Painting Boldly

tinyExpanse North Idaho

A blogging, painting, exploring good time up north!

A day on the town…

Marina from City Beach

Historic Sandpoint

I suppose before this week I've held a not-too-uncommon impression of Sandpoint. Rainy. Drizzly. Grey. But today was beautiful and it was a pity that I had to spend even a part of it inside.

After painting the sunrise from Sweeney Drive in Sagle, I headed across the long bridge into town and to City Beach. Amazingly quiet for a beautiful Sunday morning, I had the beach nearly to myself for quite some time. I found one sweet spot and painted five tinyExpanses from there.

Four days spend mostly sitting caught up with me. I found a juice bar and a yoga studio and came back out into the sunshine a new person.

Time to get organized. At the Idaho Conservation League office I spread out my bounty for the week - the six-painting Reeder Bay series, three days of sunsets and sunrises, and twenty three tinyExpanses. I spent the rest of the day working on a large painting of Priest Lake, the largest piece for the show, sneaking out briefly to do tonight's sunset painting. Nothing like a deadline.

I have to admit, I'm getting a little tired.

(By the way the entire ICL office now smells like oil paint - I can only hope the staff love it as much as I do.)

Today's painting adventures within city limits increased my appreciation of this beautiful little town very much. I love how on-site painting leads me to places I would never discover otherwise. Often these places are very mundane but I never look upon them again without remembering the beauty they held upon a closer look. Last night, I got stuck waiting for a train to pass on Bottle Bay Road. The sun was heading down, so I pulled around the traffic and headed up the hill to find a spot to paint the sunset. I ended up painting parked next to some utility boxes above the railroad tracks. Tonight I ended up in another very random place - the parking lot between a bowling alley and a retirement home. Each place I paint becomes a special place to me, ridiculous as that sometimes may be. I hope that this little painting project makes these places a little more special and noticed for others as well!