Happy Holidays!

Hello again everyone! I hope you are doing well. I write this on the shortest day of the year as a constant rain slowly washes the snow off our lawn, but by the time you receive this, we’ll be on the other side, heading toward lengthening daylight. I wanted to wish you all well and thank you for coming along with me on my adventures. While it has been a wild ride out in the world, in my little sphere, I’ve gotten along quite well with lots of time spent in the garden and out painting on location and learning to use gouache. Loss of income due to the cancellation of art festivals and store and school closures was offset by people reaching out for private commissions so I feel very fortunate. My studio-to-be arrived in its raw state in late April and is still a mess inside, but I have hopes of getting in there before its 1 year anniversary-ah, home improvement projects. I’ve been talking with the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture and the Spokane Art School and we have plans to teach online via Zoom starting around March and I hope to also do Zoom classes out of my studio once it is finished. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what kind of classes you’d like to take from me on Zoom-a Paint & Sip class? Painting skies? Color theory?

Here’s a painting of the Gaiser Conservatory from two years ago, all aglow. This year there is a drive through holiday display that seems to be very popular.

Last year I visited the display and then walked the Duncan gardens in the dark so I could look back and really feel the impact of the light in the dark (a lesson in contrasts and perhaps a metaphor?).

A gouache painting of the Duncan Gardens in the daylight with a light coating of snow. The garden is most popular in the summer but I think winter is an underrated time to visit!

A gouache painting of a light dusting of snow on wheat fields.

This painting is from 2 years ago when I took a ride on the Wheatland Bank Carriage Rides. You can tell because the sky walk across main is still the vintage yellow one in this painting rather than the modern glass one that is there today. I think I need to retackle this subject. Maybe my Christmas card for next year?

Wishing you well in 2021. I hope I’ll be able to invite you all to visit my new studio in the coming year. Fingers Crossed!

Mt. Rainier Camping & Sketching

I grew up on the west side of the state and I loved all the green and how lush it was, but I didn’t really appreciate HOW GREEN it is there until I lived on the other side of the Cascades in a high desert for a couple years.

We were lucky to be at Mt. Rainier National Park during peak wildflower bloom and it was wee bit chilly, thanks to the elevation but we found a sheltered spot and I did this painting of lupine and indian paint brush and yellow daisies carpeting the hill.

My friend playing her ukulele and a quick sketch of the wildflowers. It was an interesting trip because we had to camp on a forest service road because the most of the campsites in the park were closed due to tree fall danger (perhaps the rangers weren’t able to clear them earlier in the year because of Covid closures/lay offs?). No bathrooms and no running water besides a nearby stream, a 37 degree night and springing a leak in one of the air mattresses contributed to a bit more roughing it than we were initially planning but we still had a good time.

I stopped on the way home to sketch these windmills near Vantage. There’s a rest stop with a great view of them as you travel east. I sat at a picnic table and was grateful for the wind (even though it was warm) because it was still in the mid 90’s as I did this. I could feel sweat dripping down my back as I rushed to finish this. Despite the discomfort, I tried to embrace it. Soon, we’ll be in the time of year when I can’t seem to get warm and a 40 degree day is excitingly balmy! That what sketchbooks help me celebrate-living in the moment.

Truckin' Along with my Paints

I’m truckin’ along in my quarantine routine-a morning walk, a little bit of yard work (weeds wait for no one!), painting for my 100 day project (We’re coming up on 25 days, a quarter of the way there!), read (I just finished a book on Maynard Dixon, one of my favorite Western painters), some more painting or drawing and time with my husband. I’ve learned that without the interruptions and days that I need to spend out of the studio, I need to factor in more breaks for stretching after ending up with some intense neck pain from spending multiple days basically looking down all day (painting, reading, weeding, pretty much all the same angle!). I’ve got some house projects and we’re finally getting warm enough that I can start planting veggies and flowers which will help to break up my schedule so that’s good. There will be paintings of our lilac bushes and the neighborhood apple tree blossoms to come. Hold me to it!

This is a recently completed painting for a patron who got married at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend. I grew up on the West side of the state and the thing I miss the most is the ocean so this was a delight to do. I had to include one of the ferries!

This is a house portrait with the patron’s beloved pets. She wanted to include both current and deceased pets so we worked out a plan-living pets are inside the house while those no longer with her are in the yard, keeping an eye on the place!

This painting and the one below are both gouache studies of Jeremy Lipking paintings for the 100 day project.

You can see the uneven deckled edge at the top of this photo.

A quick morning sketch of the light hitting our neighbor’s yellow house while I was still half asleep.

Saturday plans include the wild excitement of making our new favorite waffle recipe: Essential Raised Waffles from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe makes a bunch of delicious, rich waffles that have a crisp outside and soft inside. Sadly not for Belgian waffle irons, just the normal type. I like them for breakfast, then we freeze the rest of the batch. Waffles defrost easily in the toaster oven and I frequently have one topped with avocado and oven roasted tomatoes. Delish!

Wishing you all the best!