Evening at the Louvre (watercolor 14 x 22) $500
The glass pyramid as seen through one of the Louvre’s arches.
Or purchase a fine art print here.
November 9, 2015 12:31 pm
October 24, 2015 2:47 pm
City Portal (12 x 22 watercolor) $500
The Art Institute of Chicago again, this time from the inside. While my daughter gift shopped, I took a whole series of photographs of the two doors to Michigan Ave. The great doors with their iconic lamps and the people silhouetted in front fascinated me.
Or purchase a fine art print.
September 26, 2015 10:49 am
Just Before the Museum Opens (watercolor 17 x 22) $600
I love city light. The shafts of light created by openings in the tall buildings, the reflectivity of building and pavement, and the flat surfaces for shadows all lead to one thing—drama.
This particular drama is the long shadows and the warm glow of a Chicago winter morning. The crowd is up early and waiting for The Art Institute of Chicago to open up. The crowd and bus hide one lion, but the other can be seen peeking out from behind the traffic light.
Or purchase a fine art print here.
September 22, 2015 11:50 am
Downtown Spring Outing (watercolor 15 x 23) $500
I took my daughter college looking this Spring. As part of that trip we got to stay a couple nights in downtown Chicago. This is Wabash Avenue just North of Adams and about a block from The Art Institute of Chicago. The mother and child are just passing Palmer House Hotel. A light snow had just melted and by our Oregon standards it was nippy.
Or purchase a fine art print here.
January 7, 2015 2:35 pm
December 31, 2014 4:25 pm
Village Stairs (19 x 12 watercolor) $500
This is a back “street” in Riomaggiore where the streets are not only likely to be too small for cars, but may include staircases. I loved the light at the end of the tunnel effect and the contract between the brightly painted wall and the natural stone stairs. The woman was both beautiful and big.
Or purchase a fine art print.
December 28, 2014 5:18 pm
Lucca Cafe, (watercolor 13 x 17) $400
Cafe in Lucca, Italy, just before lunch.
Or purchase a fine art print.
5:15 pm
Italian Heat is not my first attempt at that painting. It is the second. I made several mistakes with the first painting, most of them having to to with composition. I left too many people from my reference photos in the image, and that took away from the real subject, the biking couple at the end of the street. Having reached the conclusion that the painting was a failure, I played around with photos the spoiled painting before sketching out the second version which ended up in the blog entry below.
That left me with a poor complicated painting with great color but no real focus. So I set the failed painting aside for a while. Then a few weeks later, I got out the mat corners (“L” shaped pieces of mat board used for visual cropping) and singled out the two bicyclists. The result is Florence Bikers.
Florence Bikers (9 x 16 watercolor) SOLD
Having rescued one painting I looked at the remainder and found Three Italians.
Three Italians, (9 x 21 watercolor) $125
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September 25, 2014 7:24 am
Italian Heat (watercolor 15 x 22) SOLD
We visited Florence in the heat of summer. The shady narrow streets opening up into white hot plazas continues to fascinate me. Couples biking over the rough stone streets had their own heat.
This painting sold but you may still purchase a fine art print.
September 24, 2014 8:39 am
Pure Nostalgia (watercolor 15 x 27) $550
I’ve been busy putting together paintings for my Art in the Valley show, Bicycles. I had been eying the bikes in front of South Salem Cycleworks for some time. The show just gave me an excuse to stop and photograph them in the early morning sun. I arrived early as they were just putting the bikes outside. The young man setting up the bikes couldn’t have been more helpful, setting out out this bike just so I could photograph it.
With it’s lovely curves and built in light, this bike really is pure nostalgia. I wanted the painting to have the same 1950s vintage feel as the bicycle.
Or purchase a fine art print.
September 23, 2014 12:38 pm
Bike Tour (watercolor 18 x 12) $200
Rather more abstract than I usually go, but I like it. This is a Florence bicycle tour group as seen from the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy.
Or purchase a fine art print.
September 8, 2014 6:24 am
September 7, 2014 6:34 pm
Rear Derailleur (watercolor 11 x 15) $250
Painted at the Oregon State Fair.
Or purchase a fine art print.
September 3, 2014 7:24 am
I had a stellar week in the Artisan Village at the Oregon State Fair. I sold seven originals. Three of Riomaggiore on the Italian Med:
An Italian Jewel (16 x 23 watercolor) SOLD
A Slice of Riomaggiore (10 x 12 watercolor) SOLD
Riomaggiore Hillside (16 x 22 watercolor) SOLD
Two of Florence:
- The Ultimate Alley View (12 x 19 watercolor) SOLD
- July in Florence (13 x 23 watercolor) SOLD
One of Oxford:
- Oxford Lane (watercolor 13 x 19) SOLD
And one of The Valley of the Gods in Utah:
Looking Down From Moki Dugway (14 x 24 watercolor) SOLD
My “problem” now is putting together enough paintings for my feature at Art in the Valley this coming October.
