Whiteout (Deer) - SOLD

Whiteout (Deer)

8" x 8"

Acrylic on canvas

SOLD

Here's another of these smaller paintings that uses Golden's interference colors.  

Whiteout (Bison)

Whiteout (Bison)

8" x 8"

Acrylic on canvas

Available for purchase directly through the artist (contact)

The Seattle area experienced some record snowfall this season...we lost power for nearly a week, but that gave us an excuse to cozy up next to the fire, at least.  

I experimented with Golden's interference colors for several of these small paintings...these colors "flip between a bright opalescent color and its complement" depending upon the angle at which they're viewed.  That effect doesn't translate to a photograph, unfortunately - but I've really been loving it!

snow on the farm

Patience - SOLD

Patience

24" x 12"

Acrylic on canvas

SOLD

The farm we're on has tons of beavers that are always busily building dams in the streams that run through the land.  When a flood comes, they take advantage of their good fortune and acquire lots of good, high-up branches that they usually don't have access to when the water's low.  We have a chewed-off branch sitting on our window sill - the bite marks from the beavers are so smooth and polished, and the branch is really quite beautiful.

When trials come, for come they will,

Be patient if you can

-from "Patience" by S. Moore

Steady On

Steady On

Acrylic on canvas

24" x 48"

Available for purchase at Carnation Corners, Carnation, WA

I'm finally catching up on photographing paintings that have been sitting in my studio for months and months.  I've been super busy (in a good way!) and am really excited about some new painting projects that I've been working on...in the meantime, I'll continue to post some older paintings on the blog to get caught up here.

Some of the fields on our farm tend to flood, bringing in huge flocks of geese (and even some truly stunning swans).  They've been great for references when I'm painting.

This painting is named after the Storyhill song (they make great music to paint to).

Unfettered

Unfettered
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 12"
Available for purchase at Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT


I've always loved bighorn sheep and used to be stationed by the bighorn exhibit back when I was a volunteer at ZooMontana.  They move with the same agility of a cat - it's truly impressive to watch them hop from boulder to boulder.






If but for the span of a moment I swam in the aura of flame;
I caught the rapt secret of being clothed by the Ineffable Name.
And chastened with wonder and strengthened to meet life's beleaguering ills
I went, like a bondman unfettered, adown from the heart of the hills.
-from "The Heart of the Hills", Clinton Scollard

commissioned painting

closeup - click to enlarge

Commissioned painting

24" x 36" x 1.5"

acrylic on canvas

I unfortunately didn't get a very good photo of my recent commissioned painting before I dropped it off with my clients.  The light reflecting on the painting gives you a good sense of the texture, but it also washes out much of the color and form.  

The most fun part of the whole process was probably putting in the little figures (my client's daughter, son-in-law, and their dog).  My client provided me with fantastic reference photos of the beach, etc., and that made the whole process so much easier.  Iridescent gold paint is mixed in with the pigments used for the sandy beach to give it a bit of a sparkle.

Winter Chickadee II - SOLD

Winter Chickadee II

6" x 6" x 1.5"

acrylic on canvas

sold

There was also a Winter Chickadee I, but that one sold before I could get a photo of it. Proctor Art Gallery did a miniatures show in December - paintings around 35 square inches or under $100. I figured that chickadees would be a perfect subject for that time of year, and they were a lot of fun to paint. I also learned that there is apparently a great market for chickadee-related merchandise, so that's always good to know:) Iridescent pearl paint is mixed in with the white pigment to make the snow "sparkle" a bit.

Crossing the Yellowstone - RIP

Click to view larger image

Crossing the Yellowstone
acrylic on canvas
24" x 36" x 1.5"
RIP - This painting was destroyed by its shipping carrier, UPS, en route to a gallery.


I tried loosening up a bit more for this painting...I wanted to focus on the colors and give a more surreal impression to the landscape.

FYI, Proctor Art Gallery (Tacoma, WA) will be having a lot of events throughout the month of October...it's "Arts Crush" month in Tacoma.


Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow
Of crystal, wandering water,
Thou art an emblem of the glow
Of beauty—the unhidden heart—
The playful maziness of art
In old Alberto's daughter
-Edgar Allen Poe, from "To the River"

Morning Stroll - SOLD

Morning Stroll
acrylic on canvas
12" x 12" x 1.5"
sold

In preparation for an upcoming show at Jubilee Biodynamic Farm in Carnation, WA, I've been trying my hand at painting farm animals. I thought I'd start with this little family of chickens.

