wings. Finished off my taco salad and decided to get a video of the young bird before he flew off in search of lunch. The video is not as good I would like but it’s worth a look. Enjoy!

Guard Duty

It's been a beautiful week of sunny weather, a pretty continuous 60°F with occasional rain showers. Farley decided to camp out on the mat just outside the front door today. When he got up to go into the house to look for something to eat, Mardi wandered out and decided to take Farley’s place on the mat. When Farley returned to his post he was a little perturbed to find Mardi there, but he managed to assert his presence once again by taking the space that remained. Who knew that guard duty could be so tiring and challenging? Just ask these sleepy kitties.

It's Getting Smelly

The skunk cabbage in the driveway and around the house are getting quite large...and "fragrant", because it smells just just like its name. These plants make up for the fact that there are no skunks in Alaska. Here is what the plant looks like in early spring. Don't be fooled, they can grow to be four feet high.

Just Another Weekend

We woke up this spring morning earlier than our typical Saturday mornings. To our delight two large black bears were transiting our property. They never did come completely out of the brush for us to get a few pictures. We’re still hopeful one day soon we can capture a picture to post on our blog site. After a quick shower and breakfast we headed out the door for our trip north of town to help a friend with moving a freezer. Waiting for us in the driveway was the Hillside Gang looking forward to their usual treat. It was a beautiful spring morning drive as we headed north of town.
After arriving at our friends place we off-loaded the freezer and strapped it to a dolly for the long trek to her house. As you can tell by the photos the path to the house along the beach was overgrown with brush and a bit rocky. All three of us then wrestled the freezer down a few rocks to the creek bank. Then we carried it across the slippery rocks to the opposite side of the creek and finally up to its resting place on the porch.

Having built up a thirst the three of us headed into the house for a drink and conversation. During this time one of the two pet cats she owns kept us all company, his name is Grover. He is an older cat who loves to be held and hangs around for an occasional scratch behind the ears. As he was trying to get my attention I snap a picture of him. Also took a few photos of some antique bottles sitting on a window ledge recovered from a wreck dive as the light shone through them. Quite a beautiful day.
Once we finished our drinks our friend asked us to hold a ladder while she took some time to clean out the gutters. The gutters were full of leaves which were preventing the water tank from being filled up on a regular basis between rain storms. After a few minutes of raking out the leaves the water started flowing again to her water tank.

We ended up heading back to town afterwards, but along the way we stopped at North Shore Gardens to pick up some flowers and some food for my bird feeders. We then stopped at a the market to pcik up a few items for lunch and dinner. Once we got back to the cabin we both worked on a few projects around the house. Pat worked on potting her plants and baking a few pies for church. I worked on the pressure washer and hung up feeder for the squirrels. Then I spent about a hour or so working a pastel painting. All in all it was a very relaxing day.

Pets

Was out filling the bird and squirrel feeders this afternoon and a few of the Hillside Gang showed up. This is Mister he is an older golden retriever who just loves to be petted, but of course he loves biscuit treats just as much. He belongs to our neighbors who live just up the hill above our property.

The black lab is Scout and belongs to our neighbors just across the hill from us. If there is a favorite among the Hillside Gang she would be the one. She will camp out in our driveway on a few afternoons looking for attention. Scout loves to play fetch but is reluctant to give up the stick most times. It best to have two sticks in play at once with her.

This is Farley our youngest cat (7 years old), he is beat after spending the night out chasing the critters. There was no way he was going to wake for me taking his picture. In the mornings, while I'm taking a shower, he will usually sit between the shower curtains meowing for attention. Or brings in a bird to show off before...well you get the picture.

Farley's Day

Working on changing the sheets on the bed but Farley and Mardi both had different ideas this morning. As you can see Farley was excited enough to crawl under the sheets then chase Mardi off the bed.

Orca Feed

On the way home from work when out of the corner of my eye I noticed some thrashing about out in the middle of Tongass Narrows. Pulling off on the side of the road I jumped out of the vehicle with camera in hand. It wasn’t long before discovering that the thrashing around was a pod of Orca’s feeding. Although they were out too far to really get some good video I still gave it a try. Last year about the same time when a pod came through Mountain Point area the camera was at home, this year I got lucky. Sorry for the camera shake it was difficult to shoot without a tripod to support the camera.

Blueberry Winner!

