Hiver Marais and other watercolors

                                                 Hiver Marais 1 watercolor on yupo 12x9

                                                     Hiver Marais 2 watermedia on yupo 12x9

                                             Hiver Marais 3 watermedia on yupo 8x8


 There really are just a few ways to say 'winter wetlands' in English and I`ve used them all to the point of confusion. So I`ve turned to French for help, just don`t ask me to pronounce it.
Places can be muses as much as people. O`Keefe had the Pedernal, that iconic flat topped mesa you see in many of her paintings. Cezanne painted Mont Sainte-Vitoire repeatedly and what would Diebenkorn have done without the salt air to inspire his Ocean Parks?
My obsession is Minto Brown Island and in particular, its sloughs and wetlands. Because it`s 40 miles away, it`s always a special occasion when I visit. The only season I haven`t seen there is summer,  I`m sure it is an emerald paradise. Some day... But it is in winter that it is so thrilling, full of color yet solemn, often flooded with the sky in motion reflected everywhere, and the atmosphere soft and quiet. As much as I`ve painted it, I feel I`ve only succeeded in rendering its damp essence a few times. I never tire of trying.

                                            Bluff above the Lake watercolor on yupo 12x9


 Another stab at the monolithic bluff rising above Lake Oswego. Still inadequate. There is so much ornate vegetation spilling down the side it looks sort of festive. Like a wedding cake.

                                                   Contreforts Study watermedia on paper 8x6


More French, this time for foothills.

Here, in my opinion, is a perfect painting;

                                                           We Walk to Tivoli by James O`Shea


 I am anything but acquisitive but I covet this painting. O`Shea is a New York artist with a deep understanding of the landscape.

                  Vine snake, creating an unrealistic body image for all the other snakes


work for sale in my studio

Portland Open Studios [mid Oct.]

Wetlands Forest - Opening - generational hope

                                                       oil on canvas 20x16

 Another from the marshy area where Fanno Creek joins the Tualatin River.

 It was cute. At the opening of my show at the Museum 510 last night, people would tell me about the swamps in their lives. The need to connect is powerful!
 Such a fun evening! I`m still a newbie in my community so I had zero expectations. That is a condition for delight, the crowd was very sweet and appreciative.
We got there early and I took a few pictures;

                                               John and my sister in law Mary

Take a look at the work of Claudia Bos. From what I can tell from her website, these aren`t recent but they`re definitely worth seeing. She has a fresh, confident, poetic way with watercolor. Such as this one:

 Now a word to the wise. Never give large artworks to young people! Even if you are also young!
Near the end of my semester of art school I did this really large painting and then gave it to my brother Mike. I was 19 and he was 17. Bless him, what a responsibility I dumped on him! He has hauled that canvas from home to home for 42 years! It hangs above his bed occupying most of the wall. The painting was inspired by freezing rain. Here it is;

 Alone on a walk a while back, I stepped off the path and into the forest. I looked around and saw this in the distance;

 This cheered me. It`s a fort!
Generalizations about young people bother me. All the complaints about their electronic habits seem sort of hysterical. We all have powerful computers in our pockets and this is astounding. I have notifications turned on, I look at it in restaurants, I`ve abandoned the telephone  and I text like everyone else. I don`t worry about the new ways of communication that are evolving. Business, social negotiations, entertainment and intimacy happen online now. Let`s be tolerant.
But I almost never see children in the forest and this seems sad.
My generation was ushered out the door and told not to come back in until dinner. Today, parents seem too fearful to trust their kids to be unsupervised. Ever. I`m sure young imaginations just take a different turn but what concerns me is them becoming afraid of the outdoors, of being in nature. Because it`s unknown. This too is probably a needless worry. I hope so, I built many forts.

work for sale in my studio
demonstration in my studio Sat. March 14, 10 am. 5373 Lakeview Blvd. Lake Oswego OR 97035

Full Moon - Mt. Rainier

                                                            oil on canvas 24x18 1998

                                                        watermedia on paper 7x4 1996

 I traveled to Mt. Rainier last Thurs. in an odd mist. It`s July which is usually bone dry.
The national park is popular so I had made reservations months ago fully expecting a visible volcano in summer. Arriving in a cloud was beautiful but I was somewhat concerned we wouldn`t even see our destination.
The next day was crystalline clear and it was startling to awake on the high shoulder of the beast with the peak looming right above the hotel. Nice!
My favorite part though, was an old growth forest called "Grove of the Patriarchs". It was breathtaking as many of the trees were over a 1000 years old!  It`s humbling to stand next to a tree whose base would not fit in my living room.
We drove around the whole massive mountain, visited old friends from New Mexico and took a  delicious walk at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. The air was moving and the salt scent from the Sound with the warm sun produced a flood of memories of being roasted on the beach while being cooled by the sweet breezes coming off the water.

