Cape Disappointment

Cape Disappointment", Oil on Museum Board, 10 x 12 In, 2013

Dear Friends,

I've worked out how to deal with the new changes to blogspot and solved the problem of not having all that I wanted in either the old or new formats by utilizing both formats! Now you can click on the "View All Images" button and you simply go to my second site, created in the new blogspot format. Its a bit more work because I have to post to both sites, but better than creating an entirely new site with another provider. That was looking like a nightmare!

Anyway--this is a photo of one of the paintings I did with the Plein Air Washington group in the State Park down by the mouth of the Columbia River in September 2013. It was a gorgeous, stormy day!

NFS

Margaret

"Margaret", Oil on Museum Board, 11 x 14 In, 2005

Dear Friends--

I have not been painting much or posting because of some personal issues, but I hope to get back to a little more of what I love to do in the New Year!

Meanwhile, Google Blogspot has changed their format, and from my current blog, the "View all Images" function no longer works. The Blogspot people apparently arbitrarily and without notification deleted this function from the traditional blog template. When I went back to my old template after trying out the new one, even my old template was changed and some features are missing.

Since I don't like the new blogspot template and I no longer trust them, I may move to a different provider--and that will be a lot of work. But figuring this out is one mission for the New Year. If any of you are having similar problems with blogspot and have figured anything out--please let me know! Or if you use a different provider that you like, I'd also like to hear about that.

I wish you all the best for the New Year!

Kathryn

Columbia River - Cape Disappointment

"Columbia River - Cape Disappointment", Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24, NFS

First place winner of the Washington State Parks exhibition at The American Art Company Gallery in Tacoma, Washington. It was a wonderful painting season with the Plein Air Painters of Washington, painting the State Parks. I have belonged to this group for several years, painting with them in such places as Glacier National Park, Canyon de Chelly, and the Grand Canyon as well as our local and beautiful Washington State. They are good painters and I thank them all for their friendship to me. There is nothing like a "painting buddy." Thank you to all of you.

Currently available at the American Art Company Gallery in Tacoma, Washington.

Grand Canyon Sketch 9

Grand Canyon Sketch 9, 6 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is another of my paintings from my trip down the Colorado in the Grand Canyon in May, 2013. I have not done much studio painting in the last few months, but the trips in the open air are still very important to me--they definitely take me outside of myself and as you can see, I'm painting with more abandon than ever.

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 3

"Grand Canyon Sketch 3", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
We painted early morning and late afternoon. Deep in the Canyon the sun goes down quickly. All these paintings were fast and loose with the brush and I felt a wonderful sense of both focus and freedom painting them.

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 6 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 6", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was the last painting I did on the trip, as the sun was going down behind the walls of the canyon and most everybody was partying down by the river. I wanted to do this last painting but I also wanted to hang out with the group, so this was a quick painting--maybe 30 minutes. Its hard to describe what its like being in the canyon on the river--it is a world apart. One of my favorite things is that because the canyon is in an uplift zone, the rock in the Inner Gorge is vischu schist. Here is a photo I found on the web of the vishnu schist. I've got some of my own photos--just haven't managed to go through them yet.

Here's a close up photo of the schist with pink granite.

Grand Canyon Sketch 5

"Grand Canyon Sketch 5", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was a second painting one morning before our departure on the river, so not much time--loose and abstract.

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 2

"Grand Canyon Sketch 2", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
The painting is fast in the Grand Canyon. We are up at 5 am breaking camp, then breakfast, then paint, then load the raft and leave by 9:30 am. I never painted for more than an hour on any particular painting and sometimes less if I did two paintings. So like the river, these are fast and swift. We were able to paint again after setting up camp late in the afternoon.

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 1 - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sketch 1", 6 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
My third painting trip down the Grand Canyon was as welcome as any trip I have been on. There is just nothing like it.

"Monterey Wharf", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
My friend Jeanne Edwards and I were down on the beach by the wharf, out of sight of the other 500 some painters up top that day at the Plein Air Convention in Monterey.

Purchase this unframed painting for $175.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

"Canyon Walls", 11 x 14 In, Oil on Museum Board
From my trip to the Grand Canyon in 2007. What an amazing place!

NFS

Asilomar Bay

"Asilomar Bay", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was done during the Plein Air Convention in Monterey along with at least 200-300 other painters on the beach below Asilomar. It was a beautiful and windy day. Kind of amazing to paint with that many other painters!

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Storm Hells Backbone - SOLD

"Storm Hells Backbone", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is a small painting I did on a trip to Utah with my husband a few years back.

SOLD

Artist Friend

"Artist Friend", 10 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was painted at an indoor gathering of my outdoor painting group earlier this year.