I have a soft spot in my heart for chickens. We keep 4 hens in our backyard, and besides the delicious fresh eggs they provide, they also make surprisingly great pets. We've handled them since they were chicks, so they're incredibly tame and like to follow us around the yard when we let them out of their enclosure. David & I have even recently started a blog about our chickens, since we've been getting a surprising number of emails with questions about raising an urban flock.

Anyway, more farm animals - as well as a lot of new bison paintings - will be up shortly.

Silent Witness

Silent Witness
acrylic on canvas
24" x 12"
Available for purchase at Carnation Corners, Carnation, WA

I'm steadily catching up on my painting after a crazy couple of weeks. I'm working on a series of farm animals for an upcoming show at Jubilee Biodynamic Farm.

I'm still painting lots of wild fauna, of course. I just finished this particular painting, which was my first attempt at painting a cougar. It's amazing how much my own housecats resemble this impressive animal. Cougars are the largest cats that can purr (to the best of my knowledge...scientists are still debating, apparently).

He crouched low and long on the road,
Low and long and golden against
The leaves, watching pensively,
A damp sphinx of the woods.
-Keith Holyoak, from "The Cougar"

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.

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

Morning Mist

Morning Mist
acrylic on canvas
16" x 20"
$575 unframed
Available for purchase from Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT


I finished this painting up at an Art-a-Thon at the Proctor Farmers Market in Tacoma, WA. We were painting all day at the market to raise money for the food bank. It was a great experience, but the weather was so cold, windy, and drizzly - strange weather for July! Alexis St. John, another artist painting at the market that day, said the buffalo had a very meditative look to him, so I decided to keep going in that direction with the painting.

In other news, I'm temporarily unable to update my web site...I'm having some technical difficulties with my web editing software, but hopefully things will be fixed soon. In the meantime, new work will continue to be posted here.

Harmonious Thoughts

Harmonious Thoughts

acrylic on canvas

20" x 24"

Available for purchase at Revolution Gallery, Issaquah, WA

This is actually a departure from my Montana paintings, although it doesn't look like it. We came upon this sunset in southeastern Washington.

The texture is more subtle in this piece than in my other landscapes, and I used some pearl paint to give it a glow.

"Harmonious thoughts, a soul by truth refined,

Entire affection for all human kind.

...

How pleasant, as the sun declines, to view

The spacious landscape change in form and hue!

Here, vanish, as in mist, before a flood

Of bright obscurity, hill, lawn, and wood;

There, objects, by the searching beams betrayed,

Come forth, and here retire in purple shade..."

-William Wordsworth, "An Evening Walk"

Running Before Time Took Our Dreams Away

(click to enlarge)
















(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

Still Standing

Still Standing

acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

18" x 24"

$530 + $28 shipping (contact)

I'm trying out some different things with texture in an effort to loosen up a bit. For some reason, it's easier for me to be more abstract when I'm painting animals...I find it harder to apply that ability to landscapes. I still have a lot of experimenting and learning to do, and it's way too much fun. :)

I bought some Golden iridescent pearl paint yesterday and am going to start experimenting with that, as well as Golden's crackle paste, which I'm very excited to try out.

Uphill

(click images to enlarge)

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

In the Dandelion Field

(click images to enlarge)

In the Dandelion Field 

acrylic on canvas 12" x 24" 

Available for purchase at Carnation Corners, Carnation, WA

We saw this beautiful white horse outside of Wisdom, Montana. I was nervous about painting her, since I didn't want her painting to end up looking like 1980s-era white unicorn poster...but she was too pretty not to put on canvas! The yellow accents have some iridescent gold paint mixed in to give them a subtle shimmer (yep, still using that gold paint...I love the color tint it produces even more than the shimmery effect).

As I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to take more liberties with my painting. Although I used a lot of texture on the first main background layer for this piece, I didn't use nearly as much paint as I usually do for the remaining layers. The rest of the background was created by literally scraping paint onto the surface with palette knives. I rotated this knife method with doing color washes with a brush, and I think this created a lot more depth to the color than otherwise. The horse itself is a bit translucent in places - I wanted her to blend in a bit with the background. To give her a similar depth, I painted her using multiple layers of thin washes in varying shades of blue, yellow, green, and white (some palette knife scraping was involved as well).

Now my brothers call from the bay, 
Now the great winds shoreword blow, 
Now the salt tides seaward flow; 
Now the wild white horses play, 
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray. 
-Matthew Arnold, The Foresaken Merman

Vigilante - SOLD

(click images to enlarge)

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