Exciting News! Megan at The Hive

Exciting news everyone! I just got notified that I’ve been accepted into the Hive’s artist residency for 2022! The Hive is the Spokane Public Library’s art center down on Sprague. There aren’t any books or movies to rent in the building. Instead it is all about spaces-meeting rooms that can be booked for messy projects and artist studios for residency winners. I’m going to be in residence September to December 2022 and will be hosting two free workshops during my the time I will be there.

In my application for the residency I proposed working on a project I’ve been wanting to do for years. It is a series of paintings centering on the Pacific Northwest’s geological and mythical (Wild West, Tall Tales) past and the way that they interact with the present and will be a big push for me in terms of trying new media, subjects and scale. You, the public, will be able to come visit for open hours (Covid willing!). I’m hoping to talk to people about how they relate to our landscape and any family “tall tales” that they might have about living here and incorporate what I learn into the art.

It’s an honor to be picked and there’s an amazing array of artists scheduled to be there this year. If you want to learn more check out The Hive’s website.

March on!

Hi there! Boy, February just flew by! I can’t believe its March already! I’ve been busy getting ready for my show at Bellwether Brewing this month and I’m hanging it today. I’m excited to see all the paintings up on the walls. Below is another new painting I made for the show-a Duncan Garden scene. Sigh. Only 4 more months till Duncan Garden looks like this again!

The show will be up until the end of March and the Monroe neighborhood is doing a 2nd Saturday Art Walk on March 12th, which I will be participating in. I’ll be there from around 3:30-5 or so! I’d love to see you!

This is an illustration for a poem in the March issue of Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living. It was fun to work with a limited color palette and to aim for moody, dusky light.

It’s been very cold in February but I miss painting outside so I’ve been driving my car around Deer Park and parking in various spots and doing tiny gouache sketches while sitting at my steering wheel. I put my water cup in the cup holder and my palette over the other cup holder and part of my gear shift panel, then everything else is piled on the passenger seat. I turn up the heat on my drive over and then turn off the car while I sit, so I paint quickly!

I loved the way the light hit the snow piles that surrounded this fire hydrant. The rain is slowly melting the snow away but we still have more up here in Deer Park than Spokane does.

Wishing you all well and hope to see you at my show at Bellwether! If you can’t make it on Saturday, feel free to stop in whenever they are open throughout the month.

January Painting

I spent the month of January getting back into the groove of painting in the studio after the busyness of the holiday season. I’m going to be showing paintings at Bellwether Brewing in March so I pushed hard to get some new paintings done. I think I’m at the point that I can start framing and assess whether I need to make a few more-they have BIG walls at Bellwether!

This painting is of Palouse Falls and is inspired by a sketched painted on location made last spring. Yes, there really was a rainbow!

The first time I painted this scene I was leading a paint along on Zoom with the students of Mukogawa University and it came out well enough that I wanted to do a more polished version.

I have been asked to paint the Glover Mansion a couple times and I thought this would be a good opportunity to finally do so. It seems like a lot of people have fond memories of weddings at the Mansion. I still remember being blown away by the ceiling murals when I visited during a First Friday Event several years ago.

Watching the old White Elephant Building get demolished made me really sad, so this painting is a celebration of its fabulous murals of parading elephants. I will miss seeing them whenever I drive down Division.

I visited the Duncan Gardens during the height of the blooming season and while the flower designs are gorgeous every year, whoever planned the planting for last year really hit it out of the park for me. That color! I’ve painted the Duncan Gardens a couple times so it was a fun challenge to pick a new point of view.

This little marmot is bringing home his Christmas tree! I like to have a new Christmas card every year to send people and I like to work on them when there is still snow on the ground-much easier to get in the mood than in the baking summer heat or even the fall and it gives me something to festive to think about even when the lights and decorations are all packed away. I’m not sure this is the final card-I have another marmot design, as well as a couple other thoughts, but it was fun to paint!

New Year's Day Ritual

I have a New Year’s Day Ritual. I got it from Roz Stendahl, a fellow artist. The ritual is that on New Year’s Day I try to do a little bit of everything I’d like to do in the coming year. So I do a little painting, I tend my houseplants (a stand in for gardening), I read a fun book, I write in my journal, I meditate, and I try to go for a walk even if it is just to the mailbox.

Travel is taken care of by looking at trip photos or sketchbooks or perhaps my book is some “armchair traveling”.

