Kansas City with Mary Buek

On May 18, I had the joy and privilege of touring the best parts of Kansas City with online art friend, Mary Buek. I have admired her photographs of the interesting places she goes on her photo walks, and when I learned I was going to be in Kansas City, I asked her if she would mind letting me tag along. She was very gracious and even picked me up at my hotel. At first, she gave me a driving tour of the Plaza area where we were staying. We drove by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and saw some very interesting statues of heads coming out of the ground. No photos, but I don't think I will soon forget them.

The first stop we made was in River Market. We stumbled on a great old brick storage building that was being torn down, brick by brick. The photo ops were fantastic. We scrambled over bricks and skirted mud puddles to take photos of rusty equipment, chain link fence in a pile, empty doorways, and much more. There was even a wrecking ball just waiting to have its photo taken

Our next stop was West Bottoms. Where we stopped was filled with old brick buildings. Some looked occupied, most not. There was wonderful graffiti everywhere. We didn't wander too far, but the small area where we wandered was filled with incredible eye-candy of my liking. I discovered a large drain pipe on the side of a building that had broken in a few places. It created a very cool waterfall. There were several puddles of water where the buildings and the graffiti reflected hopefully. Here is another photo from that area.

After leaving West Bottoms, I was hungry, so Mary took me to a great Mexican restaurant where I had avocado enchiladas. They were really great. I am going to make them at home, if I can. After lunch, we walked across some train tracks under a freeway to an old brewery. I fell in love with what I saw there. If it hadn't been getting late, I would have wanted to stay there longer, in spite of the drizzle. Here are a couple of photos from there.

Our last stop was a grain elevator. So cool. I had a fantastic day with Mary exploring the parts of Kansas City I wanted to see. One day, I hope she will come here and I can show her where I found the rusty car in the woods. I leave you with one final photo from the grain elevator. I have many more to process, but these are some of my favorites.

New Pastels

Yesterday, Tom and I drove up to Mt. Vernon to visit Dakota Art Pastels. We are trying to get everything we need for the upcoming Arizona trip. We needed paper and I was running out of my favorite Terry Ludwig darks. While we were there, I took a look at the new gray set by Terry and fell in love, so that got put in the pile. This morning, I decided to clean out and reorganize my palette. It looks so pretty, I just had to share it with you. The box on the upper left is the new Terry set and the one on the upper right is my set of Unison lights. I realized last summer, when taking a class from Richard McKinley, that I really didn't have very many good lights. Now, I feel ready to tackle the colors of the Southwest.

Visiting Dakota was great fun. I could have ordered on line, but we really wanted to experience the store. I got to look at all the colors I could want before I had to buy them. We could see the true colors of the Art Spectrum paper without having to rely on the computer screen. While we were living in Hawaii, we didn't have much choice but to order online. I enjoyed my shopping much more yesterday.

Sunday with no new paintings

Photo from the Central Oregon Coast

by Miki Willa

I have no new paintings to share today, but I have an artist I want to share. He is still alive, and I didn't get permission to post his painting here, so you will have to go here to see his work. His name is Bill McEnroe. He has done oils, watercolors, and pastels. My interest is in his pastels. He is a member of the Northwest Pastel Society and he did a demonstration at a membership meeting today. It was quite wonderful.

I have never watched someone paint with the freedom he has to go really outside the box of realism, but retain some of the tenants of realism. He is very passionate about what he does, and it shows in his work. Would I collect his paintings? I could never afford them. He sells pastels at $3500. Wow! Take the time to look at his work. It is inspirational.

I am sad about the passing of Andrew Wyeth. In the coming months, I will write more about the study of his work I began in December. One of the things I love about his work is what he left out. He is my reminder that I don't have to paint everything that is there. I do have artistic license.

Snow in Seattle

It has been snowing in the Greater Seattle area off and on for over a week now. I spent part of that time painting and part of it creating Christmas stockings for five family members. This project all started because I wanted to make a stocking for my new granddaughter. Her parents wanted new stockings as well. Then my husband spoke up, so I had to have a new one also. Next year, I will make for the rest of the family. It was a fun project. I haven't sat at the sewing machine very often over the last ten years or so. I think I will be doing more fun projects now that I have it set up again.
I lived in the Seattle area for many years before I moved to Hawaii and don't remember real snow in December. This has been a great adventure for me because I haven't had to try and get around in it. I thought I would share a couple of photos of the yard. I don't remember too many white Christmases in my life. I am sure there have been a few, but they are rare. This snow is supposed to stick around until Christmas day, when it will begin to rain. I wonder what the rest of winter will have in store.


