Little Bighorns

Little Bighorns
acrylic on canvas
18" x 14"
Available for purchase at Carnation Corners, Carnation, WA

I decided to experiment a bit with this one. I used isopropyl alcohol to dissolve droplets of paint on the canvas; I started by using the alcohol drops just on the rocks, then expanded them to the rest of the canvas.

Grazing - SOLD

Grazing I & Grazing II

acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

8" x 8" x 1.5"

sold

I bought some crackle paste awhile ago and finally decided to try it out. I combined it with a light molding paste so that the centers of the canvases wouldn't be as crackly.

These two can be hung individually or as a pair. Grazing I has more of a reddish tint to it, and Grazing II has a lighter tan tint.

I will leave in the hills a bit of myself--
The heat of my eyes which saw them bloom;
And cicadas, nesting on thorny branches,
Will sing out the shrill cry of my desire.
-Anna de Noailles, from "The Imprint"

Shy Elk Calf

Shy Elk Calf
acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas
11" x 14"
$365 framed
Available for purchase from Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT

I still had wet paint leftover from some recent paintings, so I decided to keep rolling with the elk theme and produced this little guy. I never realized how knobby an elk calf's knees were until I painted them...

I'm also prepping several larger canvases and waiting for paint to dry, so stay tuned!


April had covered the hills
With flickering yellows and reds,
The sparkle and coolness of snow
Was blown from the mountain beds.
-Amy Lowell, "Azure and Gold"

Awakening

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Awakening
acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas
18" x 24" x 1.5"
$775 unframed
Available for purchase from Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT


Here's another elk in dawn light with an entirely different color scheme & mood (as compared to Morning's Call). Iridescent copper paint is mixed in with the pigments to give the piece a more subdued glow.

I've been having a lot of fun trying new directions lately - it's far too easy to box oneself in, so I'm working on experimenting more and forcing myself to let go of the attention to composition in my reference photos. Over the past few months, I've been focusing more on the portraying the form of a subject (I waxed philosophical on that in July) - I'm trying to convey the "elk-iness" of an elk, the "morning-ness" of morning, etc. I have a lot of work to do, but it's an exciting journey:)


How fair it comes, the wonderful hour
When nature from sleep awakes,
And over the face of the earth at last
A newborn gladness breaks!
The stars grow pale in the shadowy sky,
And over the mountains creep
The mists that are part of the waking world,
And part of the earth's sweet sleep.
The restless birds in the tree-tops high
Are shaking their wings at last,
And chirp, and twitter their songs of praise,
As the dawn comes on so fast.
But who can tell of the wondrous charm,
When over the distant hills
The day's bright king in his glory comes
And the earth with radiance fills?
Now scatter, ye mists, from the mountain-side,
And die in the sky's soft blue;
For the dawn has passed, and the day is here,
With its light and joy so true.

-Mary Dowe Brine, "The Awakening"

Morning's Call

Morning's Call

acrylic on canvas

24" x 12"

$625 framed

Available for purchase from Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT

This was my first attempt at painting an elk, and surprisingly enough, I found that the antlers were my favorite part of the process...I had assumed that they'd drive me batty. I mixed more of that lovely iridescent gold paint in with my pigments. I dripped paint from the bottom of the canvas toward the top to vaguely suggest the appearance of a field.

Have you ever heard an elk's bugle, by the way? It's a really surprising sound for such a massive creature to make: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYzWmKlZtrU

into the world of elk...

I just finished this one and snapped a quick photo of it drying on the easel. Freshwater would like some elk paintings, so I thought I'd try my hand at painting an elk giving its famous bugle. I'll have more information on this piece soon - it'll be on its way to the gallery in Dillon shortly.

I'm also revamping my web site, which should be updated sometime next week.

Running Before Time Took Our Dreams Away

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(detail - click to enlarge)

Running Before Time Took Our Dreams Away
acrylic on canvas
24" x 36"
$1175 framed
Available for purchase through Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT (contact)

I was listening to Pink Floyd's album "The Division Bell" while painting this one. The painting's title comes from a line in that album's last track, "High Hopes" - it really stuck out to me as I was working on the buffalo.

The photo has some light reflection on the left side, which helps to reveal the texture a bit in the photo. I've been working on practicing patience lately with my art, and I feel like that's permitting me to produce richer colors on the canvas (that effect isn't translated as well when photographed). The immediate gratification of using palette knives to mix colors on the canvas is wonderful, but I wanted to achieve more depth without using more texture. Texture is still an integral part of a painting like this, but I've been layering textured paint with light color washes to make the effect more subtle. I've also been scraping with the knives more; once several layers of texture and color have dried, I literally scrape more color onto the canvas to achieve softer highlights and to make the paint break in a natural-looking way. The layers of colors interact with each other to produce a bit of a glow.

Where vast and far the rustling grass burns with its russet stain,
O'er prairies lone, beyond the throne, of Rocky Mountain chain,
The lowing herds, the league-long herds, of bisons roam the wild,
By streams serene, by meadows green, and where great cliffs are pil'd
-Isaac McLellan, from "The Flight of the Buffalo"

Summer Relief

Summer Relief
acrylic on canvas
24" x 12"
$625 framed
Available for purchase through Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT (contact)


Sketching this moose prior to painting him was my first foray into the world of moose-drawing. They're beautiful creatures - I love those big goofy grins and huge noses. I remember being in the Grand Tetons once with my parents when I was young...we were hiking and spotted a moose calf no more than 20 feet away from us, just off the trail. Its mother was close by, eyeing us suspiciously and ready to trample us if need be. It was really quite an impressive encounter, and I gained a lot of healthy respect for those big animals. And here's my little nod to them: a bull moose getting some relief from the summer heat.

