exhibitions
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Saturday, June 1st, 2019
This piece was a finalist in the Artavita competition for the front and back covers of the International Contemporary Masters Volume 13, June 2019.
Winter Forest: Dogwood, 14H x 20W inches watercolors on 140 lb cold pressed, 21H x 26″ framed size. In the beautiful, organized chaos of a winter forest in Pacific Northwest, rain brings out the subtleties, in particular the red branches of wild Dogwood complimented by the surreal green colors of moss on every tree.
Mossy Melody
Saturday, February 17th, 2018
Mossy Melody, Tualatin Hills Nature Park, Beaverton Oregon, 14H x 20W inches watercolors on 140 lb cold pressed… documenting the generous chunks of glowing moss that characterize winter and early Spring here in Oregon. Even on overcast days the mossy edges of trunks and branches vibrate in a dark forest.
Framed size approx. 20H x 26W inches – white mat and white wood frame with crackle finish.
Showcased in J. Mane Gallery’s Seasons 2020 exhibition.
First Snow 02
Saturday, June 3rd, 2017
First Snow 02, 12 x 12 inches acrylics on canvas
Entry for The Square Foot Show in Bismark, ND on August 1st – 25th, 2017
Sold, but a similar one can be created upon request. Please allow 7 days to paint before shipping.
Oystercatchers
Monday, February 27th, 2017
Oystercatchers, 18H x 24W inches watercolors on 140 lb cold pressed. Framed size 27H x 33W inches, white mat, white wood frame with crackle finish.
Showcased in the J. Mane Gallery’s Fins, Feathers and Fur 2020 exhibition.
This is finished, although I’d love to merge the contrasts somehow. I don’t want to mess up the implied light though, or the initial spontaneous brush strokes, like in the background waves. Every new mark at this stage makes a difference too, and in context to the whole, even small changes affect other areas that need to adjust accordingly.
Before you know it, colors mud together and beautiful open spaces disappear. I’m going to take direction from my most recent pieces, which I feel were over-worked, and quit while I’m ahead.
Challenge is exciting…particularly with watercolors. Whereas with other media mistakes can be erased or covered easily and change can occur throughout the process without much hesitation, with watercolors a person needs to know a subject well – or at least be able to fake it with confidence!
Finding a way to make each painting unique means following cues happening within the work itself. In this painting, the most remarkable thing occurred after the the first phase of production.
Because this subject was unfamiliar, I started by first penciling in the shapes, wondering what I could do to make this less boring – you know, not just be a picture of Oystercatchers. When erasing the pencil marks in order to see what the paint had established, little rolls of eraser pieces scattered here and there. Sprinkled impromptu around the birds, those tiny eraser shreds added a pronounced and unexpected zing of life to the composition.
First thinking “what have I got to lose?”, the eraser-pieces were mimicked in paint around the birds. I’m tempted to make those strokes more prominent, but a small success is in order, so will use this fun technique in another painting.
Wine, Art and Dine at Carino’s
Monday, September 20th, 2010
Wine, Art ‘n’ Dine at Carino’s Italian Restaurant in Denton, TX Sept. 28th, 2010
On exhibit
Friday, July 9th, 2010
On exhibit at Oxide Gallery, Denton, TX are: Milkweed Melody, 27H x 33W inches framed Oil Pastels on WC paper, has brassy-gold frame painted with an extension of the drawing. Bonsai Garden, 12 x 15 inches graphite on paper, and Lilacs, 36 x 24 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted, narrow frame, which can be displayed horizontally or vertically.
Dancing With Trees Art list for Madison, WI
Friday, April 16th, 2010
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Paintings as shown are not to scale in comparison to one another
The Dancing With Trees Art Exhibition celebrates the importance of trees and forests throughout history, portraying their diversity and relationships through a variety of creative associations. Twenty three of the paintings in this collection are on exhibit in the Steinhauer Trust Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, May 1st through June 30th, 2010. Opening Reception Saturday May 1st, 12:45 – 4:00 p.m.
All life forms on this planet proliferated, continue to flourish, and ultimately depend on the existence of trees. While the message is urgent, I consider humanity’s role on the planet as positive, with the statement that creativity is our greatest asset; that “Our carbon footprint is worthy”. Further, creative thinking is our most primal, yet highly advanced and ever-evolving contribution toward solutions to healing wrongs done and changing ingrained habits to ones that are more appreciative of the environment in general.
Purchase Art here
Norway Maple: finished, combined posts
Friday, April 9th, 2010
Norway Maple, 36H x 48W x 3D inches acrylics, gel paste on canvas, wrapped sides painted, navy colored narrow frame.