This is a view of part of the back yard. We have a wonderful yard that has great character all times of the year. Notice the two bird feeders toward the distance.

This is the maple tree by the front door. I love the structure of the branches and trunk. You can see a fall foliage shot of this same tree near the bottom of this post.

Fall Colors

I love the fall colors, but have decided to share photos for now. They are very difficult for me to paint the way I want to at my present skill level. However, I wanted you to see what I was seeing through the lens. This one was taken in the upper parking lot at Snoqualmie Falls in Washington.

I love the bright colors in these trees. This photo has not been tweaked at all. I took this one from the pedestrian bridge between Snoqualmie Falls and the upper parking lot.

We have a lovely old Japanese Maple near our front door. I waited and waited for it to change color this fall. About two weeks ago, it started. First, the dark reds appeared here and there. Then the golds and yellows. I took this photo two days ago. It is just about the last to turn in our area, and one of the last to retain most of its leaves. I really like the structure of the trunk and limbs. I can see this tree becoming part of a series.

My next project will be a big one. I am thinking of posting the progress. Today, I will be working on line and value sketches. I still don't know what size I will be working in, but I know it will be larger than usual. I am looking forward to doing another large painting. It has been a long time.

Values in the landscape - learning to see again

Ever since spending a week learning from Richard McKinley, Tom and I have been looking for values in every scene before us. On the way out of Bend, we stopped at Smith Rocks again to do some value work. The photo above is of one of the beautiful rock formations. Even though I know that the camera lies about values, you can see some of the darks in the shadows and crevasses. Such a beautiful place. Keeping in mind the value challenges of the camera, I have selected a few representational photos of what we have been seeing, drawing, and discussing on the way to St. Cloud, Minnesota (our present stopping place).

This is a view from the west side of Logan Pass from the Going To The Sun Highway. We were stopped for road construction, so took some photos. Notice how the values go from the dark shadow in the foreground to a middle value on the nearest ridge, finally to a cool light value on the distant ridge. This is a pretty good photo showing the warmer tones closer and the cooler tones in the distance. This is something I have to work on. I tend to use too much warmth in the distance at times.

This was taken from a trail in the Many Glaciers area of Glacier NP, I think. Once again, look at the warm darker values in the foreground and the cooler lighter values in the distance. One of the things I am working on is to make sure the darker values in the distance, like in the shadows, are not as dark as the darks in the foreground. I also need to make sure I don't do major value jumps in any one area. Sometimes in the studio, I relied too much on the photographic image. Since I am learning to see again in real life, I am seeing that photo images cannot be relied upon completely. Value sketches are much more reliable.

This is not about value. I just had to throw it in because it was so cool seeing these beautiful animals so close. This herd of bighorn sheep was in the meadows at Logan Pass. They were very close to the boardwalk feeding on alpine lilies.

This photo is a perfect example of how a photo can lie. This is the Painted Hills area of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. It was taken on an overcast day. Notice that the values read the same from front to back. It was not that way in reality. It was also much more colorful than the photo shows. The hills were brilliant pinks, calming ochres, and many shades of browns and lavenders.

This last photo was taken from the car, at 72 mph. It is a field of sun flowers along I 94 in North Dakota. I kept wanting to get a good photo, but the people who plan these roads simply do not have artists and photographers in mind at all. Don't you think they should build in pull-outs for plein air painters in spots like this? So far, we think Montana wins the prize for artists pull-outs. Or course, they are cleverly disguised as scenic overlooks or chain removal spots.

Today, we head further east. We will still be looking at values. In a couple of days, we may even be able to stop and paint again, if the weather holds out. Forecast is for rain and thunderstorms to the east. I will post again on Friday when we get to Boston.

From Bend, Oregon to Bismark, North Dakota

On the way out of Bend, we decided to stop again at Smith's Rocks. Both of us were determined that we could actually paint this place. We allowed ourselves time to do good sketches, one line and one value. We both would have stayed to paint, but we had to make it to Spokane, WA by dinner time. We both think we have good sketches and photos. I wrote extensive color and value notes on mine. Look for it when I get back to the studio.

