Painting with Don .ning Maier,

I painted with Don .ning Maier, his wife Suzy and Lynn Haines.  Don and Suzy drove out from Georgia on a whirlwind tour of the Western States.  He ran out of wind in Cheyenne, Wy., and had to check into the vets hospital and get some oxygen as the altitude effected his breathing.  A true road warrior and plein air painter Don and Suzy continued on to Lynn Haines place at Lincoln, Washington and her lake place where we all met to paint and jawbone about art.

Don is notorius as the builder of the web site http://www.pleinairartist.ning.com/ which has something like 1700 participating plein air artist that post paintings on the site and palaver about things artistic.  It's a great site and we all owe Don a big Thanks for keeping us all in touch.

Compromise is for the Ordinary

Mike Kowalski stopped by to paint the fall colors at the ranch.  He's been on the road painting at Mazama, Wa., with the Plein Air Painters of Washington and then on to N. Idaho.  A figurative painter he has an eye for subject matter and is a masterful watercolorists.  Mike has won many awards for his painting, recently winning best of show and best historical painting at the world's finest plein air event in Hood River, Oregon, not to mention being accepted into the Oil Painters of America show in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  I don't mind sharing landscapes with the guy, he's the genuine thing and an all around good guy. 

We talk art and life into the wee hours of the morning.  We're both working on a new body of work that we hope to find a venue for next year.  I'm hoping to we BIG watercolors from Kowalski. 30x40 or bigger.  He's got the chops.  Whatever he does it will be exciting to see his new stuff.
Our styles are dyametrically different but we share the same muse.  We agree that life is to short to dwell upon the mundane.  Fortunately the 'muse' mandates her lovers pursue the substance of life.  Compromise is for the ordinary.