Painting with the Spokane Riverkeepers

Woo-wee, it is scorching hot out right now! I hope you’re staying cool where you are. I’m enjoying looking back at my memories of an overnight canoe trip with the Spokane Riverkeepers at the end of July. Lots of swimming, sketching, and delicious food!

There were around 20 of us in three big voyaging canoes. We left from Porcupine Bay and paddled down to Detillion campground with a stop off for painting on a beach along the way and a dip in the river.

We set up camp at Detillion, had a delicious lunch of sandwiches and fruit and I was delighted to see quite a few of my students sketching even outside of “class time.” More dips in the river and a quick paddle to a jump-off rock followed.

The campsite had beautiful views of the river and the bank on the other side.

PT, one of canoe guides, had always dreamed of having people paint the sunset on a paddle trip. We paddled out to the river, rafted together and with some bobbing around whenever a motor boat went by, made PT’s dream come true. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun.

We went on a night paddle that was extraordinary. The sky was completely clear and the stars were brilliant above and below us, reflecting in the water. Absolutely stunning and I will have to do a painting inspired by it at some point. The sun and warmth made for an early morning so I got up and immediately started drawing the giant coffee pot on the propane stove. More delight in finding two of my students up and painting as well.

I documented Alex making us breakfast-absolutely fascinated by the beauty of the eggs in a mason jar, glowing in the early morning light as well as Alex’s interesting sartorial choices. Yes, that is a very faded pink baseball cap on top of the cowboy hat. He informed me that the pink hat was part of his “brand” and that he found the cowboy hat in a dumpster in Tuscon, AZ. his dog, which is half coyote, was eating curry out of it. The dog’s name is Gus and rode along with us in the canoes, but remained aloof of human silliness.

I did a demonstration and some instructing on our final morning. The demo still needs scanning (the technology is resisting me!), but here is a sketch from the beach where we stopped for lunch on the way back to Porcupine Bay. The cliff was made of clay and the sediment floated in the water and changed the color as it got closer to shore. Swallows nested in the cliff. Fascinating and beautiful.

The whole trip was absolutely wonderful and a joy. I hope that the Riverkeepers offer this trip next summer and I IMPLORE you-come join me on this magical experience!

I traveled to Edmonds, WA for the 3rd annual Sketcherfest and was thrilled to meet several artists I’ve followed for decades and, thanks to a generous friend, listened to some amazing artist talks. Sketcherfest is a sketchbook festival where I can network, take workshops, listen to talks and draw with people who come to attend from all over the world-really cool.

I stopped on the way across the state to visit Jakob Two Trees, the Thomas Danbo troll in Issaquah. It was so fun to watch people walk up and react to the giant troll, talk about the other Danbo trolls they’ve visited, and take photos. Have you visited a Danbo troll somewhere? It seems to be a popular activity!

I’m teaching an urban sketching class at the Duncan Gardens at Manito Park this Saturday. 9-11 am. You can sign up at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture, $46 for members, $55 for non-members. Sign up HERE.

Summer Sketchin'

And duckling updates!

This is a long one with lots of photos so the email may get cut off. Feel free to click through to read this in my blog in its entirety if so.

One of our ducks abandoned her nest so my husband decided to try to incubate the eggs himself as I mentioned in my last newsletter.

They all hatched and for a couple weeks they lived in my living room! Now they are in a brooder in our garage and very close to getting to go outside and be integrated with the rest of the flock. They are awkward teenagers now instead of the adorable fluffy butts that you see in this sketch and the photo below. They love to snuggle and flop all over each other.

It was so fun to see how much they grew each day!

In bittersweet news, my aunt and uncle sold their lake house up at Priest Lake. They bought it back in 1979 and not only have I been going there my whole life but my parents have been going since they were in college. They came over with my brother and we all gathered to say goodbye to this special beloved place with my aunt and uncle.

I feel so fortunate to have gotten to spend so much time in this magical place.

