John Tubbs - Starting Art Late in Life

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my website/blog.  I am a landscape and nature (with a particular interest in birds) artist whose primary medium is oil.  Additionally, I work in watercolor and soft pastels, and do a lot of nature and journal sketching in various other media including graphite, gouache and pen and wash.  Paintings seen here are generally available for sale - please contact me through this site for information. 

In October of 2011, I started a 'daily painting' routine, the goal of which is to paint one small (usually 6 x 8 inch) painting per day (mostly in oils) whenever possible.  The blog which includes all those paintings can be found at - http://johntubbs.typepad.com/100_daily_paintings.  Although the title says 100, I hope to produce over 300 in the next year. 

Categories of posts and images are listed on the right hand side of this page - if you click on any of those categories, only those posts related to that topic will be brought up on the screen, newest post first.

I just started painting (or doing any visual art at all except photography) in March of 2008, so still have a ton to learn.  However, I have essentially made painting my focus in life at this point, so have been coming up the learning curve reasonably quickly.  (I hope!)

Thanks again for visiting!

Portrait Sketches

Here are a few recent portrait sketches.  I've been focusing a bit more on my drawing, and will be doing so over the remainder of the winter.  There are a three Da Vinci sketch copies here (should be obvious which ones from the style), one from a photo in 'A Day in the Life of Hawaii' photography book, and one from the title page of an Outside magazine.  The last one was done on 11 x 14 inch Fabriano drawing/watercolor paper, while the first three are in a Stillman and Birn 11 x 8.5 inch Alpha sketchbook.

 

Cooper's Hawk Head and Talon Studies

This adult Cooper's Hawk landed in our yard two days ago, looking to grab one of the small birds that frequent our birdfeeders.  It was unsuccessful in this particular hunting venture, but did sit still long enough for me to get some very good reference photos before it flew off.  I used those photos as references for these headshot and talon sketches.  The sketches in total (for the whole page, in an A4 Moleskine sketchbook, about 8.5 x 11 inches) took about an hour and were done with permanent ink using Pigman Micron pens.

Recent Landscapes - Oil

Haven't been keeping up with loading images here very well recently.  Here are some recent pieces.  The first 2 are 12 x 12 inch oils done as a request from a local arts organization for artists to donate pictures for a fundraising dinner and auction.  The organization supplied everyone a 12 x 12 canvas.  I completed the first and they asked if I would do another, so finished the second one pretty quickly and am hoping it dries in time for delivering in a few days. 

 

 

The next four are all 9 x 12 plein air pieces done in two to three hours each, at a workshop I took in September on the Oregon coast.  The first one is Cascade Head, from the Salmon River estuary.

 

The next is also painted at the same estuary, but looking upriver (at fairly low tide) instead of toward the ocean in the first one.

 

The next one was painted at Neskowin Beach, looking south. 

 

The final one (which I didn't quite finish in the sky part of the painting) is a Sitka spruce grove.  Sitka spruce are strange trees - very craggy, unelegant limbs popping out every which way. 

 

Plein Air Oil Paintings

Wow - I've been busy with a bunch of stuff and haven't posted anything here since April.  So here are some plein air oil paintings done over the last month or so. 

The first one here is technically not a plein air piece, as it was done from a reference photo and a plein air sketch that I made on a recent raft trip to central Oregon.  It is of the Metolius River near Sisters, Oregon.  9 x 12 inches on canvas board, about two hours in it. 

 

The next one was done at Gold Creek in Snoqualmie Pass, WA, on a weekly plein air outing with the local art assocation.  9 x 12 oils on canvas board.

 

The next one is of a barn in Carnation, WA looking toward the Cascades.  Done with the weekly plein air group.  9 x 12 oils on canvas board.

 

The following one was done during a plein air paintout In Snoqualmie, WA during this year's annual Railroad Days festival.  It is of the Snoqualmie River looking upriver toward Mount Si.  9 x 12 inches on canvas board in oils.

 

The final one of this batch was done yesterday at Three Forks natural area near Snoqualmie, WA.  Again it was with the weekly plein air group outing.  9 x 12 inches on canvas board in oils.

 

Sage Thrasher and Sage Sparrow

These two quick drawings are in graphite from photo references.  Both these species are sage-steppe habitat birds, and except for breeding season when the males are singing on territories they are skulky and are tough to find and see.  In breeding season, they are quite the opposite - visible and singing their heads off.  These sketches are 10 x 8 inch in a Robert Bateman sketchbook.

 

 

Deschutes River Canyon complete, Grand Teton Aspens

The final version of the Deschutes River Canyon piece - 18 x 24 inches in oil - is here, with a few adjustments from the previous post.  I like this area and am pleased with the piece, but also intend to do multiple other versions of this particular location.  The second piece in this post is Grand Teton Aspens, a 12 x 9 inch oil painting done alla prima (painted in one session) with about two hours in it. 

 

 

Short-eared Owl - Graphite

This is a quick drawing done this evening from a reference photo.  It is 9 x 12 in graphite on Mi Tientes pastel paper.  This is a fun species of owl to observe, in that it often hunts in daytime.  It is a winter visitor to our area. 

 

American Crow and Deschutes Cliffs

Here is an updated WIP onthe Deschutes Cliffs 18 x 24 inch oil piece.  This version is close to being done (it might actually be, I need to let it rest a few days and look at it again).  The other piece is a 9 x 12 graphite on Mi Tientes paper of an American Crow from reference photo I took in our back yard a year or so ago. 

 

 
 

Deschutes River Canyon and Oregon Coast Landscapes with Birds - Oil

Here are two almost-finished (perhaps fully finished -haven't decided yet...!) oil versions of quicker watercolor studies I did and posted here previously.  Both these are 18 x 24 inches on stretched canvas.  The Deschutes River canyon is in central Oregon, and is high desert country.  The painting with the Great Egrets was based on reference photos taken while doing plein air painting at the mouth of the Salmon River on the Oregon Coast. 

 

 

Deschutes Canyon Cliffs

This is a watercolor, 11 x 14 inches, of a view looking downriver in the Deschutes River canyon in central Oregon.  This is high desert country, and a favorite place of mine, where I've done an annual float trip with two friends each of the last 25 years.  It is a wonderfully wild and beautiful place.

 

White-breasted Nuthatch

This is a quick watercolor study, about 9 x 7 inches, that I did last night based on a Birds and Blooms magazine photo.  We have Red-breasted Nuthatches in our immediate area - to get White-breasted we would need to visit different areas of our state, although a couple years ago a White-breasted Nuthatch showed up in our town for a few days and drew quite the crowd of admirers.

 

Steller's Jay Watercolor Sketch

This bird is our west coast version of the official east coast Blue Jay.  This is in watercolor in a 7 x 9" ringbound watercolor notebook.  The reference used is a photo I took in SW Washington state a couple years ago.