I bake or cook something delicious and I talk to a friend whether that is on the phone or text. I might knit or sew a little bit, representing both crafting and time spent with creative hobbies that don’t have to do with my business.

It sounds like quite the list now that I’m typing it out to you, but it isn’t supposed to be a chore or a big to-do list, I don’t spend a lot of time on any one task. Instead, the day is like a tasting course that lays out how I’d like the year to go and reminds me of all the things I enjoy and that I need to make time to do them in the coming year. For me New Year’s Day is a self-indulgent, cozy day meant to start 2022 off on the right foot and in the right mindset. Maybe you might want to try it?

Wishing you all the best in 2022!

Flat File Sale!

Moving my flat files over to my new studio from the house has been a long process. I had every drawer of those things stuffed full! As I unloaded each drawer, I found all sorts of things, including a bunch of paintings and sketches. So, inspired by my friend, the amazing Sheila Evans, I’m doing a Flat File Sale! I’ll be listing a bunch of beauties on my online shop at www.meganperkinsart.com/shop on Small Business Saturday, November 27th and have a super sale. You wonderful people here on my newsletter will receive a password to get early access on the 26th (Black Friday!) so keep an eye out for an email from me. I need some more space in these flat files for new paintings so there’s going to be some great deals! The sale will remain up until December 15th (to hopefully give time to be able to ship most items) and then all these guys will go back into my flat files to be rediscovered another day.

Below are just a few of the many paintings and sketches that will be in the sale, so I hope that this year, you will give the gift of art to yourself and others!

Recent Commissions & I'm on a Podcast!

Along with finishing up and moving into my studio, I’ve been working on a lot of commissions for people and it has been really fun because there has been a pretty big variety in terms of subjects.

This is Dahli, a Lhasa Apso being a very good sport about her “Tibetan” costume. It was fun getting creative with the background and adding in the traditional style Tibetan clouds.

These two lush green paintings were a double commission-a childhood home in the Midwest and their screened in “summer house” which apparently is how you stay cool, but avoid the bugs in the Midwest. Squirrels in the yard were specifically requested and added a sense of whimsy.

This summer house looked so lush and inviting compared to our tan and dried out landscape this late summer and fall. I’m hoping we’ll get lots of snow this winter so next year’s fire season is better.

This was a very fun commission to do-the historic Comstock Park Pool. This was a wedding gift to a couple who met life guarding here during high school. I got to see a video of the bride as she unveiled the painting and there was little scream and definitely some strong emotion which is always a delight to me as an artist. I want my work to move people so it is so satisfying when I manage to achieve that goal. I hope it reminds them of their early love all the many years that they are married.

This is the third painting I have done for this patron and I have one more to go. We’re doing a full four seasons series of house portraits. I’ve done spring, summer, and winter, but because we got snow so early last year, we had to skip fall so that’s up next. It is always interesting to hear what she wants to emphasize or change in each season. It makes each house portrait unique in addition to the change in weather!

These final two paintings are illustrations that accompany poems from local artists in Spokane Coeur D’Alene Living Magazine. The poems are always a surprise and new to me so a good challenge and a way for me to stretch my creative muscles. See the column in full and read the poem (and the magazine) online here.

This was the poem for October which I thought seemed pretty fitting since it has a bit of a magical/witchy vibe.

Melissa and Erin of Trending Spokane and I in the recording booth at Fellow Coworking!

I had a great time talking with Melissa and Erin of Trending Spokane last week. I was honored when they asked me to come on to talk about my art and love of Spokane. The podcast is out now and you can listen to it wherever podcasts are found. If you have apple products here’s a link. And you can find it on Spotify here.

Eventually they will have the video option up on their Youtube channel so you can see the paintings I’m talking about (and my silly facial expressions!) if you want.

My New Studio!

I have such exciting news guys! My studio, which we have been working on since April 2020, is finally done! We bought a prebuilt shed and had it dropped on a gravel pad (which we graded and packed) at the far side of our driveway from the garage. We struggled the whole summer of 2020 getting the building insulated with various products-there were problems with the spray insulation and, of course, finding materials what with Covid. Finally we got the place insulated, had electrical run to the building, and then attached the vapor barrier and began dry walling.

I had never done a construction project before and I am completely in awe of how much work it takes!

Slowly working on fitting dry wall around the building.

