July 2025

Urban grit in Seattle

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Old Navy hangar at Magnuson Park

On Saturday I attended a paintout sponsored by Magnuson Park Gallery in Seattle. Magnuson Park is a former Navy Air facility that was transferred to the City of Seattle. Most of the buildings and grounds have been re-purposed in imaginative ways, but some of the buildings stand unused and abandoned, like this old Navy hangar.

I liked the grittiness of the scene with the broken windows, so I tried to capture it in a watercolor. I like the color of the walls and the windows, but I struggled to paint the tree and its beautiful shadow. But all in all, I’m pretty satisfied with this painting.

At 3:00 pm, all the artists gathered in the Magnuson Park Gallery to show their work. I especially enjoyed seeing my fellow artists, many of whom I know already, and striking up conversations with those I haven’t met. There were a number of young artists there, and I tried to make encouraging comments on their paintings.

With two ferry crossings and congested driving in Seattle traffic, it was a long day for me, but a rewarding one.

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Pristine and forgotten places

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Estuaries are overlooked places. You can’t build there; you can’t put a road there; and you can’t make money off of them. So they’re ignored by most people, which is just fine. They need the wild peace of things so that plants and animals can flourish in them.

That’s why I often seek out estuaries as a place to paint. They’re pristine. Yesterday I was exploring the roads around the head of North Bay near Allyn, when I saw a small turnoff. I drove a bit further, turned around, and came back to discover a small county park. I found a tiny parking lot and a trail through the woods to the estuary. It’s almost invisible and rarely visited, just a perfect place for a watercolor. I waded through the thick grass until I found this island of trees along the shore.

I used intuitive color choices for this painting. Not all these colors are noticeable when you look at the estuary. But by choosing colors by intuition, its possible to bring out colors in the spectrum that we don’t normally see. So even though the colors seem vivid, they also seem in character with the scene.

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Eglon farmhouse again

When I posted my painting of the Eglon farmhouse on Eric Wiegardt’s student forum, someone suggested that I paint it again. So I did. I’m much happier with this version. I added more color to the trees and shadows and brought the big lone tree forward. I think it helps.

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The weightlessness of memory

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Farmhouse in Eglon

I arrived in Eglon early in the morning when long shadows stretched across the roads and pastures, and the air was fresh and cool. Eglon is a rural area defined by a historic schoolhouse, a likewise ancient church, and an organic farm where I saw young farmhands bending over the rows of vegetables. Pastures of grass from old farms accentuate the tall fir trees, and the traffic is slow.

I parked my car in the driveway of the volunteer fire station and explored on foot to find a good composition for my painting. Behind the fire station along a fence row in the woods I peeked out at this scene. I especially liked the long shadows and the two buildings. I set up my easel and started to paint. I feel pretty good about the result, although those blue trees are overworked and the house has a halo around it.

Dennis

After I finished, a large man in an old pickup truck pulled up next to me and introduced himself as Dennis. “I dug the basement of that house many years ago,” he said. “The church owns it now.” He went on to tell me the story of his family, how his grandfather came to this area in 1905. He was an immigrant from Sweden who arrived in America with his two brothers. They went to Montana where one brother died. His grandfather went to work for the railroad that eventually brought him to Edmonds, and Puget Sound reminded him of his home in Sweden. He bought land in Eglon from money he earned working in the sawmills in Edmonds, across the Sound. He would row back and forth while he was clearing the land of the huge stumps left by the loggers, and eventually he built a house, the same house that Dennis has lived in all his life. It was oral history of the best kind, but I was glad to start home for lunch.

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Bremerton’s Callow Avenue

Callow Avenue in Bremerton

Callow Avenue is Bremerton’s grittiest street. The downtown Callow area is the site of tattoo parlors, pawn shops, a dilapidated theater, and shops in various stages of decay. But a little ways up the avenue I found this street scene early on a summer morning. I liked the tunnel of trees throwing shadows running across the street and the small old houses typical of West Bremerton.

I set up my easel in the shade and started painting in the cool of the morning. A pregnant mom with her five-year-old- daughter passed by, and they came back a little later with groceries in a plastic bag. A mentally ill woman was singing as she wound her zigzag way up to the small grocery store across the street. A tall young guy came up the street and returned with a loaf of bread, a bag of rolls, and a can of pop he was drinking.

I told myself I was just going to make a mess of this painting and not worry about getting it perfect. I started with the tree behind the houses and worked my way down to the street, leaving the white of the paper for the truck and the car. Then I painted the telephone pole and foliage on the right side and put in the street while the washes were still wet. I let it dry, then I painted the foliage of the dark tree in the middle and its shadow. The rest was mostly detail work.

I’m pleased with the general effect of the painting. There’s lots of color and soft edges. The houses and their lawns are simplified. The shadows are good and the telephone poles and electric wires are well done. I like the way they eye is drawn up the street, and the truck and car are nice and loose.

But I think I have too much going on in the tree masses in the upper left. The painting seems too busy. Still, all in all, I’m pretty satisfied with this painting.

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