Private Party

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These little tulips were sitting just outside the door of my local market. It was a wet, rainy day, but they were so cheery that I had to have them. I've been working to get more color into my paintings and it seemed they would be perfect models. Little did I know that they would be as wiggly as children. They are blowsy and bright. I hope I can paint fast enough to get a second painting with their petals open. Silly girls!

Waiting For Santa

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Christmas Eve is magical. I still feel twinges of childhood anticipation waiting for Santa. On Christmas morning it was thrilling to see that Santa had visited our house in the night. In my heart, Santa still visits on Christmas Eve.

This little mouse has been patiently waiting for Santa, but finally fell asleep just before Santa came down the mouse chimney.

This  painting will be ready for shipping at the first of the New Year.

Azalea with Satsumas

A colorful way to spend a gloomy day.

Satsuma

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It's dark and stormy this afternoon, and lights are glittering in the windows of neighborhood homes. These little orange satsumas seem to shine with their own special glow.

Things We Love

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Roses make me think of my mom. She loves roses, and when I was growing up there were always roses in our yard. When my mom was a tiny little girl, her grandmother wrote a poem about her. It's my favorite poem and the only one I've memorized. When I think of roses and my mom, I think of this poem:

To Lola

It is autumn in my garden 

And the leaves are falling fast.

Little lights that gleam and glisten

Are but hoar frost on the grass

All the springtime bloom has withered;

Summer roses are all gone.

Mists are in the air, and sunshine 

Faint and shifting in the dawn.

But within a sheltered corner,

Place I love and call my own,

To recall my spring and summer

Grows a tiny rose - half blown.

It is you my brown-eyed Lola,

With your hair a golden sheen

That has brought me back my June time

In the fragrance of a dream.

You, the rosebud that has brought me

In this Indian Summer glow,

Love and joy of long lost springtime

Just before the winter's snow.

Azalea with Violets

I love playing with color on dark afternoons - these colorful flowers were so much fun to paint. I've been experimenting with some techniques that are new to me - using a wash of transparent color at the beginning of the painting process and then using a boatload of paint on the canvas. My friend, Patti McNutt, recommends using enough paint to "paint like a millionaire." I think that advice is finally beginning to sink in. This was painted with a loaded brush.

Small Bouquet

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I've just discovered artwork by Ovanes Berberian. His color work is just amazing and seems similar to another of my favorite artists, Dreama Tolle Perry. This painting is an attempt to use some of  his techniques - toning the canvas with clean, transparent color, attention to warm/cool, loose brushwork. I have a long way to go before I'm happy with my work, but I'm enjoying the journey.

White Poinsettia

Another painting of poinsettias.

Poinsettias

This is one of the paintings I plan to hang in the Emerald Art Center member gallery for the month of December.

Fiesta In A Teapot

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Look for joy in unexpected places.

November Colors

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We've been rewarded with a riot of beautiful fall color after enduring a long hot, dry summer. Autumn is my very favorite time of year.

Rue Saint-Dominique

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I'm back at my easel after a busy, fun-filled summer that included a two week vacation in Paris. We took lots of photos while we were there, so I plan to spend this autumn painting Paris scenes and rekindling fond memories of that enchanting city.

Saffron Fields Vineyard

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Saffron Fields Vineyard was on our list of beautiful places to stop and paint lavender. The vineyard is located in an idyllic country setting in Yamhill, Oregon. It offers a panoramic view so breathtaking that it was hard to settle down and focus on painting. The vineyard was kind enough to let us set our easels up on their tasting room patio, so we stayed relatively cool during the late afternoon. Since we had to drive back to Eugene, we couldn't partake of their wine - however, we each bought a bottle to bring home. Delicious! It's definitely worth making another trip to Yamhill, just to visit Saffron Fields.

Ravencroft Lavender

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During the Lavender Festival paint out, my plein air buddy, Patti Hanneman McNutt, and I found a beautiful lavender field located in Mulino, Oregon, in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. It was hot, hot, hot that day...over 100 degrees. The intoxicating scent of lavender and the sound of buzzing bees were almost hypnotic. We found a tad bit of shade under the treess and powered through our paintings. It was a dreamy day.

