Just Below the Hilltop (watercolor 14 x 18) sold
Another view of Sprague Trail. The woods there are so light, since the ice storm of 2021 thinned the forest.
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Oregon
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April 28, 2021 4:27 pm
4:15 pm
Forest Archway (watercolor 14 x 18) available
Another painting of the woods below our house.
April 15, 2021 10:58 am
The Standing and the Fallen (16 x 23 watercolor) available
This Spring Salem, Oregon had back to back ice storms leading to many downed trees and branches. While I mourn many of the trees lost, nature’s thinning does have it’s compensations. One of those is that woods around our house, are an entirely new place, while still remaining beautiful. This lit up hillside was dark, tangled, and mossy just months ago. Now it is bright and open.
February 10, 2021 12:41 pm
Beginning to Melt (15 x 22) available
One more painting of Croisan Creek Trail. This time after bit of snow.
November 23, 2020 5:22 pm
The Mossy Grove (watercolor 14 x 19) available
This is my favorite part of Skyline trail, where all of the trees are bearded with moss.
November 17, 2020 3:01 pm
Into the Woods (watercolor 13 x 20) available
Another painting of the woods below Sprague Highschool, and another one of our favorite walks.
2:49 pm
On the Rocks (watercolor 17 x 23) available
Yet another painting from our favorite local hike, Opal Creek, Oregon. There are just so many standout views on this hike.
October 17, 2020 5:50 pm
Dry Meadow (watercolor 14 x 19) available
It got pretty dry on our walks under Sprague this summer. The dryness has it’s own beauty.
August 7, 2020 1:25 pm
Back-Lit Bramble (watercolor 16 x 23) available
We aren’t going much of anywhere this summer due to Covid-19. Lucky for us, nearby Croisen Scenic Trail provides endless scenic fodder. This particular scene, is in the less trafficked part of the trail below Sprague High School.
May 10, 2020 3:11 pm
Park Giant (watercolor 17 x 23) available
Portrait of an imposing pine tree in the Salem, Oregon Pioneer Cemetery.
April 24, 2020 10:18 am
Dappled Spring Trail (watercolor 16 x 23) Sold
Dappled Spring Trail II (watercolor 13 x 21) available
Two sunny spring views, of the trial below our house in Salem, Oregon. Croisan Creek Trail, is an endless source of inspiration. During the current shelter in place orders, it is even more valuable as an escape.
January 11, 2020 3:15 pm
Fall Light on Croisen Trail (watercolor 12 x 19) available
Another view of the hill below our house.
August 19, 2019 6:12 pm
Shadows Over the Hilltop (watercolor 10 x 15) available
Shadows on the hillside above Croisan Creek, Salem, Oregon.
July 30, 2019 5:17 pm
Cresting the Hill (watercolor 16 x 23) available
Another forest painting from Croisan Scenic Trail.
July 8, 2019 5:00 pm
Northwest by Victorian (watercolor 15 x 22) available
This is a fantasy grouping of the real Victorian houses just east of downtown Albany, and the rather prominent church just west of downtown.
4:58 pm
Old Woman (watercolor 16 x 21) SOLD
An upwards look at the woods backing our yard. Either you will see the old woman or you won’t. If you do see her, you won’t be able to stop seeing her.
This painting has sold, but you can still purchase a fine art reproduction here.
4:56 pm
Lacey Edge (watercolor 12 x 17) available
Watercolor painting of the lacy patterns made by light on the forest edge.
July 1, 2019 5:22 pm
May 8, 2019 8:18 pm
Spring Snow on Croisan Train (watercolor 14 x 19) available
We walked Croisan Scenic Trail all this winter, rain, snow, or shine. It is beautiful in the snow.
February 5, 2019 7:47 pm
Waking Forest (watercolor 13 x 18) available
A Columbia Gorge nymph emerges out of the landscape.
