DREW SKILLMAN drewskillman.com San Francisco early September View from the rooftop /Mission District
This is not an election related post. This is also not a cheerful post, or a motivating post. This is a post about one of the many events in 2020 that made it a year we all wish had never happened. This is a post about the smoke.
This last September, wildfires raged across California, Oregon, and Washington. Together, these fires contributed to the worst fire season on record; twice as destructive as previous records for fires. Nearly 6 million acres burned this summer. The smoke from Oregon colored our Seattle skies, and the masks that we were already wearing for the virus became more robust, now serving a second necessity: to help us breathe in the smoke filled air.
I asked League members to contribute artwork related to the smoke from those West coast fires. We received 61 entries. Below are some images from those submissions.
DREW SKILLMAN drewskillman.com San Francisco early September View from the rooftop /Mission DistrictLYDIA CHOY San Francisco 2pm My daughter in law took this photo from her patio at 10amSUSAN WAITE
“Smoke from the Fires”, 8 x 10, Acrylic on canvas paper IRIS TABOH Portland, OR September 15, 2020 The first time I’ve seen the sun in a week.
BARBARA L CHAPMAN www.chapman-art.com Edmonds 9/11/2020 What are we doing to the world?
CHERYL CHUDYK www.stitchpixie.com Kirkland, Wa CONNIE PIERSON “OFFICE VIEW” Kenmore “OFFICE VIEW”, Photo taken September 16, 2020, in the morning, from my office window. CONNIE PIERSON “SEPIA SKIES” Kenmore “SEPIA SKIES”, 2020. Mezzotint monoprint, hand colored. Image 4 x 6. A view of the sepia colored sky and the darkness of burnt things. SABINA BURD www.sabinaburd.com @sabinabarts Shoreline 9/13/202, early morning Early morning shot outside of my home….Smoke and Fog. FREDERICKA FOSTER www.frederickafoster.com Seattle Photoshopped to capture what I woke up to this morning, September 12, 2020
DAVID NEBERT IG @nebert.d Wallingford 9/12 @2:20-2:30pm
DAVID NEBERT IG @nebert.d Wallingford 9/12 @2:20-2:30pm
DAVID NEBERT IG @nebert.d Wallingford 9/12 @2:20-2:30pm
GUILLERMO GOMEZ Seattle Penn Cove, Whidbey Island Camping at a friends farm “escaping the smoke” Seabird in the smokey beach
GUILLERMO GOMEZ Seattle Penn Cove, Whidbey Island Camping at a friends farm “escaping the smoke” Smokey Beach
JEAN GORECKI Flowers in the smoky sky…
MEAGAN MURPHY meaganmurphy.org Capitol Hill Sept 12, 4pm at my studio at Inscape
JEAN GORECKI
TIFFANY M. SMITH Seattle, WA 9/12/20 7:10AM Departing
JAMIE MADISON after visiting friends’ homes that were lostJAMIE MADISON after visiting friends’ homes that were lostJAMIE MADISON www.jamiemadisonart.com Winters, CA – firescene September 3 Medium: charcoal from the fire, paper, paint on paper, 29” x 41” This is a painting that I did in the hills near my home. It is the site of a home that had just burned.KEITH PFEIFFER I drove around the city for about 20 minutes looking for the perfect spot to park my car, switch to the passenger seat, set my pochade box up on my lap, and start painting the yellow smoke covering the sky. It was boiling hot in my car with all the windows up so I had to paint FAST. No time for details! LISA ANDERSON IG: @lisaadesign website: www.lisaadesign.com Seattle Today’s Sun, 7” x 10”, watercolor This was my first site in the morning as I hunkered down for another day inside away from the smoke.
MIMI BOOTHBY Smoke and Doug Fir out my window Size:6 x 8”, watercolor on paper mmimitb @ instagram Seattle, WA SUZE WOOLF www.suzewoolf-fineart.com Seattle An imaginary sunset became fire on the mountain with billowing smoke
LUCY MAE VANZANDEN www.toddsmonuments.com Conway, Washington September 11, 2020, from my sandblasting booth, looking East
JERE SMITH “BOAT, LOPEZ ISLAND” jeresmith.com Seattle Lopez Island I realize that such images may smack of a kind of a kind of tone deaf inappropriateness these days but still, I’m captivated by this sort of thing––when beauty and nature’s volatility mix.
