Sculpture

Driving down Bush point road, the other day, I saw the sign for Cloudstone way.  At the end of a long driveway, was Hank Nelson's Cloudstone Sculpture Park.  As soon as I saw several giant metal tanks connected and mounted in the air, I knew I had arrived.

Touring the property in my car, I saw mounds of gravel about 15 feet around that looked like small volcanoes ringed with granite rocks; there are also rock slabs of balanced sculptures all around the property.  These are some of his site specific Earth works sculptures.  Hank graciously gave me a quick tour of his current work of giant black monoliths (black granite?) that weigh 24000 lbs.  He then took me to see his beautiful bronze gallery. Hank, sorry to be ignorant about which rock but my mind was spinning, I  was overwhelmed by the scope of your work.I'm looking forward to returning with friends to explore the earthworks and even have a picnic at the marble tables and benches!
Here are some comments from Sculpture.org

Cloudstone Sculpture Park
Cloudstone Sculpture Park, on beautiful Whidbey Island in Washington State, is a visually intriguing feast of primal totemic art that anyone will want to visit. The vision of one man, Henry D. Nelson, to create site specific earth sculptures that address today's environmental issues, is far reaching. The successful integration into the park of over fifty of his carved granite, cast iron and bronze sculptures serves for a very inspiring experience. Open daily before Monday October 15, 2007 and by appointment after Wednesday, October 17. For directions contact the artist at sculptor@cloudstonesculpture.com, or call 360-331-3913 evenings.

Elipses and Dark values

Recently, I spent a weekend painting with about 18 other artists on Camano Island; the second annual (I hope) weekend with Jack Dorsey and Thomas William Jones.  If everyone else came away with as much understanding and information as I did, we struck gold.  Tom is a local artist, living in Snohomish, who has had the honor and privilege of painting images of the White House that were used for the Christmas cards for the Reagan administration for four years.  Needless to say, his work is selling for high figures and his knowledge and understanding of composition, value, and so much more is way above anything I could ever accomplish and mesh into my mind in my lifetime.

Jack is such an accomplished artist and well known on Camano Island.  He has had two one man shows at the Frye Art Museum.  He opens his home and garden for this workshop; his wife Ann  cooks a meal for us on Saturday night for the critique with Tom and keeps us supplied with brain food during the two days we work.  Jack runs around looking for everyone, trying to answer questions and help with drawing, perspective, value.  The house and garden are overflowing with potential still-life subjects for us to choose from.  I wish we could do this once a month.

I like heading into the peace of the garden and choosing my subject based on the light.  Friday, there wasn't very much light with rain threatening.  Nevertheless, I saw a shiny metal tank in the lower garden with a couple of spouts and rolls (elipses!) of wire and hoped that it would be and interesting painting.  It took me two days and two visits each by Jack and Tom to finish the painting.  I am posting Jacks ten minute tiny color study, Tom's quick value sketch in pencil and my pencil study and the ? finished product.  Weep with me.

My painting

Jack Dorsey sketch with color added.

Quick sketch by Tom

Learning new stuff

Last week I was in Mt Vernon taking a class from Robert Burridge.  I have been admiring his work for a long time and was excited when I learned he was coming to a local workshop.  I fiddle in acrylics, but have not concentrated on using the medium in my fine art.  Using tube and liquid acrylics was a new experience and Bob made it fun.  He says that if your painting gives you angst then you shouldn't be doing  it.  Every day he goes into the studio to play and have fun.

Things I learned:
Making a mess is fun - smear leftover paint over gessoed canvas or paper, use lots of colors, or not.  Let dry; pick out a form, like a pear, paint negative shapes, highlight, shadow, refine, done!
Drip trees:  Smoosh various colors for trees across a mess background with a very wet brush; add dark for the shadow under the leaves; tilt upright and let the trunks drip to the bottom.  Let dry; pick out the background and sky(if necessary), shadows for the trunks on the foreground.  Define if necessary!
Here are some examples:  Check out his website for more examples.  We also did small 5x7 landscapes and florals.

Art, Food and Wine in Greenbank

This is a colorful old store located on highway 525 in Greenbank.  There is a restaurant upstairs, grocery and sandwich shop downstairs. The sandwich shop features a beautiful old wood stove.  Next time, I will sketch the stove.

Greenbank is also home to the Greenbank Winery and Gallery.  I am showing some of my pears in the Gallery with Betty Rayle this summer.  We are open on Saturday and Sunday.