Robin Weiss with Landscape, Cityscape and Still life Paintings in Oil.
If you live in our area come on out and support your local artists, many who work hard in our community to stimulate the economy, mentor young people and improve our culture.
The wildlife, especially the different birds were amazing at the mouth of the Dungeness. The caretakers of this beautiful wetland marsh do a good job managing the resource. This was a smaller study from the images I got there.
It's hard to tell the scale of paintings on this blog but this one is 48x24. It is the largest canvas I have attempted so far and it is for a commission project that I received a few months ago. I spent a couple days scouting, sketching and painting the Dungeness river while camping out in the parking lot of the Three Crabs restaurant. When I got back with all my reference stuff I went to work on this large canvas. The mouth of the Dungeness is property owned by a duck hunting club and I had to get special permission to access the site, which I did thanks to Matt the caretaker...I really appreciate him taking the time to hear me out and then graciously allow me to roam the wetlands freely..What a spot!!
Okay, Wow,... it's been awhile since I updated my blog....but a lot has been happening....good stuff!! .., I took a trip to White Swan, Washington to help out Sacred Road Ministries for a project on the Yakima Indian Reservation,...I have several commission projects in the works, and in the middle of all that I took a workshop from artist Ned Mueller. Ned helped us with painting from photos,..emphasizing composition using your photo just as limited reference....which helped me a lot since I tend to rely too much on the photo. The top painting was done entirely by me ....as you scroll down, the paintings have more of Neds work in them as he is one of those instructors who likes to show you what needs fixing by actually going into your painting and fixing it.
Ned added a few touches to this one darkening the trees behind the house to define it better.
Here is Ned working on a demo at Rockwater Art Center where we took the workshop.
Ned worked more into this one using his extensive background in illustration to proportion the figure to work better as a painting.....wish I had a pic of the painting as I had it before Ned worked on it, to show the difference.
This beach scene was completely wiped out by Ned as I had it painted....the figures brought more into the forground , the horizon, softened , and the color unified.....Over all I learned a lot and see how far on the journey I have to go!.....Brush miles!
A painting from the images I took in Quilcene while scouting locations for a commission piece of the Big Quilcene river. I used my pallette knife for most of the paint application..
I have been working hard on several commission paintings but still can't resist the sunflowers!
It's the time of year when Leigh's Fall flowers start blooming in the garden....I can't resist the color as the beautiful late season light hits the reds and yellows......I painted this very same scene in 2008 when there was a lot more sunflowers in it(click here to view). The two paintings are similar yet very different. It is interesting to see the progression of style and paint application.
Typical scene in Seattle these days.. I love the rainy days as much as the sunny days and wait for them to go over and shoot photos in the city.
"Garden Chairs" oil, plein air, garden painting.
When I had the frames made up for my Cascade series , one of them was miscut the wrong size....never wanting to waste any resources I painted this landscape to fit the reject frame.
From my photos of the river trip ...10x15 oil on canvas.
I've been painting in the studio lately trying to get ready for Arts in the Woods coming up November 12,13 and 14th. the studio will be decked out with great artwork and there will be a Jazz Canvas on Saturday night so if you live in the area mark your calender!
This is a studio painting done from images I took while plein air painting in Falls View Canyon. It will be the last in my "Cascade" series and is on display with my other plein air paintings of the Quilcene and Elwha rivers, at Alki Arts in West Seattle. If you get a chance to get over to Alki beach , check into the beautiful new space that Diane Venti has turned into a vibrant community arts center and gallery.
From the images I took at Clear Lake during Camp High Rock. These are the row boats that the kids got to take out on the lake....They had so much fun! I was inspired by the morning light and the reflections in the mirror surface of the water.
Searching Bainbridge Island for a good painting location I ended up at my friend and fellow painter, Claudia McKinstry's house. This is the inviting entry way to the front door. Delicious smells seem to always be coming from the kitchen. Thanks for letting me hang out Claudia!
As a warm-up, diversionary excercise I quickly blocked in this small painting from a discarded image on my desk. Funny how these studies can often times be the freshest and most interesting work.
The next day everyone exited the camp ground and I was able to park my van close to this spot on the Elwha and try a 12 x 16. My goal was to get the distant mountain to fade in the distance and also to render the reflection of the trees in the moving water. It's tricky because not only does the water reflect the light from the trees but also the light hitting the bottom of the shallow rapids.
After the Quilcene trip I camped over night in the Elwha river valley at Altair campground. I found out it is a destination for extreme kayakers! I did this 8x10 the first night after a lot of scouting around for good painting spots.
I had my trusty back pack easel set up literally in the river at the base of this cascade. A beautiful spot!....But lots of mosquitoes!!....Good thing I had the bug spray that I took to Africa with me!!....100% Deet....the only way to go!
I'm still behind in my posting because I have been spending a lot of time in the field PA painting while the weather holds. That includes a lot of hiking down into river valleys and canyons. I'm hoping to be able to translate these small studies into larger studio paintings this winter. My easel was literally set up in the river for this one!
I have received two commissions from the new gallery, Alki Arts for a client. One of the Quilcene river and one of the Elwha. Monday I drove to Quilcene and set up down by a nice little bend of the river and did this 9x12 painting....later on in the day I found out from a local that I had painted the Little Quil. river, so I headed back out to scout a spot on the Big Quil.
Third day of the workshop we got down to a great location by the water on a little out of the way beach with a view of Mt. Rainier. Jim emphasized again the importance of designing your space and unifying the composition with color and value. We started out with a two hour demo and I did my best to apply what I learned. Basically I painted the same scene in the same manner that Jim did. (His was a lot better). His suggestion to me was to push the color which I did and I think that improved the work.
Jim's starting to block in his under-painting for the demonstration.
The gang watching the progress....I think we all learned that you need patience to produce a good painting.
The second day of the Jim Lamb workshop was on location at Living Water Farm in Poulsbo, WA. It was another fantastic day with temps in the 80s and intense sunlight casting rich shadows. Jim wanted us to focus on designing our composition to allow the eye to enter the scene, linger at the focal point and then provide an exit leading out. Not sure if I achieved the objective, but I had fun trying!
This is the view I chose for my morning effort. The paint box seems to be working okay but my idea for attaching a roll of paper towels to my easel didn't work so good. If I was not paying attention the wind would catch the end of the roll and string it out across the field like a prayer flag!
I recently took a plein air painting workshop with internationally known artist, Jim Lamb. It was great to get to know Jim and a pleasure and privilege to attend his workshop. The event was hosted by Rockwater Art Center, a new venue for art education and promotion here in Poulsbo.
Fellow student, Sharron set up in the shade right in my scene!(don't blame her a bit!) so I just put her in my painting and I think that added a lot of interest.
Jim started out the day with a demonstration. We learned about keeping it simple, edges, designing your space, what you can do with a limited palette, mixing your mother load and lots of other cool stuff!