Thumbnails: Combined, edited posts of progression between Dec. 8th, 2009 – March, 2010. Started December 8th, 2009: modeling gel is available in varied textures, finishes and viscosity. Acrylics paint can be mixed with the medium or when dry paint can be applied over top. 3) January 18th, 2010: applying modeling paste to the base painting and sculpting with a small trowel.
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Jan. 28th:– used a dry brush so paint would catch mostly on the textures, and kept the feeling soft. Intentions are to maintain the fresh pure colors. Studied from a distance for about a week after this stage to contemplate what the next move will be.
Feb. 27th: lighter background colors were added in order to open up the space.
Feb. 28th: Adding a solid patch of turquoise to lower left and some tiny details like that may ground the whole thing, but that’s about it; am leaving it out of sight for a while. This really is a carnival of color, I love it!
March 9th: Subtle changes since last post…have been working more on tones in the background which weren’t planned initially; I had hoped to use only pure colors without the usual layering, but it’s otherwise too hard to look at. Also am connecting a few shapes horizontally, and it’s almost “there”, but ‘2D Pinecone’ was started in the meantime to avoid overworking this.
March 6th: Thanks, Virginia for taking the time to write and digitize a detailed, objective critique. I sure appreciate your opinion about what might improve this.
Good things come in threes
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Cycad Fossil Chair, Salish NW Pacific culture wooden whorl replica Chair, and Ancient Mayan bowl replica refurbished vintage chair, 29 x 29 x 29 inches mixed media. Read the feature article.
On exhibit and available for purchase February 11th – 27th at Visual Image Fine Art Puiblishing and Gallery Juried Show, 14320 Midway Road, Suite 300, Dallas, Texas. Come and meet all the Artists at the Opening Reception this coming Saturday, Feb. 13th, 3 – 9 p.m.
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Good Artist Pals also come in threes
Some friendships will last forever, and how fortunate that three of mine also happen to be artists! Listed in no particular order of favoritism, each are miles apart geographically speaking and personality-wise, but they all have one thing in common: they’ll tell it like it is if you ever need a good critique, and on the flip side of the coin: a smile, a boost of energy; encouragement. I’ve posted my favorite works created by each, and highly recommend browsing each of their websites..
a) Chris Bolmeier: Happy Pigs, Oil on canvas I met Chris on the internet three years ago through Robert Genn’s Painter’s Keys newsletters. Formerly an actress and professional singer, she’s not through yet with entertaining you through humour, song and paint. She often posts mini-videos of herself singing, and her artwork is pure, straight from the gut, and some of the funniest, most original material ever. I chose this piece to share as an absolute favorite, portraying fanatically goofy pigs because it makes me laugh…not just smile, but laugh Christerically every time I look at it. In my opinion her best work is of childhood memories, and some of the baffling stuff that originates from who knows where in the infinite canvas of her mind!
b) Karen Xarchos: Restaurant mural in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Karen and I were neighbors many years ago. We designed and painted murals together in the Ottawa area for a couple of years. Thank goodness for the internet, we’re able to keep in touch when either of us needs a good eye and some honest advice. Karen’s style and mine are vastly different; our pace, the style, the manner and we continue to learn so much from each other. She reminds me to slow down and smell the paint; her blending techniques are amazing.
Karen accepts commissions for canvas pieces like wall borders painted at home, then cleverly installs them with wallpaper paste so home owners can remove the work and take it with them when they relocate. My favorite work of Karen’s are the murals depicting work of the Masters, which are enjoyed by customers dining in many of the Greek and Italian restaurants in the Ottawa area.
c) Virginia Wieringa: Prayer, mixed media collage Virginia and I met about four years ago on an Artists’ interactive website, wetcanvas.com, and I think she still participates there under the avatar name “Veedubya”. I’m positive she’d love to meet you there too. Virginia has well-developed drawing and painting abilities and currently experiments intuitively with mixed media collage. Her work, no matter what the media, reflects her open-mindedness and strong sense of spirituality. Formerly an Art teacher, she’s fun to write to because she puts up with my inner-most silly self and doesn’t hold back her own. My favorite work of Virginia’s are the subtly symbolic collages, and some of the more vivid, energetic paintings that are about two phases pre-Realism.
Learning to give critique
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Creating Art and talking about are truly two different ways of seeing; the theory of right and left-brain thinking is matter of fact. As an Artist it takes some effort to “switch brains” and reflect on the processes and progress of work in order to accompany my Art with writing on this blog, so I’m really impressed with the mature quality of the critiques given by students at Olive Stevens Elementary School of paintings on their school Art blog every month.
In collaboration with Oxide Gallery, the Denton school has started a blog where students – or anyone else actually – can give a critique of a different work of Art each month. This month the comments regard the recently finished Sounds of Silence, which is also at the gallery.
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