After two nights with family in Spokane, we headed northeast for Glacier National Park. It was a long drive, so we decided to stay the night in West Glacier before we headed over Going to the Sun Highway to our campsite in St. Mary's campground. The motel I selected had fantastic views. Tom did a great painting there. The room was very clean, very small, and very basic. It was also really pricey. For the money, we could have stayed in West Glacier itself and had stuff to do.

The next morning, we headed over Logan Pass. There is construction on the steep west side, but we were lucky to have only a six or seven minute delay. Most of the delays are 30 minutes. We decided to push on to the campground and drive back to the meadows on the top another day. The picture at the top is of our campsite and Tom's painting from the day before that he wanted to work on a bit more.

We spent the next two days exploring the park and painting. The next three paintings are pleine air pieces we did. I have decided to post Tom's paintings from the trip also.

From St. Mary's Lake

12 x 18 soft pastels on Wallis

Tom Willa

View from St. Mary's Lake

12 x 18 soft pastels on Wallis
Miki Willa

Jackson Mountain

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix
Miki Willa

After we left the park, we headed east on Highway 2 through Montana to Glasgow, where we found another interesting motel. It was a very hot drive. This morning, we headed southeast to pick up interstate 94. We stopped at a very cool dinosaur museum, looked at the North Dakota Badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and drove through the rain to Bismark. Tom picked this place to stay which has reliable internet access, plenty of room, a laundry (thank goodness), and very cool furniture. I am not sure how much painting will be done between now an Maine. The weather forecast is dismal so we may not be camping much until after the 16th. Hopefully, it will clear up by then. If we don't get paintings done, I will post some great photos from Glacier in the next few days.

Deserts and wildflowers

Sketches from the Antelope Valley

Miki Willa

For the past week, I have been visiting the place of my childhood, the Antelope Valley in Southern California. The valley is very large and surrounded by wonderful mountain peaks which are covered with snow part of the year. The desert floor seem vast and empty at first. That is before you get to know it. The two major cities are Palmdale and Lancaster. If you drive east from Palmdale, you are into the land of Joshua Trees and buttes. This time of year, there are also carpets of wildflowers.

About 15 miles west of Lancaster is the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. I spent two mornings wandering the trails wondering at the intense golds, yellows, ochres, greens, and purples covering the desert floor and the sides of the Antelope Buttes. All of this set off by the clear blue skies.


This last photo shows how big the fields of color are from a distance. The first day, I took the trails that lead across the tops of the buttes. That is where I took this photo. The second morning there, I took a trail that led down into the area shown. The colors are amazing from a distance, but incredible when you are in the middle of them.

I am looking forward to working on my desert wildflower and geography series. Look for them starting tomorrow.

Painting on Mi Teintes

Private Haven

7 x 10 soft pastels on Canson Mi Teintes pink paper

Miki Willa

I thought we had another sheet of Colourfix, but we have run out. We can't get it in the islands, so that means I have to make an order. It also means I have to paint on what is available and that is Canson Mi Teintes. I have a love/hate relationship with this paper. I love all the colors, I hate the texture - even the smooth side. I have to work harder to get coverage, except with my Sennies. They will cover any surface, I think. Then, of course, at 4:30 this morning, I selected the pink sheet. That was an adventure that I think worked with this painting. I had just read on Gurney's Journey that using a warm undertone was great for cooler colors like green and blue. It also worked to really warm up my sand. Casey Klahn says you should try as many surfaces as you can, so I guess I will be playing with pink Mi Teintes this week.

In Hawaii, there are not supposed to be any private beaches. This beach is tucked behind chain fencing near a beach park. All the signs say No Trespassing!! Of course, my friend and I squeezed through a narrow place near the gate and got great views of a perfect beach. I still have not learned who owns it and how they get away with keeping it private. We were all set to do some plein air painting that day, but decided to take photos of this beach and find a more public place to do our painting that day.

The photo below is for Julie at Virtual Voyage. She put up some dynamite cloud photos this morning. I took this one on the way home from work. Fortunately, I caught a red light. I have been known to take pictures while driving on the freeway. Never a good thing, but sometimes it is the only way to get the picture.

Strange Cloud Photo

I left the house without any paper to paint on this morning. I decided to share this photo with you instead. This was taken from my driveway one morning last summer. Tom and I were amazed at the patterns made by the clouds. If anyone knows what kind of clouds these are, please let me know.

