Sliding Mechanism has been built

As in the photos, this part is done even though I'm already seeing some weakness of this mechanism. Probably the sliding bar would be worn out first due to the pressure from the screw. But that's all right for now.
I'll move on to the next step: build a frame around this bar.

Cutting Metal Strip for the back suport of the sliding piece

The insert nut has been successfully hammered into the hole of a new pieces of wood without splitting this time. This time I cut the piece of poplar wood to keep the wood grain along with the longer side of the rectangular. Also the size of the hole is 3/8". Then glued much smaller piece of wood to wrap around the sliding bar. But I thought thin wood pieces would be too week to support backside against tension when I tighten the thumb screw again the sliding bar. So I decided to cut a metal strip to be screwed on the back of the sliding piece of wood. My Dremel tool comes very handy for this type of task.

Sky and Clouds over Sauvie Island

It's been quite long time since last time I painted sky and clouds as the main subjects. I think the last one was "Clouds over Vashon Ferry" in 2004, which is decorating my kitchen wall. It was huge, about 4'x9'. This one is mid size, 22"x18". I was inspired by the shapes of clouds when I was checking the reference photos I took there this summer. Then immediately picked this to paint. The direction of clouds match the direction of green stripes on the farm ground. Stonehenge like isolated mass of trees in the center divides sky and ground.

I knew this would happen....

When I went to Cole Gallary in Edmonds, WA, in Saturday afternoon, I realized how nice the weather was this weekend and we could expect another good day tomorrow. Means I should go out to paint!
So, I suddenly made up my mind and booked a cheep motel in Cle Elum, WA, and rode on my motorcycle Saturday night.
Sunday morning was a little chilly in upper thirties. But about the time I turned onto Teanaway Drive from US-970, the morning fog started burned off and blue sky started showing.

I set up my easel near by Teanaway River, where is very common artist spot. At least Ned Mueller painted there this summer and sent me the outcome. My advantage was very colorful trees in fall. I spend about 2 hours until 11AM to come up with the result in the photo. Although it doesn't show well about the difference between sun-lit part and shadowed part due to lack of experience, the colorful trees helped this painting obviously.

After I came home I tried to make some progress on the new field easel. But when I followed the instruction of the insert nuts then hammered a nut into 11/32" hole of the piece of wood it cracked as you can see below. I knew it might happen but I did it anyway. I guess I need to try a size bigger hole, which is 3/8", next time.

Drawing the sliding mechanism

This part is the key mechanism for the canvas holder part of the new field easel. So I drew a diagram how to build it. If I cut popular lumber exactly I drew, it would probably work. But thin slicing or dadoing lumber with a table saw always comes with risk for chipping. 

Found a Key Component for New Field Easel

I'd been looking for these quite a while. The main problem was I didn't know the name of the pieces of hardware I was looking for. It's really hard to find something that you don't know the name on the internet.

I went back to one of information seeking principal I've learned at the graduate school; (Ahem!) find a person who knows what you're looking for. I simply went to a near-by home depot and asked an associate with a sample from my studio easel. In less than a couple of minutes, the associate showed me where they are.

They're called as thumb screws and insert nuts. With these pieces of hardware, the sliding piece of wood can press down a stretched canvas and hold it tightly.
My next step is to design&draw the canvas holder including the sliding mechanism.

I guess I know what I need to do to finish this...

The colors of this digital photo is way off. So you don't see the actual colors I put in the background pasture. But I tried some bold colors there to see the effect. Other than that I really need to finish the left horse, which is not the focal point anyway. Then want to try more impasto technique for the foreground flowers.

I'm going to try finishing this piece this weekend.