Oregon Spring, 2010

Acrylic on canvas
28" x 22"
Painting without a brush, with Oregon rain wetting my canvas, the paint is poured and then spread with a 4" x 5" plastic card larger than a credit card.

Memory of Our Cut Down Fir Tree

"Memory of our Cut Down Fir Tree with Nest" first painted with two blue jays in flight is acrylic and iridescent color on cradled wood board, 12" square by 1 1/2" deep and will be for sale when I complete this series on urban forests. There is much work to be done on our neighbor's overgrown Christmas tree lots. more and more houses are being built close by. The city ordinance says in vacant areas the grass must be cut and in order to get to the grass the trees need to be thinned. Our neighborhood looks like it is between being a park and a tree farm.

Blue Bird Watches and Waits for Tractor Mower

"Blue Bird and Tractor Mower" is acrylic on cradled wood board 5" x 7". For sale $100 plus cost of shipping.

While my husband mowed the fields, I painted a bluebird watching and waiting. Today the hawk was gone and the bluebirds were out feeding. There was much going on at home. Airing out the motor coach, bookkeeping, volunteer work. With so much happening at home, I wonder when we will think about our next RVing trip.

Spring Wildflowers at McDonald State Forest, Corvallis, Oregon

Sunday my husband and I enjoyed the warm spring day by going for a walk in McDonald State Forest. Monday I painted my abstraction from my feelings while walking.



"McDonald Forest April Flowers"
Acrylic on museum wraped canvas
36" x 12" x 1 1/2"


Photograph is by Don Wenzel. I am very proud of my husband who just received an award for his many years and hours of volunteer work. He is now the Association of Northwest Steelheaders 2007 Hall of Fame honored member.

Granny Riding Sea Dragon

( acrylic on stretched museum wrap canvas 40" x 30") for sale $400

Before granny had a wet suit and she was just misty energy, my husband said the painting was too indefinite and he couldn't tell it was a granny riding a dragon. He had no idea I was painting ocean. So I thought he must be right. And I made the dragon more solid. But granny started talking back looking at me in the eye over her glasses as if she wondered what the heck she was doing on a dragon. I turned her head more in the direction she was going. The reins were loose and held as if she thought the whole pose was silly. Her legs were crossed because she needed to go to a toilet.

So in the wee hours of the morning I was awake wondering about how I could change Granny's attitude. I could appease her so she would look like a thrill seeking granny full of zest for adventure that was a fleeting vision in the misty stage of the painting. I decided to uncross her legs and put her firmly on the serpent's neck. I'll paint over her sagging flesh and give her a becoming wet suit.

One New Tree in the Neighborhood

Acrylic on 12" square x 1 7/8" deep Masonite box.

This is the fifth painting of the tree life cycle series. It is a sequoia planted by a neighbor last week. The neighbors will also miss the view of the fallen trees and the sequoia will be wonderful to watch as it grows and will hold a great deal of the water and help dry the very wet ground here. In the foreground there is a twigs left behind from the trees fallen to make way for a new house. We also plan to plant some trees but will wait until our new neighbors build their home.

New Outdoor Painting Series

This February afternoon was exceptional for painting outside here in Oregon. I felt so good about being outside, I didn't even mind that there were no blue birds to paint. My newly prepared masonite board was very responsive to the brush stroke. The board is a 12" square allowing me more freedom than the smaller sizes.

Our Old Pasture Series: "Wish Bone Trees' Farewell"

Acrylic on cradled Masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $85. Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate your comments. To purchase please e-mail me.

The stakes are down. The builder was here early this morning to check his measurements. He has contracted loggers to come this week to cut down the wish bone trees. I can't help but be a little tearful.

Abstract: "Winter Green"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 5" x 7" x 7/8", no frame required, $85. Thank you for visiting my blog. Comments are appreciated. To purchase please e-mail me.

'Winter Green is inspired today by the beautiful sunshine we have here in Oregon.

Abstract Landscape: "Hidden Players"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 12" square 7/8" deep, no frame required, $145. To purchase please e-mail me.

In January I am looking forward to painting more outdoors. I will continue to work intuitively not knowing what the result will be when I begin each work. But I expect to be painting the same clouds, trees, and bird houses in more abstracted forms to pursue expressing my feelings. "Hidden Players" is a preview of what I expect to come.