In preparation for the 2007 Blueberry Arts Festival, the local Arts Council holds an annual t-shirt and festival logo design contest. Blueberry Arts Festival t-shirts are a cherished and collected memento from each year's summer festival. Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council gives out a cash prize which is awarded to the creator of the chosen design. This year we submitted several designs for which the above design was chosen by the Arts Council. We are very excited that our design was chosen this year.

The Blueberry Arts Festival in Ketchikan is held on the first weekend of August, celebrating summer and blueberries. Over 7000 Ketchikan- area residents, cruiseship passeners and independent travelers attend this festival that features local and visiting artists, community organizations, gourmet food and blueberry delicacies, games, performing arts and visual arts demonstrations. Traditional Blueberry activities include the Blueberry Juried Art Show of work by area visual artists at the Mainstay Gallery, the Fun Run sponsored by the Ketchikan Runners Club, a slug race and slug weigh-in, a Trivia Contest sponsored by the Friends of the Library, a Spelling Bee, a Blueberry Pie Eating Contest co-sponsored by Tatsuda's IGA and WestCoast Cape Fox Lodge, and the Blueberry Battle of the Bands (a great turn out of bands), and the Best Blueberry Dish Contest.

Hope to see you all there.

Early Sketchbook

Horse Head, 1993

Sleeping Native Girl, 1993

Woman's Bay, Kodiak Alaska, 1993

Spring Run-Off

Spring Run-Off

Ketchikan - Alaska, 2004

Winter Moorage

Winter Moorage

Ketchikan - Alaska, 2004

Danger Islands

Danger Islands

Ketchikan - Alaska, 2005

Morning Marsh

Morning Marsh

Ketchikan Alaska, 2004

Ebb Tide, CGC Naushon

Ebb Tide, CGC Naushon

Juneau - Alaska, 1994

Off-Season

Off-Season

Ketchikan - Alaska, 2006

Spring Time!

Couple of weeks ago I was pretty optimistic that winter was on its way out. Thus I put away the snow shovels and deicer knowing that spring was around the corner. A few more storms worked their way through the area last week but hung on to my optimism against the side ways rains. Well this past week pretty much confirmed that winter is gone as the sun was out all week. Greeting us down the driveway was the first buds of the ‘Lysichiton americanus’ better known as ‘skunk cabbage’. Its official…spring season has arrived in Ketchikan!

My wife and I did our usual weekend run to the landfill to drop off our accumulated garbage from the week and then head to town to take in the sights. We took advantage of some shopping at a local store located on the waterfront having a sale. There were quite a bit of people in town taking advantage of the weather as well.

On our way out of the parking lot for a walk around the neighborhood a trucked pulled in with three dogs in the back bed with not much room to roam. When ever another dog came by within sight the three would set off barking like crazy. It was quite funny to watch.

We then headed up a staircase to a boardwalk above the tunnel to get a view of the down town area. Patricia counted each step up the boarded stairway for which I believe she stated there was 118 steps. It’s a bit more than the number 40 steps leading up to our house.

Needless to say it was a beautiful view of the down town area once we reach the top step. We then decided to walk a bit further to another look out point with a view of the new wharf extension project for the cruise ships. Again well worth the walk up the steps and the hill.

Winding our way back down the hill through the Pine Street neighborhood we noticed that several people were out digging in their gardens or working on house repairs. Patricia wanted to walk over to the Ketchikan Library and I took advantage to check on the Ketchikan Creek. The spring run-off was in full boil coming down the chutes behind the library; which looks more impressive at low tide. By this time we were getting hungry so we decided wander over to the Salmon Landing Market Place to get a bite of lunch.

With our lunch to go we headed off to find a sunny spot to eat our lunch. Eventually our conversation turned to next week’s schedule. Our biggest agenda items were the last day of the AWANA kid’s ministry and scheduled car repairs for the Subaru Legacy. We then headed off back to the truck and decided to finish up with a grocery run to the supermarket.

We felt like tourist in our own town. Speaking of which the tourist season starts in full swing the first week of May. It was good for us to spend a day just hanging out in the sun; there are so few days like it in Ketchikan.

Sketchbook - Birds

Hawk Study (pen & ink)

January 2007

Cormorants Welcoming the Evening Sun

December 2006 (pen & ink)

Raven's Call (pen & ink)

November 2006

Osprey Head Sketch

November 2006 (pen & ink)