The ceiling was terrifying even with the drywall lift. My husband and his brother were holding drywall boards over their heads, trying to slot them around the rafters because I wanted to attach my lights to them.

Dry wall is up and now we’re working on the mudding and sanding, which was very tedious and took forever.

Got a closet door at Habitat for Humanity!

We finished mudding and sanding the drywall (or more accurately gave up) and primed the walls.

Our first attempt at paint was WAY too dark (though this photo is darker than it was in real life) and the solid color made it clear that our mudding and sanding was very subpar.

Faux texture to the rescue! We experimented with sponges and rollers and generally made a big mess. The gray paint color was picked to be a neutral background color to help with setting up still life and photographing, but I might end up painting a wall or two white later. We’ll see how I do this winter.

Window sills in, lights installed, and most of the floor is done!

We just have a couple gaps to fill around the edge of the floor in the closet and by the front door, but I am moving in! Absolutely thrilled! Now to figure out how to set everything up so I can paint happily away in here this winter and I hope to have an open house this spring or summer. I’d love to see you all!

Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour

Hello everyone!

I just returned from a solo painting trip on the Oregon coast to discover that fall has arrived in force here in the Inland NW. I spent last night frantically harvest tomatoes and peppers, trying to save them from the frost alert. Most things I didn’t manage to cover last night are a little crispy but we might be able to hobble along a little longer (fingers crossed! I have so many green tomatoes!). I canned what I hope will be the last of the pickles this morning and I’m gearing up to do jalapeno jelly tomorrow. If you have recipes you love for green peppers (or veggies in general!) please send them my way! I need all the help I can get!

I checked my calendar and realized to my great surprise that the Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour is coming up! I’ll be at my friend Collista’s house, which is a new location and a bit further north than the others but well worth the effort (Her yard is beautiful!). Come see if I remembered how to set up my booth! I’d love to see you all. Masks please and no pets.

Wishing you all a happy fall!

Artist's Eye 2022 Calendar

Due to many requests, I am doing a calendar! Here’s a flip through of it below. I decided to do a vertical orientation rather than horizontal like last time because I’ve been doing a lot of vertical paintings lately, but it is the same size as my previous calendar (about 9” x 6”). It is $17 and available at the From Here store in the downtown Spokane Mall and at Pottery Place Plus (in the same building as Auntie’s). I will get it up on the website shop soon, but you can also email me to order it as well. It makes a great Christmas gift! The last time I did calendars, people frequently bought multiples to give away.

I’ve also included larger photos of each of the paintings that I chose. It was so fun picking which ones went with each month (no gray paintings in February!) and trying to plan the experience of flipping through the calendar.

Enjoy!

Painting at La Push

A couple weeks back I went on my annual summer camping trip with my friend Danielle. Last year we went to Mt. Rainier. This year we headed to the coast to the La Push area, which was beautiful. We laughed because she would put on a swimsuit and go swim in the ocean and I would sit on the beach in my long pants and long sleeve shirt, jacket, and big hat because I’ve acclimated to living in 90 degree temperatures. not the low 70’s and high 60’s that we experienced. I told her, “These are night time temperatures where I live!” It was so refreshing and a wonderful break from the heat over here in Eastern Washington.

First Beach was closest to our campsite so we visited it often, including watching the sun set behind these rocks one evening in an absolutely incredible gradient of color.

This is First Beach facing the other way. We frequently saw surfers, especially later in the day. They wore wet suits, sometimes even with hoods over the head to help them stand the cold of the ocean.

All of the beaches had these incredible ancient trees washed up on their high tide lines. Some still had the webbing of their root balls still intact, creating fascinating shapes. People and perhaps waves put stones in their crevices and “shelves”.

The Washington Coast almost always has a breeze and that makes it great for kite flying. I love kites. They are magical and almost alive in a way. I especially love kites that are unusual shapes (koi, birds, fish, airplanes).

We hiked the 1.5 trail down to Third Beach which had the atmosphere of a secluded cove, except for the fact that it was FULL of people camping in tents on the sands, nestled in among the driftwood logs. The tide must not come up all that high this time of year. I would definitely want a tide chart if I camped down there. It would not be fun to wake up to find the ocean coming to visit me in my tent in the middle of the night.

We walked down Rialto Beach to "Hole-In-The-Wall” a literal hole, now an arch, in one of the rock outcroppings . The tide was in enough that we couldn’t walk into it so I painted this instead. It was early in the morning when the air was still full of mist with the sun just starting to break through.

