Slow Dancing - SOLD

10x10
oil on canvas

I finally got another studio painting in-- I chose for my subject one of my favorite views of the Gorge.

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Mount Hood

24x36
oil on canvas

This is my first studio landscape in over 5 months. It's been tough to get going again, and since I was uninspired, I decided to go big, both subject and canvas. Nothing like a huge blank canvas to make you just start. I feel good about it and am eager to start the next one!

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Two More Small Paintings

Today was the last workshop session. No more security blanket of a set time, no more comfort of a room full of other artists painting away... waaa!

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Two Small Paintings

I really, really meant to paint in my studio last week, but it just didn't happen. Life is pretty chaotic right now, so it was a relief to wake up Tuesday morning knowing that there were three hours set aside for painting! The bottom painting is NOT a pumpkin, although it looks like it. It is actually an heirloom "pineapple" tomato that my friend Blayney brought to the workshop. The top was painted from a plate and spoon provided by the instructor, Cathleen Rehfeld. I've never painted reflective metal before, so it was both a challenge and a lot of fun, and I think more successful than my pumpkiny-pineapple-tomato! :-)

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Four Small Paintings

It's been almost four months since my beautiful daughter-in-law, Rosario, was killed in a car crash which nearly took the life of my son, Westun, as well. I give God all the praise for saving my son's life; he is nearing 100% recovery. I still have a lot of daily sadness, though, and it's been hard to get back to painting. I decided to take a workshop class from artist Cathleen Rehfeld (see her blog Cathleen Rehfeld's Painting A Day) to give myself a kick-start. It was really, really nice to paint with other artists and to hear Cathleen's thoughts on her daily paintings. Here are my four little paintings from the first session. Hopefully, this will kick-start my blog, too! Thank you all for your support.

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New Artists Show-- Portland Art Museum

20x24
oil on canvas

I'm proud to be one of the new artists recently juried into the Rental Sales Gallery at the Portland Art Museum. The painting above, "Passing Judgement," will be one of five of my paintings included in the show. The opening reception is being held at the gallery, 1237 SW 10th & Jefferson, from 5-8pm, Friday, June 18th. Everyone is welcome!

Funky Solution #2

The primary difference in my painting since the number of children in my household doubled is going from an alla prima (painting all at once, or wet-into-wet) method to a layering method. This has not been by choice: it simply is a result of being unable to continue focusing on expressing myself on canvas while the baby is expressing himself through the monitor. This creates a problem in that I often don't get the canvas completely covered in the first attack. A dried or even tacky canvas, often means re-mixing colors to match what's already on the canvas(since the paint on the palette has usually dried, also), which is hard to do. If I get a color on there that is nowhere to be found in the rest of the piece, it stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. So....

Funky Solution #2: Baby wipes. Yes! If the paint is still even slightly tacky (pretty likely, with oils), take a baby wipe and gently pull the paint over the adjoining bare canvas. As long as the areas are fairly small, there is no noticeable damage to the previous brushstrokes, and the bare areas are no longer glaring at you.

~~Baby wipes are a universal solution (a fact well-known by mothers everywhere)~~

Funky Solution #1

Ever since the birth of my second child (now 9 months), I have had to adjust how I paint, when I paint, what I paint with, etc. I've always been naturally scatter-brained, with a tendency to fly by the seat of my pants, but the advent of Evan has caused an intensification of these characteristics. In consequence, necessity being the mother of invention, I've discovered some interesting solutions to problems arising from the afore-mentioned brain drain, and have decided to share them. Here's the first:

Funky Solution #1: When you've packed up kids and husband (to watch the kids, sweet man), along with plein air gear (easel, paints, solvent, canvas, paper towels, etc), and driven a fair distance from home (1/2 hour or so) in order to catch the evening light from a certain location, only to get there, get set up, paints laid out, reach for a brush.... and realize you forgot the brushes! they're still lying right by the washing sink where you left them... don't panic-- reach for a paper towel instead. Wrap the paper towel around your finger, dip in the pigment, and paint! For small areas, roll towel into a screw and dab. So...

~~A paper towel will substitute for a brush~~

If you look back through my posts, you will find the painting I did under these circumstances...

Evening Tide

9x12
oil on canvas

I adore the hills of the eastern Gorge. It's a challenge to portray their immensity in a painting, since there aren't pine trees, etc., to give them scale. The day was overcast, with just enough sun coming through to turn the hillsides pink, and with the shaded foreground, it gives an idea of their grandeur.

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Ancient Development

24x48
oil on canvas

Looking east towards The Dalles, from the Washington side of the river. This is one of my favorite views, and it was challenging and fulfilling to portray it on a larger scale than usual.

