This painting is for sale at my Etsy store!
This painting was created in McCarthy Alaska’s lovely little Museum. I enjoyed volunteering at this small museum this summer, and will look forward to spending more days there next summer. The day I decided to work on this painting of an antique cash register, was full of excitement. Outside on the museum porch are a couple of relics left from the days before the footbridge, two hand-trams that were used to cross over the powerful Kennicott River. Having arrived after the creation of the footbridge I can only imagine how isolating the hand-tram must have been. Well someone else must have had an active imagination as well, as I was painting away inside the museum a great commotion was occurred at the hand-tram. This large fellow, 300+ lbs, had sat down on the hand-tram and flipped it over; he had literally fallen and couldn’t get up! Well he asked Maria (my wife) to help him out of the contraption, but she obviously couldn’t budge him, I don’t know how she did it but Maria saved the day and the man was okay. However the hand-tram exhibit had taken some wear and tear. It is a good thing that the Museum carries an insurance policy because the Hand tram is dangerous. I have smacked my head on it more than once and won’t sit down in it anymore. We need a sign that says sit at your own risk…okay back to the painting. I just love this Art Deco cash register and think about the goods that were purchased nearly a century ago. It really was a long voyage from the steamship to the train, all the way to Kennecott! This unique antique sure would have felt exotic in the Wrangell mountains, just look at that styling they don’t make stuff like this anymore.
Back from the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. I painted some in the park this summer all plein air, as I was in the process of creating my indoor painting studio while I was there. My wife and I had the most Amazing summer, camping out, and building our little hut that will be a painting studio with a little sleeping loft. One of the best experiences we had in the park was when we hiked to the Jumbo Mine. This is the first and only time I have had the opportunity to climb up into this part of the Bonanza Ridge, to the ruins of the Jumbo Mine. Not much left of the buildings and I decided to hike to the top of the ridge. I was a little bit ahead of the others and sped quickly to the highest point under the cliffs on the ridge. With a few minutes to spare as I was waiting for the crew, I painted this painting looking back towards the Chugach Mountains. While on the ridge, I found lots of green rocks, (Chalcocite with Malachite) a whole vein up on the mountains! It feels so great to be on the top of these amazing bodies of metal. I was glad that I made it down with minimal damage to my painting. Hiking 10+ miles with a plein air kit is not too difficult, but making it successfully home with a wet oil painting is more difficult that most people might imagine, so I always sigh a breath of relief when I get home successfully with a new plein air piece.
This painting was done on April 5th, 2010 along the frozen Eagle River in Alaska. Only fifteen minutes away from Anchorage, Eagle River is an interesting little place to spend the day. Especially if you head up the mountain valley to the Eagle River nature center. I decided to take a break from the humdrum bore of the town and headed out on an adventure to do a little plein air painting, even though it was pretty cloudy and bleak outside, it was above freezing allowing me to actually work outside! I hope you enjoy this little painting.
I have been looking forward to the warmer weather that allows the outdoor painting season to begin, the snow and ice has been keeping me working inside and I am ready for summer to be here. Nothing is as exciting, that I have run into, than the beauty of Alaska in the summer. I cannot wait to paint in plein air! However, I felt my blog could use a new image and update to keep everyone in the loop. This painting was done over a 9 hour day in Halibut Cove a couple of summers ago. Painting the frontal facade of Alex Combs old painting and pottery studio and outdoor gallery. This structure has always had such a profound influence on me because of the uniqueness of a do it yourself gallery. Not only was this a do it yourself gallery, (put the cash/check in the jar - take your art) it was also full of Alex Combs cheery, painterly, work that I knew was Real Art! Since my first visit out to Halibut Cove in 1998 I have found Alex Combs paintings to largely influence my work. It was great to live and work in Alex’s old art spot. From the paint on the floor of the studio, to the most incredible view of the cove, I love this structure. I am eager to build my first structure to live and work in the beauty of this great state! Part of the fun of working on this painting was that Alex, who passed away a year ago, was able to critique my work. It was very satisfying to have one of my personal heroes of the art-world sit back and look at my work. Suffering from mild alzheimer’s and dementia the last few years of His life Alex was still very excited about painting and was still working next door. It was cute that every time I met him I had to be reintroduced as the painter next door. Introductions aside, he could still critique a piece of original, Real Art! Here’s to you Alex! Thank you for making such beautiful artwork and being such an inspiration!
