When life gives you lemons, draw them, 11 x 14 inches dry pastels, graphite on paper

"When life gives you lemons, draw them." (Nikki)

"Color! What a deep and mysterious language." (Paul Gauguin)

landscapes

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Crater Lake OR

Thursday, March 24th, 2022


 

Crater Lake OR, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper
Crater Lake State Park OR, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper. Framed size 27H x 33W inches, white wood frame, crackle finish.
Crater Lake’s water is in reality a vivid and surreal blue. I reworked the lake colors and background textures quite a bit, trying numerous techniques to create unique water representation, and at the same time make the surrounding mountains recede… resulting with these vertical line textures. I finally made the call to stop because in trying to fix things in some areas, other areas that were fine started becoming messy. Pastels and paper were pushed to their limits.

Loblolly Pine

Sunday, March 20th, 2022


 

Loblolly Pine, Knox Mountain Trail, Kelowna BC, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper
Loblolly Pine, Knox Mountain Trail, Kelowna BC, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper. Framed size 27H x 33W inches, white wood frame, crackle finish.

Dawn at Bell Rock 02

Tuesday, March 8th, 2022


 

Dawn at Bell Rock 02, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper
Dawn at Bell Rock 02, Sedona AZ, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper.

 Framed size 27H x 33W inches, white wood frame, crackle finish.

Coeur d’Alene National Forest

Saturday, March 5th, 2022


 

Coeur d'Alene National Forest ID, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper
Coeur d’Alene National Forest ID, located in a segment of the Rocky Mountains, just south of the Canadian border. 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper. Framed size 27H x 33W inches, white wood frame, crackle finish.

Exhibition

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022


 

Salt Spring Island Fog, graphite on Paper
Salt Spring Island Fog, B.C. Canada (2008), 16H x 22W inches graphite, colored pencils on paper. Framed size 29H x 35W x 3D inches. Accepted in Las Lagunas Art Gallery online Landscapes or Seascapes exhibition, March 3rd – 31st, 2022.

Montana Valley

Friday, February 25th, 2022


 

Montana Valley, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper
Early evening shadows while driving through Montana Foothills, valleys and grasslands, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains. 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper.

Framed size 27H x 33W”.

Flood Zone

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022


 

Flood Zone, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper
Flood Zone, Rood Bridge Park, Hillsboro OR, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper. Framed size 27H x 33W” It’s always a careful decision to place my signature in a place that doesn’t impose on the artwork. Here it’s on the tree trunk near the bottom, hardly visible in this photo.

Prairie Storm

Tuesday, January 4th, 2022


 

Prairie Storm, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper

Prairie Storm, July in Cochrane, Alberta, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper. Framed size 27H x 33W”.

Cape Meares Cliff

Sunday, January 2nd, 2022


 

Cape Meares Cliff, OR - 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper
Cape Meares Cliff, Oregon Coast, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paper, framed size 27H x 33W”.

Elements of Nature

Saturday, January 1st, 2022


 

Paint Arson, 11H x 11W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas


 
Cumulonimbus, Montana sunset, 18H x 24W inches soft pastels on paperPaint Arson, 11H x 11W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas (2009), wrapped sides painted, frame unnecessary. Set on shelf or hang on wall. This and Cumulonimbus: Montana Sunset (2020) are in J. Mane Gallery’s ‘Elements of Nature’ online juried exhibition, showing through January 2022.

I don’t always have clear intentions behind my work, other than to make it interesting of course, because I wonder if too much explanation muddies a fresh impression of it. However, the writing connected to “Paint Arson” is worth the read. Fire is a destructive force, and positive associations with it are not immediate. For example, the pinecones of Sequoia, the largest trees on Earth, only open under the extreme conditions presented by fire. Read on…

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