Windmill in Shadow

Windmill in Shadow

acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

18" x 24"

available at Proctor Art Gallery, Tacoma, WA

(contact for more info)

I decided to experiment with this one...I wanted to emphasize the sky by using very little texture for the foreground and make the colors very subtle and cold. I'm really happy with how the sky turned out - I wanted to create a sense of motion with all the texture. Still, I think I prefer using heavy texture for the foreground as well.

Proud music of the storm,
Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies,
Strong hum of forest tree-tops--wind of the mountains,
Personified dim shapes--you hidden orchestras,
You serenades of phantoms with instruments alert,
Blending with Nature's rhythmus all the tongues of nations...

-Walt Whitman, from "Proud Music of the Storm"

montana-artists.com

I'm the featured artist over at Montana-Artists.com!

Proctor Art Gallery Anniversary

The Proctor Art Gallery is turning a year old this month! We're throwing a party in celebration. I hope you can stop by and say "hi" if you're in the area!

Wildflower Meadow - SOLD

Wildflower Meadow

acrylic on canvas

24"x18"

SOLD

This was a really fun painting to do. I didn't do any detailed brushwork and really thickened the paint up with some acrylic gels.

My acrylic brand of choice (Winsor & Newton) has apparently been discontinued by my closest art supply store, and the other nearby stores don't sell it. I think I might have to start ordering paint in bulk anyway, since I go through a ton of it for these impasto paintings. I use almost an entire container of acrylic gel medium for each piece.

Flowers...are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, from "Gifts"

Dawn - SOLD

Dawn

28"x22"

acrylic on canvas

SOLD

Please pardon the light reflections in this picture...a better photo is forthcoming.

I've never been a morning person, but I've always wished I was - it's such a peaceful, beautiful time of day. I guess I just don't have Thoreau's same determination prior to sunrise, and I can't quite make myself enjoy an early morning as much as he did: "Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora [Dawn] as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tching-thang to this effect: 'Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.' I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages."

For me, morning tends to mostly inspire a severe desperation for caffeine.

"And now Aurora was

leaving the saffron bed of Tithonus,

beginning to shower upon earth

the light of another day."

-Virgil, from Book IV of the Aeneid

Take Me Home

Take Me Home

24"x30"

acrylic on canvas

Available for purchase at Revolution Gallery, Issaquah, WA

This painting depicts a field after harvest. I used a brush to soften up the grass around the road but left the clouds looking chunky.

I find that particular music puts me in the painting zone, so when I was feeling uninspired after beginning this piece, I put on an old standby that helped to urge me forward...Phil Collins, for some odd reason, inspires painting in me. I have no idea why. That should help explain where this painting's title comes from, anyway.

A SONG of the grass and fields!A song of the soil, and the good green grass!A song no more of the city streets;A song of the soil of the fields.A song with the smell of sun-dried hay, where the nimble pitchers handle the pitch-fork;A song tasting of new wheat, and of fresh-husk'd maize.-Walt Whitman, from "A Carol of Harvest"

Frozen Field

Frozen Field

18"x24"

acrylic on canvas

$170 + $28 shipping (contact)

I hope that everyone has been having a great holiday season. I can't believe it's 2010 already...has anybody officially declared what we will call this decade? (i.e., the 10s? The 20-10s?)

David and I went shopping for Christmas records a few weeks ago, and although I was sad to find no fun 45s, we did come across a Bing Crosby LP, as well as a pretty amazing nugget: John Denver's Rocky Mountain Christmas, featuring a particularly curious track entitled "Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)." It doesn't quite fit in with "Silver Bells," and I'm not quite sure what inspired John to add this track to a list of otherwise soothing Christmas/wintry melodies. It's one of those songs that has strikingly depressing lyrics paired with an upbeat melody.

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come see the north wind's masonry.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, from "The Snow-Storm"

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