August 27, 2014 10:27 pm
Oxford Bike (watercolor 17 x 19) SOLD
I poured this painting at the Oregon State Fair on yesterday and spent this afternoon finishing up the brushwork. I rather like it. The greens feel very England to me.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
August 26, 2014 7:54 am
Chinese Dragon (polymer clay) $300
I’ll be at the Oregon State Fair in the Artisan Village (located by C Gate at the bottom of the chair lift) demonstrating polymer clay and watercolors from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. from now through Labor Day. I have polymer clay animals, kaleidoscopes, barrettes, pillboxes, bookmarks etc. for sale as well as original watercolors and watercolor prints. Come see my latest paintings and meet my dragons.
July 22, 2014 4:48 pm
June 7, 2014 1:34 pm
Hunchbacked Gargoyle (16 x 18 watercolor) $400
The view from atop Notre Dame, Paris.
Or purchase a fine art print.
May 25, 2014 3:21 pm
Top of Milan (watercolor 14 x 22) Reserved for Spring Watercolor Society of Oregon Show
When we Armitages travel, we climb things–towers, monuments, mountains, cathedrals, arches– we generally go up for the purpose of looking down. We are never disappointed. We weren’t disappointed in Milan. But the Milan Cathedral rooftop is different. The rooftop itself is an amazing place to be. It would be an amazing place were it on the ground floor. Here is my first painting of the marble forest that lives atop the Milan Duomo.
This painting may be purchased through the Watercolor Society of Oregon Spring 2015 show. Or purchase a fine art print.
May 11, 2014 4:11 pm
March 9, 2014 1:34 pm
Between Amusements (17 x 21 watercolor) $700
For the last four years I’ve been taking pictures of the Oregon State Fair confident that with all those people and colors there must be a good painting in there somewhere. Four years of pictures with images taken from four different photos and I finally have one.
Or purchase a fine art print.
February 19, 2014 1:25 pm
February 14, 2014 11:33 am
See my work in Painters Academics’ For the Love of Art,
sponsored by Solo Exhibition
Spinning Tales (13 x 19 watercolor) SOLD
February 8, 2014 12:16 pm
Heart of the Bike (10.5 x 14 watercolor) $400
This is a hot summer painting for a cold winter day here in Oregon. It’s been snowing steadily for the last 40 hours or so. Everything is white and cold. But this painting warms me right up.
Or purchase a fine art print.
February 2, 2014 10:30 am
Sun Drenched Parosals (watercolor 12 x 18) $400
There’s a reason why artists like to paint umbrellas. They are shapely and brightly colored. They add grace to the human form. We associate them with romance and romantic cities. And here I live in the Willamette Valley were it rains all winter, and yet I’ve never really painted umbrellas and now when I do it’s umbrellas used for shade.
Why? Because Oregonians hardly ever use umbrellas. We either ignore the rain with a macho sort of only wimps think this is rain air, or we wear sports gear with hoods. On the coast we have some excuse as the rain there so often comes with enough wind to invert any umbrella, but here in the Valley we hardly ever have real wind yet we don’t use umbrellas. Our family does keep a couple collapsibles in the car, but we tend to forget we have them.
These are Oregon umbrellas lent by the exhibit sponsor to the line of people waiting in the sun to see the Titanic exhibit some years ago. I embarrassed my young daughters by taking pictures of the line of people with all those beautiful umbrellas. One of my girls looked at the painting and said instantly that was when we saw the Titanic. She doesn’t remember being embarrassed, just the pretty umbrellas. My other girl is younger. She does not remember at all. Neither girl remembers many Oregon umbrellas. They associate umbrellas with London.
A couple days ago, I saw a friend’s painting umbrellas in Rome, and thought to myself, I wish I had some umbrellas to paint. And then I remembered how I had embarrassed my children by taking photos of people standing in line because the umbrellas were so pretty.
My painting doesn’t have the lovely rainy reflections Marsha’s does, but I do have shadows.
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January 29, 2014 12:21 pm
Bike Lucca (watercolor 16 x 21) $700
This is Lucca. It could be just about any narrow lane in the old part of a Tuscan city, but this particular lane is in Lucca. The bicyclist is appropriate, because Lucca is a bicyclist’s city. The old city wall around town has been paved as a broad street for pedestrians and cyclists, and everyone, natives and tourists alike seem to spend much of their time biking the wall. Down in the city, bikes are as common as at Oxford.
Fine art prints can be purchased here.
Here is a view of Lucca from the city wall:
Two Towers (Digitally Altered Photo)
Prints of Two Towers can be purchased here.