It was a lovely travel weekend full of adventure, I hadn’t intended on making it to Halibut cove, but I was lucky enough to hitch a ride over on a local’s boat, whithin five minutes of arrival of the Homer spit boat harbor! What luck! It can be problematic getting over and across from the cove if you don’t have a boat, or tons of cash, I prefer to keep my pocket change in my wallet, so getting a free ride over is always welcomed. We beat our host to his house and chilled on the Maury’s dock for about an hour. A skiff-load of guests arrived wet(from the ride) but their spirits were not dampened as they had been sippin’ on rum on the way over! We were all in the cove to attend a pirate party, that had started at around 4 in the afternoon. Ian, our host, arrived at around 10:00. So we were a bit behind schedule. We had a salmon dinner that couldn’t be beat and ran on over to the pirate party. I painted at the party, a cute little picture of the ferry, the Danny J. I stashed the painting just as the accordion stopped playing, the band had ended but the dancing didn’t and we had a dandy of a good time. The only thing a bit concerning me was the inebriation level of the fire dancers, I guess one of them had an accident and caught themselves on fire, so they had to be thrown into the cove! I think they had some pretty serious burns….:( Maria and I returned to our sweet accommodations in the old Alex Combs studio, for an excellent night of sleep. We awoke the next morning bright and early to catch the Danny J back to Homer. I brought the little painting as a fare to get Maria and I across. We arrived to Homer a mere hour later, just in time for me to catch a flight to Seldovia which is only about 20 miles west of Halibut Cove, across the bay from Homer. I have been commissioned by John Sedor to make a piece based off of his summer home in Seldovia, Alaska. It was a treat to get to go to Seldovia as I have never been before. Although the weather was nice at first, this horrible storm started to blow in and I was treated to a nice little shower right on Johns deck! oil paint doesn’t like to stick to wet surfaces so I forced the painting to happen hurriedly before I was forced to pack it up. I got a really nice feel for the place even though I was unable to paint more that this one piece. Caught my flight back from Seldovia, and Maria and I made our way out of Homer. That storm made it so we decided not to camp out on the spit, the weather-band radio told us that we should expect 40 knot winds, and that ddn’t sound appealing to us, nor did the onslaught of rain. I told Maria if I was on my bike I would have kept riding! So that is what we did, we kept truckin’ in the Subaru right on out of there. Maria wanted to stop in Nikoliaensk really bad, so we took a detour on an attempt to find it and after half an hour of dirt road driving we did find it, a cute little Russian village off the road in the Kenai peninsula of Alaska. Maria made a stop at the Samovar Cafe and ordered a second dinner, we had already stopped at the Cosmic Kitchen for a late lunch-early dinner. The Pelmeni and Pirogi’s were fcusna(delicious) and we bombed back to Anchorage late that night only stopping to make coffee in the rain once! What a weekend, four towns in two days and a a couple of paintings too! Sorry I didn’t get a shot of the Danny J piece but next time you head to the cove ask the attendant if it is in the ship?
Good morning! I am glad to see you here at the plein air blog today! The sun is breaking above the clouds here in Anchorage and a red sun is visible through the particulates(smoke). The forest fires in Alaska have been making the air quality unique to say the least. Yesterday, I had a frustrating painting day, due to all the smoke. It is impossible to see very far, so I decided against landscape. I had been shopping with Dicker all morning for a new bar-b-que, after a quick trial run with the cedar plank it became obvious that the new grill was great. It’s Electric!(not the dance, the grill…) So now he is legitimate to BBQ on his sweet balcony. Phew! All these years using propane, we could have been blown to pieces at any moment! A propane tank is a dangerous thing to suspend 20 feet in the air in case of explosion. I think terrorists have been using them as bombs for years. I painted the new electric grill “en plein air” (outside) on the deck, well the painting sucked as you can imagine a painting of a BBQ is a half baked idea to start with(and a last ditch effort to appease maria for the lack of productivity due to a BBQ emergency, the old grill had died). so after an hour or so of struggling with it I gave up, and just wiped the surface to save it for something better. I probably will have something to do with this red sun today. It is amazing how well oil paint wipes off of the red gold surface I prepare. Of course the paint was only on there for about 2 hours and oils takes up to two weeks to dry. I am looking forward to painting the sun as it is probably the most remarkable thing that I can see from Anchorage today. The red gold surface should be perfect for the project and it is a better subject than the grill. As for your plein air picture for this entry, I give you the last of the lake house paintings. This one is from last year and had been sequestered in the Berry lake house for a whole year. Now I publish it to the world for you and I hope that you find it to be as interesting as the view I painted it from. The people in the canoe are Anneliese Loescher and my wife Maria. Happy viewing!
Oh what a lovely weekend! Maria and I went out to The Berry Lake house on Kenai Lake. We had and enchanting time relaxing on the beach, eating tasty treats and living the good life. The light was perfect and the midnight sun was beaming around mountains with unique lighting effects. The lake is such an interesting color of blue because of the glacial silt, it is a turquoise blue that reminds me of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. I kept telling Leah I was going down to the ocean! we had many laughs and great cheer for over the weekend and I picked up some paintings from last year as well. I painted this one on Friday night 7-03-2009. The sky was so bright It seemed the most brilliant yellow. The mountain, Langile Mtn(?), was very close, but in the evening a misty haze came over the lake and with the lighting it was inspiring!
