WPW Life Membership Award

My three daughters and a dear friend joined me at the Women Painters of Washington Spring Honor Luncheon yesterday, where I was awarded Life Membership. This honor is given in recognition of outstanding service to the organization. To be considered, one must have been recommended by fellow members, approved by the Life Membership committee as well as the Board of WPW. The award is not given every year. I feel truly honored. 

Painting in Bisbee, AZ

While sorting through images from three hard drives, looking for specific paintings, I came across a great trip long forgotten. Wonderful memories came flooding in. Almost instantly, I decided to post these.

The drive from Tucson to Bisbee was a landscape like nothing I had ever seen before. Gradually, I began to feel I was traveling back to an earlier time. A very strange feeling. The wind was sending dust into the air and the farther south I went, the more unfamiliar everything seemed. By the time I passed the sign announcing I was entering Tombstone, I felt I somehow actually had slipped into the past, an eerie feeling.

The town of Bisbee is a painter's paradise. Charming homes cling to the hillsides along the narrow roads. There seemed to be very few places wide enough to park a car. This corner was one of them.

I was attracted to this house and the mountains behind it.

The painting is on one of my palette/panel holders, made by Open Box M, Inc, a small company in Cody, WY, with great service and by far my favorite gear.

Another beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest! I took advantage of the weather and gessoed many panels in assorted sizes. These were the last to dry. Most need another coat . . . Since I ran out of paint, I settled for ice tea and a thick book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, instead of a trip off the hill to the paint store. That will happen tomorrow morning.

Shopping Boston's Back Bay

8 x 6  oil on panel

This painting has been added to my Daily Paintworks Gallery. Auction begins on Friday, April 20th. The scene is along Newbury Street, where I found many delightful moments to paint. Click image to enlarge.

Shelf Life

8 x 6 oil on panel

While having tea and conversation with a friend one day, I noticed her kitten had joined us and was listening in on our conversation. . . A painting just waiting to happen! Shelf Life has been added to my Daily Paintworks Gallery. Click on the painting to enlarge.

Art in Embassies — Tel Aviv, Israel

The four paintings above were selected by the curators of the U.S. State Department's Art in Embassies Program for display in the U.S. Embassy residence in Tel Aviv. The paintings, all oils, will provide viewers a glimpse of the lives of young Americans. Click on image to enlarge.

HERstorically Speaking Exhibition opens in New Brunswick, NJ . . .

Several photos from the reception area of the HERstorically Speaking exhibition at the Johnson and Johnson World Headdquarters. I feel honored to be one of 35 US artists juried into this exhibition sponsored by the National Assosciation of Women Artists, Inc.

Two people on their way into the gallery where my painting, Namaste, is joined by the other works in this exhibition.

Namaste, 36 x 18 oil on canvas

Juror Room sketches

I spent the last two days at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. Each day began in the Juror Room on the main floor. The room had comfortable chairs placed in rows theater style. By 8 a.m. the chairs were filled with people waiting to be assigned to a court room. I had a small sketchbook with me and began sketching what was in front of me, the backs of chairs and the people they held.

I also added some of the folks I had seen on the bus into town.

The day was filled with waiting. Every now and then a person would read the name of a judge, followed by a list of 35 to 50 names. Each name was given a number. Eventually the judge's name would be read again and 35-50 people would leave the Juror Room and head to an assigned courtroom upstairs. Since only 14 people would remain with a case, those excused would return to the Juror Room and wait to be assigned to another case. If at the end of the second day you were not chosen as a juror, you had met your obligation and were excused from duty.

The last 10 minutes of the day I was one of fifty people called to a court room on the seventh floor. The judge introduced herself and the lawyers for both sides, explained the rules, we were sworn in and the day was over.






Tuesday morning I left for the bus in the snow, returned to the Juror Room. Around 9:30 my group was called back to my assigned court room and the lawyers began their rounds of questions to the jurors.

Selected people were gradually excused from the court room and sent back to the juror pool on the main floor. I was excused from the case just before lunch.








A walk in the sun and cappuccino, at one of Caffè Umbria's outside tables on Occidental, finished lunch break. At 2:40 those remaining in the jury pool were told we had fulfilled our jury duty and we were excused.

Today I am home painting.

Wedding Prayer

oil on panel, 12 x 16 inches

This painting has been something I have wanted to do for fo many years. It began a year ago. I posted the painting in process last February. Then set it aside. Every now and then I would take it out and contemplate what to do next in order to create the feeling I wanted to convay.

About a month ago I began painting on the background, clothing, faces and flowers. It has now has the feel I was looking for. I call it finished. Click here to see the early stages.

National Association of Women Artists Annual Open Small Works Exhibition

What a Guy 10 x 8 oil

This painting shows a moment in a theater production. All of her expressions were wonderful and this one was such fun to paint.

What a Guy is now on its way to New York City for the National Association of Women Artists Annual Open Small Works Exhibition February 1 – 27, 2012, NAWA Gallery, 80 Fifth Avenue, NYC NY

HERstorically Speaking Exhibition

Namaste

oil on canvas, 36 x 18 inches

I have just received word that Namaste has been juried into the National Association of Women Artists HERstorically Speaking exhibition to be held at the Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ, March 23 – May 23, 2012.

Snow Domes

8 x 6 oil on panel

An early morning view of the bird bath, rain drum and plant pots topped with snow just outside the studio window. I have been enjoying them all week. Each day the mounds have grown a little higher until today. They are still overflowing, but now they are also slowly shrinking. We have been living in a winter wonderland.

Blessings and Joy!

:: :: ::

Wishing you blessings and joy this Sacred Season.

May the New Year bring delight, abundance and contentment to you and yours.

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Watching My Brother

8 x 6 oil on panel

Saturday morning soccer games are often cold in the Pacific northwest. On this day there was a chilling wind as well. The players along the sidelines were jumping around to keep warm — so were the goalies. Some of the spectators were wrapped up in blankets and sinking farther into them as the game progressed.

Paint the Town Red!

The Red Kimono

12 x 9 oil on panel

This painting, from my Theater Series, is of a scene in Act II in one of the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society's productions of The Mikado. It is one of two of my "red" paintings in the exhibition below. Every painting in this exhibition features red!

The exhibition is up for the month of December. If you are in the Edmonds area, please stop by during the reception next Thursday, the 15th. The Ten Ladies will be there.

Reception: Thursday 15 December 2011 from 5 to 8 pm

Coldwell Banker Bain, 108 Fifth Avenue S, Edmonds, WA