Milestones and Moons

"Moon Discs"

Acrylic on canvas 30" x 40"

Life has been very full recently...of immediate and extended family matters and milestones, short trips here and there, and of course, work.  Producing art and blogging have temporarily taken a back seat, although I continue to visit others' blogs, shops and flickr sites regularly, always eager to be inspired by the creativity and beauty displayed there.  

Our yard is ablaze with rugosa roses and the air is heavy with their lovely scent.   A grown chicken, raised by our daughter while away at college, temporarily resided in our yard.....a first for me.  And yes, within a day, my husband and I were attached to it and talking to it as though it were our "beloved" beagle, Harley. 

I recently had photos taken of some of my paintings. Some of the resulting images are closer approximations to the works than what I had previously been able to capture, so I have been uploading a few of them to my flickr site.  The above painting was done a few years ago, but I had not previously posted it anywhere. I wasn't thinking of moons when I painted it, but "Moon Discs" seems to fit.  ( And 'discs' rather than 'disks' because I think the roundish "c" looks better than the sharp "k" in the word, especially when it pertains to moons. )

I hope you are having a wonderful week.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the work you are producing!

:)

Patina....on wood, metal and clay

  

Mixed media leaf with found copper piping.  



Last weekend, I travelled to southern Oregon to visit extended family and watch my cousin's children play LOTS of soccer.  In between the games, we managed to fit in a couple of quick trips to the charming, historic gold rush town of Jacksonville, home of the Britt Music Festivals, and now surrounded by vineyards and wineries. While there, I was delighted to find Lisa Kaser's wonderful illustrations in a little shop, and was even more delighted to hear from the owner that they have a hard time keeping them in stock. :)  I found the lovely green bowl and shoe form in a couple of antique stores and, well, they just seemed to go with the printed pieces, and a few of my favorite things.

How is it that I've never come across a peony in the "Jester's Hat " phase?  My friend's peonies are all sporting these "hats" right now. And where does all that silken fuzz come from anyway? 

We had lovely weather in Portlandia this weekend and I managed to turn my compost twice!  Last year at this time, it was full of thousands (literally, I'm quite sure) of worms.  Today, there were about ten.  And last year, our Gravenstein apple tree was absolutely loaded with apples, but this year, it's absolutely loaded with leaves and only about five apples...But not to worry, our young cherry tree has gone all out in the fruit production department! 

Monday is almost here again.....Hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you!

Cheers :)

A Little of This and That...





  

Happy weekend!!  I'm looking forward to attending a performance of the chamber chorus that my brother-in-law is a member of.  It's always so uplifting to hear their marvellous voices in unison.  After that, I hope to get down to business and glue something.....or sew something......or paint something.......

Above:   A few of my found pottery shards.  I have many and they never cease to please me.   Also, a framed reproduction of the small original print I posted last week, and another "study" of grid symmetry....just because :). 

And I've been meaning to suggest....be sure to visit Alexandra Durao's Mi Mitrika shop and flickr sets.  This artist/maker from Portugal has such a graphic sensibility. Her use of color is wonderful and her styling is superb!  Oh, and her blog is here.

Thank you for visiting and for your interest in my work.  I hope you're having a wonderful day....

 Cheers!!

Small Print...Small Finds

 

 Monoprint 5" x 5"

 Delicate blossoms and orbs on a coastal woodland native...(but which one?)

Small "forest" of coastal moss

Last weekend offered a visual feast in contrasts of scale:  delicate new growth, as shown above, and  four glorious bald eagles at close range; two in low flight, directly overhead, and two in trees just past the shoulder of the road.

This weekend, I'm concentrating on bringing order to my home. And maybe, just maybe there will be time to resume some projects in the studio.

To all of you who are celebrating Mother's Day with mothers, grandmothers and/or children, I wish you a day filled with much love, warmth and happiness!!

"San Francisco" and Spokane

"San Francisco"

Acrylic on canvas  30" x 40" 2009

Above, a painting that evokes sky, water, bridges and structures.