I used my new iridescent pearl paint for this one. It's particularly noticeable when the light hits it from different angles.


"Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it alright will rather preserve its life than destroy it."
-Henry David Thoreau

Uphill

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Uphill

acrylic on canvas
24" x 12"
$625 framed
Available for purchase through Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT (contact)

The mighty American bison is truly a remarkable creature - it's so solid and powerful. What I love in particular about them, though, is how they're both majestic and goofy - they always have that ridiculous patchy fur in warm weather and they like to roll around in the mud as much as a dog does.

The background for this painting consists of several layers with both palette knife and brush work. I wanted it to have a sort of cave-ish appearance, and the acrylic gels work really well when trying to achieve a rocky, organic look. The buffalo himself is painted in shades of red and yellow, and his horns & hooves have a blue-ish tint to them.

"The road uphill and the road downhill are one and the same."
-Heraclitus of Ephesus

Vigilante - SOLD

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Vigilante

acrylic on canvas

12" x 24"

SOLD

We came across this horse in the "living" ghost town of Virginia City, Montana, which is a beautifully restored Victorian gold mining town that had me absolutely captivated. This particular horse was providing stagecoach rides - I thought she'd look much prettier without the bridle for the painting.

"Virginia! How great was Virginia! She sat like a queen beside a golden stream... her gathered wealth built many a palace, and caused the lines of polished steel to wend their way across a continent."

-Noyes, A History of Southwest Montana

Backlit Bison

Backlit Bison

acrylic on canvas

16" x 20"

Available for purchase at Revolution Gallery, Issaquah, WA

Yep, I'm still in a gold-paint phase...I love the bronze tones it produces. I don't like to use so much gold that it's overwhelming - I like it to be a bit more subtle, so that it provides a pretty late-afternoon glow.

I've also been painting more buffalo, as I previously promised I would. They're fun to paint. I especially liked painting this sleepy looking guy.

By the way, while trying to figure out how to order my favorite Winsor & acrylics online, I came across some of the most breathtaking art I'd ever seen by an artist who's been working with W&N. I've really connected with her work, because she also loves to portray big, expansive skies. I so admire her technique & ability.

Anyway, her name is Beckie Reed. Go, and be amazed!

Through the Field at Dusk - SOLD

Through the Field at Dusk

acrylic on canvas

12" x 24"

SOLD

I'm still trying some different things, as you can see...and still using that lovely iridescent gold paint that I've grown to adore so much.

I've come to appreciate the majesty of the antelope much more now that I'm in Washington. Back home in Billings, it seemed like they were everywhere - doing their business on the high school track, eating neighbors' rose bushes, etc. I grew as accustomed to seeing herds of antelope wandering around our neighborhood as to seeing stray cats and dogs. These versatile and beautiful creatures are, of course, doing their very best to adapt to an ever-encroaching human population. I can't imagine how frightfully confusing it must be to leap out of a golden field and onto hard asphalt or a manicured lawn of bright green grass.

I love these wild flowers in this bright land of our;

I love, too, the curlew's wild scream.

The bluffs of white rocks and antelope flocks

That graze on the hillsides so green.

-Brewster Higley, "The Western Home"

Moonlight Stragglers - SOLD

Moonlight Stragglers

acrylic on canvas

16" x 20"

SOLD

This is another more impressionistic painting with rough texture and a surreal quality to the composition. People keep telling me that I need to paint more bison, which I find to be such impressively gorgeous creatures, so you can expect to see more cropping up in the future! :)

Montana has been pulling on my heart-strings lately. Can you tell? I just recently finished an amazing anthology called "Montana Women Writers" and will share more about that in the next few days. I also saw Storyhill, a folk-rock duo from Montana, a few days ago - I've seen them live so many times and just can't get enough of their beautiful music. My homesickness probably stems from all that Montana-goodness, as well as the fact that it's been so cloudy and rainy here in Washington. I find myself missing my prairies.

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

-Blackfoot saying

Nourishment

Nourishment

acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

16" x 20"
Available for purchase at Revolution Gallery, Issaquah, WA

Here's one that's completely different. I'm not sure if it's done yet or not, but I thought I'd post it in its current form anyway. I used some more iridescent gold paint for the background and decided to keep things loose and abstract, which is a real difficult practice for me. I found this horse grazing in a field in Billings, but the reference photo I took was not too impressive - the sky was gray and the colors were dull overall. I thought a representative look might jazz it up a bit.

Into the White - SOLD

Into the White
18"x24"

acrylic on canvas

SOLD

My computer is alive again!

For this buffalo painting, I combined my paint with a molding paste instead of acrylic gel - the molding paste has a bit of a fluffier texture to it, which I thought would lend itself well to this snowy scene. I used a toothbrush and palette knives to flick snowflakes onto the canvas (at least half of the paint flicked backwards onto me). It's a rather stark painting, but I like the image of a lone bison trudging through a blizzard. I've often felt like I've been in this same situation...simply putting one foot in front of the other on a journey into the white void, where no outcome seems certain...but still, we persevere.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

-Mary Oliver, from "Wild Geese"