Backyard Trees

"Backyard Trees", 10 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
I painted this during full summer, when the Northwest is the greenest place I know. These apple trees have been here for over 35 years! We lost one last winter--it got too wet and the tree just keeled over. Behind the apple trees are the cedars and the fir on the bank above the Cove. They are significantly taller and when the wind blows, I just have to trust the tree gods.


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Wallowa Clouds

"Wallowa Clouds", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was painted in the farmland south of Joseph, Oregon at the Wallowa Arts Festival Plein Air Competition in September. I was experimenting during this trip with palette knife. My paintings in the show won the En Plein Air Artist's Choice award. Thank you to everyone! We had so much fun painting out on that road with the mountains, the fields, the clouds and the cows!


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Clouds over Utah

"Clouds over Utah", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board

This fall I've been experimenting with palette knife and as I go into my winter still life paintings, I'll probably continue.

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Olympics from Hurricane Ridge

"Olympics from Hurricane Ridge", 10 x 12, Oil on Museum Board

This is a painting from Hurricane Ridge in the Olympics. There is a road from Port Angeles to this magnificent vista. We've been there many times--in the snow, in the rain, in the sun and on a beautiful day as this one with the clouds over the peaks. I've been organizing my paintings from the last nearly 30 years, and I found this one in a pile, forgotten.


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Freighter Port Angeles

"Freighter Port Angeles", 10 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
The view is from a bluff overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, just east of Port Angeles. In the distance is Vancouver Island.

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The Strait

"The Strait", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board

We are blessed here in the Pacific Northwest with the sky, the mountains and the inland waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. I'm thinking a great deal these days about the tragedies of the recent horrific escape of the Atlantic salmon, many diseased from being penned together in close quarters, from the industrial net pen aquaculture in Puget Sound (banned in California and Alaska) (see http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article174002181.html) and the equally horrific expansion of geoduck aquaculture on the beautiful tidelands of Puget Sound, using 43,560 PVC pipes (7 miles/16 tons) per acre. (See http://protectzanglecove.org).

Our Department of Ecology is ringing its hands like a 5-year old because it is caught between some inkling of the right thing to do and the apparent fear of the aquaculture industry. The Department buys the industry's interpretation of our Shoreline Management Act without blinking an eye or apparently even reading the Act. I may be wrong about this--regarding the 5-year oldness, because I'm guessing many 5-year olds have more brains and guts than the adults in charge of environmental decisions regarding Puget Sound in our state. The pretense of "protecting and restoring Puget Sound" and at the same time allowing these industrial operations is completely hypocritical and without conscience.

Hood River Farm

Hood River Farm, 8 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board

This was painted during a Plein Air Washington paint-out a couple of months ago at the Columbia River Gorge.

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Mt. Baker Sunrise

"Mt. Baker Sunrise", 10 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This view of Mt. Baker is from a high bank over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, looking east to Mt. Baker and the sunrise.

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Mt. Hood - SOLD

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"Mt. Hood", 6 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This was painted last year in the Columbia Gorge. I'm wondering if Mt. Hood can be seen at all this week. Yesterday morning we could look directly at the very red sun, so thick was the smoke here above Puget Sound.

SOLD

Quinault River

"Quinault River", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board

Still cleaning up my studio finding paintings all over the place.

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Death Valley Last Light - SOLD

"Death Valley Last Light", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This painting was done after a trip to Death Valley a couple of years ago and I found it recently buried under a stack of paintings. Living in the Pacific Northwest where everything is green and more green, I love to go to the desert places.

SOLD

Blue Hills Utah

"Blue Hills Utah", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

I experimented in this painting with the palette knife. Sometime it is good to deliberately change a habit.

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Utah Snow

"Utah Snow", 8 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board

I've actually been painting a lot in the last three months, but have posted few paintings, maybe because they all feel like an experiment. Sometimes I simply can't remember how I used to do it and the most benevolent interpretation of that is that the universe is trying to tell me something.


