Lombardy Poplars Tonalist Oil Painting in Desktop Stand

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I have always been attracted to the windbreaks made of rows of Lombardy Poplars. They delineate the farmers fields all across the US. The fragrance of leaves in the fall is one I will always remember from the bus stop where I waited as a child. What fun to kick our way through the drifts of leaves!

Calvert Island West Beach

6" x 8" Oil on Copper sheet on Birch plywood in a Birch Stand
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This wild Pacific Beach on Calvert Island is one of the prettiest I have seen. But everywhere there is evidence of storm waves running over the island. Well worth a visit if you get a chance. There is a great fishing lodge on the island that is accessed by float plane. Otherwise, visit by boat.

Hereford Cattle on Lopez Island Desktop Painting

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I have had an interesting time painting these petite paintings. In the tradition of Dutch Cabinet Painting or Religious Icons, these are intended to be viewed at an intimate distance. They serve as a sanctuary of the natural world, a meditation focus far from the madding crowd of holiday shoppers. A place of retreat, regrouping and decompressing.

Log Crossing Painting a Day on Copper

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I have the fondest memories of wandering through the woods as a child, playing in creeks and crossing the water on logs. Trails made by hunters and trails made by game were all fun to follow. Some trails were deliberately laid out and were shortcuts from point to point on roads like one from our house to near our school. Others were made by dogs that ran from house to friend's house or walked to school with us or came to school to meet us when school was out. (They didn't follow our trails when they roamed by themselves.) There was so much to look at during all seasons and hours of the day. We were never bored. May you all have interesting trails to follow!

Alaska Inside Passage Painting a Day on Copper

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Busy days this time of year. There are fun things to do and chores to do. Painting is fun, framing is a chore. These little stands for the small works are Arne's contribution to relieving me of the bulk of the framing effort for them. I do apply the copper strips around the edges, however, and put a coat of varnish on the back and the copper as well as the painting.

I think the next big painting will be another mountain. I do love the mountains and glaciers and the alpine trees and other flora that goes along with them. Everything has a rhythm to it. Daylight, seasons and creative effort ebb and flow like tides.

Big Leaf Maple in Autumn

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I love to walk the woodlands in the autumn. The smell of falling leaves brings poignant memories of my childhood. After the rains start mushrooms litter the ground, some barely visible and others gemlike, a few rather ghostly in their pallor.

Hardy cyclamen pop up along with the hardy amaryllis and autumn crocus. The camellia sasanqua Hana Jiman is begging to have her portrait painted. But the rain is falling hard and beating the blossoms to pieces.

I have just finished a medium size painting of the peony Festiva Maxima on a 22k gold leaf background that you will see in my December Newsletter this year. It received a lot of attention at last night's art walk. Now I need to figure out how and in what style to frame it. I have spent several months working on it, as it is a rather complicated composition.

The large painting of Hibox and Alta Mountains is nearing completion. Now for the delicious opportunity to decide what I will paint next.

No Trees were Killed!

I was talking to Arne, complaining that I just didn't think the mini copper paintings I did were best viewed on a wall. I liked them on a table near a window or under a table lamp, somewhere where the light changed. This maximizes the effect of the painting on copper. As the light changes, the reflective effect of the copper changes the painting. I love that.

To display them that way, I needed some small stands of some kind, to hold them up. I asked "Could you make me something like a little easel?" He replied, "Let me think about it." He asked me for an example of what I was trying to display and I showed him this tiny 6" x 4" original oil painting on copper. After a bit, he went out to his shop and came back later with a prototype of a stand for this work. Thus started our collaboration to make unique works of art.

He knows I love the natural world and the beauty of the trees and all the other natural features of our surroundings. He loves solving problems and making things. He scrounges wood from neighbors who are pruning their trees and seasons it, so that he can make things out of it. So this is how he solved the problem.
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Would like to see more of these natural treasures displaying tiny paintings of nature? I will have some at my next open studio, 6-9 pm, November 14, 2009. My studio is number 2A in BallardWorks, 2856 NW Market Street, here in Seattle, WA.

The entrance is on the uphill side of the building, directly into the second floor. There are 2 floors of artists' studios above the the businesses, Art and Soul and Sev Shoon.

I am posting this work on ebay, so it will not be for sale at this event.