Blessings and joy!

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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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Celebration! A Traveling Exhibition

       Opens at the Schack Art Center                              2921 Hoyt Avenue, Everett, Washington

Sue Rose and Helen Drummond, just before the doors opened. 

The Schack Art Center provided a wonderful kick-off reception for this traveling

 exhibition. The paintings will remain at this venue through December 27, 2012. 

I am standing by a painting from my Fashion Series, the top painting on the right. Inside Out is the left panel in a triptych based on window shopping boutiques on Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.  

In 2013 the exhibition travels to four more Washington cities 

before closing in Ellensburg on July 27, 2013.

Celebration! A Traveling Exhibition

The layout, design and preparing this catalog for the printer, has taken most of my time in recent weeks. Women Painters of Washington is a professional artists origination with juried membership. Founded in 1930 by six artists, more than 1,000 women have been members of WPW. Many members have had a significant impact on contemporary art in the USA and abroad.

The exhibition opens at the Schack Art Center in Everett this weekend. In 2013 the exhibition will travel to four more locations in Washington. Click here to view the exhibition. The page may be slow to open. Once there, you will be able to view all locations and dates as well as all paintings in the exhibition and most of the rest of the catalog.

The Celebration! gala kick-off is this Saturday, November 17th, at the Schack Art Center. If you are in the area, please join us!

Schack Art Center

2921 Hoyt Ave, Everett, WA

November 17 – December 27, 2012

Reception November 17, 5 – 8pm 

Soccer Game Spectator

9 x 6   oil on panel

The most unusual thing about this painting is the mid October sun in the Pacific Northwest, a day warm enough to be dressed like this.

Teanaway Gold

7 7/8  x 7 7/8  

 Black & white oil oil on panel — value study for the larger painting below.

 12  x 11 7/8

Under painting — blocking in large color shapes. 

The finished painting with more detail and more subtle colors.

The Teanaway Vallley is just over the Cascade Mountains from my home. It has been a favorite  location ever since my first extended visit, a workshop with Bill (Wm F. Reese) on his farm in 1985. I haven't been there often in recent years, but always love the journey and visits to my favorite places there.

. . . from thumbnail sketches . . .

Rock Pile - 8 x 10 - black & white oil on panel

I just spent five weeks returning to basics. Working with landscape composition and value in a series of  pencil thumbnail studies, I chose one composition from each set of thumbnail images to create a larger black and white value study in oil. These were then used as reference material for an oil painting in full color.

In the beginning this seemed like a tedious way to work. I rather quickly discovered the value of the practice and kept going. Now I can say the process has become great fun. I highly recommend it!

. . . thumbnail sketches . . .

rock pile - ideas for painting composition 

I have been taking the Tucson Art Academy Online Course Concept to Canvas by Gabor Svagrik and have high praise for the course instruction and its format. This is a five week landscape painting course with a new lecture, demo and assignment each week. During this time, the student can revisit each lecture and demo as often as he wishes. The use of video and PhotoShop for critiques, enable the student to both hear and see what could make each work stronger.

I have traveled for workshops in the past and most likely will again, but for now, this method wins hands down. It is so nice to be able to have such high quality instruction in your own home and studio. Simply put — it is fantastic! Click here for a short video about the course. More posts to follow soon.

Cherries

6 x 6  oil on panel

The weather has been so delightful here in the Pacific Northwest, we have been enjoying breakfast outdoors every morning. I love to paint cherries and since the stems were still attached to these, were set aside to be eaten later in the day . . . after they were painted. And yes! They were very good.

The painting will be available in my DailyPaintworks gallery via auction starting August 21st.

Painting in the Park

7 7/8 x 7 7/8   oil on panel

On my first painting outing of the season, I joined members of Plein Air Washington Artists at St. Edwards State Park. It was one of those wonderful sunny days with exciting colors and shadow patterns in every direction. It was hard to decide what would be the most fun to paint.

After a small color study of one of the pathways into the woods, I turned around and saw this person painting into the sunlight. The way she stood was so delightful, I pulled out a new panel and blocked in the composition. I had to leave for a family gathering before the painting was finished, but I captured enough to finish it in the studio later. Another wonderful day.

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.