Sometimes you have to fly stand-by.

"The Hunters"
by James Swanson & Traveler Jim A
12"x36" Oil on Canvas

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See how this journey was painted right here.

A funny thing happen to me on the way to the UK.
I was planning on the next painting in this series to start a whirlwind tour of the UK. In fact I have a couple paintings on the easel now, but each have a little ways to go on them before they are ready.

Traveler Jim A.

So I'm back in the U.S. to finish a painting I started, but got sidetracked on. Our next Traveler is Jim A. again. If you remember Jim A. is an old friend of mine, who travels every fall to North Dakota to hunt geese. I've heard his stories for years and thought it was time for a few others to here them.

The Hunters gather

Traveler Jim A. Story: Jim has been going on this hunting trip every year since he was a little kid. It started off when he was 8, his dad would drive him and his brother some the 18 hours from Chicago to North Dakota to meet up with some friends to do some Bird hunting. He and friends would stay in a old abandoned farm house for a week or so and hunt on the J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge about 1/2 a mile from the Canadian border.

Each hunter brings his own dog

Jim has kept up the hunting tradition going over the years taking his own sons along on the journey. Each year they return to the same old house on a farmers land that's been abandoned for a long time. The farmer who first let them use it has long given up farming and moved into town.

A good hunt that day

Some of the time that they spend there they make small repairs to the house trying to keep it standing. After making a few patches to the house, the rest of the day time is spent hunting with there dogs. At night they eat some of other catch, relax and play cards, and wait for the start of the next days hunt. For all the ducks, geese, and pheasant that they get, Jim A. doesn't even like the taste of duck that much, and it doesn't taste like chicken either.

The photo of Jim A. I'll be working with.

Traveler Painting: The Hunters, After looking through Traveler Jim A. photos I came across this one. I liked the browns against the blue sky and snow. Jim A is the hunter with the gun on his shoulder, the other hunter is Joe a friend of Jim's, and the dog is Windsor. The snow just fell the night before, but the hunters came prepared with their winter gear.

The Sketch: I picked this photo to work from because I liked the late afternoon light and all the different browns values. I looked a this photo and sketched for a long while trying to do something with it. I decided to go with a long horizontal design on a canvas 12"x36'". I felt I could get everything in this format and create a strong and interesting painting.


Palette: It's pretty much my usual palette, Cad yellow light, Cad yellow Medium,Yellow ocker, Transparent oxide brown, Indian red, Raw umber, Burnt Umber, Cobalt blue, Ultramarine blue ,Phalo Blue and of coarse titanium White.


I start by rubbing in a warm grey I mixed into the canvas and then sketch with paint the chosen sketch design. I'm going to use the snow and the tall grass of the field to lead the viewer eye into the painting.

Starting with the dark areas of the painting first and working my way to the lights.


There were a lot of different shades of brown in this painting and it took a while to figure out the combinations worked well together. I like to work quickly at first to block -in the painting.

Almost blocked - in Time to start on the hunters and see how things are going to work out.
Artist's Tip: Sometimes getting back from a painting just doesn't do it. Sometimes you have to put a painting away and wait until it says to you- Sir, I'm ready to be finished. Every artist knows that starting a painting is the easy part of the painting process, and that finishing is the work part.

OK, the painting is all blocked-in the colors are all wrong, but it's a start. Time to get back from it and see what the plan of attack should be.

Here is a material tip that I have gotten for an artist buddy about reworking old paintings- paint a coat of Liquin on the old painting before you start. The old paint will come to life again, it's like it's wet paint again. The darks of the painting will sparkle like wet paint. The whole painting will freshen up and you will be able to judge the new paint going down against the old paint on the canvas. I know a few artists use Liquin as the finished coat. It gives the surface of a finished painting a unified look, no shiny or matted areas that draw away interest.

Working on the hunters, and redefining areas. Lots to do here.

End of day 1 - It's blocked in some color adjustments have been made, but still a long way to go. I kind of feel like the hunters in the painting. The thrill of the hunt and the big let down at the end.
Traveler Jim stopped by and took a look and liked it. He commented about all the different shades of brown that he saw when he was there.

I put this painting on hold after I got it this far. I moved the hunter Joe back to help balance the painting composition. I also added some darks around the first hunter to bring him out.