This is the “Tree of Life” at Kalaloch Beach. It stands on the high wall that abuts the beach and the soil is eroding out from under it. It won’t be able to hold itself up for much longer. While I painted, people walked by and took selfies with the tree. Some people jumped up and hung from the roots, which made me groan in sympathy for the tree.

We spent an entire day at Ruby Beach and I painted constantly. There was so much to see!

A lighthouse in the distance.

There were many rock outcroppings and there was some drama when a teenage boy climbed to the top of one and got stuck and couldn’t get down again. Luckily a passerby who had rock climbing experience was walking by and he went up the rock and talked the kid down. It was his 18th birthday! Happy Birthday to him! (And his poor mother who was watching with her hand over her mouth the whole time.)

The beaches were very popular and we saw out of state license plates in the parking lot, which startled both of us because we sort of think of this area as a “Washington Place” not something that people outside of the PNW know about but there were license plates from the Midwest and East Coast as well. What a long drive!

I’d like to come back to the coast during a shoulder season (fall or spring) and paint because I bet the atmosphere and weather that happen during those more turbulent times would be so dramatic! I would need to pack my all weather gear though and there would be no camping for sure. I’d have to find a cabin or Airbnb. Still-a fun idea!

Have you gone anywhere fun this summer? Do you have any places you think I should explore to paint in the PNW region?

Painting & Sweating!

I’ve been busy the past month and a half. Sweating in the heat wave as I draw, working on drywall in my new studio, keeping the garden watered, and family things.

My husband’s grandfather passed away at the end of May and Grandmom followed him a month later so I painted a portrait of the two of them together. It was nice to get to “spend time” with them again.

I painted this to accompany Mark Anderson’s poem in the June issue of Spokane Coeur D’Alene Magazine. It has been a fun challenge to try to illustrate poetry!

A quick sketch while picking strawberries in Green Bluff before the 100 degree + heat wave. It was only 87 degrees when I painted this at 10 am.

I sketched the Monroe Street Bridge between meetings from the new plaza near the downtown library and City Hall. I’ll definitely be coming back to paint here when the weather cools down.

I enjoy car shows. I’m always so impressed by the creativity and style on display in the form of cars-this Metropolitan 4 x 4 has an eagle from a flagpole as its hood ornament.

A very GREEN commission of a house and pets that was a present from children to parents commemorating their home.

A demo for my Zoom watercolor class at the Spokane Art School of a path in Hamblen Park.

Another demo for class of a field of blooming vetch.

This is a recently completed commission of a historic restaurant painted for the family who used to own it. The building is still standing in Hillyard, but it is a a very different business now and has had buildings added on to the left side (which hold a VR studio!).

Hope that you are all doing well and staying cool!

July Events

Hi Guys! Things are finally starting to open up and here are some fun activities I’m taking part in this month. I hope you are all managing to stay cool and I’ll be sending out an update of what painting projects I’ve been working on soon.

I’m doing a Zoom lecture with the Friends of Manito on July 17th, 11 am-12:30 pm. Click here to sign up.

PAINTINGS OF MANITO AND OTHER SPOKANE SCENES

Join local artist Megan Perkins as she discusses the subject of her paintings with particular focus on ones done at Manito, as well as other Spokane scenes. She will talk about painting en plein air (or “in the open air”) and how listeners can paint in their own gardens or at the gardens in beautiful Manito Park.

Brush on the Bluff is a new event this year. I’ll be painting from 10-1 at location 8 on the map (to be released).

Here’s some more information and check out their website to see the other artists involved!

Watch Artists Paint the Bluff's Scenery

Several artists will be setting up in different locations on the bluff (all within half a mile of Polly Judd Park) to paint the scenery around them. Friends of the Bluff will provide maps to their locations so visitors can take a short stroll, stopping to meet each artist and observe their work. At the end of the event, all of the paintings will be auctioned off and the proceeds will be split between the artists and Friends of the Bluff.

Add Some Color to the Polly Judd Park Sidewalks!

Friends of the Bluff will be providing sidewalk chalk to anyone that wants to help us brighten up the park. Professional chalk artist Stacie Boyer will also be on-hand to answer questions and create her own masterpiece!

Nature-Inspired Art Workshop

The Botanical Alchemists create large-scale nature designs around Spokane for weddings, festivals, memorials, and more. They will be leading a free community workshop all day for anyone who wants to create their own nature-inspired masterpiece.

