Missoula Morning

Click Here to Bid - 6x6in. - oil on panel

On my walk around local neighborhoods recently, this was the view every time I looked east down a wide street. I believe these are called the Sapphire Mountains, and they have distinctive horizontal lines that are left over from the different levels of Lake Missoula, which was a thing near the end of the last ice age. I was out in the morning, and the clouds were just peeking over like this, which I always think is so cool.

Before the Rain

Click Here to Purchase - $200 - 6x12in. - oil on panel

Back in September I took a trip with some plein air friends to the Tetons in Wyoming. This is the same group of friends I've gone up into the Sierra's with about 5 times before (if you've been following me a while). And although I had a WONDERFUL time with my buds, I didn't mention it here because I didn't come back with any good paintings. It was pretty humbling actually. I reworked each of my paintings using memory and photos, and this is the only one that turned out ok. There is an article about the trip out this month in Plein Air Magazine if you'd like to check out more about it all, and work by the other artists. It's a pretty great article!

About this particular spot: We were on the way back to our house one afternoon, and it was clearly about to rain. But we stopped at the river anyway, and we all set up to paint. Sure enough, about 5 minutes in it started to sprinkle, and then pour. Fortunately I had some photos from right before the rain, although the clouds were kind of reversed (coming in from the right instead of left). So I moved some things around, which is much easier for me to do in the studio, and voilà. It definitely captures the mood.

Clouds Rising

 

Click Here to Bid (5x3in. - GOUACHE - starts at $75)

This is from a photo I took back in summer. Our Montana winter has been really beautiful as well, but we haven't ventured out nearly as much. I'm sure I will get braver with time. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to the great hiking opportunities summer brings!

More Cloud than Mountain

Click Here to Bid (3x4in. - GOUACHE - starts at $50)

This is from one of my gazillion Sierra references. I get totally different composition ideas from my photos than I did from being there in person. Not better necessarily - just different.

Lunching on the River

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This is from a small town in Germany, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. I went with a friend and she drove, so I don't even know which direction we went from my mother-in-law's house! I do remember that on the way back we got stuck in a tunnel for about an hour because there was an accident up ahead. So we sat there and showed each other pictures from our phones. What did we do before smart phones?! Anyway, it was a VERY complicated image, and I decided I needed to challenge of trying simplify it but still have it read like a sunny day in a beautiful town in Germany.

Clouds Over Montana

Click Here to Bid (4x4in. - GOUACHE - starts at $50)

Here's a little gouache from a recent explore east of Missoula. I'm really enjoying painting clouds.

Thunderstorm Approaching

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A couple of years ago my husband and I were remote camping in the Oregon Badlands. We were reading a bit in the afternoon, when clouds fairly quickly started filling up the sky. They were big clouds, and we took pictures of them because they were quite spectacular (this painting is from those pictures). We were feeling a little suspicious of these lovely clouds, when suddenly it started POURING down rain, and the wind blew SO HARD that we each grabbed a pole of our canopy, unwilling to let it blow away, as the horizontal rain soaked us and all our stuff. It lasted about 15 minutes, stopped as suddenly, and we spent the next few hours drying everything out. Below is a calm scene from that evening in the same spot.

Mostly Cloudy

sold.

This is my second-to-last painting from the alpaca farm. I debated whether or not to post this one. I like it, but it seems very simple. I don't know. This is something I struggle with a lot - what to post and what not to post. I've been very surprised in the past at what gets a good reception, so I'm always second guessing my instinct. Often I have a particular goal in mind for a painting, and may not post it just because I didn't feel like I accomplished what I set out to do.

I have quite a hefty stack of paintings I didn't post, (this stack is from the past 6 months or so) and about three times as many that get wiped before they dry. I feel good about this stack because it means I'm trying stuff! I'm experimenting, and that means lots of failures along the way. I didn't always feel good about this stack. It took a lot of work to get to this point.

When I get a few minutes, (and some clean space in my studio), I'll take a few of these and prime them. Lately I've been using Gamblin Titanium White FastMatte for this, rather than oil gesso. It dries much faster, and I LOVE the surface for painting on. First I take the panels outside and scrape all the lumpy bits off with a palette knife. Then I simply take the tube of FastMatte, remove the lid, and dab little bits of the paint all over the panel. Then I dip my brush in Gamsol and wipe it all over the panel, smearing out the paint evenly. As soon as it's dry, I'm good to go!

Fenceline

 

sold.

One day at the alpaca farm, I wandered down to a lower field and parked myself for the entire day, determined to focus on trees. We were encouraged to do one small, quick study, for no longer than 10 minutes. I went ahead and did another, 20 minute study as well. And then I did a longer painting of the same subject. The painting at the top is the longer one, and this next one is the 10-minute study. I like them both quite a bit, but I feel funny listing a 10-minute study, so I'm going to start it at $1. (click here to bid on this study --^ 6x8in.)

To the left is the  20-minute study. I'll just say this - I learned a lot from it. Starting with ... too much pink ground showing through!

Busy Clouds

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This is from a photo I took in Eastern Oregon this summer. I was on a hike where the landscape wasn't particularly inspiring, so I started taking pictures of the sky. Yay for clouds!

Cloudy Clouds

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Here's another version of my on-top-of-the-butte-in-Eugene-vista (complete with super-catchy title). I decided to focus more on the sky with this one.

My picture of the scene actually has the previous painting in the holder, but I did both of these from life. You can see that it's pretty crispy here in Eugene (now, at the end of summer), but it makes for some great contrast!

Layers Upon Layers

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Before my trip to the Sierra's, I got in shape by climbing to the top of a local butte with all my gear. On one of these trips I was by myself so I painted at the top. I had a lot of fun playing around with clouds, as I haven't paint much of them from life. They move fast, which is the challenge. But when they're in layers like this, you can sort of gather information from all over. This painting comes (as you can see) complete with authentic grass and dirt from the area. : ) Unless you want me to wipe it off.

Three Trees

sold

This is another plein air landscape from here in Germany that I'm happy with. I've been working on trees, and the whole tree/sky transition. The thing that is SO different about plein air from still life is - with still life I do all the editing in real life (move the apple here, turn it around, etc. until it looks good) but outside I must make up a better scene out of my head ... but then I have nothing to refer back to. Does that make sense? Ugh.

Tomorrow we head to Stuttgart for a couple of days, and then fly home on Tuesday. I don't know what kind of wifi we'll have for the rest of the trip, so even though I am ahead with my paintings, I may not post again until Wednesday.

Cloud River

sold

And now, for a total change of pace! I wish I could say I did this from life, but I actually borrowed the photo from my friend Bren. I treated it like an abstract though in that I decided I would do whatever I wanted, and it IS different, but it's still realistic. I really really hope to get out and do some real plein air this summer, but I'm also already really busy. Ugh.

I got several emails today about my "crabby new yorkers" comment yesterday. Just to clarify, I LOVED my time in NYC. And I had some surprisingly lovely conversations with random strangers. Honestly, the only negative moment was when the costumed people in Times Square demanded I give them a tip for a photo before I even took one. But whatever. All-in-all I loved the city and loved the people. I apologize for blindly repeating the stereotype!

Clouds Over Water

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Above is another painting from Georgia, and below are a few moments I captured at my Sedona workshop (just finished up today): a couple of great squints, a Ruthie snacking, and some careful arranging.

Below are my demos and one painting I did after class one day (sold).

And last but not least, a photo of me and my lovely kids. They were a fun group, but a little obsessed with underwear for some strange reason. Nonetheless, we had a great time!