Wedding Bells for Gregg and Betts

It's wedding bells for Gregg and Betts June, 26 2010, 4pm at the Westfork Ranch on the Sanpoil!

Barbecue and music by local Peacenik, Robin Ellis

Come boogy and help us celebrate.
Garden party or ranch attire appropriate.

Bring your tent, camper, fishing pole and sleeping bag or stay in nearby Republic at the Northern Inn, 775.2130, or the Kdiamond K, 775.3351.  Our friends at the K Diamond K are providing rooms for us at their special B & B rate.  If at all possible they'd like a 3 night minimum stay as it's their high season.  The ranch offers all sorts of extras, like horse rides, so come over and have a mini-vacation.
While you're here you should also check out the Stonerose Interpretive Center.
Check http://www.ferrycounty.com/ for even more information on things to see and do in our corner of the world.
Questions?  Call us at 509.775.2130.

Your smiling face is all we look for on our wedding day but for those of you that insist, we made wedding presents easy at Amazon.  We love music, books, movies and of course, Art.  Wedding present registry;

Eats the Sun II, 30x40, plein air, oil on gallery wrapped canvas

"Bodies made of Light, Eat the Sun"

"Bodies made of light, eat the sun"
11x14, plein air, oil

slogging through winter with still life's

Studio time. To paint everyday keeps the brush sharp and pallet fresh. It also means keeping the rain and snow off your back. It means searching the internet and following up leads on show opportunities, competitions and marketing. Following the 'business plan' which is basically a schedule of production to keep this A.D.D. artist, focused. Seems to be a work in progress......

Villa in Twisp

11x14 plein air study. The Methow river wends its way through the foot hills of the Cascades. A landscape of deer, salmon and exceptional steel head fishing if like my friend, Kevin Bevins, you know how to get 'em.
It's an area that has been discovered by the 'rich and famous' but gets pretty mellow in the winter as the pass to the West side of the state closes and the place returns to the locals.
Art is finding its way into the culture, replacing timber jobs that have gone away. There is some ranching and some orchards that still manage to get by but life is in transition as it is in the entire 'inland' west.
A land of scarce but clean water, the locals are making a concerted effort to reclaim the land and the balance of nature with many projects that preserve agricultural land, reclaim natural habitat and look forward to the future.
A good place for art and plein air painting.

thoughts on plein air and abstract art

I write as much as I paint, perhaps more. I think I should share some of those insights as this is a journal of artistic progress.
Every painting is an experiment. The current goal is to reflect not only the visual model but the internal thoughts to try to attain spiritual content.

Journal Jots;

Spiritual Abstract Art

Abstract Spiritual Art

The blank page is a spiritual slate
ready for creation/expression

Interpretation
Perception
Revelation
Nature as a teacher/model is a point of departure for spiritual reflection .
Beauty
Truth
Being
Plein air painting is a study that puts one in the moment.
The studies are developed in the 'Temple of the Studio'.
The product is a revelation of
Being
Beauty

Truth.

So..........

The first painting in this series was done en plein air, Washington Pass, Mazama, WA., as were the next two. The last painting was done in the studio, a result of plein air studies and thoughts developed over time. Plein air painting puts one in the moment. The information gathered achieves a visual vocabulary that can be expanded on in the studio. Both practices enhance my development as an artist and as a person. Hopefully the effort will have value to others as well.

thoughts on art; abstract plein air

I regard this as a fine abstract landscape. It is from this point that the painting gets developed in an attempt to accomplish something that is a representation of nature. One that gives comfort to those that need to know what they are looking at is familiar and perhaps safe, in-as-much-as art goes. It is at this point that there are paths to less comfortable but more insightful opportunities. Opportunities that fulfill aesthetic and even spiritual truths. After all, the pursuit of art is a personal adventure if one is to pursue ,should aspire to more than a mundane fabrication of a material product. Whoa! Is that a little too much?

work in progress

I regard this painting as a 'Spiritual' effort.
Done in the Temple of the Studio, reflecting thoughts and artistic aspirations, reflecting my knowledge of horses, plein air landscape studies with deliberate attempt to include abstract composition. It is a direction I hope to expand upon.

Back from Beyond but Still Traveling

I'm home painting my familiar haunts after a whirlwind tour of the Northwest. Done harvesting hay with the horses, I saved August and September for plein air paintouts. I've got the garden harvested, the hoses put away so they won't freeze, the lawn mowed and am mounting the snow blower on the tractor to be ready for winter.

My creative batteries are charged and I have lots of ideas for the studio this winter. Meanwhile I'm enjoying my favorite season and painting everyday. Fall is perfect for a plein air painter. The weather is cool with few bugs but the crickets are chirping and birds are passing through on their way south. The bears are storing up fat for the winter and the wood rats are packing off everything that isn't nailed down.

The fall colors are just beginning to turn. It's a very dry end of summer and I hope the leaves don't just fall as they sometimes do when there has been a draught.

Painting in Hood River was cosmic, literally. I got my chakras adjusted by new friend and massage therapist Mark Larsen, founder of http://www.menwithsticks.com/. A giant of a guy successfully opened up long neglected chakras in my body and I can now see better. Very important for a painter. Mark is also a painter, set designer, muralist and all around creative guy with WHOLE lot of energy he likes to share.

It's pretty common knowledge for those that pay attention to such things, that once you start down the road paying attention to details of not only the world around you but your spiritual self, syncronocity kicks in and cool things start happening, seemingly out of the blue. For example. I was set up by the side of the road in a little tiny burg called Hunters in eastern washington continuing my project of painting the small towns of rural eastern washington and a fellow that looked a lot like what Buddha must have looked like, came over to check me out. Turns out, after two hours or so of palaver that we had met at the Barter Fare. He is knows as Organic Al, an ex drill sargeant that came home from Nam and proceeded to try to make up for all the dastardly deeds he had done to his Karma. Atleast 70 years old now, he's a cosmic guy with a cherubic smile, Om Mani Padme Hum he encouraged me to continue to tune in. "We're all travelers in the cosmic dance and obliged to help each other along whether it is painting, praying or cooking soup!" Peace, Harmony, Laughter and Love is his mantra.

I feel painting is my way of tuning in and sharing. It's all about light. Painting is a concerted study in light. With the help of those such as Mark Larsen and Organic Al I find painting is as much the pursuit of spirtual light as physical light. Perhaps that's a painting I will eventually accomplish? Anyway, it's the journey that counts. Every painting is an experiment. A new attempt at perfection.

Three Weeks on the Paint Out Trail

I'm off to the races or rather, Paint Outs. I'll be two weeks in Hood River, land of windsurfers and wonderful vistas of volcanoes and rivers.
32 artists juried into the event. We have an itinerary of orchards, farms of flowers, the unique Maryhill museum grounds, Columbia River gorge, the steppes of the Cascades and downtown Hood River. We each try to get 6 paintings worth sharing in 4 days of painting and an opening show on Sept. 4th. Last year was awesome. The folks at the Columbia Art Center find accomadations with locals for the artists and really go all out to make it a super event. So far it's been the best plein air event in the Northwest.
I'll stop in Portland to present my work to some galleries then head up to Seattle to do the same.
Next stop is Whidby Island and the U.S. Open Plein Air Paintout. Last year I made it from Hood River to Coupeville on Whidby Island by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin. You have to get your canvas stamped to be eligible to jury into the show. Fortunately the two shows are separated enough for me to make both.
September I'll make it over to a paintout in Hope, Idaho with the infamous, notorious and wonderful maven of the arts Kally Thurman.
Wish me luck and stay tuned!