Finally I looked at this painting start and saw how to finish it. First, since I was painting a person I know I better get that right, and second, I have all these horizontals and nothing visual to pull them together. So I added a few trees which seem to do the trick.

Details from the Painting


Done and Framed.
"The Hunters"
by James Swanson and Traveler Jim A.

12"x36" Oil on Canvas

I'm happy to get this painting done, it's been staring at me for months and taking up some space in the studio. I had breakfast with Traveler Jim A. the other day and told him that I finally finished that painting of him. And what did he say, " I thought it was finished when you showed it to me." See it's good to have friends that are travelers. And if you want to join in this painting adventure, tell me about the place you've been along with a few photos from your trip contact me here or at www.theartistandthetraveler.org

Well, I'm off to meet up with my next Travelers, some wonderful hillwalking folk from the UK. Until we meet again Tally Ho!

The Games We Play.

"The Captains Game"
by James Swanson & Traveler Linda
18"x 14"Oil on Linen

See this Painting Journey from Start to Finish.

Ever have that deja vu feeling? Well, my next painting journey was something like that, I kept having this feeling that I painted this painting before. Strange?

And no wonder with our next Traveler in this series being my old friend Linda. When I started this Painting adventure around world, Linda was one of my first old friends to say yes to taking part in it.

Traveler Linda

We were friends in college -CCAD if you need to know- but lost touch after graduation. Like a lot of my old cums, after I have hooked myself into the network, I started reconnecting with friends. Traveler Linda being one of them.

Door at Captain's Whidbey Inn-All photos shot by Traveler Linda

One of the things that I noticed after remaking old connections was that these people had gotten around since I last seen them as staving artists, and have some great photos to prove it. Traveler Linda has been most gracious in letting me use what ever photos that I want from her albums. And for that I say thanks, because Linda loves to travel and take photos. Linda must carry her camera around everywhere.

Next Stop Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island Map

Traveler Linda's Story: The Captain Whidbey Inn on Whidbey Island a couple hours north of Seattle is pretty special because it is historic and because it is made from madrona logs.

This is the only madrona log building that I have every heard of, and it's pretty large, which is somewhat rare for old log structures.

Madrona is very dense, hardwood, and doesn't rot very fast which is why it's still around I guess. The dartboard is in the bar off the restaurant in the inn. I love that room with it's expansive view of Penn Cove, known for its mussels.


Love them too. I heard about this in while hanging out in Coupeville nearby when I was staying in a beach house on the other side of the island.

This is a great place to escape to since the island is close to Seattle, and the historic aspects of the inn are like a time warp.

It's like you are the visitor to the inn one hundred years ago!

Traveler Linda's Painting:"The Captain's Game" When Linda gave me the OK to paint some of her travel photos I had a tough choice. She had so many nice shots and interesting places that I decided after a couple of sketches and different painting starts to trying something different for me and this series of paintings. I picked to paint this Dart Board from Captain's Whidbey Inn. I just liked the feeling of it. The marked up pale blue/green door and the old dart board. I'm thinking of this as a still life painting.

The sketch- knowing your subject really makes a difference in painting. I know I'm not there physically to paint this board, but do have a dart board and I am thinking more about the design right now.

The sketch on the canvas. The hardest part of this sketch was laying out the dart board's numbered areas. I had to count them a few times to get them right.

Artist Tip: Paint quality, there's a saying "A good Artist never blames his art materials." I think the opposite can be true also. I try and paint with the best materials that I can afford, but sometimes I do buy what's on sale rather than the usual. And then, being the thrifty Artist that I am I end up paying for the mistake in more than money.

Good professional paint does make a huge difference in painting. Professional paint is stronger in pigment and in tinting. The money you saved on the cheap paint will be lost when you use half the tube to get the right strenght of hue. Not to speak about the time waste either! Good materials will take one worry away from what you are doing, so you can concentrate at what is at hand.

Adding in the Darks first. Like pretty much all my paintings, the darks are the first things painted in. This will help me keep control of the many dart board segments.

Bringing in the door color to get the right color contrast.
Painting is blocked in. Time to start making adjustments in the drawing and the colors.

Working on the numbers. Getting the numbers to work right with this painting took a little doing. Here the painting is getting close, but something was missing, and the painting had no flow to it.