Contempletive Friday

This contempletive photo is from Kaua'i. This is the Hanapepe River taken from the middle of the suspension bridge.
Instead of painting this morning, I took the time to do some reflection and writing about my artistic vision and purpose. This was prompted by many things, but the time presented itself to me because I left my easel at home. One of the things I realized is that there are so many things I want to do and learn. Oh, for more time!
I have discovered a great blog, Virtual Voyage. Give yourself a visual treat and have a good read.

Inspiration

Old Barge

Photo by Miki Willa

I am always amazed at the things that inspire me to paint. Tom and I had to make a trip into town to the art store today and decided to stop for lunch at our favorite harbor side restaurant. Tied up to the pier directly in front of us was this old derelict barge. I couldn't resist the opportunity to get some reference photos. The rusts, greys, and golds were quite wonderful. I think this will work well for painting with analogous colors. Of course, the other diners, mostly tourists off the nearby docked cruise ship, were all wondering why I was taking these photos. They were all upset the normally watery tropical view was blocked. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Other Artists Blogs

Ohia Blossom

Christmas preparations are upon me, so I am not sure I will be able to paint much in the next two or three days. I thought I would take the time to send you on to three of my favorite art blogs. First is Painting My World by Karen Margulis. Karen is a pastel artist who does great landscapes and animals. Her marsh and beach scenes are very good, and she paints daily.

The second is Making a Mark written by Katherine Tyrrell. Katherine is a colored pencil artist and she shares her work occasionally on this site. Primarily, she researches and shares information about art, artists, and art blogging. Her daily entries are always informative, and often inspirational.

The third blog I have been enjoying lately is Pastels by Casey Klahn. Casey doesn't post every day, but it is worth subscribing to for his reviews of materials, insights into his art, and introductions to other artists.

Cool or warm colors?

I decided that my next challenge would be color temperature. I hear the terms warm and cool color bandied about in workshops, classes, and in books and blogs. I thought it would be important for me to have a better understanding of what they were in order to further my painting skills. After doing some research, I have discovered that artists and color theorists alike don't agree on what they are, how important knowledge about them is, or whether or not there are hard and fast rules about them.

Do warm colors come forward and cool ones recede? Can a cool yellow be cooler than a warm blue? Does greying a color make it warmer or cooler? I thought I knew some of the answers, but after reading what is out there, I am no longer sure. I am going to try it anyway. This week, I will be painting the same still life in warms colors, as I see them, and cool colors, as I see them. I will also be experimenting with mixing warms and cools for effect in landscapes. I will let you know what I learn along the way.

The photo is of the still life I will do in the warms first, then the cools.

Rainbows and promises

I was greeted by this beautiful rainbow when I got home today, and decided to share it. I have seen painted rainbows, but I have not seen a good one. Even my photograph does not really pick up all the wonderful ways the sunlight dances off the water droplets in such a remarkable event. I understand the physics behind rainbows, but I still consider them magical. I am not sure why they are so difficult to capture in photos or paintings, but it may have to do with their transient nature. There is also the transparency. It is there, but it is not. Perhaps, somethings are not meant to be painted. As to the promises - in Hawaii, there is always the promise of the next rainbow, but it is always a welcome surprise.

Big Island Days

Looking down into Kilauea Iki Crater

Photo by Miki Willa

I just spent three days on the Big Island of Hawaii with my friend Carol and her daughter Kylie. We spent time in Hilo Town and at Volcano National Park, where we stayed in a great cabin at KMC inside the park. I did a plein air painting this morning, but I didn't get a chance to take a picture yet. I got lost in the painting and didn't stop until it was past the time we set to leave. I really need to wear a timer of some sort. I will post the painting tomorrow.

In the park, we took two very interesting walks. The first one was near the Halema'uma'u Crater Overlook. This area is covered with places where the steam from Pele's fire comes to the surface. It is considered the sacred home of Pele, according to the sign. The colors were fantastic from the sulfur yellows near the openings to the deep rusty pinks of the tall grasses nearby. I really liked this area. The next walk we took was along Devastation Trail from the parking lot at Chain of Craters Road to the Kilauea Iki Crater overlook where I took the photo at the top. Another interesting area.

Nearer to Hilo, we went to Akaka Falls, Rainbow Falls, and, of course, Big Island Candies. For those of you not from here, this is where to get the best shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate you ever tasted. Even the sugar free ones.

Three days is much too short a time to visit, sight-see, scout out good painting spots, and get painting done. It was, however, a wonderful trip.