Not only does this exhibit include an exciting variety of images from today's best painters, but the show features original paintings and prints from such luminaries as Thomas Moran, Maynard Dixon, Ansel Adams and others. This will certainly be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I've begun working on my new paintings of England and have so many ideas I don't know where to start. So I started small, with these two paintings of the Howgill Fells area of Cumbria in the Yorkshire Dales. Our good friends the Hartleys own a lovely country home just a mile from Sedbergh and have welcomed us there several times. Their daughter Geraldine will be married there this month, and there's not a 
prettier setting in all the world. The old stone barn in the painting has been converted into guest quarters and an art studio for Barbara Hartley, a fantastic artist in her own right.
I have been invited by the Southern Utah Watercolor Society to teach a 3-day watercolor landscape workshop in St. George September 22-24, 2008. We will have two days of indoor instruction and the third day we will travel to Zion National Park to sketch and explore the park, followed by a visit to the St. George Art Museum where we will enjoy the new "Century of Sanctuary: Art of Zion National Park" exhibit. You will see the 78 pieces juried into the Centennial art competition, plus over 70 historic Zion paintings by such masters as Thomas Moran and Maynard Dixon. So join us for three days of fun learning how to paint the red rock country of southern Utah. The tuition for members of SUWS is $100, and $150 for nonmembers. Contact SUWS president Dick Rose to reserve your spot: (435) 635-4722. The workshop is imited to 20 people.
Only 8 students can register for this intimate watercolor workshop. It is sponsored by Becky Whitney at "A Passion for Painting" Art gallery and cost is $150 per person. Sign up now by calling: (435) 628-5890. 
After visiting the historic seaport town of Volendam north of Amsterdam, we continued on and stopped at Edam, where we fell in love with this little windmill alongside a canal. Most of the windmills in Holland are no longer functioning, and it appeared that this one had been turned into a home with bright red shutters and trim. 
This close-up shows the painting procedure I use on most of my paintings. I begin with a light 2H pencil sketch on the watercolor paper, then use a combination of wet-into-wet and drybrush as I build up the values from light to dark. Notice how I leave the white of the paper where the highlights will be in the finished painting. 
Here are a few more sketchbook drawings from the travel sketchbook I kept in the Netherlands. These drawings are from the Overijssel province near the town of Holten.
We stayed a week at the Landal Twenhaarsveld family park near the little town of Holten in Overijssel Netherlands. The little cottages were very nice and the amenities were great. Some of the cottages even had the typical thatched roofs. 
But what I liked best was hiking each morning out in the farms and along the country roads. Even in the country the homes are well-kept, with lovely gardens and thatched roofs.
The Eigenweg is a little lane that runs behind Landal near Holten. This is a sketch of one of the farmhouses with a typical high-pitched tile roof and Dutch gable. Most of the Dutch tile roofs are dark brown rather than red.
(sometimes called wings by the locals) are angled so they catch the wind, operating a gear mechanism inside the cap which turns a vertical shaft. This shaft is harnessed to huge grinding stones for milling grain. The windmills were also often used in Holland to operate an Archimedes Screw for pumping water. Although used since the 12th century, today most windmills in Holland are static and kept only for historical purposes. 
We were fortunate to have a private tour of De Volharding windmill in Zeddam Holland, owned by Remco Harmsen and Mara Waszkiewicz. It is fascinating to see the inner workings with the huge mechanisms and multi-ton millstones. Remco took me up a narrow ladder into the cap to see huge wooden-tooth gears. I was surprised that it only took a slight wind to turn them and they were so smooth and quiet--No creaking or groaning as I expected. 
One day Remco hopes to have the windmill completely restored and operating on a regular basis. We were lucky to happen on this one while it was in motion, as most are not.
The wooden lattice structures you see on the sails in paintings and photos are actually just the supports. In order to actually catch the wind, the miller must stretch canvas over the latticework and "trim" up the sails to best capture the wind power. This is done by braking the sails and rigging them up (or down) one sail at a time. It's fun to watch the process, and see the big wings in motion.