Lavender Time - Second Place!!!

Well, guess what happened! I entered the Willamette Valley Lavender Festival Plein Air Paint Out and placed second in the open division! Who knew? I'm gob-smacked! Completely unexpected, and I didn't quite believe it when I heard...I thought perhaps a mistake had been made. I'm just over the moon about this, and feeling so encouraged to keep on keepin' on. What a delightful surprise.

This week I'll be spending four days at the Oregon Coast paint out. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to do some plein air and meet other Oregon painters. Life is good right now!

Shorty

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Years ago, I collected little clay-like figurines created by Tom Clark, Cairn Studios. Clark's little sculptures are whimsical gnomes and wood spirits and each sports a profusion of leaves and acorns, along with an embedded coin, at the base. As time passes, my interests have changed and I'm more concerned with minimizing than with collecting. Nevertheless,  I'm still fond of these little gnomes - they make me smile whenever I look at them.

This gnome is Shorty. Shorty has strawberries in addition to the ubiquitous leaves and acorns at his base.

Jackson School Lavender Farm

This farm is on Jackson School Road in North Plains, along the Oregon Sunset Corridor. It's one of the farms Patti McNutt, Sarah Peroutka, and I visited during the Lavender Festival Paint Out. We've been having a blast painting lavender! The weather has been hot, hot, hot, but as long as we can find a shady tree we're good.

This little hut was sitting next to the lavender field - not sure what it's used for - it seemed too small to be a shed, but it looked charming sitting in front of those huge trees.

Green Apple with Flowers

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We're enjoying an abundance of color along with beautiful summer-like weather.

Florabunda and Daisies

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The garden is going crazy this June and the roses are especially beautiful.  I've been following Sarah Sedwick's postings recently. She's been creating some amazing paintings with limited palettes. I took a page from Sarah's book and attempted a limited the palette for this painting. I used ultramarine blue, cad red, and lemon yellow. It was a bit of a challenge, but overall, it was easier to control the colors when there were fewer choices.

Running in Circles

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The cherries appear to chasing each other around the vase - it's appropriate since this painting had me chasing my tail!

Color Therapy

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Spring sunshine lifts the spirit, but spring colors make the spirit float!

Red Chimney

This is one of the little houses that dot the older sections of our city. There are lots of them. In it's heyday, Eugene was a thriving lumber and university town.  These old houses were where Eugene's baby boom generation grew up.

Oakland

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Yesterday, two of my painting buddies and I took a trip to Oakland, Oregon to do a little plein air painting.  Oakland is a sweet little old Oregon town located between Eugene and Roseburg. Before we settled in to paint, we paid a visit to the town barber/artist, Adam Baker. Adam's one-chair barber shop is also a studio and gallery. He specializes in Western art and his paintings are beautifully displayed on every wall.  Afterwards, we took a short stroll through the town to admire the Victorian houses and gardens, then set up our easels on the sidewalk and spent the rest of the morning painting. A perfect painting day!

Breezy

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My little sunflowers are still perking right along. They've lasted a long time, bless 'em. They look a bit unkempt, as if their yellow hair has been blowing in the wind.

Sun Daze

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These small sunflowers are the last holdouts from my Mother's Day bouquet. They're a harbinger of the sunny days ahead.

May Days

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I'm still floating on a high from yesterday's art exhibit at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum. The venue was beautiful. The folks from the museum, Mark Tolonen and Irene Zenev, did a fabulous job of displaying the paintings and hosting the reception. We had a successful turnout and just had a great evening. I really appreciate the help and support of everyone involved.

I'm taking a little break from landscapes to paint flowers. Our garden has exploded in color and I'll need to paint fast if I want to capture the season. The flowers in this painting were part of my Mother's Day bouquet. They're still fresh and beautiful. So much color - so little time!

The paintings are finished, framed and ready for the "Shared Landscapes" exhibit at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum, 1101 Main Street, Philomath, OR. 

