Blogs

I'm really happy with how this painting turned out.  This is my son Garrett, 9 years old. 

David Kassan & I at Carry Juriens home.  Carry invites everyone over for a dinner when there's a long workshop. It's really fun to hang out with all the great artists.  In the group there are artists from all over - some from Canada, one from San Francisco, several from Seattle area, and even a couple from Virginia!  Some really good artists in the group.

David's drawing tools

David's second drawing demo, this is after 3 hours into it..

Up at Whidbey Island this week taking a workshop from David Kassan, put on by Carry Juriens and WIFAS - It's so amazing and wonderful to have this resource here, Carry is doing such a great job bringing these fantastic artists to the Northwest. 

On Saturday our local arts group - Battle Ground Art Alliance - held our 2nd annual studio tour.

http://annawakitsch.blogspot.com/2013/09/final-stage-of-tessa-portrait-f...

By Anna Wakitsch.  It's a remarkable job, great description of how she takes a painting to the finished stage.  Working for several weeks!  I'm still amazed the painting is only 6"x6"..  not sure why anyone want's to paint that small!  Great explanations though - saving this one for future reference.

Finally getting a chance to work on my new easel.. well I should say - finally went out and bought a new easel! I used to have a pretty big wood easel that I built with a friend while we were in college.  He was a hobby wood-worker, and he wanted to learn painting.. I needed an easel at the time, so we decided to make our own.  We came up with a pretty decent easel that lasted for years, not bad for a couple college kids. 

Here's my latest painting - with a little help from Bailey on the finishing touches.  I've been thinking about clouds lately and want to do some more cloudscapes.  Maybe not quite this intense, it's definitely a stretch!  These colors I think will probably knock people over.  But my kids sure love them! 

And Bailey was helping out with this one too..

She's getting into it! 

Related to pride & humility which I spoke about in my previous post, I sometimes wonder as I post whatever new painting I've done up to Facebook and eagerly anticipate the comments / compliments that might come..  if I'm not just trying to show off?  Am I just trying to gratify my pride?  Is posting up artwork just a way to fish for compliments and seek praise and validation?  Perhaps. There's probably some of that feeling there.  How is that different from putting up work on in a physical gallery and inviting everyone you know to come to the art show?

In my personal scripture study I've been reading lately about the importance of humility and the dangers of pride.  I think I probably haven't done the best job in the world of giving God more praise for what He has done for me.  When people give me compliments about my work, as they sometimes do - I usually just say "Thanks very much". I never deflect any of the praise to God, or even bring him up.   Even though the truth is, He has helped me in so many ways.