I finished painting for the upcoming Best of the Northwest show last weekend. Having fresh paint sitting on a panel three weeks before you put it on sale is pushing the limits a bit, but by switching to pure Liquin medium and keeping the finished paintings in a warm room they have started to dry nicely.
As usual, I had a couple of paintings that didn't make the cut and I'll pull them out of the show for some rework prior to my next event. It's always a disappointment to fall short, but I would rather do that than have sub-standard work in the booth.
Let's start with the most recent.
Snohomish Valley. 8x10, oil on hemp panel. 2018
I drove up to the Snohomish Valley in early October to take photographs of an area I'd seen last March while shopping for tractor parts. There's lots of potential for new paintings.
Dawn on the Canal Path at Fremont. 9x12, oil on hemp panel. 2018
I love finding parts of the city that are tucked away. This was looking across to Fremont from the Queen Anne side of the ship canal.
Sentinels 2. 6x12, oil on hemp panel. 2018
A variation on a painting that I did earlier in the summer. It forced me to analyze the first painting to see what made it work before re-assembling the main elements in a different way.
Goleta. 8x10, oil on hemp panel. 2018.
My first California painting. The beach at Goleta, just west of Santa Barbara. It's unusual for me in that it's done in a high key.
Winter Landscape. 9x12, oil on linen panel. 2018
In this final painting, my goal was to focus on thick paint textures. In particular, I wanted the snow to feel like the icing on a cake.
I did several touch-ups to the painting after it was "finished", although I managed to force myself to stop before I ruined it.