The reception will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.  

Hope to see you there!

Florence Old Town

This is a painting of the Old Town area in Florence Oregon. It will be part of the "Shared Landscapes" exhibit at the Benton Country Historical Society and Museum in Philomath. The reception for the exhibit will be on Friday, May 15th, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The museum is located at 1101 Main Street in Philomath. Hope to see you there!

Clear Lake Creek

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Here is another landscape painting for the "Shared Landscapes" exhibit at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum. The exhibit runs from May 15-June 27.

This painting is a larger version of a sketch done last summer at Clear Lake in Springfield, Oregon. I had found a secluded little trail alongside the creek running adjacent to the lake and set up my easel. It was a beautiful, peaceful day and I soon became so enrapt with the scene that I lost all sense of time and place. I was happily painting away when a voice behind me said, "Excuse me!" A man was standing three feet away on the trail, and wanted to get by. I nearly jumped out of my skin! Fortunately, he was a harmless hiker, but I realized how foolish I'd been. I was all by myself in a secluded area and had been completely unaware of my surroundings. Lesson learned! After that, I resolved never to go plein air painting without friends nearby. (The second lesson that day was to remember the bug repellent!)

Shades of Green

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I've been painting like crazy, getting ready for my first show at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum.  The show, "Shared Landscapes" runs from May 15-June 27. There will be a reception from 5:00-7:00 on Friday, May 15. I'll be exhibiting along with two very talented artists, Carolee Clark and Tom Allen, and to say I'm a bit nervous would be putting it mildly - frankly, I'm scared to death!

At any rate, I'm at the point where I can start framing my paintings. Here's my first frame - I'm pretty happy with how it came together...thank you, Patti McNutt, for the framing lesson. If I keep moving, I'll be ready by the 15th.

The Old Orchard

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This is one of the paths through the old filbert orchard at Dorris Ranch in Springfield. The path leads down to the Willamette river. It's a wonderful place for a quiet contemplative stroll.

I'm finishing up my landscapes for the exhibition at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum. The exhibition, "Shared Landscapes," will run from May 15 through June 27. My good friend, Patti McNutt, showed me how to make frames, so I'll spend the next week or two framing paintings.

Springtime Drive

I've been doing landscape paintings in preparation for an exhibit, "Shared Landscapes," at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum. The exhibit will run from May 15 through June 27.

This painting is from a photo taken in the afternoon during a drive through the Lorane Valley, not too far from Sweet Cheeks Winery. The air that day was particularly clean and fresh, and shadows falling on the road were a beautiful shade of lavender blue.

Saturday

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"Saturday" is another of my Tom Clark Gnomes. Can you see the penny nestled among the leaves and acorns? This particular gnome is enjoying a lazy Saturday afternoon. I know he must be a retired gnome (the beard is sort of a give-away), because he has the time to be lazy on Saturday. If he were a working gnome, he'd have laundry, cleaning, cooking, and errands to get done before Monday. Ahh, the good life!

Country Road II

I've done some more work on this painting - added clouds to the sky and darkened the trees and shadows somewhat. The original looked unfinished. I think the additional paint helps the painting a bit.

Little White House

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I often drive by this cozy little home on my way home from downtown. It's a typical Eugene house, probably built during the early 1950s.

Duo

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I like the way this painting turned out. The composition is pretty simple, but I like the thick impasto paint on the apples and the thin, grey background with hints of pastel blue, yellow, and red. It was pretty much accidental - I wish I could paint this way consistently and on purpose.

Looking East

This painting might look familiar. It's a painting I did a couple of weeks ago. I tried scumbling and glazing to see if I could unify the colors and create a bit of atmosphere. A glaze is a transparent wash over parts of the dried painting. It's used to deepen the color. Scumbling involves using opaque paint in an uneven layer. It creates a sort of film, and allows the first color shows through to some extent. The trees and the foreground were glazed with French Ultramarine Blue and Transparent Red Iron Oxide, and the mountains and sky were scumbled with Cad Orange, Cad Yellow Deep, and Titanium White.