January 24, 2014 4:10 pm
Gap in the Wall (13 x 19 watercolor) $450
This is Acoma Pueblo again. This time looking up at an intriguing hole in the wall.
Or purchase a fine art print.
January 21, 2014 1:59 pm
Sky City Mission (watercolor 16 x 20) SOLD
Built in the 1200s and located atop a 365 foot high mesa, Acoma Pueblo is one of the most spectacular of the nineteen modern pueblos of New Mexico. It looks like what it is, the home of the descendants of the Anasazi peoples of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. The San Estevan Del Rey Mission Church I’ve painted is a late comer to the pueblo, built between 1629 and 1641. The church was built by order of the Spanish government. Although it was built with slave labor, the Acoma people are proud of it, and did not destroy it during 1680 revolt against the Spanish. It is still a place of Christian worship today.
The building is made of sandstone and adobe, rather than adobe bricks. The result is sturdier than adobe, but when in need of plaster very rough looking. The stones were very much visible when we visited this last summer, though I’ve seen pictures of the Mission looking as smooth as any brick adobe building. I like the rough stones and I’ve done my best to give a sense of them here.
My painting is entirely poured (see a description of the pouring method here) from just four pigments: raw sienna, burnt sienna, quinacrididone rose, and dioxion purple. The hard edges caused by mask used for pouring and the limited palette, give the painting a raw graphic feel that reminds of seeing that massive building in the July heat.
This painting is sold, but you can still purchase a fine art print.
January 17, 2014 1:29 pm
An Italian Jewel (16 x 23 watercolor) SOLD
Riomaggiore is built on the cliffs above it’s harbor, rising chaotically up in a happy clutter of homes. The effect is charming whether seen from the harbor looking up or from the narrow streets looking down. The final shape of the village looks like a jewel set into the hills.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print here.
January 14, 2014 2:03 pm
Riomaggiore Hillside (16 x 22 watercolor) SOLD
We visited the Cinque Terre or Five Lands in 2012. Clinging to the the cliffs about the Italian riviera, these charming wine and fishing villages are an Italian national park and a tourist magnet during the summer. I painted Monterrosso, the largest of these villages last year. This is Riomaggiore, the smallest of the Cinque Terre, and the first village many tourists see. It was the first village we visited. And yes we were charmed by it’s pocket sized harbor and steep narrow streets. But these first paintings are not of the houses on the harbor cliffs, but the vineyard hills.
A Slice of Riomaggiore (10 x 12 watercolor) SOLD
These paintings have sold, but you may still purchase fine art prints here.
December 11, 2013 12:21 pm
November 3, 2013 9:53 am
Four Violins (16 x 20 watercolor on clayboard) $450
A violin painting about rhythm and shape.
This painting is on Aquaboard, and may be framed with or without glazing.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.
November 1, 2013 12:04 pm
With Feeling (watercolor 16 x 23) $600
I don’t normally use the photographs of others as the basis for my paintings, but I saw a picture of this lovely young woman so wrapped up in her music and it moved me. I just had to paint her. Fortunately for me, the photographer August Miller was willing to let me use his amazing photo in return for a donation to a The Rape Recovery Center. That I was happy to do, and here is the painting.
Or purchase a fine art print.
October 28, 2013 10:48 am
Late Afternoon Florence (13 x 22 watercolor) $600
Florence is worth visiting just to walk the streets. The twisting turning little alleys are endlessly fascinating. The light pours through in dramatic shafts between the buildings spotlighting slivers of streets and buildings.
Or purchase a fine art print.
October 15, 2013 1:15 pm
A Spire of Saint Paul's (11 x 15 watercolor) $300
This is one of the twin clock tower spires of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. I love Saint Paul’s Cathedral though it is nothing like the Gothic Cathedrals I fell in love with on my first trip the England. Unlike England’s early cathedrals, Saint Paul’s was designed by a single man, Sir Christopher Wren and built over just thirty years. The result is a clean coherent building rather unlike the the quirky cathedrals I first admired.
Wren designed and saw built numerous churches in the vicinity to compliment and be complimented by the cathedral. But in the London Blitz practically the entire neighborhood was bombed and burned to the ground. The cathedral is now surrounded by modern offices. The Millennium Bridge now leads directly to it providing a very modern show case for Wren’s jewel.
Or purchase a fine art print.
October 11, 2013 6:21 pm
Changing in Milan (14 x 21 watercolor) $600
In our month long odyssey to Europe last year we had only one really long travel day, but it was a dozy. We left London in morning to take the train to Paris. We boarded the train without a hitch and ate lunch as we emerged from the channel tunnel in France. We walked the streets and had dinner in Paris. Then we boarded the night train Milan.
