Palouse Fields and Belated Christmas

I’m continuing to enjoy painting with gouache. It allows me to do things that watercolors do not and creates a different mood. I’ve been keeping an eye out for inspiration-mostly pictures taken by local photographers as I’m not leaving the house much. I’m so looking forward to warmer weather and getting to paint outside!

This gouache painting of the Palouse was inspired by a photo taken by John Clement photography. We have so many talented and adventurous photographers in here in the Inland Northwest. It was featured in the Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living Magazine.

Having seen John (and other’s) inspiration, I decided to do a couple small gouache paintings of Palouse landscapes-focusing the the ability of snow to highlight the rows of wheat stubble.

Moonrise.

More gouache, this time to capture the Duncan Gardens in the snow, which I feel makes this formal garden magical even without the abundance of flowers for which it is famous. This was also featured in my Artist’s Eye on Spokane column with Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living Magazine.

This time of year, I like to work on Christmas related projects. It is still cold and there’s frequently snow (though not much this year) so that helps me get in the mood. I find it really hard to work on Christmas stuff when the weather is warm but when the weather cools in fall and things start ramping up toward the holiday season it gets so crazy for me it is hard to find the time to be in the Christmas spirit, never mind paint Christmas scenes, so doing it now works really well for my schedule and simultaneously helps me feel a bit festive about the weather when I might otherwise be frustrated that it is still cold and dark.

Final version of this painting, sketch in the photo above. This image is based on a photo taken by Paige Gullickson. I love how she caught the Pavilion in the background and the snow was so much fun to paint. This will be a Christmas card for next year.

Every year I buy an amaryllis bulb so I have the flowers to watch in the dead of winter. They are dramatic as they unfurl and stay in bloom for quite some time, bringing cheer to my studio.

They are even quite pretty when they are fading!

How are you all coping these days? Buying flowers? Reading good books or going for walks? I’m doing all of those things (Plus painting the living room wall and selling the couch and other home improvement flurries!) and looking forward to the slowly returning light!

#the100dayproject2020 DONE!

I made it guys! I completed #the100dayproject2020! 100 days of painting in gouache and watercolor since April 7th. I’m so pleased because this is the longest challenge I’ve ever done and I wasn’t sure I could manage it. Things got really tough around Day 75, but switching to working almost entirely from life either plein air (painting outside) or painting still life, rather than doing master copies really helped bring new life to the project.

I’ve wanted to go out and paint the fields near our house for years, but this time of year was always busy for me with classes and art festivals so it got put off. Well, this is finally the year for it!

This distinctive clump of trees is at the end of our road and looked stunning in the light of sunset.

View down the road with winnows of alfalfa drying, painted while listening to birds chirp and the breeze trying to rifle my sketchbook pages.

A study of cut alfalfa in various stages of drying and another sketch of the view down the road. The sketch in the lower right hand corner is watercolor, the rest is gouache.

A little less than a week after the first cutting, they started baling. The round bales are hay and the rectangles are alfalfa. The blue dots are cornflowers that grow in the ditches along around road. I love them. Each of these are done quickly so I can get out and back home before it gets too hot that I risk sunburn or heat stress. There’s no shade out there, so early morning and evening sessions are the goal and the lighting at those times is the best anyway.

My bug house from Costco. Nobody has moved in yet, but I love the red roof in all the greens of the landscape.

A single ripe plum.

A strawberry picked from Siemer’s Farm.

Probably the last pear until fall and they are in season again.

I went shopping at Art Salvage a week back (You can shop online and do curbside pick up!) and bought shells. I grew up next to the ocean and collecting shells is something I’ve done my whole life. It is something I miss a lot now that I’ve moved inland.

A whelk shell painting, already sold! By the way, almost all of my paintings from the 100 Day Project are available for sale and priced $35-70 and range in size from 3” x 5” to 5” x 7”. A great opportunity to grab a bit of original art!