John Tubbs - Starting Art Late in Life

Central Oregon Landscapes - Plein Air Pastels

In the first week of August this year, I went on my 25th annual float trip down the Deschutes River in Central Oregon with two buddies from a company we all worked at together.  Before the actual float trip started, I took a day and did two plein air pastels.  Both are 9x12" approximately and were done in about two hours each.  The first one is of a typical scene from the Metolius River, a gorgeous spring-sourced river west of Sisters, Oregon.  The river has a number of half-submerged logs, and because it is spring-fed, the river level is quite stable and doesn't tend to disturb these features.  Consequently many of them have grasses and other plants growing on them, as in this painting.

 

The next painting is looking south toward two of the three 'Sisters' after which the town of Sisters is named.  The mountains are North, Middle and South Sisters and North and Middle are the two shown in this painting.  This was done from a meadow preserve near Sisters.

 

River Rocks and South Fork of the Snoqualmie River

Here are two recent pieces, both done from scenes on the Snoqualmie River near my house.  The first one is a simple study in oil paints on an 8 x 10" canvas board - the subject is a group of rocks and the surrounding water.  This was painted from a photo taken on a stretch of the river downstream from famous Snoqualmie Falls.  The second piece is a 9 x 12" piece done in soft pastels on location (plein air) on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River, in a two hour session on a glorious sunny and warm morning. 

RIVER ROCKS - STUDY

SOUTH FORK OF THE SNOQUALMIE RIVER - PASTELS

 

Fir Island Slough and Olympic Mountains - pastels

This piece is 9x12" on Wallis paper, done plein air during a 9-day workshop through LaConner Art Workshops in Mount Vernon, WA. 

Beaver Lake Lily Pads - Plein Air

This is a 9 x 12" painting in soft pastels on Wallis paper.  It was done in a couple of hours in the morning, which was cool, with low clouds and mist so the image has an overall dark value structure.  I was fortunate to just finish a 9-day pastel plein air workshop with Richard McKinely, who is an outstaning painter and instructor.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Colored Pencil

Everybody loves chickadees, but many people don't realize that there are multiple species in North America.  One of the four species we have in my home state is the Chestnut-backed Chickadee, due to the chestnut color on their back and flanks.  These birds tend to hang around coniferous forest in preference to deciduous trees.

Gary D - pastels

This is another, larger portrait of Gary my fellow band member.  This was done in a couple of hours and is about 18x18" on Strathmore charcoal paper with soft pastels. 

Autumn Pond - pastels

This painting is 8x10" done on a tan Pastelbord surface, using Unison pastels.  It was done pretty quickly - a little over two hours.  The reference image is from WetCanvas.com's February landscape monthly challenge thread. 

Canadian Snow Scene - pastels

This is a 12x16" snow scene done with soft pastels on white Pastelmat paper.  I haven't done much work with snow, so handling the colors of the snow was a challenge here.  I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out, although it was a learning experience for the next one - as every painting is...!

Joshua Tree Sunrise - pastels

This painting is the first piece I've done in pastels for several months.  It is 12x16" on sienna colored Pastelmat.  The reference was a photo I took several years ago on a photography trip to Joshua Tree Nation Park.  I was out before sunrise on that trip every day looking for scenes like this where I could silhouette a joshua tree against the rising sun.  This resulted in some nice photos.  The foreground colors in this work (orange and blue in particular) show up in the photo as more intense than they actually are - probably because the photo was taken with flash.  Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how this came out.

CALIFORNIA FOOTHILLS

This is 9x12" done in soft pastels on Colourfix sanded paper using Unison, Great American, Rembrandt and a few NuPastels.  I am trying to improve on atmospheric perspective (and perspective in general) and so have been focused on that in the last two pastels I've done.  In this one, perhaps I lightened and cooled the distant hills a little too quickly or too much...?  This was done from a photo reference from WetCanvas.com's April monthly landscape challenge thread. 

Old Building in Field

This is 9x12" on Colourfix paper using Unison, NuPastel and Great American soft pastels. 

Rolling Hills

This is a 9x12" done on Colourfix paper with soft pastels.  I focused on keeping the foreground relatively loose and in using atmospheric perspective for the more distant hills. 

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. 

Stillwater Bog

This is a quick 9x12 done this evening from a snapshot taken while walking the dog this afternoon.  Near our house, this unusual bog (for our area anyway) has been preserved and an observation platform built out into the bog along with educational signs.  The color palette for this image was purposely varied from the dull winter tones that we have for much of the rainy season.  This was done mainly for some quick practice with a reduced number of pastels set up for plein air - my first attempt using them.  The background is a bit funky, but at least I tried to be looser than my tendency to provide way too much detail.  However, I do like how the snag and the closer trees turned out.  A critique on WetCanvas.com noted conflicting info about the light - the foreground evergreens appear backlit (rim lighting) but the shadows show the sun coming from the upper right.  For some reason, this isn't too far off from the situation that actually existed there, although dulling down the shaded side of the tree somewhat would give a more believable depiction.  It's tough to divorce my photography background from my painting approach - it's OK to change reality in painting, whereas in photography, you're generally trying to capture reality as accurately as possible. 

Root Cellar - Okanogan Country

This image was painted using soft pastels.  The image is of a root cellar found on a recent birding trip to the Okanogan highlands and Waterville Plateau areas of Washington state - an area which has good winter species of birds for this area of the country.  There was about eight inches of fresh snow overnight and the scene was well lit with low angle winter sunlight.  I liked this image well enough to post it, but it has problems.  I believe there should be more color in the snow shadow areas, although when painting it I tried not to put too much color in the snow, as there wasn't that much in the actual scene itself.  However, with the dark wood and stones in the root cellar, the white snow is really too much contrast with the dark mass in the center.  Done on 9x12" Canson watercolor paper with NuPastel, Rembrandt and Unison soft pastels. 

Canola Field - Palouse

This image is my second attempt at using soft pastels.  The painting is taken from a photo I took several years ago in June during the time when the canola fields are in bloom.  The Palouse area is famous at this time of year (and in late summer during the wheat harvest) as a photographer and painter's hotspot for the patterns and shapes created by the agriculture combined with the unique geography of the region.  My current challenges in landscape art are apparent here as well - the use of atmospheric or aerial perspective is lacking - the distant ridges are too detailed, too intense and too warm in color temp to recede as much as they should.  I'm fighting my photography background - in nature photography, one generally tries hard to capture as much detail in the scene as possible.  In painting, certainly in watercolors anyway, too much detail detracts from the image.