Ft. Steilacoom Trail Run

A few years ago I got heavily into trail running and began doing about a dozen organized runs a year, mostly half marathon or 25k distance but up to 50k and down to 5 miles.   This year, however, I got injured and have mostly sat the year out.   I still go to events and take a lot of photos so decided to try a painting from the last event I shot.   The Ft. Steilacoom run put on by Evergreen Trail Runs is a fun and fast course with distances from 5k to 50k. This year it was a perfect day to run, there was fog but no rain and the temps were cool, great running weather.  Also good photography weather since the lighting was very even.   I liked this shot of the somewhat out of focus background and he crisp focus on the runner and tree at the top of a small rise.

While I liked the photo, not too happy with this painting.  I have left figures and man-made objects out of all my paintings so far because you can mess up on nature itself and things still look good for the most part.  You mess up a human and it is pretty apparent.   Hard to get the right amount of detail vs abstraction on the form in such a small painting.  Oh well, I tried and I think I’ll keep figures out of the rest of my work for the challenge.

Last Run on the Methow

Every year when we visit Mazama I try to get out and fish this run which is one of my favorite on the Methow River and one of the last runs available to fish on the river before the river closes upstream of the bridge crossing on Hwy 20 just west of Goat Creek Road.  I’ve caught my best cutthroat in this run, I thought it was a steelhead the way it grabbed the fly and took off on a run.   Turned out to be a 20+” cutthroat when I got it to the net, that was a  few years back and I probably would not have landed that fish this year on tenkara in the river.

Back to acrylic today.  With less than two weeks to go until the drop-off I think I’m sticking to that medium for the rest of the challenge.

Meadowdale Beach

In the spring and early summer I spend a lot of time fishing beaches in mid-Puget Sound, especially from Carkeek Park to Picnic Point.   One of my favorites is Meadowdale Beach.  The beach is a 1.5 mile hike down a fairly steep gulch so there aren’t many people who want to trudge down it in waders carrying gear, not to mention going back up.   Lund’s Gulch Creek goes through a tunnel under the rail tracks and then winds its way though the sand and gravel on the beach to the Sound.   Often the best searun cutthroat fishing is found just north of the creek outflow past the first bar on the beach.

Another oil painting with heavy use of fast drying medium, hopefully it dries in a few days.   Very limited palette on this one – titanium white, ultramarine blue, burnt umber and a small amount of sap green and alizarin crimson.

Methow from River Run Trail

I seem stuck in the Methow Valley right now and also still stuck with oils.  Another one from our hike along the Jack’s/River Run loop in August.  The  Methow River along with the western portion of Goat Wall.  I just love that wall and how well it can be painted with thick oil paint strokes.  I had thought about doing this in acrylic but knew I’d never be able to get the same texture and feel with the thinner paint.  I had a bit of trouble with the foreground trees, didn’t like the coloring on them.  I went into Daniel Smith to buy some more fast drying medium and a few brushes so picked up some viridian and did a glaze over top with it, much better.

Goat Wall from Riverview Trail

Our family vacation in Mazama this year was a bit different than every previous one.  Late August, weather should be perfect, right?  Not this year, it rained every day and we had to just take advantage of any break in the rain to get out and hike.  One morning the group split up with some walking to the Mazama Store, some biking the Valley trail and Catherine and I decided to walk the big loop of Jack’s/River Run trails up from the lodge.   We started out in rain jackets and ended in sun.  We walked through the meadow on Riverview just as it was starting to clear up and got this view of Goat Wall.

Had to do this one in oil, I wanted to be able to use big thick strokes to do the wall.  Probably my last chance to use oils now that the challenge is half way done so I knew this had to be today’s painting.

Lake Patterson View

In the spring we took a trip to Sun Mountain and did most of the 50k running route there over the course of two long days of hiking.   I had done the Mt. Gardner from View Ridge Trail painting on Day 2 from this trip.   Each day we took the main trail out of the lodge and headed south towards the lake, this view is either from the Sunnyside or Lakeview trail, not exactly sure which one.  Everything was still  very green in the spring with wildflowers blossoming everywhere, a perfect time to be up in the Methow Valley.   I even managed to get out in the float tube the evening of this hike and caught a few trout in Patterson Lake.

Another acrylic and this one gave me some grief.  Yesterday I had it started and when I started applying color to the hills I didn’t like it and put it aside.  I picked it up again today and managed to scrub off a lot of the areas I didn’t like using hot water and some vigorous brushing.  I started applying new color and ended up happier with the way it turned out.  A very green painting which is never easy.

Mt. Teneriffe from Tanner Landing

A view from one of my many fishing trips to Tanner Landing this fall.   The big open field in the park is great, from it you can look south to Rattlesnake Mountain (Fall at Tanner Landing from Day 8), directly north to Mt. Si, northeast to Mt. Teneriffe and straight east to all the mountains up Snoqualmie Pass.

This one was done with acrylic which I’ll probably be using from here on out to be sure that things dry in time.  I had actually started a different piece for today but quickly ran into problems with it so decided to go back to a new painting and let that one sit a bit before finishing it up.  First day I’ve had to just change gears but it was the right decision.

Middle Fork Fall

Back to the Middle Fork for today’s painting, to what became one of my favorite late fall runs on the river.   The two braids coming together here created perfect habitat for fairly good sized cutthroat and rainbows plus a few mountain whitefish and all were willing to grab kebari until at least late into October.

I did this piece in oils when I was “in training” for the challenge but wasn’t too happy with the piece so I decided to do it again in acrylic and see if I got any better results that way.  I actually like the acrylic version better than the oils but I also spent a lot more time on it.

Rattlesnake Mountain Fog

Still in the fog, what’s a painter to do but paint fog.   On Friday Catherine and I did a long walk through the Redmond Watershed in the fog and at one point just stopped, held each other and looked up through the trees into the foggy sky.  On Saturday Kristen and I took a hike on Rattlesnake Mountain up past Stan’s Overlook.  The fog was thick the whole time we were on the mountain and this spot was just above Stan’s Overlook where the uphill trees were almost disappearing into the fog.

My first vertical painting of the challenge and back to oils today.  I just don’t know if it is possible to do fog in acrylic since they dry so fast and don’t allow the wet in wet painting to get the fog effect.  I’ll do a bit more darkening on the foreground  and the closer trees in a few days when this dries up a bit, too wet now to get it much darker.