Posted in Art, Family/Friends, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Child, #Dance, #watercolor#, Art on September 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »
This child is our comedy of innocence and dance all rolled into one petite two year old ball of sparks, lifting spirits high, swaying to the music on the front porch in early morn, birds astonished rhythmically chirping replies to the folkloric melody of Down by the Bay shouted out and played on a toy guitar with Daddy’s piano playing sentimentally and softly in the background.
Posted in Family/Friends, Simple Living, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #ArtistMaryChamie, Simple Living, Travel in the Pacific Northwest on July 25, 2026| 1 Comment »
The Amtrak train departed Portland exactly on time on a Sunday afternoon in late June and arrived on time the next morning after breakfast into East Glacier, Montana, located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
We had spent the night sleeping on bunk beds in a private sleeping room with the rocking back and forth of the train, feeling a lot like a plane flight, but with a lot more space and privacy.
Our dinner had been served without the dining car, yet a nice dinner was provided to us as we sat in our private room and enjoyed the peacefulness and views out our window. Our Amtrak train from Portland hooked up with the famous Empire Builder in Spokane which travels between Seattle and Chicago. The Empire Builder had a dining car where breakfast would be served in the morning.
The evening meal was simple, fresh and tasty.
We treated that overnight train trip like an overnight plane flight and simply slipped off our shoes, lay down and went to sleep.
In the morning, we were served a full breakfast in the dining car that we had hooked up with in Spokane, Washington and it had plenty of breakfast options and our choices were well prepared.
The trip offered spectacular early summer views of the river terrain which shifted from forest greens to desert browns as we went along.
Would we take this trip again? Absolutely.
We continued down the river, enjoying the divergent and awesome scenery.
We arrived in East Glacier Park excited to see the Glacier Mountain National Lodge situated across the street from the train station where we planned to stay for the next four days.
The Glacier Mountain National Lodge is very historical and is filled with stories of early railroad and mountain ventures into the Pacific Northwest. The Lodge is designed with huge columns made out of colossal logs, The Lodge offers many options which we took advantage of to enter into Glacier National Park for sightseeing and hiking. We took both bus and boat trips on mountain lakes to get around.
I chose several photos to highlight the tours we took both by bus and by boat of Glacier National Park, while staying at the Lodge.
This was a spectacular round trip on the rails. It is also the second time we have taken it, and would certainly take it again.
Interested persons can book this kind of trip via Amtrak as a package tour. Or one may book the items separately for timing the train trip, the lodging and shuttle friendly hikes individually.
A nice starting point for this is http://www.nps.gov/glac.
For more information about Glacier Park Lodge, see http://www.glacierparkcollection.com
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie on March 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Sometimes it is nothing but a thought, a short poem or quick sketch. It is a dream of days past, under different circumstances, long ago.
Spring is a time for dreaming.
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Experimenting with art#, #Fine Arts #The Study of Art #Color and Luminescence on March 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Our island is a gift of many precious moments, one of which is sunrise.
Watercolor and gouache, by MJC.
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Experimenting with art# on March 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Here are two different watercolor perspectives that I painted of a person living on our island.
He is a yard cleaner and gardener, hard worker and an immigrant to this island.
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Experimenting with art#, #Fine Arts #The Study of Art #Color and Luminescence, #Oil painting, #Oregon Society of Artists on August 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I wanted to paint the quiet emotion I saw between a grandmother and her granddaughter. What I visualized in painting them was peace, identity, pride and love, expressed in shades of yellows, blues and pinks, surrounded by soft, fractured textures. It felt best to carve out their contours and shapes with oils using a palette knife, showing their presence, their intensity, their closeness as a bright splash onto blue backgrounds. This was quick work, often described as “alla prima”, but in fact, also using photography to remember some little details.
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Experimenting with art# on March 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »
There he is, standing tall, legs ready to run if threatened. Who wouldn’t want to sketch him? Part of his value, is all those shapes and colors. He is a diagram of colored blocks and fluffy feathers. And such skinny legs.
Rooster, crayon sketch, MJChamie
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Experimenting with art#, #Fine Arts, #Writing about Art on March 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Sketching in the field with crayons, imagining how the heron feels and looks, quickly using pencils and erasers while on the fly, is fun. Below, are three renditions of the same bird that I keep in my sketchbook for planning a larger oil or acrylic painting at a later date.
The bird was flushed out of the marsh as we ever so carefully approached her. It is so exciting to see her wings flowing into flight, as she flaps her way out of the grasses and winds her way nearer to the water and farther from us.
How can I emphasize her majestic wings? How do the textures of a marshland get depicted so that she fits comfortably, seen and hidden at the same time?
There she is for that brief moment then up into the air and away. What did I see? What did she sense as she fled her surroundings for a quieter place?
Sketching tools
First lines – Structure
Such a beautiful bird. And now to reveal the idea of her in a painting. She will linger in my memory for quite some time.
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Experimenting with art#, Abacos, Sketching for art on February 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »
This winter I have completed a series of sketches with pencil, pen and crayons on plain paper. The idea is to try to make my point while using limited art supplies.
“Alone”, sketched with Conte crayon, MJChamie
Part of the fun of this kind of sketching is playing with gestures to imply what one sees. For example, in this sketch, I highlighted the broad sweeping curve of the land against the ocean with a single stroke, while also implying the island plant life in the lower right corner using what I call caligraphic gestures.
All sketching done with just a few tools.
Posted in Art, tagged #Artist Mary Chamie, #Experimenting with art#, #Fine Arts #The Study of Art, #Writing about Art on February 27, 2024| 1 Comment »
During the last six months, I have switched from oils and watercolors to graphite/clay/charcoal pencil and ink pen for my artwork. My goal in switching to these simple and readily available and cheap tools is three fold:
First, I am searching for environmentally safer ways to do art;
Second, I want to focus attention to shape and form, density and texture for art expression rather than on myriads of color as a way of sharpening my drawing skills; and
Third, I like that any and all paper may be used – no expensive specially prepared, high absorptive papers or textured canvases are required when using these simple tools.
Just grab a pen or pencil with a good eraser, and get to work on a piece of note paper.
Lost in Thought, charcoal drawing, MJChamie
