A huge thank you to the hundreds of art lovers, patrons and collectors who made their way to our home, gallery and art studio this Labor Day weekend! I enjoyed seeing each and every one of you and always feel energized by your kind words and encouragement about the new directions my artwork has taken this past season.
Many folks signed-up for my classes and workshops, as well – I will be posting those as they come-up, starting this October 1st, with a 5 week (Saturdays) session in beginning/novice pastels at La Conner Art Workshops (now located at Dakota Art Pastel Store in Mt. Vernon). Then it's Ocean Shores Convention Center next April 2012, Lopez Island next spring and summer and The Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupeville, August 10-12, 2012. We are looking at another overseas painting workshop for 2013, independent of any galleries or travel groups, simply organized by and for artists who love to travel and paint, in either southern France or Tuscany/Umbria.

The 2 images here are plein air pieces I did a few days ago (a sunlit road leading to the local berry farm and my favorite neighborhood estuary at Port Stanley in morning fog). These are available at our home gallery, together with similar brand new works from the island, at Crow Valley Gallery on Orcas Island.



We are having typical early September “liquid air” mornings with marine layers inverting at dawn and giving way to full sunshine by mid-morning. It's a plein air painters' paradise, and I'll be out there! The sounds of the big ship horns on the ferry boats, plus the smaller voices of fog horns on reef markers, signals this change of season like flocks of migrating geese, but in a more staggered tempo . . . think trombones, tubas and the occasional clarinet, all practicing their parts before the conductor arrives. It's the relaxed conversation of sea-going traffic, thank you very much, not noisy freeways we hear in the morning.