The Salt Mine

[Image]This local landmark belongs to Morton Salt, which has mines that run miles under Lake Erie. I sketched and painted this tower 46 years ago when I took summer-school art classes from David Burris, who can be found at a local coffee shop with friends and coworkers a couple of times a week. He is the best teacher I ever had.

Horse maintenance

I paint at a local horse stable often. Sometimes I look around for a subject, but come away empty handed. I stopped there three days ago and saw the barn in shadow, with the morning sun illuminating the grass and the tree adjacent to it, and knew I had somethink to paint. I entered it in a local art competition already.

On the Blackwater River

My English host, artist Michael Richardson invited me to paint once more with the Wapping Group. They paint every Wednesday on the Thames River, or along the tributaries feeding into it. The Blackwater River was full of wood sailing vessels sitting on the mudflats as the tide had receded. After painting, we all met at the local pub for a pint and fish & chips.

Tide's out

Whitstable, in Kent is a working fishing port and resort town. When the tide is out, the fishing boats sit on the mud of the harbor bottom.

Tufa Town

This medieval town upriver from Saumur has extremely narrow streets, lined by ancient buildings made of tufa, a stone made of hardened volcanic ash.

Samur rooftops

I climbed the hill leading up to the chateau and painted this series of towers, turrets, and steep slate roofs.

: The Land of Chateaus

James L. Polewchak's Art Blog: The Land of Chateaus: I went to Normandy, France with 25 British artists to paint this summer. It was a life-changing experience. I was overwhelmed with the ...

Holmes County barns

I wandered around in Holmes County last weekend, and saw lots of great painting sites. I traveled down one-lane dirt roads for most of the morning; a lot of them left me no room to pull over to park my Jeep.  As I painted this scene, I heard a minnute sound behind me. When I turned to look , there were six Amish ladies of all ages coming down the hill to watch me paint. Talk about stealthy! Our SpecOp forces could learn a thing or two from them.