Purchase this unframed painting for $135.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame

Roses In Cup

"Roses In Cup", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board
I'm not sure where I am going, but this little painting is on the path.

Purchase this unframed painting for $135.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Mt. Rainier from Spray Park

"Mt. Rainier from Spray Park", 6 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
I painted this view of the northwest face of Mt. Rainier sitting on a big rock in Spray Park quite a few years ago. My husband, kids and I hiked to the vast and beautiful alpine meadows of this elevation from Mowich Lake. The painting is a sketch that includes so many memories that its not one I could part with.

NFS

Yellow and Red Flowers

"Yellow and Red Flowers", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was done at the Plein Air Washington Paint-In yesterday. The last painting of the day, I worked on it for maybe 45 minutes. I wasn't trying to make it look particularly realistic, just slapping on the paint. That's really what I want to do at this point in my painting life.

Purchase this unframed painting for $185.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Mt. Blanc - NFS

"Mt. Blanc", 4 x 4 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is a tiny painting done with a group of painters in France, in 2001. Our mission, as I remember it, was to paint fast and limited brushstrokes. I have always enjoyed painting like this.

NFS

Headlands Path - NFS

"Headlands Path", 18 x 24 In, Oil on Canvas
This is a painting I did in 1991 when I was living in Mill Valley. At the time I could only paint while my oldest daughter was in preschool. I did these larger paintings in two three-hour sessions and now, in my older age, I don't know how I did it! Marin County has some of the most beautiful vistas to paint.

NFS

After the Rain - SOLD

"After the Rain", 12 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is another older painting, done in 2005. It won an award at a show. It certainly represents the weather these days in the Pacific Northwest. My husband and I drove up to Paradise on Mt. Rainier yesterday and hiked with our snow attachments for our boots through dense fog (luckily many had gone before us), maybe to around 6200 feet elevation from 5400 at the lodge which was covered in snow up to the second story windows. The fog miraculously stayed at the lower level and a perfect view of Mt. Rainier was just before us. We could even see Mt. Adams for a moment above the clouds and fog.

Grand Canyon - Sketch - NFS

"Grand Canyon - Sketch", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
For some reason I've always liked the abstract quality of this sketch, done on site during my first artist trip down the Grand Canyon back in 2005. This is a once in a life-time trip and I've been twice and planning for a third with a group of artists. There is nothing like it--to travel down the river from Lee's Ferry as the uplift of the Canyon walls are at their maximum in the Inner Gorge and you are traveling through the Vishnu Schist, formed 1.75 billion to 1.73 billion years ago.

NFS

Liz - NFS

"Liz", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board
I can't remember when I did this painting. I've done many paintings of Liz, but I think this one is from long ago.

NFS

Elk Creek Alley - NFS

"Elk Creek Alley", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is another painting from a few years ago, one that painted itself--a sketch really. Of all the paintings I've done over the years, it is one of my favorites.

NFS

Cold on the River - SOLD

"Cold on the River, Port Alberni", 11 x 14 In, Oil on Museum Board
Because of some ongoing issues, I have not been painting at the rate and intensity that I have for so many years. So I thought that rather than not posting at all, I would post some older work. This is a painting of a a town in British Columbia. It was sold years ago at a show on the East Coast where it won a prize.

I want to thank everyone who has followed my blog over the last three years. I have found both friendship and support from you! I wish you all the best for the New Year and that we will all continue to find our way as artists--wherever our paths lead.

Thank you!
Kathryn

Still Life with Roses

"Still Life with Roses", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
This still life was painted at our annual Plein Air Washington holiday gathering--such a wonderful group of people!

Purchase this unframed painting for $185.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Red Rose

"Red Rose", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Canvas Board"
Do I dare post this? Any notion of perfection has gone. It is raw and not trying to be anything--abstract, realistic--neither. My neighbor told me that it is actually getting lighter now earlier in the evening, though the solstice is not until the 22nd. He also said that the morning would continue to get darker until early January.

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame

Two Red Roses

"Two Red Roses", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Canvas Panel
This is another experiment in abstraction. Doing these I am continually reminded of the George Bernard Shaw quote at the top of my blog!

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame

Rose with Lemons

"Rose with Lemons", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Canvas Panel
What can I say--so much imperfection--deliberately leaving it--

Purchase this unframed painting for $150.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame

Pink Rose

"Pink Rose", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Canvas Panel
Thank you everyone for your advice on abstract painting. You can see I'm finding my way slowly. It so good to experiment with throwing any idea of perfection to the winds--very freeing.

Purchase this unframed painting for $135.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame

Yellow Rose - SOLD

"Yellow Rose", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Canvas Board
This painting goes one step further on my road to abstraction. Its funny how easy it is to revert to the known. To take the leap towards something different--that's not so easy for me.