This painting was an exercise in daring to hope. What, to me, would represent a wonderful day? Could I paint it?
I love sunrise and sunset, and even though I am a morning person, it seems to be harder to catch the sunrise than the sunset. Perhaps it’s because at sunrise I am bustling around going to work, doing chores; but at sunset I have more time to just take time, reflect, and watch. And that’s part of what this is about. I have been given the gift of a life partner who likes to share those moments with me. I painted the people small so that they could be anyone. They could be Donald and I or they could be you and your sweetie, or two of your friends. I also painted the people small so they can be seen in true perspective to the world we live in; small, insignificant, and dwarfed by the landscape that they find themselves in.

What is one of the things you like to see the most?

This is a 10″ x 14″ watercolor on Arches cold press paper.

Here you are riding across the Northern Cascade Mountain range. The beauty and grandeur of these mountains is just incredible. You are filled with amazement at the scene all around you. The view in every direction is awesome. Going 5 miles an hour, you really have time to gaze and take it all in, but I confess we did stop a time or two just to take pictures and catch our breath.

We were surrounded by God’s majesty. Our spirits were uplifted, and our conversations were not banal or mundane. How could it be otherwise?
We found ourselves talking to this man about a book we are reading together called “True Love.” It was written by a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk named Thich Nhat Hanh. It teaches some simple ideas to improve the way you love, so you can love mindfully. I learned about this book from an Italian American lawyer who lives in Calabria and writes a great blog, Bleeding Espresso. On the other side of the Atlantic, she too is learning about how to live mindfully. So our bicycling companion talked to us about true love and guitar lessons and about the power of song.

The serendipity of having this conversation in this very beautiful place continues to boggle my mind. It would be hard for anyone to not be inspired here. It was with this in my heart that I painted this landscape.

This painting is on heavy watercolor paper. It measures 11 x15″ and it is for sale.

I work at Boeing, a large factory which turned the Duwamish River corridor into a very industrial environment. There is an exception, one of the last buildings to be constructed also included a park-like area. It is very popular with both the employees and wildlife. I felt like I had entered into a magical glade the other day when we turned out of a parking lot into this very scene. I had a pad of paper with me and did a quick sketch of these elegant birds.

None of the other people walking had any interest in disturbing these birds, so while the ever vigilant parents watched, the babies all continued with their naps.

This is a watercolor painted on handmade paper. I bought just one sheet a few years ago, and was afraid to try it at that time because I was afraid I would ruin it. I am happy to say it is not ruined. It is for sale $100.00 buys you a gaggle of geese.

The Duwamish is a humble river, scorned by most, but it has a run of chum salmon every year and at least from this one vantage point, there is a magnificent view of Mount Rainier. These unloved places are the ones I love the most, there are no tourists or postcards showing this view, but I found it and share it with you on this 14″ x 20″ piece of watercolor paper.

This painting is for sale $350.00

One of the most wonderful places in the world is the open air market. The one I painted today is in the Sicilian city of Catania next to their famous pescheria (fish market). Farmers bring their fresh vegetables, butchers bring their freshly cured meats, cheeses can be found, as well as fruits, nuts, all sorts of spices and preserves. Every mercato (the Italian word for market) that I have been to has had its own unique personality. In fact, every day, every mercato is different.
Italy, just like the USA, has plenty of supermarkets with rows upon rows of food in them. However, every day, Italians like to go to their mercato to buy dinner. In Rome, we followed my cousin to a little mercato. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough of a vocabulary to get all our questions answered about all the things I saw, but we still had a blast. During my next visit, I was in Cefalu, and discovered that at noon every day, the mercato closed only to open again the next morning. All of those little booths, all of those vegetables, meats, and other wares were cleaned up, packed up and disappeared. You’d never know they had been there except for a few wet spots where tubs of ice water had been spilled.
In Catania, where I stayed at the home of my cousin Antonietta and her children, I learned Mercato was part of the routine. Every day after breakfast, everything was cleaned up and we went to the mercato a few blocks from their home. We bought bread, fruit, whatever we needed for the day. Next day, same story. As we walked down the street, other shoppers would greet us, their bags already full.
One of the best recent changes to Seattle, which is my current abode, has been the opening of many farmer’s markets all over the city. the most famous here is Pike Place market, but as the days lengthen and spring comes, you don’t have to go downtown to find farmer’s markets, they are everywhere. How about you? Do you like to shop at a farmer’s market?

I include two different paintings of the same scene here so you can see the progress I have made this year. The lighter colored one is actually one of three attempts, none of them pleased me and I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. I used nice colors and got the shapes right, but I never got the richness of the scene. That is, until today. I am extremely happy with how this painting came out. What about you? Can you see the difference? This is a large (14″ x 20″) watercolor painting on Arches paper.

I enjoyed the first google maps “virtual plein aire” painting I did so much that I decided to do another one. This time, I searched a long time to try and find an older neighborhood. Most of Japan is extremely modern, clean lines, grey square framed homes over perfect streets, after a while, I am disappointed to say, one city looked a lot like another. Except for Kyoto. Kyoto has preserved some of the older neighborhoods, narrow winding streets with open fruit stands and lots of interesting stuff to see. There are still standing today, lots of buildings with wood fronts, odd shapes and lots of bamboo screens. On this street I found a dental clinic. This unusual clinic building had a rounded roof and a flying saucer looking lookout on the top; I decided I would paint THIS street because if I was walking down that street, I would be captivated by the scene. This 14 x20 inch watercolor painting is for sale at auction on the Daily Paint Works website, all proceeds go to Japan relief. I hope you like it.

A while back I discovered that if you have a Google email account, you can keep track of other people’s block with the Google Reader. Since then I have found a number of blogs, discarded some as boring, and others, I savor just like I used to do reading my favorite newspaper columnist, looking forward to their every post. And some bloggers have become friends of mine and I look forward to their blogs just like I always look forward to hearing from friends.
I found a blog recently called “The Virtual Paintout” Bill Guffey, the host, challenges people to use Google maps to find a scene to paint. He then displays our paintings along with his own. We each can do 3 paintings a month.

This month the subject was Japan, so I thought I’d paint this painting of a street scene in Tokyo. I decided I really like painting Japanese scenes because of all the characters! I have no idea if my Japanese Characters (Katakana, Hiragana or Chinese Kanji) are any good, but it was really fun trying to reproduce them.
This painting is for sale for $300, I will donate the proceeds of it to the Japanese Red Cross.

What I noticed about Japanese streets is they are very well maintained, they have a plethora of electric wires above them, and that bicycles are everywhere. I also noticed they use different color paint on their signs and walls than you would see in Italy. Kind of curious.

So if you are up for the challenge, I suggest you start cruising Japan or your favorite place with Google maps and see if you can find a street scene that you like.