Afternoon Chat

Afternoon Chat
16" x 20"
acrylic on canvas board

In the crazy, busyness of life as a homeschooling mother of 4 active kids, I find myself continually drawn to finding, contemplating and painting simple moments: appreciating and applauding those who find a way to slow down.

A recent painting for the show "NW Art Herstory" on June 4th.

End Of Day

End Of Day
8"x 24"
acrylic on canvas

One of the things I loved about moving from southern California to Portland, Oregon was the ability to drive west for five minutes and see beautiful farmland. This piece will be in the Art and Agriculture show at the Columbia Center for the Arts Gallery in Hood River in May.

Here's a detail of the above painting. I love the span of color I can get when mixing green with ultra marine blue, cobalt blue, raw umber, burnt sienna, nickel azo (one of my faves!), yellow ochre and hansa.

Big Yellow Bag

10"x 10"
acrylic on canvas

This is from another random photo. I was initially drawn to the composition, the light, color, the girl contemplating her laptop, but surprisingly, I really enjoyed painting her big yellow bag!

Painting available at Paradise Perks in Irvine, CA

Finding Paintings In Random Photos

I find that I am always taking my camera with me, wherever I go, looking for inspiration. Sometimes I just take random pictures as I am passing by, especially if there is interesting light, shadows, colors, or shapes that catch my eye. I am always excited to get back to my studio, download the pictures and revisit the images I took, often not knowing what I will find...as in the above photo.


It wasn't until I started looking closer and cropping that I found the beautiful light and shadow play, the wonderful color palette and the peaceful image of someone enjoying tea on a lovely afternoon with a close companion! AND THEN it wasn't until after I started painting that I noticed the person sitting in the shadows, on the ground petting the dog!

10"x 10"
acrylic on canvas
Available at Paradise Perks

Late Fall In Downtown Portland

8"x 10"

acrylic on masonite

This painting is of a street in downtown Portland, Oregon. I thought it would make a nice compliment to the two previously posted paintings of San Francisco and New York City. I was struck by the very different color palettes of the cities.

8"x 10"
acrylic on masonite
San Francisco

8"x 10"
acrylic on masonite
New York City

After The Tree Farm

8"x 10"
acrylic on masonite

Out in the Hillsboro, Oregon countryside, a favorite seasonal tradition for many is to go to the tree farm, find the perfect tree, and stop at McMenamin's Rock Creek Tavern for one of their fresh brewed ales, a hearty meal, and a roaring fire in a down-home, log cabin atmosphere. The history of the Rock Creek Tavern dates back to the mid 1920's when it started as a small country store. "Bombed in the 1930's, closed up at the end of the '60's, run over by a car in the late 1990's, and twice destroyed by fire over its 80+ years, and yet, here Rock Creek Tavern stands...". Thank goodness! Cheers!

Satsuma

5"x 7"
acrylic on masonite

Satsumas are widely available in the stores now and a family favorite!

Shadows and Saturation

8"x 10"
acrylic on masonite

One of the fun things about the current image from Karin Jurick's DSFDF challenge, was all of the red I found in the figures after enhancing the saturation in photoshop. Playing with the saturation and hue in photoshop has helped me to look for and see color where I hadn't before and as helped me to expand my color usage in my painting.
For this painting I used: ultra marine blue, cobalt blue, yellow ocre, hansa yellow, cad red lt, napthol red lt, and raw umber and titanium white. Oh, and a litte green gold!

Different View

Karin's original reference photo

5"x 7"
acrylic on masonite

There were two things that I particularly appreciated about the current painting challenge from Karin Jurick's DSFDF. First of all, the reference photo provided a new subject matter with a multitude of cropping options. Using someone else's reference photo gives me the opportunity to see through different eyes and broaden my artistic view.
Secondly, I ended up using a limited palette of colors: cerulean blue, burnt sienna, hansa yellow, a little raw umber, a bit of ultra marine blue and white.

Challenging Cupcakes

Karin's reference photo

Okay, so Karin Jurick posted a photo of colorful cupcakes to paint for the current Different Strokes for Different Folks Challenge. I thought, "How fun! This should be easy." Not so! It was hard. But I loved it!
What I loved about it was that Karin referred to the artist Wayne Thiebaud who is one of my favorites. It was a good reason to pull out my book and notes about him.
He uses incredible color in his paintings, but I also noticed that he spend a lot of time looking at positive and negative shapes, and shadows, and pattern/repetition....so I decided to go in that direction.
The drawing was hard! (I think it was the frosting!) And then I wavered between using two or three values or pencil or ink.....I tried them all and ended up with this. The end result may not reflect all of the time and thought that went into it, but it was a very valuable process to me and I enjoyed the srtuggle!