January 14, 2019 3:34 pm
Freight at Dusk (16 x 21 watercolor) available
I drive through Albany on my way to Art in the Valley several times a month. Crossing over the railway bridge I admire the trains, but there’s no place to pull over and stop. So last month, I made a point of pulling into the station and walking up the bridge to photograph the trains. I may do it again at a different time of day.
3:31 pm
Lighthouse Stairs, (18 x 13 watercolor) available
Looking down the stairs at Yaquina Light House in Newport Oregon.
August 13, 2018 11:38 am
Hanging Out at Opal Creek (watercolor 13 x 22) available
This is our favorite lunch spot on Opal Creek. It’s just below the falls and about half way around the pretty looping trail to Jawbone Flats.
August 6, 2018 8:31 pm
Aqua Falls (watercolor 16 x 23) SOLD
No these falls aren’t actually named the Aqua Falls. I don’t know their name. I think of them as the aqua falls, because the water is the most beautiful aqua color there. There being the first falls on the Opal Creek Trail, east of Salem, Oregon. If you hike the trail you’ll find them just as you reach the abandoned mill machinery. You have to scramble a little off trail down some rocks to reach this view of them. The good news is you’ll probably have them to yourself.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
November 30, 2017 6:49 pm
Bringing Down the House (16 x 23 watercolor) available
This house demolition caught my eye because it was so surprisingly beautiful.
6:46 pm
Foggy Path (14 x 22 watercolor on paper) SOLD
Another one that sold before I could post it. Prints are available at Pixels.
November 30, 2016 12:40 pm
Fog Over Croisan Valley (17 x 23 watercolor) Sold
This painting is a little closer to home than most of my recent work. I see this view every morning on the way home from my walk down Croisan Scenic Trail. The trial occupies a long thin, Salem park with our neighborhood a hundred feet above it and Croisan Creek a few hundred feet below it. The path is beautiful in all seasons and rarely feels nearly as close to town as it is. It’s particularly evocative in the fog.
This painting has sold, but you can still purchase a fine art print.
November 26, 2016 1:25 pm
January 7, 2015 2:35 pm
July 13, 2013 12:38 pm
Pacific Rhythms (18 x 36 watercolor) Commissioned
I painted this seascape for the most marvelous client. Her request charmed me. She wanted a seascape with no figures or land masses, beach, or boats; just waves, sky, and clouds. The waves and clouds must be rhythmic to inspire jazz improvisation. The painting must be large enough to fill the space above her piano.
The project presented some challenges, most of them having to do with size. Standard watercolor sheets are only 24 x 30 inches. She wanted a painting that was 36 inches wide, so the paper had to be special ordered. I don’t have an easel large enough to accommodate a painting this size, so I used my studio table. When I taped the paper to my studio table, there was no room left for water and brushes. To see how the painting looked from five feet back, I had to stand on a chair.
The other challenge had to do with how to create a path through the painting for the eye. I decided on a sideways “u” beginning on the bottom left following the breakers in and return across the horizon and out through a break in the clouds.
I presented it to the client this morning and I’m happy to say she loved it. It’s at the framers now.
The original belongs to a lovely pianist, but prints are available here.
August 20, 2012 5:44 pm
Foggy Morning on the Railway Bridge II (12 x 17 watercolor) SOLD
I’ve always heard that art is therapeutic. And perhaps it is for some people, but not for me. When I’m depressed, I get in fights with paintings and I lose all sense of self judgment. Everything I paint, I deem of no value. Sometimes I’m right. Sometimes I’m not.
I painted these three almost identical views of the old Salem railway bridge about two years ago during a fit of depression. They are the survivors of perhaps six different attempts. I doubt the ones I threw away were all that much different. In the end I put the project aside in frustration and painted other easier things.
Foggy Morning on the Railway Bridge III (12 x 16 watercolor on clayboard) Available
About a week ago, when getting ready for the Silverton Fine Arts Festival (last weekend) and the Artisan Village at the Oregon State Fair (next weekend), I discovered that I had sold so much this last year, that I was in some danger of not having enough art to fill the space. So I looked back through some of my older work for things to frame and found these old bridge paintings. Looking at them now, I can’t figure out why I didn’t like them. They do exactly what I wanted them to do. They capture the foggy morning atmosphere, and they give a sense of how much the trestle draw bridge feels like an open cathedral.