Expressionist, Abstract Landscape: "Doughnut Hole Cloud"

Acrylic on masonite board box, 8" x 6"x 7/8", frame not required, for sale $100. To purchase please e-mail me.
"Doughnut Hole Cloud" was started yesterday afternoon outdoors and was fairly realistic. After working on it this morning and some this afternoon my energy went into abstracting. I wanted to express the essence of my excitement. I love the movements of clouds and tree.

Expressionist Painting, "Two Fir Trees"

Acrylic on masonite board box, 8" x 6" x 7/8", no frame required, $100. To purchase please e-mail me.After trying to paint over to improve yesterday's paintings, I went out to the pasture. I saw deer and a wintering over pairs of blue birds and some doves. These birds are new to this region - usually just here during the summer. I painted in beautiful relatively warm sunshine. Things went considerably better than what I was doing indoors all day yesterday when I tried to paint a memory of the early sunrise before the ice storm. Over and over I painted. I do not feel the failure of these paintings because I learned much about layering and scraping acrylics. So today what a delight it was to paint this one that pleased me from the start.

Abstract Painting #4, Intertwined Winter Frosted

Acrylic on a masonite board box, ready to hang, no frame necessary, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $285. Today I tried a new direction in my work. While cooling my paints and board in the freezing Oregon weather, I took a walk in our pasture and observed the trees. Then I painted indoors with the cold paints. I did not get the same feeling of oil paint viscosity like I did outdoors yesterday. Nevertheless I was happy in my work. It is rewarding to be able to rely on memory of painting this month outdoors to abstract my essence of birch trees.

Abstract Painting #4, "Twenty Degrees"

Acrylic on 16" x 12" Ampersand board, $175. To purchase please e-mail me.
"Twenty Degrees" was painted outdoors this morning while enjoying the effects of the cold on the acrylic paint. The viscosity became like oil paint. When I felt my freezing fingers, I thought about trying to stay warm and achieving the same effect. I could cool down my board and paints in the freezer. But then I wouldn't have the excitement of the adventure working on my painting?

Figurative Painting: "Storm Clean Up"

Acrylic painting on wood panel box, ready to hang, no frame necessary, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $95. To purchase please e-mail me. "Storm Clean Up" is painted after the hurricane force storm that hit the Northwest. A couple of our neighbors lost half a dozen trees mostly along their fence. When the tree cutting was going on I was photographing and helping a little. This was started the morning after, outside looking at the landscape plus a photograph I took yesterday was by my side.

Abstract Painting #2, "Fir Tree Dances With Sky"

"Fir Tree Dances With Sky" is an acrylic painting, museum wrapped canvas painted around the edges ready to hang, no frame needed, 18" x 14", availabe for sale for $350, inquire by e-mail, will set up Pay Pal. While painting "Fir Trees..." I enjoyed being on high ground looking up between the branches at the sky and down to the wetlands now built up with houses. I felt I was really painting the emotion I had responding to the light clouds passing by in the late afternoon. I did not think that it was going to be the last painting I could do while the pasture was still our property. Today the sale is final. To me happiness is the memory of experiences of painting and keeping sheep here - not the ownership of property, for I can sell both.

Apple Tree Expressionist Painting:"After Apple Picking"

"After Apple Picking" is inspired by Robert Frost's poem by the same name. The painting is acrylic on stretched canvas, larger than the 5"x 7" that I will be posting. This one is 18" x 14" and $350.













My long two pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.

Celebrating My Trees

This painting is for sale. Oil on masonite hard board. 10" x 8" $200
Painting outdoors is bringing the best out of me. I am so happy I painted my way out of a little slump the past two days.

Bird Houses

To attract birds we have surrounded our place with bird houses. The fields about our place are great for the swallows to glide and swoop up insects. Our large patches of freshly turned dirt has many tasty insects. The blue birds see their meal from several high perches. While I was painting today I saw many more subjects like the four point buck following a reluctant doe. I put in and took out of my painting a squirrel. The squirrel came down from the climbing tree and stood just three feet away watching me while covering herself with a large fuzzy tail as though she thought she was hidden.

Feeling The Rain Drops

The rain showers contributed to the mood and even to making my painting. The wetness of the rain mixed with the water soluble oils. Paint was everywhere on my easel and on my gloves. The messiness of painting was exciting though. The rain damp landscape was rich with color. The thunder clouds were sweeping through the air. When the sun pierced through the clouds, the fields started to steam especially under the trees. I began to think about the lane that makes two right angle bends around the end of our field. These bends are the old path going past a barn long gone.