After 57 years, I finally return to the Land of The Midnight Sun. Glorious light. Flowers going crazy in long luminous days. Met up with some of the local talent for a plein aire event and a drink-n-draw at Spenard Tattoo. The above log cabin is the home of local artist Don Kolstad who has been an educator and fixture on the scene for years.
  
Above, drawings done on the flight to Anchorage. An attempt to capture some cloud and mountain formations somewhere over British Columbia.
The following drawing of Columbine flowers and the following paragraph I did and dedicated to a young woman who passed away just days before I arrived in Anchorage. I also dedicated gave it and gave it to the owner and staff at Blaine’s Art where she had worked for about nine month’s prior to here death at 21 years of age.
Ashley, I never had the privilege to have met you. But I have met wonderful people who did , and clearly, your spirit touched them. You are missed. I believe life is a supremely amazing gift, and the people who come into our lives, are a large part of that gift. I was told of your departure as I sat in the car outside the store you worked at, having been driven there from the airport. The first things I saw as I stepped from the car were the Columbine flowers at the store’s entrance. They were the first things I drew after stepping on Alaskan soil since I left as a child 57 years ago. They were purple, one of your favorite colors I’m told, and radiant in the incredible searing light. It was the first I had ever seen Columbines. It will not be possible for me to see them again without thinking about you and the emotional way those who knew you, spoke about you, your radiance, your accomplishments, your wit and brilliance. The growing season in Alaska is brief, and like those arresting Columbines, you had an all too brief but intense presence to those whom you encountered. I know they are grateful to have met you.
Above, a view from the water’s edge of a Salmon catching contest near the mouth where Ship Creek empties into Cook Inlet by downtown Anchorage.
 
Seth and his shy friend at the Drink & Draw at Spenard’s Tattoo when Seth works. I could tell she was watching me thru the veil of her hair.
The Anchorage Plein Aire group with Don Kolstad on the right from an overlook facing the estuary alongside Turnagain Bay.
 
Above, a dorama in the Anchorage Museum of Art and my lunch counter view of the kitchen crew at Anthony’s in Sea-Tac International. Airport.
Drawings done in a ledger book, a Strathmore toned sketchbook, a Stillman & Birn Alpha series sketchbook with Faber-Castell Basic and Pelikan M215 and Pelikano Jr. fountain pens with Carbon Black ink and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brish Pens and White China markers.
