Parting the Light

"Parting the Light"
Oil Pastel on Wallis Paper
6" x 8"

Dabbler's Delight

Dabbler's Delight
Pastel on Wallis Paper
18" x 24"

This pastel should have been completed about a week ago, but pressures at work took up some of my evenings. In any event the photo for this pastel painting was taken a few years ago at a friends house. This mallard drake was with a female hanging out in the tidal zone from a creek. Our friend Audrey had some dry cat food that came in handy to set up a few photographic shots. Mallards are 'dabbler feeders', meaning they survive by surface feeding. Most people do not find them interesting as they are common bird found throughout Northern and Southern Hemisphere's. As a child these birds captivated my imagination so much they would fill my dreams with wonderful flights; journey's to far off lands. Enjoy!

Blueberry Arts Festival 2010

The Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council held its annual Blueberry Arts Festival on Saturday, August 7. Once again for our third year, Pam and I had a booth selling handmade quilted table runners, wall-hangings, quilt pins, and crocheted snowflake ornaments. This year the weather was cool and damp, but it didn't prevent the crowds of local residents and cruise ship tourists from attending and enjoying this big community event.

The festival hosted 99 booths in the State Building parking garage in downtown Ketchikan. Most booths were selling a wide variety locally-made art and craft items. Other booths offered games for children, such as bean-bag tosses, and there was a slideshow of the different events sponsored by the Arts Council throughout the year. In one of the downtown parking lots many food booths were set up selling all sorts of mouth-watering treats, sponsored by several organizations including the Coast Guard.

Different festival activities included a 5K Blueberry Run, blueberry pie eating contests, and slug races! Of course, there was plenty of blueberry cotton candy and blueberry popcorn!

Sarah and Pat at our booth.

Pam in front of one of her beautiful American flag wall-hangings.

Table runners, crocheted snowflake ornaments,
heart and log cabin quilt pins.

Sarah used blue crayons to color a coloring-book page and wrote the words "Welcome to the Blueberry Festival" which she displayed at our booth. She also told people "you can choose whatever you want" from the items we were selling. Sarah was a great hostess!

Chris had his photo taken with Alaska's Governor Sean Parnell
in front of the Coast Guard food booth.

Mission Street Sunset

"Mission Street Sunset"
Pastel on Wallis Paper
14" x 17"

"Mission Street Sunset" (detail)

It was a friday night so the two of us decided to go into town to grab a bite to eat. Once we arrived one couldn't help but noticed the late evening sunlight was casting long deep blue shadows over everyone and everything. We paused for just a moment so that I could snap a photo of several tourist heading back to their cruises ship along Mission Street. It was one of those evenings that seemed kind of magical in which each one of us seem to be drifting about.

Pennsylvania Farmland

'Pennsylvania Farmland'

Pastel on Wallis Paper

6" x 8"

Here is my second piece of work inspired by Karin Jurick's blog Different Strokes From Different Folks (DSFDF). Plan on submitting it tomorrow evening sometime after our dining out in town. Again its been good to get inspiration from others especially when one is struggling with finding a subject matter to paint or draw.

Beggar

'Beggar' (study)

Pastel on Paper

16" x 24"

Besides doing landscapes and animals its good to keep ones hands in painting people. Lately been taking the time to work on portrait drawing of various people. Hoping to finish this drawing sometime before the weekend comes upon me.

New York City Street

'NY City Street'

Pastel on Wallis Paper

6" x 9"

Decided to give Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge a try as I've been setting a personal goal of completing one pastel drawing a week. Very impressed at the number of people that share in this virtual artists community. I think its great that Karin is committed to this project as an individual. Looking forward to future post at her website. Thanks Karin!

Gull Chick Nest

"Gull Chick Nest"

Pastel on Paper - 8"x10"

The picture of the above drawing was taken at about the midway point of finishing. I've actually finished this drawing but been lazy to post the final piece. Thinking about scanning the drawing versus taking a photo of the finished artwork at a later date. Been trying to complete at least one drawing a week to get back into producing a body of work like I did during my college years. Anyway enjoy!

Mother Hen

'Mother Hen'

Pastel on Wallis Paper

5" x 7"

Ward Lake - Pastel

Ward Lake - May 2, 2009

Pastel on Paper

Made it out to Ward Lake, a local recreational area that is frequented by most everyone in town, to spend my day drawing. Today was a beautiful sunny day and it seemed as if half the town was at the lake today. Tryed to do few pencil sketches as I walked around the lake but was interrupted by people asking "Are your drawing?", "Is it fun?", "Can I watch?, and "Will you draw me?" Needless to say I wasn't able to finish any real pencil sketches.

Decided to walk a little farther around the lake where I found picnic table off the path. After setting up my drawing pad and pastels my attention fell on the shelters across the lake. The clouds were moving in and changing my lighting constantly so I had to work fast. Just when I was ready to finish off the water a huge wind storm rolled in across the lake. I'll spend sometime later in the week working on the highlights in my shop. Anyway it was a good day to be out and about.

SeaDoo

SeaDoo - 2009

Pastel on Paper

Here is one of my most recent pastel drawings. Wasn't sure what to title the drawing so decide to take it from the inter-tube. I'm haaving the picture scanned and perhaps a few prints made up for friends or family. Hoping to post a few more drawings in the next week or so.

Twlight's Becoming

Twilght's Becoming

Pastel Pencil on Paper

(Close-up detail)

Sparrow

Sparrow (study phase)

Pastel on Paper

Sparrow (close up)
Pastel on Paper

Been working on a 18"x24" study of a Sparrow over the past few weeks. I was delightfully surprised by how well this study was turning out, especially the texture of the feathers. Should be able to finish this up shortly and post the final version.

Gull Chick

Gull Chick - March 2009

Charcoal on Vellum

(Close-up detail)

Since I had a good experience drawing the chickens on vellum paper decided to give it another try. The kneaded eraser was very effective removing any charcoal mistakes and dealing with hightlights. I'm sure to give this drawing some more of my time.

Hen & Chick

Hen & Chick - March 8, 2009

Charcoals on Vellum Paper

This pass winter Patricia & I were house sitting for a few firends. They had a number of pets for which we were more than happly to feed and play with each day. One day I decided to take a few pictures of the chickens during their feeding time. Now several moths later it was time to sketch up a drawing. I wasn't intending to do the drawing on vellum, but once I got start things were clicking for me to try and finish. The feel of the charcoals over vellum really worked out and permitted me to use a kneaded eraser to pick out hightlights. Hope to add some finishing details at a later date to round it out as a complete drawing.

(Detail Close-up of Hen & Chick)

Puzzled!

The Mainstay Gallery is a community art gallery committed to community artist development. The Gallery hosts 11 exhibits a year from September through August, and displays a wide variety of mediums from local and national artists, as well as traveling exhibits. On March 6, 2009 a show curated by Diane Naab called "Puzzled!"consisting of several large puzzle pieces were transformed into artwork by a diverse range of artists, then reassembled into one large gallery piece. Here are the pieces that I put together to contribute to this show.

Zen Bowl Puzzle

Color Pencil on Paper

Tin Crab Puzzle

Embossing on Copper

Fish Bone Puzzle

Gel Ink Pen on Paper

Sea Shells Study 3

Sea Shell Study 2 - 2009

Pencil on Paper

Sea Shells Study 2

Sea Shell Study - 2009

Pencil on Paper

Sea Shells Study 1

Four Minute Shell Study - 2009

Pencil on Paper

30 Second Shell Study - 2009
Pencil on Paper

Island Study

Island Study - 2009

Pencil on Paper