MAGDALENA WOSIK Instagram: szminkoholik Picture taken in Bellevue. Outside Dangers MAGDALENA WOSIK Instagram: szminkoholik Oil pastels and watercolor
JOAN STUART ROSS “LOW VISIBILITY” www.joanstuartross.com Seattle, Washington Low Visibility, 2020, 22×30”
JESS RAY “SMOKY GAS WORKS PARK” IG: wobblefincharts Seattle Reference picture taken 9/9/20 Smoky Gas Works Park from Eastlake
BARBARA GREENSWEIG “ORANGE SKY DURING COVID” www.bgreensweigart.com I live in Montara, CA (on the coast, north of Half Moon Bay, in the Bay Area) I took photos at 9:30am at a trail head in Montara on 9/10/20 when we were experiencing a bizarre color sky and almost darkness, and came home and did this painting, also looking at the color of the sky out my window! “Orange Sky During Covid” Oil on Linen 6×8” SUSAN WAITE “HAZY SUNDOWN” Painted September 9, plein air from Greenwood and N43rd in Seattle. “Hazy Sundown”, Gouache 6”x9”, plein air This was painted on site when the smoke actually made pretty sunsets, and wasn’t so thick and oppressive.
The smoke cleared from the Seattle air a month ago, but it seems like we are all still waiting to breathe. Thank you to everyone who contributed artwork to document this strange and frightening time in this already strange and threatening year.
I was thankful for the break after the end of 30 days straight in January! I’m restarting the posts now, picking up where I left off with 30SAL Challenge Day 14: Make a transcription of Nicholas Poussin’s The Triumph of Pan. In the original post I mention how Poussin didn’t make detailed sketches of his figures …
Day 16 of our 30 Day Challenge in January was: Create something using crosshatch. #crosshatch This prompt produced an exceptional number of great drawings!
[image_with_animation image_url=”9597″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] For this unfinished painting, the artist did not die. The sitter did. [image_with_animation image_url=”9598″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] In 1945, Elizabeth Shoumatoff was commissioned to paint a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At noon on April 12, Shaumatoff began her work. That afternoon Roosevelt said, “I have a terrific …
This is the second of a series talking about my process of painting. How do I start, and how do I make decisions along the way? When, how and why I manipulate my source material, etc. In the next few days, I’m going to share everything from my process of idea creation to the prep, …
Smoke
drewskillman.com
San Francisco
early September
View from the rooftop /Mission District
This is not an election related post. This is also not a cheerful post, or a motivating post. This is a post about one of the many events in 2020 that made it a year we all wish had never happened. This is a post about the smoke.
This last September, wildfires raged across California, Oregon, and Washington. Together, these fires contributed to the worst fire season on record; twice as destructive as previous records for fires. Nearly 6 million acres burned this summer. The smoke from Oregon colored our Seattle skies, and the masks that we were already wearing for the virus became more robust, now serving a second necessity: to help us breathe in the smoke filled air.
I asked League members to contribute artwork related to the smoke from those West coast fires. We received 61 entries. Below are some images from those submissions.
drewskillman.com
San Francisco
early September
View from the rooftop /Mission District
San Francisco
2pm
My daughter in law took this photo from her patio at 10am
IRIS TABOH
Portland, OR
September 15, 2020
The first time I’ve seen the sun in a week.
www.chapman-art.com
Edmonds
9/11/2020
What are we doing to the world?
www.stitchpixie.com
Kirkland, Wa
Kenmore
“OFFICE VIEW”, Photo taken September 16, 2020, in the morning, from my office window.
Kenmore
“SEPIA SKIES”, 2020. Mezzotint monoprint, hand colored. Image 4 x 6.
