victoria houseboats

These houseboats add a little color the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C., Canada.

tag! you're it!

Old MGs and Austin-Healeys (or parts of them) play a game of tag while awaiting restoration.

The red Bugeye Sprite front end really seems to be having fun.

flower farm

There was a "U-Pick" flower farm on Highway 101 near the head of Sequim Bay.  It's gone now- a few years ago it gave way to a new Blyn fire station.  Also gone is Dickie Bird's Tavern- replaced by the Longhouse market and deli- but that's another story.

garden corner

This Memorial Day was another painting Monday for the local group, followed by Thai food takeout.  A good time was had by all.  I got a late start, so I have just a monochrome underpainting / value study.  When it is finished, with the help of a photo reference, I'll post the result.

burnt umber oil on canvas, 6"x6"

rhody and bay

A rhododendron catches late afternoon sun on Sequim Bay.  It's a great time of year for these showy flowering shrubs.

Coming up in early June: my Zodiac photographs.

sol doc gorge

The Sol Duc falls run through a small gorge, seen from upstream in this photo.

Below is a view of the falls from the other direction, for reference.  The gorge is on the right.

sol duc rainbow

Here is an afternoon rainbow in a tightly cropped photo of the Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park.

kalaloch cabins

This image of guest cabins at Kalaloch Lodge recalls days of mining or mill town employee housing.  The cabins actually make for a very pleasant getaway on the Washington coast.

kalaloch bluff

Here is another view from the beach at Kalaloch, showing the bluff and guest cabins, on a misty day much like today.

Note:  It's driftlogs on the beach now.  Perhaps soon it will be fishing boats, styrofoam, or other tsunami debris.

on the beach at kalaloch

Washington beaches tend to feature a lot of driftwood.  This quirky scene seems to work well in black and white and with a square format.

blue gate

A local garden-scape.

another view of the mountain

In the fall of 1984, I was on the east side of Mount St. Helens again and got this late afternoon telephoto view of the mountain's new top.

I also got peekaboo views of a swollen and log-jammed Spirit Lake, looking much less like the alpine resort destination it used to be.

after the eruption

In the winter of 1982-83, I visited Mount St. Helens from the west (the usual way), coming in along the Toutle River to an overlook at the end of the road.  Along the river, mud on the trees showed where the high water line had been during the ash flow flood following the eruption.

the overlook in 1982

the "high mud" line

Then in the summer of 1983, I went in from the east along logging road 99 to see the devastation area.  There were still denuded trees, flattened by the blast, that had not yet been logged.  They looked like porcupine quills covering the hillsides.

devastation

the "porcupine quills"

mount st. helens

Today is the anniversary of the day Mount St. Helens blew its top, 32 years ago.  In honor of the occasion, here are some 35mm color slides of mine from before the event, when the mountain was still a white-peaked jewel in the Cascade Volcanic Arc.

These photographs of the mountain are actually from quite a while before the 1980 eruption: I took them in the summer of 1971.

looking up from the lower slope

dramatic landscape

indian paintbrush with

Mt. St. Helens behind

olympic stream

Here is a healthy-looking stream (almost overgrown, and with some logs in it- makes for good habitat) in the Olympic mountains.  This one is very near Lake Quinault, in Olympic National Park.

anchor

This boat wears its anchor on the bow- right at the stem.  By closing in on the scene, I made it more abstract.  The boat seems to hold its anchor up like some sort of party mask.

Found recently at the Boat Haven in Port Townsend.

In case you want more context, here is a photo of the boat that this image came from:

farm truck

Three of us got together this afternoon to paint at Nash's Farm Store in Dungeness, a wonderful local place for organic produce.  Here is my plein air sketch of a truck next to one of the outbuildings.

oil on canvas, 6"x6"

at the boat haven

Here is another scene from a quiet corner of Port Townsend's busy boatyard and marina.

big kitty and the yellow truck

An unusual scene from a recent visit to the Boat Haven in Port Townsend.

kalaloch

This is a view toward the beach at Kalaloch, from the vicinity of the Kalaloch Lodge, on Washington's Pacific coast.

icicle creek morning

Here is a black and white view of the creek near Leavenworth, Washington, taken early in the day.

emp balloons

Here is a whimsical image featuring the EMP Museum with balloons.  Photographed at the Seattle Center on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the '62 World's Fair.

waterfront color

Here is some downtown Seattle waterfront color, as seen from just offshore, looking up University Street.

garden corner

Here is another garden scene from the site of yesterday's paint-out in Port Townsend.

garden salmon

The painting group met this morning at the home of one of the members.  There was a large, white salmon sculpture in the garden.  With panoramic vistas in all directions, what did I choose to paint?

oil on canvas panel, 10"x8"

at sweet laurette

A view toward the street from the interior of Sweet Laurette, a French bistro in uptown Port Townsend.

gull on the beach

This image is all about design.  The gull is on the beach at Humbug Mountain State Park on the Oregon coast.  A creek cuts a bank in the sandy beach as it flows to the ocean.

"i want in"

The gull, perched outside the 4th floor window at the Strathcona Hotel, Victoria, B.C., did seem to want in.  Perhaps he wanted to read the business section of the paper.

will it go over?

A mallard watches a twig on the brink at Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, B.C.

protection island

Here is another view of Protection Island, a bird sanctuary just north of the end of the Miller Peninsula, between Sequim and Port Townsend.

windswept

Here is another view looking north from the head of Sequim Bay at low tide.  The white line on the horizon is Travis Spit, which extends from the tip of Miller Peninsula on the right, and nearly but not quite closes off the mouth of the bay.