Watchers
24" x 24" oil on aluminum


Here are two pears, witnessing the beautiful salmon moon. They sit between the earth and sky, their backs are to the comfort of the warm room. They are dreaming of the sea.

star wave albacore

24" x 42" oil on aluminum

This painting took a while.... the wave honors japanese wood block prints of the seventeenth century, though Iv'e seen modern works using waves done in this style. It was so much fun to put my tuna here, with his moon halo, hero tuna, happy tuna, flying through the sea.

Sunset

12" x 24" oil on aluminum

Wallflowers gallery

Canby, Oregon

I painted this late last summer on a trip to our beautiful Lincoln city. I was delivering some work to Earthworks gallery there and attending the Robert Gamblin seminar at Sitka. The class was called expressionistic landscape. He called paint " emotions in a tube." I was overwhelmed and didn't want to stop painting at the end of class, so I brought my easel back to my room with me and sat on the ground next to the steps down to the beach. I painted until the sun went down, and still I wanted more. I scratched into the paint. I used colors I had never used before. I gave myself permission.

It was a wonderful experience.

two moon pumpkin

12" x 18" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 9

three star squash

12" x 18" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 8

dessert moon 2

12" x 18" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 7

dessert moon 1

12" x 18" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 6

Orchid moon 2

18" x 24" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 5

Orchid moon 1

18" x 24" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 4

Indigo sky

24" x 36" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 3

Three moon lobster

18" x 48" oil on aluminum

Minnesota 2

I took a commission for a group of paintings for a steak and seafood grill in Minnesota. It has been so fun to get to paint some veggies and fruit in my quilt patterns. Another fun thing is the opportunity to have nine paintings with a single theme, but different subjects.

The only problem has been an unexpectedly impossible deadline...

I'll be able to finish, but just barely, I think. I was begining to think I made a promise I wouldn't be able to keep! After I promised myself I wouldn't do that any more. :)

seven stars
18" x 48" oil on aluminum
(Minnesota project 1)

pearl moon
24" x 32"
oil on aluminum

Rainy day dream
18" x 24"
oil on aluminum




Here is a new windowsill meditation. The rain here has been relentless, unending. nearly 11" in Jan. 26" since October!
I needed to paint a jury piece for my Rose Festival application. I'd seen this style of window that morning in a magazine at my Doctor's office. I knew I wanted my Mt. Hood to be my view, and found a photo of the roses when I was looking through my mountain pictures. The pear I found at Fred Meyer, isn't she a beauty? I was thinking about being here in Portland, between the ocean and the mountain, so I found an old favorite shell to speak of the sea. After I got this far, I found myself wanting some red, so I added the cherry. I thought about it a few more days before realizing I wanted the blackbird. I'm thinking of the anticipation of flight, appreciation for the incredible sweetness of my life, I can close my eyes and hear the steady drumming of the rain, (painted in as the wallpaper of my room.) It's nice to imagine roses and mountains in my future.

happy tuna

24" x 36" oil on galvanized flashing

Doesn't this fish look happy? She is a striped tuna, painted from a wonderful picture sent to me by Dave's brother Doug. She looks like she is smiling.

Walleye

24" x 36" oil on galvanized steel

These walleye were so much fun to paint. I thought of them each going their own way, unaware of the passage of time. I left the moons behind each fish's head silver. I was thinking about the passage of time when I put in the phases of the moon. I enjoyed a color meditation as I worked with them. They travel all around the color wheel, with their light and shadow showing complimentary colors. It was interesting to work with the color values until they looked balanced. The backround was originally violet, but after living with it a week or so, I glazed it with hansa yellow medium, then drew my spirals in to reveal the violet underneath. This painting makes me want to jump!

crab apple moon with oysters

24" x 32" oil on aluminum

Heather wanted something with oysters, and I had this beautiful dungeness crab to paint so I combined them... The moon is an apple sliced horizontally.The greenish color on the oyster shells and the apple influenced the apple green backround. My friend Spencer thinks the line work looks like a net.

Him and her

24" x 36" oil on canvas

sold

I started this painting several years ago when Dave brought home a beautiful chinook. Something happened and I was unable to finish before we had to process the fish. The canvas ended up in the attic and I came across it a few months ago when we moved. I brought it into the studio and thought about it for awhile...

I painted him in warm colors, her in cool, and gave them a deep green sea for their voyage home.

Bass dance moon
16" x 20" oil on aluminum
sold

Tangle
16" x 20 " oil on aluminum

I painted this last summer at Sitka, in a workshop with the brilliant and incomparable colorist Robert Gamblin. He had instucted us to go out into the old growth sitka rain forest and "confront the tangle." Though Mr. Gamblin and the other students were just around a bend in the path, I felt so alone. Like this ancient being I was yearning towards the light.