Chena River

Beaver Dam

May 23, 2014 by alaskanraven

I drove thirty nine miles out of town this week and did an oil ‘sketch’ of a pond and beaver dam. Painting is a great excuse to sit quietly and enjoy the landscape while surrounded by bird songs and watching ducks float by. The light kept changing as the sun hid or came out from behind the clouds. I was intrigued by this beaver construction but didn’t get to see the architect that day.

Last of the Ice

May 6, 2014 by alaskanraven

I finished one of my paintings from the North Fork of the Chena in the studio last week. I needed to adjust the colors and brushstrokes a little bit since it’s hard to see when I’m painting on location.
The blue water and deep shadows contrasting with the bright white ice attracted me to the subject. I wanted to paint the ‘last of the ice’. It melted as I painted so I had to move fast. The muted orangeish-red tones of the willow and alder contrasted nicely with the dark spruce.

Painting Plein Air
April 23, 2014
Spent the day at the North Fork of the Chena watching ice flow by while painting. 39.4 Chena Hot Springs Road. Warm sunshine and huge mosquitoes. The first mosquitoes are very slow so it wasn’t too bothersome. It was a perfectly beautiful day.

Shipment arrives

“Sterling, look at that!” “Look at what, Felix?” “That huge box. From Canada.” “Looks like the artist received another shipment of Kroma paint. Watch, she’ll spend the rest of the day arranging it in her studio. All those tubes of paint go in some sort of order.” “Paint? What is that?” “Paint is color. She […]

Edges are important

“Sterling, What is the artist doing now?” “What do you mean, Felix?” “She spends lots of time brushing paint on the sides of her painting. The edges. You know what I mean?” “She makes changes on it when she changes the front of the painting. The sides appear to be important to her.” “But why?” […]

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