my father is gone

Joseph Tipton July 29,1922-September 6, 2009. A kind, compassionate man.

December Fog

The weather in Western Oregon is of course, notorious. As I was preparing to move here from New Mexico, everybody asked me 'what about the rain'? I answered that I craved it, belonged to it, almost like a racial or ancestral memory. This has proven so true.
In between storms in early winter a very cold fog can settle in for days. It is thrilling.

Snowfield-Auke Bay

Joan and Frederic are tough to follow.
Here is an oil painting based on a sketch I did on a ferry in Alaska [2000].

Masterpieces

Both of these paintings have been particularly important to me. I discovered them years ago while young and formative and still refer to them for instruction and pleasure. Cotopaxi [1862]by Frederic Edwin Church is an ultimate example of a narrative landscape. He packed his paintings with so much information and scope they`re practically cinematic. And what an apocalyptic view! The abstract piece by Joan Mitchell, La Ligne de la Rupture [1970], is actually much larger yet it`s strength lies in it`s intimacy. It has always felt to me like a suspended moment of summer. A pulsating landscape of grasses, sky, sun and water. I tore the image from a magazine in 1976 and it has given me comfort and hope.

Creekbank Study

Summer Field

This was painted after a beautiful walk in the Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge with my niece Mackenzie. It`s a protected floodplain along the Columbia with expansive grassy fields and massive stands of cottonwood trees. It was a perfect summer morning; cool, sparkling sun, breezy and humming with life.

Water, Wetland, Field