Below, images from my recent trip to Spokane, Washington.

.

Woven "mega mesh" structure built for the 1974 Word's Fair in Spokane.
And at the very top of it--just barely visible in the photo--an Osprey nest!

A tree....with interwoven branches.

Close-up of a lovely sidewalk drainage grate.

Gondolas making their way in the mist across the deafening Spokane River Falls.

By contrast....stones to contemplate, beside the smallest of quiet pools in the
Japanese Garden at Manito Park.

Have a wonderful week!

Industrial Graphics

 



I went across the Willamette river to Southeast Portland this afternoon. Ended up in a nearly abandoned area of warehouses and processing plants. Took lots of photos of an old, derelict dairy facility and fertilizer plant.  The top two photos were the most graphic...... Perhaps I'll show more later.

The first monoprint, above, was digitally altered; the second was not.

Sunday night again....Thanks so much for your visit and continued interest! 

:)

Deconstruction

 Quince

 

 Mixed media "snippets"

I've had a wonderfully quiet weekend that is coming to a close all too quickly.  Catherine was visiting and she painted up a storm while I "deconstructed" prints, prints, and more prints. (None of which are shown above.) I am planning to turn them into small collages and add them to my Etsy shop at some point.....hopefully, sooner rather than later. :)

Daphne (my favorite winter fragrance)

While she and I were working on our respective projects inside, my husband was busy in the garden.  He offered some grasses that had outgrown their beds to a neighbor down the street, and she brought this Deodara cedar cone for us to see.  So amazing to see the intelligence of nature! Turns out the cone makes a perfect starting pot for seed germination.  

Of course, I thought the cone had been on the ground and had come apart and collected seeds that then germinated.  But no, it's a genuine, high-density seed nursery where multiple layers of cedar seeds germinate in pop-up seed "cups"  that eventually "deconstruct" and swirl off the center spindle.  How cool is that?!

Deodara cedar cone 

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend, too! 

(Oh, and by the way....am I the only one that didn't know about the magic of these cones??)

:)

New Landscapes by Catherine Freshley

Untitled - by Catherine Freshley

22" x 30" 

Untitled -- by Catherine Freshley
 15" x 30"

Untitled -- by Catherine Freshley
18" x 24"

Untitled -- by Catherine Freshley

 15" x 30"

We're doing a little celebrating this month as our daughter, Catherine, has just hung her first solo show at Picabu Neighborhood Bistro in Spokane, Washington.  "Northwest Landscapes: The Pacific to the Palouse" includes twelve paintings comprising scenes from a pristine estuary, the Willamette valley and Cascade range in Oregon, and the grasslands of eastern Washington.   Here is an excerpt from Catherine's artist statement for the show:

"I have been fortunate to live the first couple decades of my life in places of particular natural beauty; whether that helped spawn my deep appreciation for place and home, or I have such a feeling for the water, the land and the sky because of it, I am not sure. For quite some time I wrote about the places that are important to me – attempting to recreate them, and preserve them as I know them, with words. While I have always been making art, it is only in the past year or so that I have taken to recreating these places (and some equally pretty, but less personally significant places) visually.

This interest in painting landscapes arose as a surprise to me, and suddenly, after driving across the country from New Orleans to Spokane. It started with a slightly blurry photo of a farm in Montana – taken one handed, eyes somewhere between focused on the road ahead and totally absorbed by the setting sun slinking across the backs of some cows and a low pond."                     

If you're in the area, stop by the Bistro to take a peek.  You can also find Catherine's work on her flickr site and in her Etsy shop.

It's been a lovely, "squally" day in Portlandia.  I managed to find visual inspiration while travelling through suburbia to get to the Department of Environmental Quality vehicle test station.  I saw gorgeous stands of bare poplar trees against an equally gorgeous sky; and a bonus stand of tall, dried cattails in a large wetland area.  A single red-winged blackbird stood sentry on the tip of one of the spent blooms; its form and colors in sharp contrast to the textures and subtleties of the browned cattails. Such a feast for my eyes!

Happy Saturday!!