John Tubbs - Starting Art Late in Life

North and Middle Sisters - Cascade Mountains, Oregon

This 9x12" watercolor shows North Sister and Middle Sister from a vantage point near Sisters, Oregon.  South Sister is not visible from this outlook.  I will try painting this scene again later, but I think this is one of my more successful paintings in my very limited 'career' to date...LOL.  The photo reference, a photo I took following a section hike on the Pacific Crest Trail a few years ago, is pretty dark overall, since it was early morning when the image was taken.  The foreground rocks were the toughest thing to paint in this image.  Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out relative to my current (beginning) abilities. 

Deschutes River - Davidson Flat Riffles

This is a 9x12" watercolor using a reference photo from my annual float trip down the Deschutes River in central Oregon, just a big upstream from Davidson Flats for those who may be familiar with the river.  I'm definitely going tmake at least one more try at this image.  I like the scene because it is so typical of the Deschutes, but here I got too carried away with detail (the hardest thing for me to avoid doing with my paintings so far) and I also think the depiction of the river can be improved.  Overall, though, it's better than I could have done a couple of months ago. 

Palouse Canola Field and Farm

This pastels painting was done from a photo I took several years ago on a photography workshop in the Palouse region of eastern Washington state.  This area is a very productive dryland wheat farming area, but also grows canola.  The canola blooms bright yellow, and in the spring when the canola fields are adjacent to the green wheat fields, and both are set in the unique rolling topography of this area, some really spectacular photo and painting scenes are created.  My beginning level with pastels and art doesn't really do this scene justice, but ever painting I do teaches me some more (I hope it sticks!). 

Deschutes River - Kaskela

This image was done in Susan Ogilvie's week-long workshop in March of '09.  It worked ok for my current beginning skill level.  I am biased about this image, however, because it has a lot of personal meaning.  Two friends and I have taken an annual float trip down the Deschutes River in central Oregon for many years (the summer of '09 will be our 24th annual trip) and the riffle depicted here by the small island is a favorite fishing spot on that trip.  I decided to put in the figure of my friend Ken fishing the riffle, even though trying to depict figures with my current skill level poses a very big challenge.  Susan said to keep it impressionistic, just 'suggesting' the form of a fisherman and not using too much detail.  Overall I liked how it came out, though depicting flowing water continues to be a challenge. 

Cascade Marsh

This image is 12x18" on gator board with an acrylic underpainting and hand-done pumice gel surface.  The painting was done during a Susan Ogilvie workshop.  Susan is an excellent instructor and the week was definitely worth attending.  I like how this one turned out overall - the background trees recede nicely and I like the pallette.  Lots more learning to do, however, especially with soft pastels - this is only about the fifth or sixth pastel image I've painted. 

Landscape - New York Field

This is another watercolor about 8x10" done pretty quickly with an attempt to be fairly loose in style. The reference photo is one of three in the March WetCanvas.com landscape channel monthly contest.  Arches 140# CP paper using Daniel Smith paints.  Although this is a pretty basic scene, I think it is my most successful watercolor landscape to date - the distant trees and ridge aren't too detailed, the sky reads pretty well and the perspective works ok. 

Moored Boat at Sunset

This is an 8x10 oil pastel painting of a reference photo used on WetCanvas.com's March monthly oil pastel forum challenge.  Oil pastels are challenging when it comes to rendering small detailed (like the rigging lines on the boat).  Overall, I like how this came out given that it was done fairly quickly. 

Early Autumn Field - Syracuse, NY

This image is about 7x10" on Arches 140# paper, in watercolor.  The reference photo is from the March challenge in the landscape forum on WetCanvas.com.  I succeeded in making the background trees a little looser than my typically too-detailed approach, though I probably overdid the 'scoring' technique to suggest some tree trunks.  The perspective on the water is off as well - it does not look flat enough.  However, the overall pallette and feel I've gotten on the image I'm happy with.

Yellow Lab Puppy

This is my first attempt at an animal portrait, and it was a challenge.  This is done in oil pastels on bristol vellum paper about 9x12".  The image is a reference image from the March WetCanvas.com oil pastels March challenge forum.   I was pleased with how the pup turned out overall, since I am definitely NOT a portrait artist.  The obvious problem with the image is that his nose is too far to the left - it needs to be further to the viewer's right to be consistne with the rest of the head. 

Sunset on the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park

This painting is 9x12" and was done from a reference photo taken of a spectacular sunset in the Fiery Furnace area of Arches National Park several years ago.  We were on a trip through that area and happened to be in this area for the magic last five or ten minutes of light which lit up the red rock with amazing color under a great sky. 

March 25, 09 looking back...

The sky has some hard edges to it that should have been softened.  Otherwise, I like it pretty well and couldn't do it much better than this given my current skill level