August 2024

Ka-Ching! Painting sales

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Last week I attended the Whidbey Plein Air Paint Out in Coupeville, WA. Along with 70 other painters, I spent the better part of a week painting the fields and barns of Edey’s Prairie, the bluffs and beaches of Whidbey Island, and the quaint buildings of historic Coupeville. The weather was great for painting… and for camping at Fort Ebey State Park.

I made the most of the time, painting three paintings each day for a total of nine paintings. For me, that’s a lot of painting! On Thursday afternoon, I turned in my best three paintings to be judged and displayed in the weekend show.

At the gala on Friday evening, I celebrated with my fellow artists as we showed off our paintings to each other and the many guests. I didn’t win any awards, but I was happily surprised to be told that all three of my paintings were bought by patrons of the arts! It’s a good feeling to know that my paintings have new homes. And I have to admit, the money is nice.

I woke up Thursday morning to a thick fog in the trees, so I drove the short distance to Point Partridge and made this painting. Because it was so humid, the paint took a long time to dry. After each wash, I ran up to the car and dried the paper with the car’s heater. While I was painting, a young couple merged from the trail and strolled down the beach, so I put them in the painting.
Ebey’s Landing is a well-known beach on Whidbey Island, underneath one of the many bluffs along the shore. I liked the wind-blown tree and featured it in this painting.

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The old boat shed

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For many years, I worked as a shipwright for a small boat repair facility in Alaska, so when I see an old fashioned boat shed like this one in Shelton, WA, it brings back good memories. This boat shed, located on the tide flat just outside of Shelton, hasn’t been used for many years, as the rusty doors and broken windows testify. It remains as a reminder of days gone by, when boat shops like this were common around Puget Sound.

I started painting this watercolor in the morning but I had to interrupt my painting for a lunch date with other clergy. When I got back in the afternoon, the sun had moved and the shadows had changed. It was hot and the watercolors were drying too quickly. When I painted the windows, they were too dark. Later, in the studio, I lifted the dark color with a wet brush and a tissue. I let it it dry, then I added the broken window panes. I think this correction worked all right.

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Changing the subject

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I’ve noticed that most of my recent subjects have been trees. Yesterday I found a new subject: a huge grain ship being loaded at the grain terminal along the Seattle waterfront.

I traveled to Seattle yesterday morning to paint with other members of the Northwest Watercolor Society. It was a lot of fun to see twenty other painters at their easels along the shore of Elliott Bay Park. At noon we gathered to prop our paintings up against a driftwood log for the “throwdown”, our impromptu art show.

To get to the park, I drove to a park-and-ride, took a Bremerton bus to the ferry terminal, boarded the fast ferry to Seattle, walked up to Third and Pike, took a Seattle bus and walked to the park. For the return, I reversed the process. I was glad to get home at 3:30 pm and take a nap!

Grain ship being loaded at the Seattle terminal

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