Bruce, Butch, Jason, Josh, Jamie, Ben and Adrian, each posing in front of their new creation.

I taught a two day oil painting workshop on the first weekend of February at the Vashon Center for the Arts.

None of the participants had EVER PAINTED BEFORE !….but they completely committed to it, because it was part of an annual tradtion of getting together and doing an activity that is kept a secret until the night before. This was their 21st Adventure!

Some previous adventures included dog sledding in Canada, sailing in San Diego, and a gallery walk in Texas. I wish I knew the rest. The amazing thing is that they have done this for 21 years, keeping friendship and surprise alive. It’s really inspiring.

The still life that was painted featured a model sailboat built in honor of a friend who had passed and who had been part of the group. This is the second post in a row that involves a memorial tribute. Not intended, but here it is.

The bonds that last blend commitment with the unexpected, which is also a perfect mindset for making art. I will remember this group, their warmth and willingness, with appreciation. Enjoy the next adventure!

If you wish to respond to this post, use this email address: moodysteffon@gmail.com

With Jamie and Still Life in the VCA lobby.

A close up of each painting.

Special thanks to Wendy Finkelman and the VCA staff for organizing this and making it go smoooothly!

moodysteffon@gmail.com

Sunsets have been in high demand. This one was done for a co-worker in memory of his father. I wrote poem on the back of the painting that came to me as I was painting. I wish I remembered it.

Here are another two sunset paintings, for another co-worker, who commissioned them as a gift for a friend who just lost his brother. These are done from pictures taken in Cornwall.

I have been lax posting content on this blog for the last 6 months, but I feel a new spate of postings are coming as I prepare for a show at the Washington Athletic Club in May and a journey to Baja and Oaxoaca in May/June. I love this blog. it is a great record of past journeys and creations and the thoughts that wind through them. Unlike social media, this is stable, uncorrupted; a safe place for this kind of content. “Images are Little Eternities”, which is why they are so perfect as a tribute to those who have passed.

To begin in Occidental Square was no accident. I saw it as a relatively calm place to start my creation of 16 plein air oil paintings of the Seattle area for a show scheduled at the Washington Athletic Club in May of 2026.

The dappled light from the overhanging sycamores shimmering on the brick. The gentle waves of folliage looming in shades of deep turquoise to bright lime. The rhythm of dark, lumpy tree trunks proceeding in rows back in space on either side. A tunnel of hovering light and shadow, with skin-smooth branches arching upwards, cathedral-like.

People would regularly stop to comment on my painting.

“Beautiful”, they would say, passing with a smile while carrying a shopping bag or making their way to lunch. This pleasantry was almost always accompanied by the distant sound of someone speaking grievances to the air: mutterings, musings, one-sided arguments that would sometimes mushroom into screaming. This was the soundtrack that framed every compliment of how “beautiful” my painting was of Occidental Square.

The people who frequented this area had probably blocked that soundtrack out long ago, while mildly startled groups of tourists shuttled behind the safety of their tour-guides.

The irony of my bourgeois plein air painting in proximity with those passed out in the sun with used needles scattered in the doorway was not lost on me. I was the interloper. Painting a pretty picture of what for many can be an ugly scene.

But I will not cast too large a gulf between us. The ones who daily frequent the square see it as a safe place to express, which is exactly why I decided to start my painting journey of Seattle here. We feel safe around one another. Temporarily, I am part of the scene. To the tourists I am but a spiffed up panhandler.

But here we all are. Today. The only day that will ever be. Expressing our now, in the way we know how. Letting agendas slip into the white noise of the city, while we kill time, and vice versa.

View from Hotel Isabel

Hola! From Mexico City in the Off Season. Mid-June is their rainy season, and it is mild weather (mostly cloudy and some rain, not cold) and fantastic in terms of a paucity of tourists. Despite the city itself having 10 million people and the outer areas another 10 million, i find it be to fairly mellow. A lot is going on, but no one seems in too much of a rush. People seem present as a matter of course. There is a flow. I find the culture to be very different from the U.S. That’s why I travel; to feel another way of living.

The above watercolor was done in two sittings from the door of my roof top room at Hotel Isabel in Centro Historico. My room is a convenient location and I like the view because of the two contrasting towers: In the foreground is the tower of the Museo de Cancilleria (a repurposed monastery, now a museum of contemporary art) , and in the background is a ginormous cell tower that looks like a soviet era wet dream in terms of it’s brutalist design.

In the distance are mountains hung wtih clouds, and the geometry of the angled horizontal building shapes contrasts the vertical forms of the towers and the foreground wall on the left. City scenes are often but a puzzle of geometric shapes that you light and give atmosphere to.

But there is aslo a sound to this painting; the view is but rooftops, but from the streets below the eternal hum of city life seeps upward: Traffic, horns, vendors barking their wares on loudspeakers, a siren.

There is so much to see in this city peppered with museums and historical building and markets and shopping zones and parks. It is a bit overwhelming and sometimes difficult to just sit in one spot and work on one image, when you daily walk through a sea of evocative images everywhere you go.