Foggy Morning on the Railway Bridge I (12 x 18 watercolor) Available
Because version number two was painted on clayboard, I didn’t even have to frame it to hang it. The painting got a surprising amount of attention considering that I hung it on the back side of my booth. Several people asked if there were prints available. So I promised that by this evening I would get the painting on line. And here, they are.
March 21, 2011 10:41 am
Spring Flood (12 x 16 watercolor) $200.00
Driving the countryside around Salem, I’ve been admiring the flooded fields. At first I was only looking as I drove places I needed to go. Then I began taking the back roads just to more of them. Finally, I began driving just to see them.
This particular field is northwest of us out toward Silverton. I loved the silvery blue reflection of the sky 0n the water and the way the furrows pointed to the horizon. I took several high horizon photos to emphasize the retreating furrows, but in my reference photos the sky was flat pale gray and uninteresting so I added the cloud where furrows meet in the distance. I also removed a a railroad trestle that ran across the back of the field because it created a solid black line just where I wanted everything to fade.
Painted with cobalt blue, cerulean blue, burnt sienna and new gamge.
Or purchase a print through my shop at Fine Art America.com.
April 19, 2010 7:11 am
The View From House Rock (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD
This is the view looking west from House Rock just north of Brookings, Oregon.
I’m not sure why House Rock is named House Rock. When we were on it we weren’t sure if we were supposed to be on it or looking for it. A little google search made it clear we were on it, but no information about the name. I have my guesses though. The hill was surprisingly flat on top and hiking down below it I discovered wild onion, wild iris, wild rose, and strawberries. Only the iris were in bloom. Many years of hiking around ghost towns have taught me which domestic plants go native when the settlers leave. Onions, rhubarb, strawberries and roses were common survivors in Colorado and they appear to be survivors here too. I think there was once a house on house rock, not that the rock is shaped like a house.
The palette is burnt sienna, raw sienna, cobalt blue, and phthalo blue.
April 17, 2010 6:54 am
Beach Birdie (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD
We call my youngest daughter “Bird” and “Birdie” and even “Birdles” because she looked a little like a bird when she was a baby. It’s been a long time since I thought she looked much like a bird. But crouching down on the shoreline, she made me think of long leggity shore birds.
The palette is simple, cobalt blue, phtalo blue, qinacridone deep red rose, and burnt sienna. I used liquid mask extensively to make preserve the white paper.
See more little girl paintings at Fine Art America: girl paintings.
April 16, 2010 8:58 am
Sunset at Brookings I (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00
Last weekend I was in Brookings, Oregon for the Watercolor Society of Oregon’s Spring convention. We visit the coast often, but we rarely get so farther south than Florance. Brookings is on the California boarder and getting there from Salem efficiently requires dipping into northern California, hardly a hardship as the redwoods are on the boarder too.
The southern coast is a different. Brookings is a rocky rather than a sandy beach. The land drops off rapidly into the ocean there. The result is that the waves do not feel like them are above you as they do in Lincoln City, but they break larger closer in. I haven’t figured out how to paint the immediacy of Brookings breakers, but I’ll get it.
In the meantime, here are three postcard sized Brookings sunsets. I did the first on location and the other two at the gallery yesterday.
Sunset at Brookings II (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00
The people in the third one are my husband and youngest daughter. It was one of the few times anyone stood still on the beach that evening. Stephen and the girls were much too busy skipping stones to stand still.
Sunset at Brookings III (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00
These paintings are currently for sale on-line at my Etsy shop.
