Finley National Wildlife Refuge from Bird Viewing Blind

"Finley Marsh Atmosphere" is acrylic color droped into wet acrylic medium on cradled wood box 12" x 9" x 1 1/2" for sale, $ 150.

Plunkett Creek Loop, Beazell Memorial Forest

"Plunkett Creek Larkspur" is watercolor and acrylic paint in acrylic medium washes on cradled wood board, 10" x 8" sold. Saturday my husband and I with "Rain" and her husband, "the Ranch Boss", enjoyed walking at Fort Hoskins taking photographs. I have some sketches in my mole skin sketch book ready to develop further and will soon be posted. On Sunday we were treated to a extraordinary surprise. We met again at Beazell Memorial Park in King's valley, Oregon. We walked through the little valley with a brook lined in larkspur. Every flower and towering oak truly made me feel small like I was walking into a fairyland of my childhood.

Looking Back and Thoughtful Development of Modular Frame Series

" Ruth's Pond" ,1961, oil on Belgium linen, 29" x 38" for sale $400
During school vacation I painted outdoors at a friend's house. This is a style I come round to and develop.

"Yellow experimental abstract", acrylic with balsa wood relief, 1966 For sale $180

"My Table: My Palette", oil on canvas supported by wood and plywood corners, 32" x 43" , 1990. For sale $400 The support frame was scavenged from an earlier experiment - a silk painting stretched over fiber fill to make the wall hanging look like soft fiber sculpture.

Like in the past the modular frame series could be an isolated series of abstracts. I don't want to crank them out. Each must have meaning for me and be a part of my goal to have a rich involvement that I hope will evolve into a rich development. Each will start without knowing what adventure I will have to achieve the resolution. The resolution will be the recognition of feeling and symbolism that communicates. Usually development comes from limits and repeating the same type of picture. I have taken the path of trying many directions and there has been a great deal of time since my first similar paintings. When I am doing other kinds of painting new ideas for these abstracts incubate. At least incubation is the excuse I use for not pursuing abstraction continually.

Looking at these I feel I have just begun to stretch my muscle for abstraction by working at it now and then during the years.

My first oil abstract painting, 1959

This painting is not for sale. Here is another painting dating back to 1959. I remember thinking of deep outer space and how reality was abstract if you pick a viewpoint far enough away. I was thinking that nature was usually curved.
This is one of the paintings I am including in a new blog. But before I begin the blog, I am going to continue my goal of painting abstracts for a month.

Heron Contemplating

"Heron Contemplates", 7" x 5" is watercolor and acrylic made permanent with UV protecting varnish. I used pencil and watercolors first and then acrylics. The watercolor is painted on absorbent ground on wood and then deeply cradled.

Hunter's Moon and Crows

A pair of crows hung out around Coyote Rock at Kernville, Oregon. Getting up one morning I saw them just before daybreak flying with the full hunter's moon in the background. "Crows' Moon" is acrylic painted on cradled wood, 7" x 5".

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.

Expressionist Landscape: "Still Mist; Fir Trees"

Acrylic on cradled masonite, 7" x 5"x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail.

There was a stillness in the mist this morning. I have always liked the fog even when I was a child living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Lanscape Painting: " Winter Fir Trees"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, no frame required, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today the sun did not break through the fog until noon. " Winter Fir Trees" just painted itself. I liked it too much to continue to make further abstractions. The colors were so wintery with the frost but no snow. Yesterday I saw a few flakes being blown about in the air never to find a landing.

Landscape: "Purple Bird House"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Purple Bird House" is one of many bird houses my husband made and placed along our fence. We used to call it the purple cow because of a spot painted on one side. Now the spot is weathered and pealing and moss is growing on the roof.
These one a day paintings are teaching me lessons. I am more aware. I am enjoying every change in the weather as seen from our pasture. Every day we still own the pasture is a gift. It is still our pasture but may soon be sold. I am also more aware of my own work habits and am thinking I need time limits. If I have all day I paint all day with diminishing satisfaction. These quick paintings were intended to be warm ups for larger paintings. Next year, in a few days, I will finish working on my paintings for a group of four artists at the Benton County Museum in April. Plus prepare for a June exhibition at a convention center on the Oregon State University Campus. So my new challenge will be doing both small paintings at the same time as larger exhibition work.

Expressionist Painting, "Clouds Come Dancing"

"Clouds Come Dancing" is acrylic on stretched canvas, 7" x 5", $95, to purchase please e-mail me. Since I started this one at 8:30 AM, the cold front has blown in and the sky now is a flat gray. I kept painting the dramatic clouds from memory because they moved on so quickly. Another artist friend noticed that I like this wave shape and frequently repeat it in my work. Could this symbolize a wave in my own life? The wave of receiving inspiration from right where I live or could it be the wave of passing of time?

Sky With Emotion

Today I brought out all of my nineteen small oil paintings that were put away for ten days. I am pleased with the changes that took place over the weeks during which I painted once a day. I am going to do more oil paintings when the weather is warmer. Next Spring they can dry in our unheated pump house. In the meantime, today, I am back to painting with acrylics outdoors in the 26 degree weather until my fingers feel cold. I'll finish two this afternoon. The painting I post here is an earlier one that I just glazed today. The thick blue mixed with white is not as vibrant as a thin glaze is over dried paint.

In the past I kept working on a painting over and over. I am changing my ways for small paintings.

Today I noticed the gray sky all over and found little changes in hue and luminosity. It is difficult to photograph these light paintings but will work on the photography so I can post them tomorrow.