Off the Alaska Highway

"Off the Alaska Highway", 8 x 10, Oil, NFS

Zangle Cove Winter Morning - NFS

"Zangle Cove Winter Morning", 9 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board

This is the last of the Zangle Cove paintings that I posted on Facebook for the 5 painting challenge. I hope you all did not mind that I also took the opportunity to highlight the issue of the proposed industrial geoduck farm in Zangle Cove. I honestly wish this were not an issue and that the time I spend writing letters to Thurston County, the Department Ecology, the US Army Corps of Engineers and Governor Inslee about the permit could be spent in my studio. But it is both an important local issue for Zangle Cove and a Puget Sound wide issue. This painting shows the exact location in the Cove where over 43,000 10 inch long, 6 inch wide PVC pipes will go--one per square foot stomped into the tideland when the water is low. Thank you all for listening!

Zangle Cove Early Spring - NFS

Zangle Cove Early Spring", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board

Day 3 of the 5 painting challenge on Facebook and another painting of Zangle Cove. This painting from 2004 is of the exact tideland area where the industrial geoduck aquaculture farm will go, in a lower tidal elevation, should it get a permit. You can see the beauty of the tideland where the herons fish and the log where the bald eagles perch. These families have lived here for as long as anyone can remember. It is their home. http://protectzanglecove.org/.

Blue Pitcher - NFS

"Blue Pitcher", 20 x 20 In, Oil on Canvas

This is another painting from the depths of my closet. Strange it is that I've not only lost track, but I don't remember my state of mind or how I was approaching painting at that time.

Roses in Green Vase

"Roses in Green Vase", 20 x 20 In, Oil on Canvas

I've been painting smaller works on museum board for so long that I forget that I have canvas. So the other day I was looking for canvas to paint on and I found four paintings that I had totally forgotten about.  This is one of them.  I speak a lot about memory, because it often eludes me and I can no longer live with scattered mental organization.  I have to be actually organized.

Chinese Girl - NFS

"Chinese Girl", 24 x 18 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is an older painting done in 2009 and I think it must have been done from a photo from my trip to China, but I don't remember. It is interesting comparing the old with the new--I often use more paint now, but the brushwork that I like is apparent. I always think I will remember everything, but so many things are forgotten. I am sometimes just lucky there is an actual memory right there on the canvas.

Portrait in High Key

"Portrait in High Key", 12 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This painting was an experiment in high key. Its a little straight on and I think it looks better in the photo than in actuality, but they are all experiments, right? Sometimes that is all I can ask of myself--to paint and put it in the box and go on to the next one.

Old Man with Pipe - NFS

"Old Man with Pipe", 14 x 11, Oil on Museum Board

I posted this painting a long while back, but I'm posting it again because it was selected for the December 2014 FAV 15% Bold Brush Painting Contest. I entered on a whim and promptly forgot about it--then got the notification. This painting brings so many memories of my painting trips to China.

Liz - NFS

"Liz", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board"
I'm still cleaning up my studio and unearthing paintings that I probably considered as sketches at the time, but now I value for their simplicity. This one is of my youngest daughter.

Margaret - NFS

"Margaret", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is another portrait of my eldest daughter.

Meg - NFS

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"Meg", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Panel

As an artist, I always thought that I would just keep getting better and better as the years went on. But sometimes I look back, as in this portrait of my daughter done in 2007, and wonder how the heck did I do that--what was my state of mind, who had I been studying with and what have I forgotten. I always thought it would be in my hands and and a part of myself that is not intellectual, but now I'm realizing that some things can be forgotten, even if I have moved onward in other ways. Its an interesting testimony to what life is sometimes about.

Three Faces of Eve - NFS

"Three Faces of Eve", 8 x 11 In, Paper
There is a story behind this one. Last fall I went to a "horse experience" in Arizona with a famous horse whisperer woman. On the last day I was hoping to spend time with the horses--not an unreasonable expectation. However, the program that afternoon was to sit in her living room and meditate with a blind fold on, listening to some really horrible non-music that was so loud I could not think straight. In desperation I pulled off my blindfold, pulled out some regular paper and did this drawing--came right out of my brain-- "Three Faces of Eve"--and then I did "Three Faces of Adam." No idea where these ideas came from. And the most interesting part was that when I was focused on drawing, I didn't hear the "music."

Girl in White Dress - NFS

"Girl in White Dress", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Canvas Board
I'm still experimenting with the Zorn palette (Cadmium Red Lightt, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black, White). The only zinc white I could find in my studio was so hard I had to throw it away, but I did find some Titanium/Zinc. Curious what you all who use zinc white think about its consistency. Also, my new year's resolution is to get all really bad stuff out of my studio, so I did this painting who no mineral spirirts or turp--definitely a challenge. Ordered some spike lavender painting medium today--hope I got the right stuff.

Liz - NFS

"Liz", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
Thanks to whoever posted Anders Zorn's palette on Facebook--I think it was Florin Bosinceanu. The cad red light, yellow ochre, titanium white and ivory black--was an experimental inspiration--have to try it again--

Storm Hell's Backbone - NFS

"Storm Hell's Backbone", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board

Painted on my trip to Utah.

Margaret - NFS

"Margaret", 12 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This is a portrait of my daughter that was an experiment using blue, orange, white and black. I think I should try it again, as this painting was from long ago.

St. Tropez - NFS

"St. Tropez", Oil on Museum Board, 6 x 9 In

I'm working on a long term project to organize my paintings of the last 20 years. There are some I've kept and have on my walls and others long gone--just numbered images on my computer. For many of them, I can't remember exactly when or where I did them. Fortunately, this one has a date, September 2002, and with a little help from my facebook friends, identified it as San Tropez. I went to France in 2002 with my instructor Simon Kogan and others from our class and have wonderful memories, but for the most part, no memory of geographical location.

Grand Canyon Sky - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sky", 6 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board, NFS
This is one of the small 6" squared paintings I did for the Holiday Show at the Southwind Gallery in Kansas. I have been on the 200 miles rafting/painting trips three times down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. There is nothing like this 8 day trip.

Mt. Shuksan - NFS

Mt. Shuksan, 10 x 12 Inch, Oil on Museum Board

This was painted from the parking lot at Artist's Point, between Mt. Shuksan and Mr. Baker. It is so easy with a painting like this to look at it back in the studio and see everything that could be "fixed." And it is a mistake to do it--I say that from experience!

"As I said to you before, I cannot interest myself in whether they will pass juries or not. More paintings have been spoiled during the process of their making, through such considerations, than the judgments of juries are worth.

"The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture--however unreasonable this may sound. The picture, if a picture results, is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past. The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being..." Robert Henri, "The Art Spirit"

NFS

Wild Pacific Trail - NFS

"Wild Pacific Trail", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This is another painting of the rocky coast near Ucluelet on Vancouver Island where I painted with others from the Plain Air Washington group a couple of weeks ago. It is hard to believe the water was so blue, but the sun was bright, unlike the following days of painting in the rain and the fog. The rocks and the waves are intense and amazing.