January 11, 2010 5:24 pm
- Sundown on the Broken Dock (12 x 16) $150
Brown Minto Park is one of our local haunts. The park boarders the Willamette on one side and a truck farm on the other. Bicycle trials, bark dust trails, and a dog park lie within it’s boarders. The park has forest, field, and playground. A rather civilized asphalt trail runs along the Willamette. A shorter trail from the playground once led to this dock. The dock was falling down even when I first saw it. Now it has gone the way of all things. But I miss it.
My photo showed real sunset with only a silhouette of the trees and dock left. I turned back the clock about a quarter of an hour to show the island trees and more of the decrepit dock.
The palette is cobalt blue, phthalo blue, dioxazine purple, quinacridone deep red rose, burnt sienna, and new gamgee.
I masked the dock before painting. Then I began with the sky and water working wet into wet. When the sky and water dried I added the far bank and it’s reflection working wet on dry but, still doing much of the mixing on the paper rather than on the palette. To give the foreground bank it’s texture, I salted the paint while it was still damp. The effect was a little stronger than I wanted so I gave it a final wash of phthalo blue. Finally I removed the mask and painted in the dock and it’s reflection.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.
October 7, 2009 8:39 pm
The Newport Bay Bridge I (13 x 19) $250
The Yaquina Bay Bridge, better and more informally known as the Newport Bridge, is one of the most photographed and painted objects on the Oregon coast. It’s a little daunting to add yet another painting to the stack. But it’s such a beautiful bridge that I just couldn’t resist.
This is the view of the bridge from the south side of bay standing on the ground looking up. Anyone who knows the area well will see immediately that I took major liberties with the landscape. I’ve placed tree covered hills in the foreground, where there is really a grassy flat area often used as an impromptu parking lot. My reference photo throws the parking lot and the bridge into silhouette against the late afternoon sky. Trees broke up the flat horizon. I expanded the treeline into undulating hills.
What I did not remove from the photo was the scaffolding. Somehow whenever I visit the bridge there is scaffolding somewhere in the picture. And with the light behind it, I found the scaffolding as beautiful as the bridge.
After transferring my sketch of the bridge to the paper, I began by painting the sky. I worked wet into wet beginning at the top with a combination of cobalt blue and cerulean Blue. Moving down the paper I added burnt sienna to the two blues to create the grays of the upper cloud masses. Then I dropped in dioxzine purple on the undersides and the dark areas of the clouds. I grayed the violet a hair and added some cobalt to it and washed in the lower cloud bank. Grayed cobalt brought the clouds to the horizon. The bay itself is grayed down cerulean.
The bridge is various dark combinations of burnt sienna, cobalt blue, french ultramarine, and dioxazine purple. The hills are are wet into wet layers of various mixes of the bridge colors plus cerulean blue and raw sienna.
When I finished the painting I was puzzeled about where to sign it. In the end, I signed the painting in removable liquid mask. The mask has a tendency to lift paint thus leaving a quiet signature behind when I removed it.
This painting is currently available on-line through my Etsy shop. Prints available on inquiry.
October 1, 2009 10:08 am
Queen Anne Nods to Shirley Jackson (11 x 15) $150
I set a challenge for myself this week. The idea was to paint a single subject in a variety of moods. The subject I choose was Deepwoods Estate, here in Salem. I took all of the photos for the painting in the same light and although the various aspects of the building gave me different ideas, the photos don’t convey much feeling to me.
Its Greener on the Other Side
Porch reference photo
I began with the front porch. I aimed to emphasize the softness of the light and the romance of the building. I also wanted to draw the viewer into the painting.
As you can see from my reference photo, my depiction is a little fanciful. I limited my palate to yellows and blues to mimic the soft shadowy light under the porch and the golden sunlight beyond it.
I think the painting works. The most common comment about it is that the viewer would like to step through the porch into the garden on the other side.
Turret and Cupola
Turret Reference Photo
Next I painted a detail of the roof-line from in back. This time I tried to contrast the harsh glittering light with the shaded parts of the building.