Pizza for lunch at MooseKnuckles-loving their upcycled flower planters, yes that is a shovel/crane bucket in this sketch.

Since it was Father’s Day, we celebrated with ribs at Hill’s Resort.

This carved wooden bear hangs out on the fence post to the deck and he holds your life jacket for you.

Goodbye and we’ll cherish the memories.

I’ve been sketching around our new house and enjoying seeing what pops up this spring-here a huge amount of buttercups and a small sketch of clover.

Spotted this big white umbellifer flower by the road in our south field so I wandered down to sketch it. Love plein air painting in walking distance from home.

I’ve gotten braces and I am not loving it. Trying to be positive (the results are good!) and sketched some of the new tools I had to buy to help care for my teeth.

My friend and fellow artist Katie Frey invited me to a plein air get together last weekend at Slavin Natural Area. It was a great excuse to paint and chat. It wasn’t just a walk down the hill from my house, but a short 1.5 mile hike to the lake wasn’t bad even in 85 degree heat. We found some shade to sketch in and kept following it as it moved!

My plein air set up-my beloved Osprey backpack, short folding stool, travel brush, watercolors, plastic water container with lid and Global Art Handbook Watercolor sketchbook. Shout out to ziplocks, keeping me from pouring drippy paint and paint water down the inside of my bag since 2007.

With warm weather comes yardwork and plein air painting so my studio painting table tends to get a little dusty this time of year. Here is a painting of Spokane House on the top of Mt. Spokane that I finished back in May. It was a struggle to the rich color and the contrast between light and dark but I’m very pleased with how this came out.

I also decided to revisit the Davenport Grand, having done a very small sketch of just the entrance back in 2018. I decided to tackle the whole massive building this time. SO many windows!

If you’ve read this far, thank you! I also want to ask you for some advice. I’m about to put in a new card order. Are there any of my paintings that you think should be a card that I don’t already have? For example-I’m considering this one of the Scoop and the two paintings above as well as some of my recent Couer d’Alene paintings. If you have any thoughts, give me a shout!

Also-it’s 95 degrees here right now, ice cream is on my brain. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? I’m usually a chocolate girl, but when it gets hot I like things more fruity. I currently am working my way through a orange creamsicle carton.

Art Adventures+Sketching in Japanese Gardens!

Hello everyone!

April is a very busy month for me. If you haven’t already stopped by, I have a piece in the Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour show at the Kolva Sullivan gallery this month. The show is jammed pack with art from the amazing artists from the September art market and I highly recommend stopping by before it gets packed up at the end of the month.

If you weren’t able to make it out to my show at the Art Spirit Gallery in February, then may I suggest stopping by the Central Library in downtown? Almost all of the paintings from that show (one sold and the other is at the Kolva Sullivan show) are hanging on the big wall opposite the cafe on the ground floor for this month. Thank you to Eva for the invite and for her fabulous art hanging skills (as seen above).

I’ve been teaching at the Corbin Art Center the past couple of weeks and I was lucky to arrive early one glorious evening and did a quick sketch from the top of the hill. Absolutely lovely!

I recently finished a painting of another Corbin-adjacent building-Maryhill! This whole complex just off of 7th Avenue is full of historic buildings. Along with the park with the beautiful old trees, it is definitely worth a visit and walk around.

If you haven’t stopped by the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture lately, you should! The exhibit they have on Japanese armor and art right now is stunning!

I sketched these in pencil at the museum and added color later. I was delighted to see another person sketching while I was there. So much fun!

And speaking of Japan and the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture, I am DELIGHTED to tell you that the museum secured the rights for me to teach several sketching classes at Manito’s Japanese Gardens at the end of this month and the beginning of May. I suspect this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity so sprint on over and sign up! Here’s a link. The website can be somewhat hard to navigate so you are also welcome to reach out to the education coordinator Amanda Gardner at her number:(509-363-5357)

Classes are April 22nd and 25th 6:15-8:15

And May 1 & 2nd, 6:15-8:15-Sign up for May Classes here.

I hope to see you there!