I dated a sailor from Maine who was always telling me there was this place I’d like. “You should really go to Mount Desert Island. There’s hiking; it’s beautiful. I think you’d really like it.” Fifteen years later I made it there. He was right; I liked it.
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5' half dome process
translating this view of Yosemite Valley from my hike to the top of Eagle Peak in December. oil on a very large unstretched canvas
yosemite work on paper
Finally had a chance to lay these flat and photograph them.
Acrylic ink, sumi ink, pencil, and oil pastel on paper
22 x 30 "
glaciers in oil
I had some old paintings stacked in the studio that were hideous. Really, quite bad. But I couldn't bring myself to throw away a decent stretched canvas, so I scraped them down (a bit), layered on a coat of titanium white, and threw down some glacier inspired shapes and colors. This weekend I layered on some darker shades and some are starting to come together alright. In a few, the texture of the old painting underneath works. In others, it looks stupid; I'll probably end up trashing those. Going to let them simmer for a bit and then go in for a third round next weekend. Regardless of whether any of them make it through the month, it makes my soul happy to be working with oils.
more iceland
Iceland is beautiful. I spent ten days there in July and couldn't wait to bring the colors, the light, the textures, the stories back to my studio. Last weekend, I finally had the time to do some painting. Here is a little of the process & a few of my favorites.
Fun fact #1 This 30 second timelapse represents something more like two hours
Fun fact #2 This footage was captured by taping my phone to the wall #lifehacks
lichen stick studies
A friend collected sticks covered in moss and lichen for my booth display last weekend. Now that the bustle of Renegade is over, I am putting these sticks to other uses: lichen covered stick studies with sumi ink on 5x7" and 8x10" paper. Looking at this growth in black and white pulls attention to the shape and texture in a new way. The drawing are piling up and I must say, they look quite delightful grouped together!
painting big on unstretched canvas
I don't currently have access to the tools I would need to stretch my own canvases. This means, if I want to work on something sturdy, I'm limited in size (since I also don't have access to tons of money which could be spent on shipping large prestretched canvases). Since neither power tools or bags of money seem to be on the horizon, I'm giving unstretched canvas a try. Honestly, it feels so good to be painting big again, I don't really give a hoot whether or not these works will hold up over time.