Final adjustments have been made and piece of the red sign has been added. I played with the painting in photoshop to figure out what was needed in this painting. The sign helps lead the viewer into the painting and up around the board.

Details from the Captain's Game


Finished and Framed

"The Captains Game"
by James Swanson & Traveler Linda
18"x 14"Oil on Linen

This painting was almost like painting a still life, except I wasn't there again and had to rely on my good friend Linda for this photo. If you would like to join me in this painting adventure look me up at the artist and the traveler .org web site

Traveler Linda has just returned from a very cool trip to Japan where she helped build a hay bale house and climbed Mt. Fuji. But that is another story and painting.

All righty then, I'm going to be moving along to meet up with a couple of new travelers from the UK. Until next time, keep those brushes clean and your wrist loose.

The Great White North.

"Still Water"
by James Swanson / Traveler Eric
8"x 10" Oil on Panel

See the journey of this Painting.

When it rains it pours, and what do you do when you're in the middle of a hike and this happens?
My new Traveler in this painting adventure Eric knows.

Traveler Eric

Traveler Eric, is another new friend of mine that I've never met in real life. I kind of stumbled across Eric while I was doing research for another art project, and it was a very lucky slip on my part.

One of Eric's photos from this hiking trip.

You see Eric is an avid hiker from Canada-The Great White North, get it? sorry- and he has hiked, biked, or caved everywhere there and also loves to take photos to document the trips. A perfect fit for this Traveling art concept.

Just a walk in the woods?

Eric has agreed to let me paint a few of his wonderful adventures, and I'd like to say, I am very happy to have Eric on board for for this painting journey. He has a very nice eye for his photography and gets to places I could never get to also.

The start of this journey.

Traveler Eric Story: Gros Morne North Rim Traverse Hike (Newfoundland)

It's hard not to remember that place. It was about a 2 hour hike thru grass higher than our waist

- and all of it sopping, dripping with dew. We were soaked within a few minutes.

A little bit of dew.

Then there was the climb up the canyon walls. The best part was coming down a day later - in the rain - and coming down waterfalls while hanging onto trees and whatnot.

Here are pictures at the campsite at the end of the pond. We just had a day of fairly heavy rain and the sound of water coming down from the plateau is all around you. Where there was dry rock the day before there are now waterfalls.

The image I choose to work from.

Traveler Eric's Painting: "Still Water"

When I came across Eric and his photo's I was blown away by where this guy has been and how he got around. My feet hurt just looking at all his photos. Since I have just finished my vacation of Plein Air Painting I thought I'd keep it going a little longer and try and painting one of Traveler Eric's images in that style.

Like always, I start with the sketch. I try it get familiar with my subject before I dive in.

Since I'm painting this Plein Air style I'm going to work small 8"x 10" on a wood panel I prepared.

Artist Tip:One of the best tips I ever received in Plein Air Painting is to mix the main painting colors that you see in the subject before you start to paint. That way I paint fast and can capture lighting effects that probably drew me in to paint the scene in the first place. I use this idea in all my painting, it's good way to plan out the painting before you paint.

Moving fast I block in the darks for the structure of the painting.

In Plein Air Painting you have to work quickly or you will lose the light. Working this way brings out big bold brush strokes, because there is no time to dilly dally here. Here I am putting in the sky and water.since the water is reflecting the sky this goes quite quickly.

Fully blocked in. Time to go back in and adjust some colors.

I added a sky hole just to add a little more interest to the sky and water and to lead the viewers eye around.

Done pretty much just need to work on the paint edges. Paint edges are really important, they are almost as important as color. Hard edges of paint strokes come foreword soft edges recede in space.

Done. Here are some Details of the painting.

Framed and ready to go.

"Still Water"
by James Swanson / Traveler Eric
8"x 10" Oil on Panel

I painted this pretty fast, not as fast as if I were in the field, but pretty fast. I had the luxury of the sun not moving and the rain not hitting me.

Thanks goes out to Traveler Eric, for his time and images for this Traveling art adventure. We will be seeing a lot more of Eric I'm sure, because like I said earlier he's been a hiking all over Canada and what not, and he has some real nice photos too.
If you had a great trip somewhere and have a story to tell about it, go to my web site TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org and let me know. From here I'm going to be mozy-ing on down the road to meet up with a old friend but new Traveler in the San Juan Islands. Watch your top knot.