Closet History

image.jpegI am packing up my house and preparing to move to Idaho. Eleven years I have enjoyed living here but it is time for a new adventure.

It is interesting to see all the stuff I have squirreled away. This bedroom closet was packed with art work from my college years and into the mid 90’s. I  took one photo to try capture the past.

Know Your Place

image.jpegThis is an especially contemporary acrylic painting for me.  I was experimenting with materials and ideas with no clear destination.

I won’t lead the viewer, I had a lot of ideas when painting and composing this image. Now looking at the finished piece I have other ideas. What does this painting say to you?

Great Blue

This is a video of a Great Blue Heron flying with a fish in it’s beak.

I have never seen a heron grab a fish in the middle of a lake. They are big wading birds that wonder along shorelines. They frequently stand still for extended periods  and can be easy to miss, blending with limbs and vegetation. I spotted this particular heron hundreds of feet from shore flapping around in a frenzied manner on the surface of the lake. When it finally left the water it flew towards me and I could see it had captured a pretty good meal!  It is a little tricky spotting the fish from the iPhone video but I would guess it was well over a foot long.

 

Shadows

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This is a painting I did a couple of years ago. I stumbled across it while trying to clean out my studio.

Different approaches to the same sort of imagery I still work on. I now paint almost exclusively with translucent paint. This painting is a more traditional approach with a warm under paint and opaque colors built upon that. It still has a lot of interesting translucent passages but looks a bit “overworked” to me now.

Pack up the show

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Headed back to Pendleton, Oregon to take down the “shadows of the west” show. Such a long build up for a month long exhibition! I really enjoyed the experience and the opportunity, it just went by fast like all good things do. Most of these paintings will remain in crates until the next show in late July.

Driving across the more empty portions of the state fills me with nostalgia. Seeing boats and fishermen makes me think of a lot of fun adventures gone.

It was incredibly beautiful with distant rain squalls and amazing cloud formations… I still love a good road trip!!!