Country Road

We traveled down this road during a Sunday drive on a warm day last summer. This area is near Coburg, Oregon.

The Crossroads

A landscape of the area near the Eugene Airport, interpreted from a photo. I'm longing to get outside to paint. Daffodils are starting to poke their heads out of the ground - a good sign that spring is nearly here.

Out Lorane Highway

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We often drive down Lorane Highway on our way to King Estate Winery. Usually, we aim the car in the direction of the winery and follow the familiar groove until we reach our destination. On each trip we vowed that someday we'd explore some of the roads that branch off the highway. This weekend, we finally did it. Instead of driving to the winery, we traveled down some of those rural roads. Finding this idyllic setting was our reward for veering off the beaten path.

The Grove

This painting was an exercise in speed. I'm trying to paint more quickly and more loosely because I tend to be quite slow and plodding. It seems to take me forever to finish a painting and that creates lots of frustration when attempting to paint outside.  Since it soon will be plein air painting weather, it seems like now is a very good time to start practicing.

Willamette Valley Summer

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It's been foggy and damp in the Pacific Northwest for the past month, so the warmth of late summer brings happy memories. This scene is an area near Corvallis, looking south.

Lilija

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This is Lilija, totally focused on making short work of a ball of yarn. I love that look of intense concentration on her little face - naughty cat!

This painting took a fair amount of my concentration as well. I've never painted shredded yarn before! I used the regular palette of Ivory Black, Transparent Iron Red Oxide, Yellow Ochre, and Titanium White. I also included a little Anthraquinone Red, Cad Red, and Cad Orange.

Mookie

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This is Mookie. He doesn't need words to convey his thoughts. Clearly, dinner is on his mind. I painted him beside an empty bowl, but in truth, his photo revealed both a bowl of food and fresh water as well...hmm, could Mookie be a bit of a con artist?

Mookie was fun to paint, but the perspective was a challenge. I had to keep reminding myself to paint what I see - not what I think I see. This painting was done using Ivory Black, Transparent Red Oxide, Yellow Ochre, Pthalo Blue, and Titanium White.

Boots

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Continuing on with Leslie Saeta's 30 day challenge. This is Boots, my great cat-nephew. He's a very elegant black and white tuxedo kitty.

Laptop

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I was knocked out of Leslie Saeta's 30-day challenge by a bout of the flu - nevertheless, I'm going to pick up where I left off and keep painting since it's all for fun and nobody cares.

This is "Laptop." Such a terrific name for a cat. I really like that this guy looks so relaxed, yet so alert. Only cats can do that!

Laptop was painted using the modified Zorn palette: Ivory Black, Transparent Iron Red Oxide, Yellow Ochre, and Titanium White.

Warren

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Another painting for the 30 day Leslie Saeta challenge. This little guy is Warren, a Boston Terrier puppy and the granddog of a Facebook friend. Warren's black and white coloring presented a paint-mixing challenge for me and I feel like I learned a lot. It was a good exercise in using my modified Zorn palette.

Hapi

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When I decided to participate in Leslie Saeta's 30 day challenge, I asked my Facebook friends to send me pictures of their dogs and cats. Folks were kind enough to send me photos of some darling pets that I'm eager to paint. This little guy is "Hapi." I fell in love with his cute little face and had a great time painting him. I tried a more muted palette this time - sort of a modified Zorn palette using Ivory Black, Transparent Iron Oxide Red, Yellow Ochre, and Titanium White. Terry Miura mentioned in his blog that he uses these colors as his core palette. I really have a difficult time controlling color and found this palette more to my liking. During the 30 day challenge I'll be practicing more with these colors.

Jedi Warrior

This is a quick portrait of my little Jedi Warrior. He's pretty handy at battling storm troopers with his light saber. He also happens to be a wizard! He attends Hogwarts School of Magic and fights off death eaters and dementors with his magical wand. Darth Vader and Voldamort don't stand a chance when he's around!

Best of all, he's my little kindergarten guy!