Here goes 2014!

A palette is the most interesting tool I have available. It holds all the pigments I have available to create all, every, and each color imaginable! And the space to mix them ~ each and all! 

 

To start this 2014 year I decided to clean mine. If possible, I will send the photo I just took of my fresh, clean palette with my,as yet, very mysterious tablet. It is quite stunning to this old lady to be able to discover the tablets' abilities! Even a few of them....one by one. (I love that it knows to start sentences with capital letters!)

 

Back to the palette.. I did save a few bits of paint as I cleaned it. They were fresh and still usable!

 

I started a painting a few days ago so that when I came back to the studio, I

I would have something under way ....started...would not need to figure out totally new thoughts....But now I am thinking,WHY NOT!?!

Very few people are at all interested in what I have been painting....Perhaps this is a time for NEWNESS!

(I wish I knew how to make grammatical corrections on this tablet...many are needed. I will discover that as I go step by step too!)

 

I will not immediately toss out all that I have been doing, just approach my paintings with a new outlook.... with less hesitancy...more willingness to accept what I wish to do....more artistic courage.

 

So,off I go.....new year, new steps to take... small and timid for now.....Deep breath....I am off!

(Sent from Samsung tablet)

Christmas 2013

"View of Bethlehem"

8" x 8"  Oil on Canvas Panel  

Isn't Christmas in out hearts wonderful! The story, the symbols, the colors bring quiet joy. Today is the day for putting Nativity Sets on display, for decorating a tree, and for contemplation.

Mt. Harrison Autumn

Mt Harrison Autumn  Oil on Canvas Panel     16" x 20"  

My grandmother lived about 9 miles from our home. The trip included crossing the Snake River which I always loved as a child. I loved seeing the river calm, like in this painting, wild, choppy.... whatever, The colors were always interesting in all seasons. We visited often, so I saw the river often. It still holds charms for me. I enjoy drawing and painting it in many seasons with or without a view of Mt. Harrison included.

 Raven

Oil in Gallery Wrapped Canvas Panel   24"x24"

Sold

 

 

 

Connor's Creek at the Bend

Oil on Canvas  24"x20

sold

 

Two commissions finished and approved!

 

That approval is always a wonderful event! Doing commissioned work always includes at least twice the pressure. I always want to make the best painting I can to please my own aesthetic sense. Add to that the desire to please someone else and their wishes for the work; to make it the best for them too.

 

Now on to other challenges! Happy Monday!



Salt Lake Temple

Salt Lake Temple 

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas 48" x 16" sold

Salt Lake Temple

(detail)

I am so thrilled that this painting finally was delivered and seems to have been happily received! It took far longer to paint than I had thought....  They always do..... The dear clients were VERY patient and even visited the slowly progressing project a few times through the summer.

One day soon, I expect to be back at work....

Summer 2013....

"Lily of the Valley in Crystal"

Oil on Canvas Panel   14" x 11" 

"Pink Rose and Syringa in Mixed Bouquet"

Oil on Canvas Panel   14" x 11"

"Sunshine"

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas    6" x 6" x 1 1/2"

Other than a commissioned piece which is almost finished, and one or two unfinished pantings, these three little paintings are my entire summer production of paintings.... A bit of a crisis of confidence..... Perhaps it is over, perhaps this is the end.... Or perhaps I am just getting started....

GREAT evening!

To begin the evening, at about 6:00p.m. thunder began rumbling. I have never experienced this sort of storm.... the thunder was an incessant, though distant, roar for about 40 minutes! It was accompanied by rain like I have only seen in the Orient (Hong Kong and Manila). I wish I could have watched it from above the clouds. It must have been a spectacular show! Now that we have enjoyed a good soaking, of course our Idaho wind has begun....

While it was still raining, I went out to the studio and stretched a small canvas. During the time that it took to listen to a recording of a Beethoven String Quartet, I was able to get it stretched and the first coat of gesso onto the canvas.

This is significant only because of the rough few weeks have have spent questioning if I, by painting, am adding anything to life or only adding to the world's piles of stuff. I remember suggesting to a friend whose wife was complaining about his time spent in studio work, that if he COULD quit, perhaps he should.... He continued, and so will I.

There is no possibility that I will be able to stop seeing the world through color relationships, shapes and visual ideas. My vision may be too ordinary, as I have been told several times in different situations. but I will continue to make what I hope is art....

Then to top it all off, as I walked back to the house a most wonderful red sunset met me!

Begining stretching

All stretched!

First coat of gesso applied! Ready to complete on Monday!

Wonderful red suset! Perfect evening!