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Big Sky Utah

"Big Sky Utah", 10 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

Land, distance, sky.

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Sky over Utah

"Sky over Utah", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

Sometimes when doing a painting, the simpler, the better. And quit while the bandito is still holding out her arm, showing how far it is to the horizon, before that cranky sheriff comes around looking for evidence of wrongdoing. If only I could do that every time. But it means I have to start without the sheriff standing behind me in the first place.

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Colors of the Reef

"Colors of the Reef", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

Have I said before that I keep going back to Capitol Reef? And that the backside of the Reef is a different world? I looked at this painting when I got back from Utah and thought, "Did I paint that? Do I dare show this?" And I think now, yes, it was visceral and visual--one with the brush.

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Nisqually Color

"Nisqually Color", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
This painting was from our annual paint-out to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in March. The Nisqually River flows from the Nisqually Glacier on Mt. Rainier, elevation 14,411 feet, to sea level in 50 miles. The Refuge is surrounded by the estuary of the Nisqually River. In 2009, dikes that had been built in 1904 were removed, reclaiming over 700 acres to the estuary. The old barns remain on the land. https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Billy_Frank_Jr_Nisqually/about.html

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Green Dress

"Green Dress", 12 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This is another of the portrait studies I did in early January.

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Mountain Path - NFS

"Mountain Path", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This painting was an experiment in color, a good way to escape habitual thinking and approach related to a specific element.

NFS

Crystal Cove Tideland

"Crystal Cove Tideland", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This was painted on the paint-out day of the American Impressionist Small Works Exhibition in Costa Mesa, California, March 9, 2017 at Crystal Cove State Park. Some painted along the beach, like me, and others painted on the trail where there were gardens and restaurants. The day was sunny with ocean clouds and turquoise water. This painting was hung on the "wet wall" section of the Exhibition. Striking to me on this beautiful beach, was the amount of plastic and plastic shards and various other forms of garbage. I can't remember seeing anything like it on beach near Westport, here in Washington State, but it is no doubt there, somewhere along the coast.

NFS

Shadow and Light

"Shadow and Light", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
Its difficult to take photos of paintings, whether strong sunlight outside the studio windows or gray fog. The light catches on the brush strokes and the values and colors are never quite the same. Many adjustments can be made in Photoshop to try to make it true, but it seems more or less impossible. Sometime the painting looks better in the photograph, which is a big enough concern, but in this case, I just couldn't get the photograph to do justice to the painting, at least in my eyes. It was one of those fast, "don't think about it," paintings.

Clouds over Utah

"Clouds over Utah", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
I'm not actually sure exactly where this is in Utah--it is somewhere between Capitol Reef and Escalante. I went through all my photos of the trip, but couldn't find this particular view. So I hope the painting speaks for itself--

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Utah Color

"Utah Color", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
I am continually going back to my photos of Escalante and the backside of Capitol Reef in Utah because of my memories of being there. Unlike Bryce and Zion, there were no tourists--just deserts, mountains, canyons, sunlight and color.

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Tongariro Crossing

"Tongariro Crossing", 10 x 12, Oil on Museum Board

In my mind, the name "Tongariro" brings forth a concept of the mythical. But the 12 mile hike itself over the Tongariro Crossing on the North Island of New Zealand was one tough hike--especially the "steps" coming down the far side. No, I didn't take my paints with me--this was a studio painting and a difficult one, because the rocky landscape had neither dramatic values or dramatic colors. So it was a challenge, just as the hike itself was a challenge.



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Death Valley Winter

"Death Valley Winter", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
I don't generally like paintings where the surface has dried and the artist has painted over, sometimes multiple times, building up the surface with paint so the original brushwork is lost. I generally try to finish my painting at once, leaving the brushwork as is. I've always thought there was a sense and feeling of freedom in an alla prima approach. But this painting was different. Even after it dried, I painted over some parts of it, more than once, and when the paint buildup was too much for me, I scraped and scraped and did it over again, more than once. It was an exercise not in trying to make it look like something, but trying to make it work in some other way. I don't know if I succeeded. I don't know why this little painting grabbed me this way, but then its all a big experiment, right?