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Sweeping Along

11x14
oil on canvas

This was an overcast day along the Deschutes River. This has in it all the things I love to paint: clouds, trees, water, rocks, receding hills... the river was sweeping along, the hills were sweeping along, the clouds were sweeping along... and I got swept along with it all.

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Whispering Secrets

24x48
oil on canvas

This is one of the largest paintings I've done, so far, at 2'x4'. Framed, it's got quite an impact. I thoroughly enjoyed the process, using my biggest brushes and mixing huge piles of paint! A big thanks to my sister-in-law, Judy, for watching the children while I was in the studio.

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Keeping Pace

8x10
oil on panel

From a beautiful fall day on the Klickitat River. So many beautiful places, so little time...

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Shadow Rhythm

9x12
oil on canvas

It's a good thing we all have different tastes, or we'd all want the same thing! My husband, who is my favorite critic, doesn't care for this painting, and yet I really like it. I like reds and oranges, which may explain it... and he is red/green color blind, which may explain it, too! He is drawn to composition and value, but the variations in similar-valued reds and oranges don't stand out to him. He can see blues pretty well; too bad the leaves don't turn blue in the fall!

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Sweet Like Honey

8x10
oil on canvas panel

Giving paintings a title is one of the hardest things an artist does, at least I find it to be so. In fact, I confess I get some help-- from my husband. We usually bounce ideas off each other until something fits. In this case, the first thing John said when he saw this painting was that it looked like a good fishing hole, what he calls a "honey hole;" thus, the title, "Sweet Like Honey."

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I Love A Curve

8x10
oil on canvas panel

Eastern Columbia Gorge in autumn... what could be better? I love the Hood River Valley, where I live, with all the evergreens, but the fall foliage a little farther east is pretty hard to beat.

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Whimsy paintings

Waiting For Change

Pig In A Blanket

Pork 'n' Beans

Pick Me, Pick Me!

Sun Flower

Sky Scraper

The top three are 6x6; the bottom three are 11x14. It was fun!

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Whimsy, Columbia Art Gallery, March 2010

The Columbia Art Gallery's March show is title "Whimsy," in which I have six paintings. The theme definitely stretched me both inspirationally and artistically, but I'm pleased with the results. I also feel the whole experience will improve and inform my future non-humorous work. I'm grateful to have been invited to be part of the show. If you're in Hood River during the month of March, stop by the gallery and take a look. I also will be posting my six paintings soon. In the meantime, here's a link to the gallery's website for more information: whimsy.

Solemnity

9x12
oil on canvas

My mother came over and watched the children so I could get some solid painting time in, and this is one of the results. It was lovely to lose myself in the paint.

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Nocturnal Whispers

8x16
oil on canvas panel

I've been working on some whimsical landscapes for a show at the Columbia Art Gallery in Hood River, OR, and although this isn't one of them, it almost could be. I used a photo reference, but most of it was conceptual.

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Ascent

9x12
oil on panel

I just about gave up on this painting. I had a vision of a wide-open sky, but it just didn't work. I ended up adding the clouds, and then it all seemed to come together.

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Country Dance

11x14
oil on canvas

I've had cause to be thankful for the photo-gathering trips made the autumn before last, since I did not have an opportunity to go on any this last fall (newborn infants are rather time-consuming!).

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Chasing Sunshine

20x24
oil on canvas

It was difficult to get a good photograph of this painting, since it's fairly large and my ceiling is fairly low-- t00 much light washes it out and not enough makes it a bit dull. I tried to adjust it in photo-correction software, but I'm not very good at that! So here it is, a bit on the dark side, but fairly true to color.

I love clouds, and I have an ambition to paint more "sky" scenes. We'll see... I have more ambitions than I have time...

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Curvature

8x16
oil on canvas board

Final painting for the Red show. This is a new take on a photograph I've painted from before. I like the juxtaposition of the red hips against the abstract background. Choosing which part of the rose bush to focus on and which hips to include in the painting was a large part of the fun with this one.

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Red Tulips

6x12
oil on canvas board

Another for the Red show at Columbia Art Gallery in Hood River, Oregon. I enjoyed pushing the contrasts in this one. I'm looking forward to seeing other artists' interpretations of the red theme.

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Burning Bush

8x10
oil on canvas board

One of three paintings that will be in the Red show at the Columbia Art Gallery during February. It's been a real challenge to find time to paint since my 5-month-old son has been getting mobile, but the red theme has been a helpful inspiration. I'm thinking of child-gating part of my studio so he can play in there while I paint.

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