My new signature stamp

With only eight painting days left of the 30-Day Challenge I knew I had to make a decision – to sign or not to sign.   I used to always sign my paintings with “T.Harris” but a few years ago after seeing the Richter show I stopped signing my work on the front.   Plus, with small canvases I didn’t want to try and write my old signature, it would take up too much space.  What to do?

Catherine suggested I come up with a stamp.  I had thought previously about signing in katakana since I had planned to do all the paintings based on my tenkara adventures and I thought it would be cool to have the tenkara テ in there.   Today I played around with a few options.  I could do basically my initials in katakana which would be テハ, basically Ti-Ha, close to my old email address at Microsoft.   Or, I could do my first name in katakana – ティム.  

I also thought about Catherine’s stamp idea.  One of my painting instructors at the Academy was Milo Duke who had a cool stamp-like signature with a stylized M and D.   I checked out the paintings of his we had at the house and decided to try something similar.  I did a few sketches and finally got one I liked.   After running all the ideas by Catherine I decided to go with the stamp and today finally signed all the work I had done.   Now to start adding all the info on the back of the panels and finish the last paintings, drop off is only 10 days away.

Source Lake

This year I had a quest to fish the length of the South Fork or at least most of it.   I had fished most of the middle section of water but still hadn’t made it to the headwaters or the mouth.   In early September, Catherine and I did the 2.5 mile hike up from Snoqualmie Pass to the headwaters of the South Fork at Source Lake.   The hike doesn’t actually end at the small lake but above it with a  great view of the lake and the Cascades receding to the horizon.  This is the view from the trail’s end.

I finally think I’m getting a better feel for acrylics now that the challenge is about over.  There are definitely parts of this piece I’m really happy with and I finally think I got the receding colors correct.   I tried a slightly different technique of some washes that then built up a bit more on this painting and will probably continue this way for the remaining eight paintings.

Middle Fork at Pratt Confluence

On a very nice day in June Catherine and I headed out the potholed Middle Fork Road to hike along the Middle Fork to the Pratt River confluence.   This was one of my first hikes after my injury and it was great to be out in the mountains.  We chose this hike since it is relatively flat, more or less following the Middle Fork downstream to the Pratt River.   Of course, once we got to the Pratt I had to get out and fish, I’d packed my tenkara rod along.   I did manage to get some small cutthroat in this section of water and it was to be my last visit of the year that far up the fork.

This one gave me a bit of grief.  The mountains in the background kept being too dark so finally I tried a wash of a light mix of ultramarine, burnt umber and white and then mixed it in to the under layer, it more or less worked.   Acrylic is difficult at times since it dries darker than it is wet, hard to touch up and get the color right.

Freestone Lake

The Freestone Inn at Wilson Ranch is a place that our family has been going to for over a decade.  Each year Catherine and I rent a small cabin along Early Winters Creek for 4-5 days and spend our time hiking and, of course, I fish.  Each August we rent the Steelhead Lodge home and have the entire family up for a week on the lake.   This year we had a lot of gray skies with rain and fog instead of the usual crystal clear blue.

This is the view from the far end of the lake, a spot that Cadence liked to fish from because she could get out on the rocks and to the deep water where the bigger trout were cruising around.   The main inn is straight down the lake from these rocks.  The photo actually had Cadence fishing but after my runner issues yesterday I didn’t want to chance another figure and mess the painting up.   I did this one in acrylic as I will do all the rest of the paintings, only 10 to go!

Ft. Steilacoom Trail Run

A few years ago I got heavily into trail running and began doing about a dozen organized runs a year, mostly half marathon or 25k distance but up to 50k and down to 5 miles.   This year, however, I got injured and have mostly sat the year out.   I still go to events and take a lot of photos so decided to try a painting from the last event I shot.   The Ft. Steilacoom run put on by Evergreen Trail Runs is a fun and fast course with distances from 5k to 50k. This year it was a perfect day to run, there was fog but no rain and the temps were cool, great running weather.  Also good photography weather since the lighting was very even.   I liked this shot of the somewhat out of focus background and he crisp focus on the runner and tree at the top of a small rise.

While I liked the photo, not too happy with this painting.  I have left figures and man-made objects out of all my paintings so far because you can mess up on nature itself and things still look good for the most part.  You mess up a human and it is pretty apparent.   Hard to get the right amount of detail vs abstraction on the form in such a small painting.  Oh well, I tried and I think I’ll keep figures out of the rest of my work for the challenge.

Last Run on the Methow

Every year when we visit Mazama I try to get out and fish this run which is one of my favorite on the Methow River and one of the last runs available to fish on the river before the river closes upstream of the bridge crossing on Hwy 20 just west of Goat Creek Road.  I’ve caught my best cutthroat in this run, I thought it was a steelhead the way it grabbed the fly and took off on a run.   Turned out to be a 20+” cutthroat when I got it to the net, that was a  few years back and I probably would not have landed that fish this year on tenkara in the river.

Back to acrylic today.  With less than two weeks to go until the drop-off I think I’m sticking to that medium for the rest of the challenge.

Meadowdale Beach

In the spring and early summer I spend a lot of time fishing beaches in mid-Puget Sound, especially from Carkeek Park to Picnic Point.   One of my favorites is Meadowdale Beach.  The beach is a 1.5 mile hike down a fairly steep gulch so there aren’t many people who want to trudge down it in waders carrying gear, not to mention going back up.   Lund’s Gulch Creek goes through a tunnel under the rail tracks and then winds its way though the sand and gravel on the beach to the Sound.   Often the best searun cutthroat fishing is found just north of the creek outflow past the first bar on the beach.

Another oil painting with heavy use of fast drying medium, hopefully it dries in a few days.   Very limited palette on this one – titanium white, ultramarine blue, burnt umber and a small amount of sap green and alizarin crimson.

Methow from River Run Trail

I seem stuck in the Methow Valley right now and also still stuck with oils.  Another one from our hike along the Jack’s/River Run loop in August.  The  Methow River along with the western portion of Goat Wall.  I just love that wall and how well it can be painted with thick oil paint strokes.  I had thought about doing this in acrylic but knew I’d never be able to get the same texture and feel with the thinner paint.  I had a bit of trouble with the foreground trees, didn’t like the coloring on them.  I went into Daniel Smith to buy some more fast drying medium and a few brushes so picked up some viridian and did a glaze over top with it, much better.

Goat Wall from Riverview Trail

Our family vacation in Mazama this year was a bit different than every previous one.  Late August, weather should be perfect, right?  Not this year, it rained every day and we had to just take advantage of any break in the rain to get out and hike.  One morning the group split up with some walking to the Mazama Store, some biking the Valley trail and Catherine and I decided to walk the big loop of Jack’s/River Run trails up from the lodge.   We started out in rain jackets and ended in sun.  We walked through the meadow on Riverview just as it was starting to clear up and got this view of Goat Wall.

Had to do this one in oil, I wanted to be able to use big thick strokes to do the wall.  Probably my last chance to use oils now that the challenge is half way done so I knew this had to be today’s painting.