Art Hike for Families

Take a short walk into the woods with Marit Fischer before settling in on your blankets for a grounding and mindfulness exercise. This will be followed by a brief lesson on the basic principles of drawing and an opportunity for the children to share their work. There are limited spots available, so please visit our Bluff Walks page to register.

Sketching the Palouse

Boy, the month of April (and most of May, I guess!) sure got away from me. My Seasons in Spokane show at the Spokane Art School went great and thank you to everyone who stopped by to see it. Three paintings from that show have now sold and I’m very grateful!

I went on a road trip adventure down to Palouse Falls for a day a couple weeks back and did a bunch of sketching.

This is known as the graffiti bus and can be found along the road just before Washtucna. While I sketched, two people came and tagged it with spray cans and several more came to take pictures!

Palouse Falls! There actually was a rainbow as the sun hit the waterfall in the afternoon.

This is the opposite view down the gorge. As I painted this two small planes circled over head, taking in the view and coming down super low to the falls.

I drove home via Colfax and decided to stop at Steptoe Butte. I’d never been so I was startled by how abruptly it rises from the landscape and then spent the spiraling drive up it sweating and feeling a little nauseous due to the constant left turns, the narrow road and complete lack of guardrail. It is going to be closed for 6 weeks this spring and I hope they install some guardrails! The view was worth it however and I struggled to capture the immense view. I’ll have to return and try again.

We’re making good progress on my studio. My husband took a week off and managed to get most of the dry wall up, including cutting holes in the pieces going on the ceiling to fit around the rafters which was quite the process! Wish us luck on the taping, mudding and sanding. I hear that is challenging!

What have you guys been up to? Are you putting in a garden or planning summer road trips?

Wonder Building Pop Up

Good news guys! I’ve been asking to join a small group of artists, bakers, and local creators for the Saturday Wonder Building Pop Up Market this Saturday, April 10th, 12-3. There will be beignets and High Tide Lobster Rolls and my art. Check out @luckyladybread on Instagram and the Wonder Building Facebook as we get closer to learn more about who is going to be there. I’m excited to get out and show art again and a little apprehensive about how long I’m going to last before I snap and buy a bunch of carbs!

Wonder Building:

835 N. Post Street

Spokane, WA

New Show: Seasons in Spokane

Hello everyone! I have exciting news! I have been hard at work during the past month making new paintings for my show at the Spokane Art School. I decided to go with the theme, “Seasons in Spokane” because we are so lucky to have four full distinct seasons here in Spokane and I wanted to celebrate them.

The show opens April 1st and closes on the 30th. The Spokane Art School is open 10-2. We won’t be having a First Friday reception, but I’d be happy to meet anyone who wanted a personal tour of the work to chat about it, just email me!

I think it will be really fun for people to look at the paintings and decide which season a painting “belongs” to. There’s a couple that I think could go either way (though I, of course, have a preference) and I am always interested to hear what other people think.

What season do you think these paintings belong to?

Stop by the Spokane Art School to see these guys and the rest of the paintings in person!

Take A Class With Me!

Northwest Museum of Art and Culture

Sketch Your Story Date(s):3/25 Time: 5:30p - 8:00p Ages Allowed: 16 - 99

Sketch Your Story

Instructor: Megan Perkins

Thursday, March 25, 2020, 5:30 - 8 pm

Limit: 15

Location: Offered most likely off campus as a live Zoom webinar, or in person at the museum if COVID - 19 restrictions are lifted.*Once you register through the Zoom link that will be provided to you via email upon your registration, Zoom will inform you how to join the program.

Cost: $20, members, $22.50, non-members. *There could well be a small amount of additional costs for art related class supplies if you do not have them available. A complete list of supplies you will need to participate will be provided to you via email at least a week before the class date.

Class Description: This program draws inspiration from two of the museum’s current WWII exhibits that focus on the men, women and children who experienced the Second World War firsthand. Led by Spokane artist Megan Perkins, you’ll begin by learning about sketching techniques and generate ideas for your own sketch of a special place, object, building, family member or heirloom that represents the WWII period for you. You’ll share your sketch and the story behind it in a follow-up virtual session - or in person at the museum if possible - on an agreed to date if you choose to participate.