work for sale in my studio

Fanno Creek Fall

                                                            watercolor on Yupo 26x20

Last November I stumbled on a new watercolor technique for Yupo. I painted the whole sheet with a pale milky wash that contained a little color and a lot of white watercolor paint. I smoothed it out with a good house painter`s brush and then while it was still wet, I dropped saturated color into it. The brilliant white Yupo reflected plenty of light and kept everything looking transparent. I learned to use true watercolor brushes that held lots of paint, yet came to a point, to develop the shapes and add new layers on top of the earlier ones without disturbing them. I blended the edges which seemed too sharp. The advantage to this method is, because it is watercolor, it can be lifted and removed. I can draw into it with a wet Q-tip or brush and then blot off the wet paint. Whole areas can be wiped down to the bare white plastic to begin again.  I can soften areas by gently pressing a damp sponge onto the surface. There is a different kind of versatility than my usual technique of getting acrylics involved from the outset. If I have a difficulty later in the process they are always available for corrections.


work for sale in my studio

January Wetland

                                                        watercolor on Yupo 12.5 x 11"

When faced with the massive amount of summer green, I always have my winter references of Minto Brown Island to work with. This is my 'go to' place for color, the wetlands never disappoint.


paintings for sale in my studio

Oregon Estuary Rainforest 2 - development progression

                                                               oil on canvas 40x60

 The nature of wetlands is one of dissolving boundaries. The air is so humid, it`s not so different than  the water seeping into your shoes. Solid trees are encased in deep soft moss and things are melting all around in the process of decay and renewal. Right before your eyes!
 On the Oregon coast the rainforest comes right to the edge of the marsh until it can`t tolerate any more saltwater. The road to the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology is bordered by these woodlands between the Salmon River Estuary and the mountain, Cascade Head. Visually, they are as dense and diverse as anything I`ve seen.
 Therein was my challenge, how to depict and contain a scene of constant flux and complexity?
 I hadn`t looked at the photos of the development until now. I wish I had, as I was much closer, much earlier to realizing this image than I thought. In one day, without doing anything to it, I came close to painting over the whole thing with white. Later in the day I decided it was actually pretty good! And whether anyone notices or cares, it`s real emotion. Agony and Ecstasy going on in the basement on Lakeview Blvd. It`s just the way it is. Here`s how I got here:

All but the finished photo were shot casually inside my studio.


work for sale in the studio

Small Works

                                                  Marsh Study watermedia on Yupo 6x16

                                               December Wetlands Study oil on Yupo 7x5

                                                Arch Cape Creek Study oil on panel 6x6

In a discussion with a group of artists recently, discipline came up. I made the point that if you`re on the right track, your work is challenging yet fun and if you`re capable of doing it, discipline won`t be an issue. You`ll want to do it. In fact, avoidance might be a sign that the fit isn`t good. Wrong subject, medium, style or even activity. I have an apt personal experience with this. Because I loved music so much, I decided to major in it during my brief college career. I had already been painting for a long time and knew it would continue too. Bad decision. Although I applied myself rigorously, there was absolutely no talent there to stimulate. It was really difficult and mechanical and a misguided choice all together!
I`m now in a situation requiring discipline. The way I work, there is chaos for a long time and this means anxiety for a long time. On a large painting it can be days before there is hope or direction. So like now, I`ll set it aside and work small. When I feel competent again I`ll return to my boggy forest. It`s in me and I think it will be a good one.


work for sale in my studio

Wetlands Studies

                                                         #2  oil on canvas paper 6x6

                                                                #1 oil on Yupo 5x5

 I`ve had some frustrating sessions lately with one large piece so irretrievably bad it had to be cut into pieces. After working for hours, it`s an unhappy sense of accomplishing nothing at the end of the day.
Such is life, with luck we wake up to new opportunity. To regroup and regain some confidence, I`ll do something tiny. These are my first successes of 2014!
 I`ve mentioned my infatuation with Pinterest before and my love only deepens. Never before has it been possible to see such a diversity of art so conveniently, and it`s easy to join if you have a Facebook account. The poster Kintsugi has an amazing, vast collection of paintings, crafts and natural phenomenon. His/her 'boards' on Aboriginal Art are encyclopedic in scope, and there is one on my work too!


available work in my studio

Wetlands Somewhere Redux

Two years ago, as a demonstration painting, I did a huge cloud as an illustration of using the sky as a 'framing' tool. I`ve been painting so many trees lately, I need to get out of the forest for awhile. Space is the great gift of winter here. You can finally, easily see distances. The leaves are down and everything opens up.
oil on Yupo 26x20


available work in the studio

Second Demonstration

This is a closer view of the wetlands painted without a reference. It`s interesting to me that I use my visual memory so much more as I age while the 'real' one is so predictably unreliable. Below is my hardworking intern, Cooper. Portland Open Studios and Portland Community College partnered to give young creative students an opportunity to be involved in the tour. The final weekend begins Saturday at 10. I`ll be demonstrating mixed watermedia on Yupo, the plastic paper from Japan, at noon on both days.

watermedia on Yupo 11x20

work in the studio

Desolate Landscape

When I began this painting of the Finley Wildlife Refuge last month, it was to be a green marsh like I saw there in June. Then, I had a visitor from Canada who wanted to watch me paint. Since this was what I was working on, I resumed painting. Maybe because I was explaining my process and not paying attention to my original idea, in short order I had this apocalyptic landscape.
watermedia on paper 12x16


available work

Fanno Creek Wetlands

With western Oregon a vast wall of green in mid summer, I decided to paint this marsh as it looked last December.
oil on canvas 30x48


available work