The Woodland Tulip Festival at Holland American Bulb Farm is a beautiful springtime sight.
Marie and I did plein air paintings this morning. It was a bright morning. The colors are amazing, but my watercolors don't do them justice!
Woodland, Washington April 26,2008
Three Sunflowers, 30"x40". This is the largest painting I have done. It is acrylic on canvas.
The light seems to radiate from the tallest sunflower. Marie planted sunflowers last year and I've been wanting to paint some since autumn. We kept three spent sunflowers over the winter, and these are the inspiration for this work. I really liked the faded colors on the dead flowers, but I livened them up a lot in this work. Marie and I both enjoy Van Gogh's works with sunflowers. I'm sure we'll do more sunflowers.
The ground is mostly big brush strokes, the leaves/stalks mostly medium strokes, the sunflowers are mostly palette knife, and the blues and white skies are blended.
Kalama Burger Bar was a gem out of the 1950's. This was a nice stop on US 99 in Kalama, Washington before Interstate 5 was created. The Burger Bar sign has been moved, and the Burger joint has moved and is now an inside eatery also.
This is my first try in painting with a knife. It was fun!
Kalama, Washington is a small town of about 2000 inhabitants. This painting looks east and focuses on Elm Street which is the town's major east/west road. Kalama High School sits at the top of the hill. Behind it and to the right is the football stadium. To the left of the school is the Catholic Church. In the left foreground there is the Methodist Church, and behind it the Kalama Community Building. Rivertown Antiques is in the foreground right. All of these places have sunset views of the Columbia River. This is the old part of Kalama that was originally settled in the 1870's. It has a charming small town feel and is a nice place to live.
Marie and I sat in folding chairs while we did our paintings. Mine was watercolor and hers was guoache. Here is her work ,
Interested Party
My Grandson, Reece Schutt (age 8), and I spent the afternoon together. I painted the Interstate Bridge between Portland and Vancouver. He painted the Columbia River and sand.
