Friday we went to Deception Pass beach. It's the third absolutely stunning Washington State Park I've spent time in lately. It's a rock beach (and I love those) with a gorgeous view. We walked and rock hunted, and I sketched two quick watercolors. I'd love to go back on another nice day. Part of the joy was just sitting in the sunshine after so many rainy and cloudy days.

Jude Dippold took a photo of me sketching that captures the color and pattern of the place, as well as the peace.

As well as Rockport, my early love of a park here in Washington, I've been taking walks at Rasar State Park. It's about 8 miles in the other direction from Rockport, so both are quite easy for daily walks. Rasar has more changeable scenery and is flatter, which lets me do my brisk powerwalking without as much danger of turning an ankle.

The topography goes from wooded trails to river beach to mountain meadow, all of which are lovely. I stopped and sketched along my walk the other day, and I will definitely go back to paint further as the weather allows.

I got a perfect afternoon in the Badlands of South Dakota today. I'm heading across the country to Washington State, and it was a gorgeous afternoon to stop. Plus it was early enough that almost no one was there. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful afternoon. The place is transporting. It's hard to believe it can exist even as you're standing in the midst of it. To top it all off, and afternoon moon was hanging low over the rocks.

Mr. Darcy has been unsure about this whole traveling thing, but he's decided he likes having his own hotel bed, and he was utterly fascinated by the prarie dogs today. He also just looked good against the backdrop of the Badlands.

I got to spend one lovely night at one of my favorite places on earth recently and catch up with old friends there. It was great to sit and paint the mountains before breakfast with a pot of tea.

WKNO fm, Memphis's local npr station, hosts a daily arts interview show called Checking on the Arts. They are kind enough to host me to talk about my shows even when I'm not exhibiting in their lobby, but they certainly saved me space on the calendar for this show, "Autobiography," and Kacky Walton interviewed me last week. She and Darel Snodgrass both do serious homework for these interviews, look at work, read websites, and come in prepared to have a great discussion, which is a huge boon for those of us not professional at being on the air. I had a great time with Kacky, and I appreciated her kindness talking about this much more personal than usual work I've been doing lately. Here is the interview with some back story about the exhibition in case you'd like to listen.

It took me all day Wednesday to get the show on the walls the way I wanted it (and to tape the radio interview about it, which I'll post in a day or two), and it took another two days to recover. But I'm really pleased with the result. The space is lovely -- high and clean with tons of natural daylight. It's a lovely space to have art. And it gave me a natural flow for the show, which has a bit of narrative element built in.

The show is open to the public at WKNO during business hours, and there will be a closing reception on Friday, March 31st, 6-8pm.

I'm off to dance and celebrate this weekend, but here are a couple more pieces that are in the show, as a preview.

I have a pleasant enough view out of my kitchen window, but I don't think of it as particularly paintable. In Concrete, however, there are tall and graceful cedars. One morning was mid 40's and a bit drizzly, so I decided that painting from life but indoors with tea was the perfect solution to getting in a day's work.

I took another hike in Rockport the other day and tried a new and lovely trail before coming back around to the Evergreen one. I'm going to have to do some more serious painting in there, but in the meantime, here are two sketches from my journal.

I fell in love with this enormous, dancing cedar tree and had been thinking about it. The second time past I had to stop and sketch. I may go back out with oils as well.

Here is a photo of me painting at Rockport that Jude Dippold took.

Jude took me to Hilt Run waterfall yesterday. It's a mad scramble down a slope to get a good view, and I'm only just learning to use poles. It was raining a little as I painted, and then I had to close the book to put it in my pocket for the climb back out, so all my nice white areas got splotchy. Watercolor just doesn't dry at all quickly in the humidity here. I do at least have this memory in my journal, though it's not as pristine as I would like.

The lower part of the falls is 90 feet, and it was stunning to sit there and drink it in. Here's a short video I took so you can hear the water.

We took the ferry today as a day trip to San Juan island. It's a bit over an hour's ride, and it's utterly beautiful. The ferry weaves between tiny humps of islands that dance on the water. I sketched almost nonstop. Here are the full set of sketches from the outbound trip.