Railroad Crossing

I thought this scene had a sweet Virginia Lee Burton vibe to it.

Pen, Ink wash, white ink, white gouache on toned paper 4" x 6"

French Easel Palette

 Many years ago I made a palette to go with my french easel (the one that came with it was hopeless) out of Masonite impregnated with stand oil. It was OK but I never really liked how it took the paint and in recent years I've come to prefer a glass or plexiglass surface with a neutral gray background to brown wood. So I made a sandwich with thin acrylic sheeting and gray paper on the original palette. It takes the paint and cleans up nicely; back in the box and ready for use.

The Van Horn Park peninsula

 The Van Horn Park peninsula seen from the far side of the pond. It was a gray day, but the colors still had a nice glow.

Watercolor in MontanaPolitanCroptic sketchbook, 4" x 6"

Backstop in Snow

 Oil Sketch of backstop in snow, first time out after fitting my small cigar box pochade with a handle so I could hold it aloft like a plasterer's hawk. The handle came with a #bestbrella but I never had occasion to use it so I ripped out its brella screw and replaced with a 1/4" 20 to fit the t-nut already in place for tripod mounting. @judyendless got a nice shot of me using it. I also made a mini version of a #PaletteGarage from a Rotring pen box (#PaletteCigarage). It all worked well, except that I belatedly realized that my custom of cleaning one palette knife with another palette knife was impossible now that I had to do everything with one hand. So I found a piece of extruded metal with nice flanges and made a one handed palette knife scraper. As is so often the case with accommodations, it turned to also be incredibly convenient even if you have two hands, so I installed them on my other pochade box, french easel, and palette table.

Van Horn Park Peninsula

The ice is melting and forming puddles on the surface. I tried an experiment with this, putting blue washes top and bottom fading into a rosy wash in the middle, before doing any painting. It had the effect of muting the greens, which is usually a good thing. 

Progress shot. Washes are partially visible.

Shed Roof

I love how the wind blowing snow off the roof reveals all the vortices and eddies created by the edge. The swirls and curlicues propagate out into 3-D space and each flake gets a wild roller coaster ride down to the ground. Judy took a photo of me at work, with my pochade box protected by ArtisticInTent, and a video from the kitchen window showing the snow blowing.

Landfill with snow and bulldozer

Ink wash and white ink on toned paper, inaugurating my new sketchbook. This appears to be a John Deere 550 model circa 1978.