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Tuesday, May 3, 2011
"Abstract X" 10 x 14 2011
"Young Sage" 12 x 12 etching 2011
This is another etching. I found out that it is a lot easier to go abstract than to create a realistically representational image. The main difficulty that I had was in getting my plate inked the way I wanted it. Inking is an art form in itself. Making the plate was the easy part. Monday, May 2, 2011
"Imagine" 11 x 24 woodcut 2010
I love this image. It is still hard to believe that I carved all of this out of wood. First, I free-handed the design onto the surface of the 2" thick board. Then I scored the outlines and began to carve out the wood between them. After a few hours I was grateful for my husband's idea of attaching a small router to the shop vac to speed up the process. Of course I still had to use hand tools to get the sharp points of my design. All total it took me a full day and a half to complete. I could not be happier with the way that it turned out. If I ever did another wood carving I would surely do it the same way. "Rapture" 12 x 12 etching 2011
This is my first etching. I love the way that the plates come out after they are cleaned up. I used zinc plates, they are so shiny and beautiful and look like they could last forever. "Rolling Up the Sails" linocut 2010
This linocut print is from a photograph of my husband rolling up the sails on a sailboat. It brings back happy memories of summers on the lake. 
"Woman by Window Brushing Hair" 12 x 12 linocut 2007
This is the first linocut I ever made and I was happy when I got the chance to take a print making class at the college this past winter. "Tahoe Snow" 12 x 12 linocut 2010
Having prints made can be expensive. Making my own is a less costly alternative and is fun. After I draw out my design and transfer it to the linoleum I look at the original design in a mirror. This way I know that the print will come out as I originally intended because the print will be in reverse. This linocut print is what my house looks like from the road in the dead of winter. It is hard to see behind all of the snow. "Buoys" 18 x 24 acrylic on board 2009
Another reflections on the water painting. This time in acrylic. I like working with acrylic. In this dry mountain air it dries faster than I would like though. And even when I use mediums to help slow down the drying process the workability remains limited. If you don't care about a lot of blending its great. "Winter Pathway" 18 x 24 acrylic on board 2009
A cold snowy pathway is a common winter scene. This is not a painting. It is graphite on clayboard. "White Winged Crossbill" 17 x 21 watercolor 2007
I got a little abstract in the background of this one, but I think it works don't you?"Flicker Woodpecker" 17 x 21 watercolor 2007
I enjoy painting birds. They have such lovely colors and textures. 
"Hope Valley Roundup" 27 x 31 watercolor 2007
During one of our visits to Hope Valley we saw a small group of ranchers herding some cattle in a pasture right beside the road we were on. We had just finished taking photographs of the Aspens and were heading home when I suddenly turned the car around to take a picture of this scene. It is the only painting I have done of animals and plan to do more in the future, especially of horses. "Emerald Bay" 24 x 39 watercolor 2007
This site is located at one of the state parks that overlooks Emerald Bay. Another one of my best selling prints. "Aspens" 22 x 26 watercolor 2007
The best place to view the aspens when their leaves change color is in Hope Valley, a beautiful drive from Meyers just outside of South Lake Tahoe. Every year artists make the trip hoping to capture images of it. When I was working on this painting I kept thinking how much I wanted to light up the canvas with color. "The Angora Fire" 18 x 24 oil on canvas 2007
My neighborhood was evacuated during the Angora fire. We did not know if we had a home to come back to for several days. Fortunately we were among the lucky ones, but being home offered little comfort. The helicopters continually flied over us making water drops. It is the closest I have ever felt to being in a war zone. Few really know how close the fire came to over taking the town of South Lake Tahoe and how it was stopped just on the ridge above Fallen Leaf Lake. We will remain forever grateful to all those that fought so long and hard to save this beautiful area we live in. "Boat I" 16 x 20 oil on canvas 2007
There is no lack of color in this one. I love the way that colors relfect in the water. I want to do more of these. "Blossoms" 16 x 20 oil on canvas 2007
This is my only painting with a black background. I love the way that the colors pop! What do you think?"Sunflowers" 18 x 24 oil on canvas
More sunflowers, a beginning of a series, if only I could stick to one subject matter. That is something else that I am working on right now, sticking to a cohesive series for my first big solo show. Can I do it? We shall see. Perhaps I will post my progress. "Sunflower" 18 x 24 oil on canvas 2007
What I love most about working with oil paint is its full-bodied color and buttery consistency. If only I could bring myself to use more tinting, toning, and shading I might approach realism as I initially intend. I can't help but wonder when my affection for realistic detail will overpower my infatuation for color, not yet anyway. "California Poppies" 30 x 24 oil on canvas
This is the largest canvas that I have worked on to date, at the time I only had a portable french easel to work on. Now that I have a new full-size easel I expect to get as big as my studio will allow. One artist said that I should have called this painting "a bug's view" because of the perspective. What do you think?"Best Friends" 19 x 25 pen and Ink 2007
This image doesn't do justice to all of the details of the cross hatching. I used a caligraphy pen with this one. I have had a life-long love of horses, lucky enough to own my first horse at age 12 and then later my own ranch with over a dozen horses, another chapter of my life. "Lake Side" 15 x 19 watercolor 2006
These huge boulders are common around Lake Tahoe, and are particularly visible at Sand Harbor, one of my favorite spots. They were deposited by glaciers long ago. This painting used to be a favorite. Now all I see is the need to break up the perfect geometrical positioning of the rocks. "Mount Tallac" 16 x 20 watercolor 2006
This is not one of my favorite pieces, but Mount Tallac is not one of the most beautiful mountains I have seen either. It is, however, one of the major scenes around Lake Tahoe. Whether the snow that fills the "T" shape toward its peak melts throughout the summer or not is believed to determine how hard the winter will be. Dan's Chest 33 x 41 Ink wash 2006
The antique oak vanity and rug were borrowed from a friend for a simple still life. But upon closer observation there is much complexity in detail. Many have wondered why I bother with such intricacy. The answer is simple, for the challenge, simply to test my skill. "Red Trees" 19 x 23 watercolor 2006
When I first started selling prints of my work this was one of my best sellers. I think it is because it has so much color. The trees amost look like they are on fire. "Mountain Meadow" 19 x 23 watercolor 2006
I have made some significant developments as a painter since I made this little landscape. The main obstacle for me at the time was getting the washes just right to make believable skies. Unlike other mediums, watercolor is much less forgiving. Painting over your mistakes is usually not an option. "Rocks" 15 x 19 watercolor
This was one of my first watercolor paintings, a rock study at Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe. From the start, I preferred to use a lot more paint than water. It is not how the medium is traditionally used, but this was before I began working with oils. For obvious reasons, oil painting is my preference now."Blue Vase" 23 x 29 gouache 2006
As I set up this still life I was thinking like an interior decorator...Mmm, what would look good on a wall in a room. Such shallow inspiration is not well appreciated by critics I know, but I still enjoy the compositions crisp simplicity. And it was during this painting that I began to realize how much I enjoyed the challenges of painting glass and drapery. "Tools" 19 x 23 pen and ink 2006
This piece has deep, personal meaning. It is a still life of the actual tools I used when I worked as a Journeyman carpenter 1997 - 2006. While I was working I was reconciling with the fact that my career had met an untimely end due to a car accident. It is a tribute to a passing chapter in my life, but not an unhappy one, because it has led to my reconnection as an artist. "Blue Gothic" 17 x 19 mixed media
This was the first piece of art work that I entered into a show. It was a theme show based on the color blue, thus the varied shades. I painted it with gouache, an opaque watercolor. The black is india ink. The stark contrast gives it an austere feeling, don't you think?
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