A view of the sepia colored sky and the darkness of burnt things.
www.sabinaburd.com @sabinabarts
Shoreline
9/13/202, early morning
Early morning shot outside of my home….Smoke and Fog.
www.frederickafoster.com
Seattle
Photoshopped to capture what I woke up to this morning, September 12, 2020
DAVID NEBERT
IG @nebert.d
Wallingford
9/12 @2:20-2:30pm
IG @nebert.d
Wallingford
9/12 @2:20-2:30pm
IG @nebert.d
Wallingford
9/12 @2:20-2:30pm
GUILLERMO GOMEZ
Seattle
Penn Cove, Whidbey Island
Camping at a friends farm
“escaping the smoke”
Seabird in the smokey beach
GUILLERMO GOMEZ
Seattle
Penn Cove, Whidbey Island
Camping at a friends farm
“escaping the smoke”
Smokey Beach
Flowers in the smoky sky…
MEAGAN MURPHY
meaganmurphy.org
Capitol Hill
Sept 12, 4pm at my studio at Inscape
JEAN GORECKI
TIFFANY M. SMITH
Seattle, WA
9/12/20 7:10AM
Departing
after visiting friends’ homes that were lost
after visiting friends’ homes that were lost
www.jamiemadisonart.com
Winters, CA – firescene
September 3
Medium: charcoal from the fire, paper, paint on paper, 29” x 41”
This is a painting that I did in the hills near my home. It is the site of a home that had just burned.
I drove around the city for about 20 minutes looking for the perfect spot to park my car, switch to the passenger seat, set my pochade box up on my lap, and start painting the yellow smoke covering the sky. It was boiling hot in my car with all the windows up so I had to paint FAST. No time for details!
IG: @lisaadesign website: www.lisaadesign.com
Seattle
Today’s Sun, 7” x 10”, watercolor
This was my first site in the morning as I hunkered down for another day inside away from the smoke.
Smoke and Doug Fir out my window
Size:6 x 8”, watercolor on paper
mmimitb @ instagram
Seattle, WA
www.suzewoolf-fineart.com
Seattle
An imaginary sunset became fire on the mountain with billowing smoke
www.toddsmonuments.com
Conway, Washington
September 11, 2020, from my sandblasting booth, looking East
jeresmith.com
Seattle
Lopez Island
I realize that such images may smack of a kind of a kind of tone deaf inappropriateness these days but still, I’m captivated by this sort of thing––when beauty and nature’s volatility mix.
Instagram: szminkoholik
Picture taken in Bellevue.
MAGDALENA WOSIK
Instagram: szminkoholik
Oil pastels and watercolor
JOAN STUART ROSS “LOW VISIBILITY”
www.joanstuartross.com
Seattle, Washington
Low Visibility, 2020, 22×30”
JESS RAY “SMOKY GAS WORKS PARK”
IG: wobblefincharts
Seattle
Reference picture taken 9/9/20
Smoky Gas Works Park from Eastlake
www.bgreensweigart.com
I live in Montara, CA (on the coast, north of Half Moon Bay, in the Bay Area)
I took photos at 9:30am at a trail head in Montara on 9/10/20 when we were experiencing a bizarre color sky and almost darkness, and came home and did this painting, also looking at the color of the sky out my window! “Orange Sky During Covid” Oil on Linen 6×8”
Painted September 9, plein air from Greenwood and N43rd in Seattle.
“Hazy Sundown”, Gouache 6”x9”, plein air
This was painted on site when the smoke actually made pretty sunsets, and wasn’t so thick and oppressive.
The smoke cleared from the Seattle air a month ago, but it seems like we are all still waiting to breathe. Thank you to everyone who contributed artwork to document this strange and frightening time in this already strange and threatening year.
Related Posts
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I was thankful for the break after the end of 30 days straight in January! I’m restarting the posts now, picking up where I left off with 30SAL Challenge Day 14: Make a transcription of Nicholas Poussin’s The Triumph of Pan. In the original post I mention how Poussin didn’t make detailed sketches of his figures …
30SAL Faves: Crosshatch
Day 16 of our 30 Day Challenge in January was: Create something using crosshatch. #crosshatch This prompt produced an exceptional number of great drawings!
Reason not to finish a painting: Death of the sitter
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This is the second of a series talking about my process of painting. How do I start, and how do I make decisions along the way? When, how and why I manipulate my source material, etc. In the next few days, I’m going to share everything from my process of idea creation to the prep, …