Elk! Nature walk and a new start!

As I left the bathroom this morning I glanced out the window and about 30 elk were grazing by the parking lot. They`re big! Then we were taken on a tour of different ecological zones within the area. I can`t say I`ve ever stood in the rain, on the side of a mountain, with three other people talking about science and literature with everyone happy to be there. I began a long painting based on the landscapes I`m seeing here. I had an obvious revelation that this is exactly what muralists do, create a type of visual narrative. I`ll play with this composition and see how it develops. The look of a mural isn`t quite what I`m after.

The Last Yupo Watercolor

This is the first watercolor I`ve completed in nine months. On Yupo no less. It`s the Devil`s paper I tell you, Devil Paper!!
I just wanted to paint yesterday after our orientation and buying groceries. Thought I`d give watercolor a new chance. It`s looking like a 40 year relationship may be ending. Why don`t I feel sad?
This afternoon I began one of the long paintings I came here to do. I`ll take some pictures of my progress.

Sitka!

Just an amazing location, wonderful facility [I have my holy grail of simultaneous oil and watermedia areas], super kind and helpful staff, and sweet fellow residents. Soon I hope to have new work to post. I`m also on a Mac for the first time unsupervised. Wish me luck, the webmaster does not arrive until Sunday.

actually this is posted by Randall, not John.

Mendocino Coast 3

This was painted in 1980 from sketches I drew eight years earlier when I lived on the Mendocino Coast. When I did this, I was deep into land locked Northern New Mexico and certain I had found my true home at last.
Things change!
Tomorrow I leave for Sitka, and there is such a sense of returning. I am remembering so clearly how exhilarated I felt to be with the forests and ocean way back then. I was a refugee from the hot, smoggy 'Inland Empire'. My brother Mike will visit me and he mentioned too how similar it seemed to him. As if he were 17 again, coming to see me on the farm.

Arboretum Marsh

Last week I wanted to complete something big before leaving for my residency. Now as it is rapidly approaching, I`ve just wanted to keep working. Keep in shape so to speak. I feel like I`m training for something important, something ambitious.
We went to Seattle last weekend to retrieve a painting and had a chance to visit the University`s arboretum. It`s a beautiful collection. I was able to do this quick study from memory.

Fog in the Forest

The purpose of my upcoming residency at Sitka is to work on some really long pieces. I wanted to do something sort of large before I go. This is based on the smaller 'Fog on the Mountain 3'.

Estuary Island

I thought this was finished last August and I hung it in my bedroom. Over the months I could tell something was off but I wasn`t sure what. As I painted it, I wanted the island compact and autonomous in an ocean of shifting fog. The right balance of calm areas to agitation was delicate. But it was too egg like so I developed the vegetation and intensified the color somewhat. It`s better now.