Sign up HERE

Corbin Art Center

Drawing on Gratitude 4 weeks | Ages 16+ | Megan Perkins

We are surrounded by wondrous beauty in our everyday lives, but are frequently too busy to fully appreciate what we have. Use drawing and sketching to meditate on the things, places, moments, and people that you are grateful for. Beginners welcome! Supply list included upon confirmation of registration. Class held at the Corbin Art Center, 507 W 7th Avenue. $65 6771 Tues. 4/20-5/11 5-7pm

Intro to Watercolor Painting & Beyond 4 Weeks | Ages 16+ | Megan Perkins

Come and learn the basics of watercolor, mixing colors, choosing the right paper, brushes to use, and how to transform a value sketch into a watercolor painting. If you have already taken a watercolor class before, the instructor will help you go on with what you want to accomplish. Please feel free to bring your own photos to paint from. Supply list included upon confirmation of registration. Class held at the Corbin Art Center, 507 W 7th Avenue. $65 6775 Thu. 4/8-4/29 5-7pm

Spokane Art School

Intermediate Watercolor Online with Megan Perkins

For high school and adult students

$80

Wednesdays, 5 – 7

May 5, 12, 19 & 26, 2021

Taken one of my classes or dabbled in watercolor before? This class will help you build on previously learned skills such as color mixing, making a wash, working wet in wet to help you capture subjects in an expressive, personal way.

Intermediate Watercolor with Megan Perkins

*Pre-registration is required for Art School classes; classes will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Students will be registered ONLY on receipt of payment. Enrollment requirements: 3 students minimum, 12 students maximum (in most cases). Classes with low enrollment are cancelled 48 hours before the class is scheduled to begin.

Refunds and Cancellation Policies: If a class is cancelled due to low enrollment, a full refund will be issued. Otherwise, no refunds will be issued.

Daily Sketchbook Online with Megan Perkins

For high school to adult students

$80

Tuesday, 5 – 7

May 18, 25 and June 1 & 8, 2021

 Want to have more creativity in your life? Learn tips and tricks for incorporating a daily sketchbook habit into your life. We’ll learn to compose on the page; draw from everyday objects and then paint in watercolors.

Megan Perkins Daily Sketchbook Supply List

*Pre-registration is required for Art School classes; classes will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Students will be registered ONLY on receipt of payment. Enrollment requirements: 3 students minimum, 12 students maximum (in most cases). Classes with low enrollment are cancelled 48 hours before the class is scheduled to begin.

Refunds and Cancellation Policies: If a class is cancelled due to low enrollment, a full refund will be issued. Otherwise, no refunds will be issued.

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!

View From Someone Else's Window

I’ve been really feeling the limits on travel and frankly even the ability to be somewhere other than my house now that has been too cold and snowy for outdoor painting for a couple months. So, I have been diving into WindowSwap, a website where people submit short videos of the view from their window. It has been an absolute delight! Not only because there are some really awesome views, but also because I am nosy and I love to see how other people live. There’s a great mix of mundane (view of blocky highrisers) and dramatic (snowy mountain, Brooklyn Bridge, etc). Another thing I love is that because these are videos rather than photos, you get the extra fun of sometimes hearing the environment elements, such as when a tropical rainstorm started during the video of a window in South East Asia or the surprise of birds sweeping into and around the frame of the picture. An absolute delight!

I do wish that there was a back button so I could return to previous views, but alas that doesn’t seem possible, so I just have to take what I can get. Oh well.

Pontassieve, Italy on what looks like a gorgeous fall day.

Vizag, India

Cambridge, UK

Glasgow, Scotland

Mineralnyvody, Russia

San Francisco, CA

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!

Fall's End & Zoom Class!

Still clinging to Fall over here, though it is looking more like…

THIS…

than THIS.

Oh well. Maybe next year? It looks like I’ll get plenty of practice painting snow this winter.

I bought a pumpkin and some decorative gourds at Green Bluff back in October and they are still hanging out on my studio table. I decided to tackle them in gouache on tan toned paper.

Swan gourd! And now for the Big Announcement-I’m going on ZOOM! Read more below.

ZOOM CLASS! I will be teaching a “Paint and Sip” class with the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture on November 19th, 5:30-8. Sadly, we aren’t able to do it in person so the Sip part will be BYOB, but it will be a live class where you paint along with me as we paint a scene of Riverfront park-the Clock tower and Pavilion.

There’s still time to sign up here!