This is a dilemma I often face at the beginning of my travels. It takes awhile to settle in and get beyond the overwhelm. To get into the ritual of a daily art practice; a meditation. I have but a week here and tomorrow is my last day. Short, but always worth it.

Whelp!…..I could have sworn that I booked the flight for 9:45AM,… but arrival at the Airport at 7:45 am with no sign of my flight on the readerboard quickly turned that AM into PM, which left me with lots of time for Drawing in the SeaTac Airport!

Cell phones are excellent Human Immobilizers. Perfect for drawing.

I love the positive and negative shapes that the planes make when closely cropped in composition.

And I love the positive and negative shapes that people make.

Only another 90 minutes and I will be boarding a plane to Oakland for laughter and philosophical musing with my friend Jeff Zittrain!

This was fun!

IN preperation for the up coming watercolor workshop in Baja, I did these 8 studies. I just ran around the property here at GreenGate Farm and took photos of interesting high-contrast shots, chose my faves and then did quick pencil sketches, about 5 minutes apiece, then the water color in two phases. Total time per study is about 20 minutes.

It’s all about light and dark shapes in composition. The detail is not really that important.

Hello Dear Blog Readers! This is a post i sent about a month ago, which didn't send, so I am trying again. The show is now over and was an incredible success! I sold 19 oil paintings and the large mural as well, and will be publishing an art book based on the show that should be available by Sept. of 2025.

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I have been remiss in posting this summer as I’ve been wrapped up with creating 31 plein air oil paintings, which are currently being hung at the Vashon Center for the Arts for a solo gallery show called ICONIC VASHON. It opens this Friday, October 4th at 5pm. It will also include an 8’x28’ painting, which will be a reinterpretation of a mural I did 10 years ago on Vashon called “The Cravens”. I hope you get a chance to see the show!!!

Here’s a great video created by my amazingly talented daughter Louisa.

Also, I will be doing a talk on Oct. 19th at 4pm at the VCA gallery called “Learning to Paint Under Pressure”… about growing up backstage at the Muny Opera in St. Louis and learning the craft of set painting from a wild crew of 14 painters. It’s taken me a lifetime…but I think I’m finally ready to make sense of it.

At the St. Louis Airport

The great thng about cellphones is that they immobilize humans so that you can more easily draw them. I think I have hundreds of drawings of people staring at cell phones. Ironically, I often draw to avoid looking at a cell phone myself when in a public space. Something that I don’t do often enough.

“More Drawing, less Scrolling”.

There’s a bumper sticker.

At the Atlanta Airport.

I flew out of St. Louis after a two week stay with my Mother.

I arrived in Balitmore yesterday, and have arisen this morning in lush farmland north of the city at my friend Steve Leventhal’s place. Birds chirp, sheep bleet and two bunnies play on the driveway. Pretty idyllic.

Here are some portraits I did of my brother Jason’s family. They were kind enough to pose for me. Portraits are tricky, for both the artist and the model. The model has to pose for awhile {I said it would be an hour, but it took two). And it’s a crap shoot whether the artist’s interpretation will flatter the model’s idea of themselves or not. And for the artist….capturing likenesses can be tricky. Even if you do get the likeness, is the painting any good? Does it have spirit and panache?

Panache is important to me. In fact, a portrait with panache is really what I am looking for over likeness. Most people judge portraits by likeness, but we have cameras for that. We have artists for panache.

Avery - The Ruler of Elves

The great thing about doing a portrait of someone is that you get one on one time with them. It was a delight to hang with my niece Avery and talk about world politics, and generational issues and writing, and her name, which translates: Ruler of Elves. After I finished the portrait I mentioned that I thought it looked like Joan of Arc, and she said that Joan of Arc was one of her heros. Success!

Tricky Nici

This was my second attempt painting my sister in law Nici, and I did it from a photo (surrender). Still, it has a nice warm feeling. I liked the first one that I did at our live sitting (below) but it was all panache and not much likeness.

Caleb the Stoic

My nephew Caleb was the first to volunteer, and was quite a trooper, because he was feeling under the weather (we later found out he had strep throat!). But this captures him. I like the quasi-anime feel, the mood, the sharpness of shape and stroke, while at the same time communicating a softness. He’s thinking of starting to model (fashion, etc). He’s got the look, and fantastic hair!

It was so great being able to hang with my brother’s family. I was hoping to get to portraits of brother Jason and Franky (niece) and Parker (nephew) but beyond scheduling logistics there are lots of other reasons to not to want to have your portrait done.

It’s like getting a haircut that will never grow out, you gotta really trust the stylist.

Quick sketches enroute at the SeaTac AirPort

From imagination landscape done while looking at the back of a seat on the airplane.

With Mom and Catalpa tree in backyard (i watched the tree being planted when I was a young’un).

St. Louis is my hometown. More accurately, Kirkwood, a suburb in West County. I come to visit my Mom and sister Nicole and brother Jason and his family. The trees and clouds are softer here. And the cicadas are like little winged red-eyed zombies, wandering about confused after being in the ground for a decade.

Drawing mom as she watches TV

No long verbal diatribe will accompany this post, as we have to go to my sister Nicole’s housewarming. But….more to come, I’m sure!