People – Page 26 – Sequim Daily Photo

Super Blood Moon

Tonight is an event for sky watchers. If you’re in the northern hemisphere there will be a “Super Blood Moon eclipse.” For us northerners it’s our Harvest Moon and the eclipse will be visible in North America and western Europe and Africa. In the southern hemisphere it’s the first full moon of spring and the eclipse will be visible primarily in South America. The link I provided here has a link for the times of the eclipse by location.

Last night’s moon didn’t have the drama of an eclipse or the closeness we’ll achieve tonight. But it wasn’t too shabby either.

A winning artist

The last Paint the Peninsula competitor that I met on Tuesday was Susan Ogilvie, the winner of the inaugural competition in 2013. Susan is from Port Ludlow, about an hour’s drive from Sequim, and has visited the Dungeness Recreation Area often. She teaches art workshops in the U.S., Canada, and Italy. When I met Susan she was working on her second piece of the day, a pastel.

Here’s the unfinished pastel and the view. Susan had just begun adding color to her work.

Susan showed me this oil painting that she had finished earlier in the day. Artists in the competition framed their finished work. Work completed in the competition is for sale. In previous years painting ranged from $325 to $2,400.

Here’s the camera view.

Over the last five days I’ve provided links to each artist’s website and been impressed with the high calibre of artistic quality and expression. If you’ve got time, scroll around and have a look.

Za’s view

Meet Yer Za Vue – Za to her friends – another of the artists in the Paint the Peninsula competition who I met as she painted at Dungeness Recreation Area on Tuesday. Za lives and works in Portland, Oregon. In addition to her painting and illustration background she is also an animator and worked for Disney for over 10 years.

Here was Za’s canvas as she neared completion.

Za’s work reminded me of the liberty an artist has that a photographer doesn’t…unless, of course, we work obsessively in Photoshop. This was Za’s view. Her artistry included the area but overlooked the parking lot and cars that my camera recorded.

More outdoor art

W. Jason Situ is the third plein air artist I met from the Paint the Peninsula competition on Tuesday. Like yesterday’s artist Clement Kwan, he is originally from the People’s Republic of China. He and Kwan are longtime friends enjoying an opportunity to paint together on the Olympic Peninsula. Jason lives in El Monte, California.

Here is the canvas that Jason was working on when we met. I was struck by his mastery of the day’s subtle light and colors.

My camera caught this image from his vantage.

Remembering the events of 9/11 on this anniversary.

Another outdoor vision

Clement Kwan was the second plein air artist I met at the Dungeness Recreation Area on Tuesday, a participant in the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s Paint the Peninsula competition. Clement received early art training in China and emigrated to Canada 35 years ago. He is a resident of Victoria, B.C. and shows his art there. Like all the artists I met, Clement was warm, friendly, and engaging.

Here’s is what Clement was working on when I met him. He had started, like the other painters I met, when the day was sunny. While other painters focused on the expansive landscape of the area, Clement found beauty in the branches of a nearby tree.

Here’s what my camera saw. I definitely prefer his version!

Painting the Peninsula

The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is hosting a “Paint the Peninsula” competition this week. Twenty six plein air artists (literally, “in the open air”) have come to town to paint and compete as they create artistic expressions of the great outdoors of the Olympic Peninsula. They came to the Dungeness Recreation Area yesterday and I visited with five of them as they worked. I’ll introduce you to the five I met, along with their work, in the coming days.

I met Jane Wallis, above, first. She has come to the competition from Poulsbo which is about an hour from Sequim. She works in oils, pastels, and watercolor.

Jane did a pen and ink sketch of her intended work before she pulled out the paint.

Here’s a closer look at her canvas. All the artists I met worked on a small scale. They bring paint and canvases for nearly a week’s work so size matters. The artists’ works are hung after they’re produced each day and are on sale at the Fine Arts Center.

Here is my camera’s perspective of Jane’s view. I arrived mid-afternoon and missed the sun all the artists enjoyed earlier in the day.

Low flow

The local paper had a headline Friday that read “Area rivers at historic low flows.”

Though our rainfall last winter was almost normal rainfall the snowfall in our mountains was pitifully meager – 7 percent of average. And that snowpack feeds the regional rivers.

River flows are low and warm and mortality rates are high for our spawning salmon. Two Olympic Peninsula rivers, the Elwah and Calawah, were measured at their lowest flow rate for the month of June in 117 years. All of our rivers are now flowing at rates more typical of late summer or early autumn.