Thursday morning began with a fine misty rain, just right for watercolor painting. The mist drapes the hillsides and makes everything soft. But you can’t paint in the rain — it makes the watercolors run all over the paper.
My solution was to paint from the front seat of my car. A little cramped, but it’s better than nothing. I drove to Sawdust Hill Road, a side road off of Big Valley Road near Poulsbo. There’s a beautiful old barn on the edge of a sloped pasture, just below a ridge of tall trees. It looks like the property owner is making an effort to preserve this fine old structure.
Even though I parked my car as far off the road as possible, there wasn’t much room when the garbage truck came by, and when a loaded logging truck came around the corner, I held my breath until he was past.
The pastures of the Skokomish River valley are bordered by ragged ridges on either side that still show evidence of being clearcut years ago. The barns in the valley seem to hunker below the mountains, especially when the clouds scud by. That’s the feeling I tried to express in this painting.
In my teacher’s critique, he admired the soft edge of the ridgetop, the color in the clouds, the lost edges of the barn, the white space in front of the barns that is left to the viewer’s imagination, and the soft edges of the barn roofs. He suggested running a little blue into the yellow of the grass, and to soften the edge of the silo. I like this painting.
Last week I spent three days painting with members of Plein Air Washington Artists at Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. I camped at Fairholme Campground and only got rained on the last morning.
One of my favorite places to paint was Salmon Cascades, a series of waterfalls on the Sol Duc River. I lugged my gear below the falls and set up on a rocky shelf with a good view of the falls. By the time I was finished, my legs and back were aching because of the uneven rocks. A number of people came by to see my painting, including a couple of local Indian teenagers, who told me it’s almost time for the Coho salmon to start running. It would be fun to see them leaping up the falls.
It rained intermittently while I painted. I put up my umbrella when I felt raindrops, but inevitably some drops hit the paper anyway.
Salmon Cascades, Sol Duc River, Olympic National Park
Later that day, when the sun came out, I painted Lake Crescent Lodge. This historic structure on the shores of Lake Crescent, with its huge stone fireplace, dark beams and pleasant sun porch, is beloved by many visitors, including Katy and me. I found a place to paint behind the lodge, with the afternoon sun striking the side of the building.
Lake Crescent Lodge, Olympic National Park
On the previous day, I painted the beach in front of the lodge where many people linger on summer afternoons. There are logs to sit on, Adirondack chairs, and couples strolling the shore. Brightly colored kayaks line the beach, and families with kids splash in the water. I even saw a bride and groom getting their wedding photos taken on the dock, all dressed up.
Lake Crescent shore
I made several other watercolors, but they didn’t make the grade. All in all, it was a very pleasant and productive outing.
I love to explore the back roads of the Olympic peninsula to discover the gritty, down-to-earth scenes I like to paint. I often come across scenes of rural poverty, like this shack up the Skokomish River Road. It looks like they started with a small travel trailer and kept adding lean-tos and extensions until they had a poor person’s mansion. Various building materials lean up against the outside walls, and a red tractor rests in the weeds. It’s a rustic way to live, but it makes a great subject.
I was pleased with the way I ran the color of the trees down into the roof, and the way I let the walls merge with the ground. Nice and loose.
Last year I spent a day rambling around the Chimacum area near Port Townsend looking for subjects to paint. I came across a pasture with half a dozen dilapidated pickups parked helter-skelter. It was a pickup cemetery. Maybe some farmer couldn’t bear to sell off his trusty pickups when they wore out, so he put them out to pasture, like old horses.
At any rate, today I arranged them into a composition with clouds and trees in the background and painted this picture.
