Remembering winter

 A few days ago I was organizing some photos and come across some from a few winters ago plein air painting day. Seeing them again made me remember how precious the summers are in Alaska. I had gotten  completely set up and started to paint (watercolor)  and the paint promptly froze-both on my painting and on my palette. I had some warm tea with me-I added that to the paint and it froze immediately too-that was the end of my plein air painting for the winter. Time to get out the reference photos!

Heading out for a summer road trip-planning some sketching and possibly using the open acrylics.

Will report back when I return!

Painting near Sheep Mountain Lodge

July 11 was set aside for an "all day" painting excursion. Plans had to be modified a bit when I got paged for a flight an hour before my shift ended. You would think that making plans for 13 hours after you are off shift would be safe-but not in the unpredictable world of medivac  nursing. So our plans were changed and it made for a bit shorter day-but still was productive and happy. Even though I was a bit sleep deprived all day.

My painting accomplice Kirk and I went to his chosen area near Sheep Mountain Lodge, I was excited to revisit this area and find some new painting inspiration. Weather was overcast, just warm enough not to be cold (Alaskans should understand this-I think it's called summer?). Just enough of a breeze to keep any mosquitoes down, and only had to grab the easel a couple times to keep it stable. We were in a large pullout just off the road and occasionally tourists would stop for photos, and some even took photos of me and my painting! They were very polite Europeans and Canadians and asked permission, they were excited to see artists painting.

First painting scene

Painting in progress

This painting was done on a wood panel. I used some venetian red gesso that I had gotten a while back and forgot about. It is a richer red and more opaque than the burnt sienna underpainting that I usually do. The wood panel was really different to paint on than a canvas, after a little while I got used to it.

Kirk at his easel

Me at my easel

painting and source

I really tried to do a value thumbnail sketch!

My second painting of the day was on a landscape format canvas-I liked the way the paint went on the canvas better. This painting was almost complete, needs just a bit more drying time and a few changes and I will post completed painting.

Second painting, mountains in front of last scene

First scene-light changed

Just as we were finishing, I took another look at the mountain range I had first painted-the light had changed-see photo above. It would have been fun to paint again with the change in light-maybe another day-or a winter studio painting day from my photo? That's part of the challenge and fun of painting "en plein air"-the ever changing light and weather.

Last week

I managed to get out a second time last week for painting! This time to Carr-Gottstein Park, just a little ways north and west of last spot. These have quickly become my favorite painting spots in Anchorage. I'm enjoying the expanse of the grassy flats, changing mudflat and water lines and the mountains in the background. Adding a bit of discipline by limiting my palette colors has been quite helpful not to mention I have been able to cut out one bag out of the painting gear. Enjoying the warm burnt sienna underpaintings-this time they were dry, that helped a lot with the painting process! Still working small-well 8 x 16 and 8 x 8. Liking the horizontal format, but also enjoying the challenge of the squares. The fireweed will be blooming anytime down over the bluff at the park-that should but fun. Gotta get there fast-have a road trip coming up with the husband and doggies soon.

Painting scene at Carr-Gottstein Park

What I saw-Pretty happy with this one, brushy and fresh

second painting-still unfinished

 We painted from just after 7pm until around 10pm, time to quit-as I had been optimistic and had worn shorts-got a little chilly. The scene above is looking towards Kincaid park, beautiful view as we were leaving.

Starting

I've been toying with the idea of my own blog for a while. First I got bogged down by wanting to make it perfect and visually stunning. Now I'm thinking just get started and revise as I go along...
As it is "Plein Air Season" in Alaska-as well as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, it is a good time to start posting and sharing some fresh paintings. In fact it is a great evening and almost time to get out and paint again!

So read and look and I'll make this a work in progress! Here are paintings from July 4.

 8 x 16 -as yet untitled-from park at end of Victor and Shore, Anchorage

8 x 10 -second painting of the day-looking more northward from same area

These were worked on a little after getting home-the first one was very wet on scene as I had forgotten to prime my canvas and was working on a fresh undercoat of burnt sienna.