O'DELL CENTER

O'Dell Bridge

O'Dell Pond

Photographs By Tom Willa

This week South King County Event and Wedding meet up group did a show case event at The O'Dell Center. The Center consists of 180 acres of facilities and Grounds honoring the beauty and diversity of the Pacific Northwest. The serenity of this venue for a wedding or reunion is hard to comprehend so I am posting a couple of images of it. I didn't do any painting this week so enjoy the photos, have a great weekend. Stay cool Tom

Twilight Daisy

Twilight Daisy

Soft Pastel

18x24 Framed $240

By Tom Willa

The good news is that Renton River Days begins tomorrow. It was the catalyst to creating the frame for Twilight Daisy. It now has a koa veneer frame with a double mat. The interior mat is a grey green which adds to the visual strenght of the pedal shadows. Please stop by and check it out we will be at Liberty Park this weekend. Thanks to my friends and family who have sent supporting emails for the Art Sale. Love Tom and Miki

ToMi Creations Sign

Renton River Days is this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will be there under the ToMi Creations Canopy.

Art Sale

ToMi Creations

Renton River Days T Shirt

By Tom Willa

I worked up this T-Shirt design for our booth at Art Market during the Renton River Days. We are going to transform it onto some shirts. The Art Market will be located where Bronson Way and Houser Way interesect in Renton. The booth hours are 12pm - 8pm Friday, July 24, 1000am - 8pm Saturday, July 25 and 12pm - 6pm Sunday, July26. Miki and I both will have paintings for sale so please if you are in the area, come by, check out our work or say Hi, dee-ho- neighbor. That's run down for now, if you have any suggestion on making a three day event a success please feel free to send us any suggestions. Thanks

Twin Falls Summer

Twin Falls Summer

By Tom Willa

Soft Pastel on Art Spectrum

7x12 $75 Framed

Twin Falls Trail is a very popular 2 mile trail in the Snohomish area. It is moderate trail with two hills leading up the bridge where you can see the falls. It is a great trail for younger hikers unfortunately during the summer many adults feel it is a playground. The number of children who are unsupervised or not informed that going off the trail will cause serious long term consequences is a little sad.

Enough of that, year round the trail transforms with the seasons. I have hiked it twice with family this year. Once in the spring and recently this summer seeing the falls is wonderful but observing the transformation of the seasons is inspirational, reminding the hiker what a dynamic lovely planet we live on.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin blown glass

by Hugh Willa

Photographed Tom Willa

I wanted to show you some of the glassware we took to Return to Renton Show. Miki fell in love with this one. I shot it on the way out the door with a flash and my 50mm lens, I rarely shoot hand held images but this one turn out pretty good. These gems have wonderful optic qualities and are quite fantastical. It is way late as a matter of fact it tomorrow. Have a great day.

55 Hardtop

55 Chevy

Photograph

By Tom Willa

Hugh and I set up a booth for his glass art works today at the Return to Renton Automobile and Art Show. We had a very good time meeting people and I grabbed a couple of cool shots of automobiles. This shot had an ugly Towing Sign on the wall behind the car, bam, Photoshop it out. I really like the composition of the parking lot lines with the image of a classic automobile.

I am a little tired so just felt like sharing, you all have a great week. Thanks to all who took the time to check out Hugh's glass wares especially to those who bought those pieces. Aloha and mahalo nui loa

Daisy Scape

Daisy Scape

Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper

24x20 Framed $140

Here's the painting from the earlier post, today. I worked with a palette of green and purples palette with beige, pink and blue tints for the daisy. I used a similar style on some paintings while we were in Hawaii, they were appreciated for the contrast which is a little dramatic.

Daisies Grey Study

Daisy Grey
20 x24
by Tom Willa

Why do I paint flowers? I am greatly motivated by concept of capturing their beauty. I think many have a concept of what flowers should look like, I sometimes have to work hard at not painting a symbol for a bloom. I attempt to capture the essence of a flower by painting a realistic image while using some abstract techniques glorify the beauty I see and feel. All this being said, I am approaching this painting with a value study in greys which I will use as under painting. Stayed tuned folks,to see the final image.

River Stream

River Stream

9x12 Pastel $75

by Tom Willa

Wow, more than two weeks have flown by since I last posted. Miki opened her show at the Cormerstone Coffee Cafe in Bremerton last Friday. Her paintings will be showing there through the 31st of July. Stop by check out original paintings of the Northwest, her glass blowing series and some great still life priced to be very reasonably for all.

This is a painting from last summer road trip. I remember we were in Maine's Mountains very close to Canada at a camp ground that was a canoeist favorite launch site. I was thinking about the water in some of the eagle images that I hope to create and decided to continue working on the water in this painting for practice. Now it is done.

During my sister's visit we talked some about the joy of artistic creation. She makes beautiful quilts which are inspirational unique. I think she has a lot of fun with the challenges that are required in that process. I've decided to paint some more flowers(not a big surprise). I am going to go big and bold while sowing some fun for myself. So stay tuned and for now "That's All Folks."