Rainy Lake

Rainy Lake

oil on canvas

6 x 8

It is hard to find time to post in these summer months. Last week I went up north to Voyageurs National Park for some painting, birding, and being. The top photo is the house boat which we rented and moored on a 6 acre island, becoming a wonderful home base - luxury camping! The weather was fantastic and I managed to get out painting quite a bit, doing small studies of views from the island (above).

I like these words by artist Charles W. Hawthorne:

Do studies, not pictures. Know when you are licked - start another. Be alive, stop when your interest is lost. Put off finish - make lots of starts..... Starting with a note of truth in a piece is the important thing - the first color you put down influences you straight through. Do not put things down approximately - you will take a wrong thing and unconsciously key everything to it, making it false. Never mind if your whole canvas in not successful. If one spot is successful, it is enough. Do a bit of truth.

One more thing, the Trumpeter Swans on our pond have had cygnets - four small grey fluffys swimming around!

Rookery

Cormorant Rookery photograph

Last week I went birding in North Dakota. Almost June and I was wishing I had my down jacket! This is a photograph of a Cormorant Rookery seen from the road on the way to Lake Osakis, right off Interstate 94. I love the spangly nest forms against the sky.

This Friday, June 10, 5 - 9 pm I will be participating in the St. Cloud Art Crawl. I will be set up in Falcon National Bank, 1010 W. St. Germain, along with the other artists who were awarded Individual Artist Grants. I hope to see some of you there.