Because I intended to include many hard lines and less subtle variation in tone I looked for a place where the contrast between light and shade was particularly striking. But I didn’t want it to look like graphic art, so I poured this painting to ensure that the solid expanses of color were lively rather than flat. Once again I exaggerated, the light in the reference photo is not nearly as stark as the light I painted.
I like this painting, but it turned out rather softer than I had intended. I may try it again with an orange and blue palate.
House Reference Photo
The latest painting in this series is of the whole house. I’ve always found Victorian and Queen Anne houses a little creepy. Like wrought iron, they can be both sinister and charming all at once. On a bright sunny day there is nothing really creepy about the Deepwood House, but it does have a swallowed by the woods feel to it. Despite a generous lawn, there are few places where you can see the whole house. Instead what you see is patches of house through the trees.
So in order to bring out the sinister feel of Queen Anne archetecture, I pulled the trees in closer to the house and darkened the edges where the trees and house meet visually. I also distorted the shape of the house stretching it upwards to about fifteen percent more than it’s real height. Finally I chose a very earthy palate for such a pristine white house: burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ocher, phthalo blue and cobalt blue.
I poured this painting too because I wanted a lot of variation in tone. But pouring produces hard lines at the edges of the mask. The result had too many hard lines for the shadowy woods. I did so much scrubbing of the edges, washing over, and detail work that painting doesn’t feel poured to me. But the more I painted the darker it got. I finally had to stop for fear the house would no longer read as white.
I showed the finished painting to my husband yesterday. He said he really liked it, but then added tentatively, “Isn’t it a little eerie?” Yes, yes it is. But I don’t think it’s so eerie that it’s a caricature of the house.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.
September 29, 2009 8:10 pm
Turret and Copula (11 x 14) $150
Back to the Deepwood Estate but with a very different feel. This is the west or backside of the house looking up at the turret and the tallest roof peak. The afternoon sun brought the architectural details into graphic relief. I decided to play with the posterized nature of the light by pouring this painting.
Pouring watercolors is much like batik dyeing. First I mask all the white areas of the painting. Then I literally pour cups of paint across the paper. After the first pour dries, I mask all the pastels and pour darker paint. Then I mask the medium values and pour again with yet darker paint. Once the painting is dry, I lift the mask and add the darkest values and the details.
In this case I used phthalo blue, deep red rose, and new gamgee for the first pout. I tried to keep the yellow on the cupola. In later pours I used only the deep red rose and two blues Phthalo and French ultramarine. I saved the french ultramarine for the final pour.
I masked the sky after the first pour and overlaid it with cobalt blue when the mask was removed. The details are all heavy purple and magenta mixtures of phthalo blue and deep red rose.
Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.
September 10, 2009 10:37 am
The Breakers at Seal Rock II (12 x 16) $125
This is the second painting I’ve done of the tide coming in at Seal Rock Wayside. The first was a little postcard sized painting I did while demonstrating at the fair. That little painting sold immediately. I liked it too, so when expanding it to a full sized painting I didn’t mess around with the composition much. But I did want to get some more variety into the rocks and spray.
Like the previous painting, I began by reserving the whites with liquid mask while painting in the ocean and rocks. I used phthalo blue and burnt sienna for the ocean.
I used the same basic technique to lay down the rocks as I did with the first little painting. I started with raw sienna and quinacridone gold. Then I added burnt sienna and quinacridone deep red rose. While the burnt sienna and deep red rose were still wet, I dropped in cobalt blue and phthalo blue. Finally I added some heavy burnt sienna and some French Ultramarine.
Once the painting was dry, I scrubbed the edges of the rock where the spay hit them with a stiff filbert brush to show how the waves obscured them. Then I broke out the white gouache (an semi opaque white) and added more spray. Over the dark painted rocks the gouache white looks gray. I used the gouache primarily for the shelf of the biggest rock and the bases of the rocks on the shore side. Finally I pulled out the razor and scratched in fine white lines where the water spilled over the rocks and little cuts for droplets of spray. All four techniques work very differently, and each has a character of it’s own. I like the variety that resulted from using them all.
Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.
