To see more handmade ceramic tiles please visit my Etsy.com shop.
Landscapes
In 2005 I started a body of paintings and monotypes based on the landscapes around the Pendleton/Blue Mountain and Palouse area of Oregon and Eastern Washington. I work there at the wonderfully remote and inspirational Crow’s Shadow print studio.
I have lived in Portland since 1980 and experienced many summers of plein air painting here. But my Willamette Valley Series is more intuitive of the sense of calm and beautiful colors of the exquisite landscapes just a short drive from my home in the city.
Since 1994 I have spent the month of September plein air painting in France. The paintings and ideas produced in France are the basis of inspiration for a body of work developed in my studio during the rainy Portland winters. This yearly sojourn to France, a beautiful place where I have some time to think and paint, has singularly been the most important thing I have done as an artist to develop my work.
Inspiration for this body of work comes from a collection of waterways in the Pacific Northwest that are part of my life. They aim to capture beauty and mood of viewing often cloudy skies and the reflection of that sky on water.
I have always been drawn to large bodies of water having grown up on the Great Lakes of the Midwest, and living on the West Coast all of my adult life. When I travel now- increasingly it is to a shoreline of an ocean or the Great Lakes where I have room to think and dream, and watch the play of color from the sky and the water below.
Figurative – Nudes
I’ve drawn the figure from a live model since high school, and continue to do so weekly. The figurative work was my gateway to being an artist.
My figurative work is mostly monotypes, sometimes paintings or on tile. The work ranges in size from very small 4 x 4 inch to 40 H X 34 W paintings and monotypes. People often purchase 2 or 3 small pieces and frame them in a series.
It is very special to me- I work from the same model- like my landscapes I like to visit the same place and therefore work with the same person as my model. Each time I see something different in something familiar. I tend to work in the same color for several months or even a couple of years, and change around the sizes of the work.
Again, I welcome commissions.