I’ve heard mixed reviews of the night train, but it did well for us. Our cabin mate was a gorgeous young Frenchmen who man managed to be both chivalrous and bashful at the same time. The cabin was spacious and the bunks comfortable. We agreed to an early bedtime and all fell asleep easily. Which is surprising because the trip was tinged with worry because Italy was scheduled for a railway strike, and we intended to go on from Milan to Rome.
So it was with some relief that we arrived in Milan in the wee hours to discover our connection to Rome was still on the board. Relief and time to enjoy the beauty of the modern railway station with the morning sun lighting up the tracks’ exit to the greater world.
Or purchase a fine art print.
September 20, 2013 9:37 am
Teddy and Friends (watercolor 17 x 20) commissioned
This is a commissioned piece for a local nurse practitioner who wanted a still life painting to appeal to little boys. The irony is that most of the toys belong to my girls. But, we did have to borrow the mitt and baseball from one of my daughter’s friends.
I painted it at the Oregon State Fair. Demonstrating watercolor while stopping answer questions about other paintings, prints, and cards is always a bit of a hat-trick for me. Detailed paintings require great concentration, and loose paintings are easily spoiled by stopping at the wrong moment. This painting is full of small shapes and distinct items, making it a perfect painting to do in public. Each object could be treated as a separate little painting and there was very little glazing that might be spoiled by stopping at the wrong moment. No the less, I did wait to do the final touches back in the studio.
Since then it’s been waiting in my studio for my client to come home from vacation. I delivered it to her this morning and she’s pleased. The studio looks a little empty, but I’m replacing it with other things.
The original was sold before I began, but fine art prints are available here.
September 15, 2013 5:31 pm
Looking Down From Moki Dugway (14 x 24 watercolor) SOLD
This is the view from Moki Dugway (sometimes spelled Mokee or Moqui). But however you spell it, it is a most spectacular pass overlooking The Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley. Utah Highway 261 traverses north from Gooseneck Sate Park north through the Valley of the Gods, at which point it becomes a set of dirt road switchbacks yielding the some of the most amazing views of the whole southwest canyon lands area. Those switchbacks are Moki Dugway.
We visited The Grand Canyon, Chaco Canyon, Bryce, Natural Bridges National, Capital Reef, and Kodachrome State Park, yet my husband found this little stretch of road the most scenic view of the trip. I can see why.
This painting has sold, but you can still purchase a fine art print.
September 4, 2013 10:59 am
Tabby's Favorite Window (11 x 14 watercolor on clayboard) $300
I often get asked at art fairs how long it takes to paint one of my paintings. It’s an unanswerable question. Some paintings take days and even repeated attempts each taking days. Some paintings just fall out of the brush in minutes. This painting just fell out of the brush. And that despite being painted at the State Fair as a demo.
The reference photo is a picture I took of a girl friend’s cat some years ago. I don’t often paint animals, but my gallery is having a group “critters” show and so I browsed my old photos looking for a suitable cat, and this tabby popped up. Now that I’ve done him, I rather like him. He will be on display at Art in the Valley all this September.
Or purchase a fine art print.
August 21, 2013 9:31 am
Paint Tube Mesa (16 x 22 watercolor) $600
Once again it’s August and time for the Oregon Sate Fair. It runs Friday August 23rd through Monday September 2nd in the State Fair Grounds, north Salem, Oregon. Free admission for Veterans Tuesday, August 27th. Foster parents with their foster children get free admission and half price rides Monday, August 26th. There no long is a Senior’s Day, but seniors pay just $3.00 in advance or $6.00 at the gate every day. Discount tickets are available on-line through tomorrow, Thursday, August 22nd.
I’ll be in the Artisan Village demonstrating both watercolors and polymer clay. The Artisan Village is a sort of art fair within the fair. Besides painters, we have glassblowers, jewelers, wood carvers, potters, silk painters, spinners and more– all of them demonstrating between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. I look forward to this show every year because it’s fun to get to do art in public.
For those of you who come regularly, I should warn you that the Village has moved. We used to be just north of the demonstration gardens and just west of the 4H building. We have moved to the park-like area to the east of the 4H building right next to the North (Yellow) Gate, known as The Grove. The new location is shadier and we’ll have grass under our feet. It’s also much easier to get to.
From the Yellow (North) Gate
Finding us from the North Gate (Yellow) is simple. Enter and you are there.
From the Main and Pink Gates
From the Main Gate on the south side or the Pink Gate on the lower east side, head north through the rides and carnival til you reach the Central Canopy. Continue north from the Canopy. Just follow the chair lift. It’ll be a slightly shorter walk than it was to find us before. Or better yet, take the chair lift from the carnival area. It stops just south of us.
From the Grey Gate
From the Gray or Upper East Gate, head west past the barns. We are just on the other side of the FAA Pavilion and the Willamette Arts Center.