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Tumbledown Mountain

"Tumbledown Mountain", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
Years ago we flew by helicopter into the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia. We could only take a few pounds of luggage with us, so I fashioneded a small pochade box out of a tin box for kids' pencils. It was one of my best painting trips--hiking the rugged trails from the lodge. As I am still drawn to that experience, this painting was from a photo of the mountains during that trip.

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Utah Light

"Utah Light", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
Here in the rain of the Northwest, I am thinking about Utah and the warm colors of Escalante and Capitol Reef which I'm picturing in my April of this year.

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Girl in Blue

"Girl in Blue", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board

The other day I was out where there were crowds of people, which is not particularly comfortable for me. I like to go to places like Escalante, where I head out in my 4-wheel drive with my artist friends and we never see another soul. But I can get along in most any situations if I can find a definite purpose, and in this case, it was surreptitiously taking photos of the many faces for portrait paintings. This painting is actually from a photo from long ago. And yes, I would rather have a live model, but in the end, its all about letting go and taking liberties--the more, the better.

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Utah Sky

"Utah Sky", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
I'm hoping to go back to Utah in April to paint again. There are so many places to go in Utah, but my favorites are the backside of Capital Reef and the Grand-Staircase Escalante. You definitely need a 4-wheel drive and a good map.

Rocks and Waves

"Rocks and Waves", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board

Sometimes I struggle with a painting. This one I did twice, thinking the second time I could resolve the problems, which mainly had to do with basic lifelessness. But the second one was just as bad. So I got mad. I took my #10 brush, loaded it up with paint that was not at all the color I had thought was the right color, just sort of random color that was on my palette mixed with other random color, and with abandon randomly painted over what was there, sort of with my eyes closed--metaphorically speaking. I let something else "decide." And it was surprisingly much better! The next day there were a couple of things I thought I would "fix", until I realized that was the whole point. This must be a metaphor for a certain attitude toward life, but I admit I can't quite make it out--how random it actually is.

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Quinault River

"Quinault River", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
I painted this last fall with artists from Plein Air Washington on one of our trips that focused on the National Parks. Each river valley in the Olympics and Cascades is unique and this one, in August, was filled with color. I grew up hiking in the Olympic Mountains.

Please read about the Quinault Indian Nation from their own website: http://www.quinaultindiannation.com/

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White Dress

"White Dress", 14 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
I am fascinated by the portrait, maybe because I find it so difficult. With a landscape you can smudge around--change the design and look to harmony without having to put a structure called a nose in approximately the right place. You can make the sky bigger or move the tree to the left or the right. But maybe, in the end, it is a good strategy to think of a portrait as a landscape--just another interesting set of shapes and planes and darks and lights.

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The Columbia

"The Columbia", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board

This was another painting done near The Dalles looking down on the Columbia River last August during the Pacific Northwest Painting Competition in Hood River. I live in Western Washington, where everything is green--giant firs and cedars surround my house. But on the Eastern side of the Cascades, the beautiful warm colors of the land contrast with the blue of The Columbia.

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Golden Hills

"Golden Hills", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was painted near The Dalles looking north across the Columbia River on a warm day last August during the Pacific Northwest Painting Competition in Hood River. The Columbia River is so iconic for anyone growing up in the Northwest--as very young children we learned about the "Mighty Columbia" and sang "Roll On, Columbia Roll On." Its hard to remember exactly where all the imagery comes from--the grandiosity and the mystery of such a river and it has never really occurred to me before to even ask the question. But since childhood it has included all the stories of Lewis and Clark and the Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia Gorge and the Vantage Bridge. This is a simple painting--a sketch of a moment on the River.


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