Peaches and Plums

"Black Plums"   14" x 10"   $475 framed  

I just can't get enough of the summer fruit at the farmer's market! Peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, and all the crosses between them. I have real trouble buying just a few!

Stumbling around the market with a camera, I sometimes come across the most interesting images. I just kept coming back to this image of the woman in the black dress. The sort of zig-zag composition is so much fun! And the black-plum color of the dress just sucks the light right out of the center of the painting. It's easy to make a connection between the woman and the abundant sensuality of the warm, sunlit fruit. Like mother nature in a little black dress, you can't help notice her sweet loveliness!

Spring Onions

"Spring Onions"   8"x 8"   $225 framed

Another new watercolor finally finished. I've been enjoying my summer quite a lot. Been visiting the Farmer's Market every weekend and collecting images of beautiful fresh flowers and produce for new paintings. Seattle in the summer is the BEST!

July Art Show at Victor's Coffee House

I am very pleased to announce a new show of my watercolor paintings at Victor's Coffee House in Redmond, Washington! The show includes 13 of my original paintings, including 6 newly framed pieces exhibited for the very first time ever!

Please stop by for a nice iced coffee or tea and check out the artwork. There is no actual reception scheduled, but if anyone wants to meet me there for a coffee, just let me know! My paintings will be on display and available for purchase through the end of July. I hope you'll get the chance to visit Victor's and see my paintings this month!

Yosemite

I've just returned from a week in Yosemite National Park. Sorry no paintings just yet, but I just have to share a few photos with you.

Such an amazing place! I think I have enough ideas for paintings to last me years! The scale of Yosemite Valley is like nothing I had ever seen before. 3000 feet of rock coming straight out of the flat valley floor. The relative narrowness of the valley creates the sense you are in some sort of grand beautiful cathedral in which it is obvious how very small you are compared to the greatness of God.

The great granite cliffs are like huge canvases for light effects. As the sun sets, the colors of the cliffs change every few minutes. Each cloud that passes creates effects like spotlights across the landscape. The whole valley is like a continuous visual drama unfolding. I can only image how Yosemite must change from season to season. I can see why the photographer Ansel Adams was amazed with the Yosemite light.

We camped in the park for five days and did the most amazing hikes all over the park. We experienced the ancient giant Sequoias, the granite domes at Tuolumne Meadows, we climbed above the waterfalls, and took in countless viewpoints with plenty of air under our feet. And we still barely scratched the surface of this amazing place.

Good Eggs!

"Good Eggs"   8" x 8"  $225 Framed

Here's another Redmond Farmer's Market watercolor. This is a fun little one, only 8 inches square.

I've been buying these eggs from Sky Valley Family Farms for several summers now. They are so fresh and tasty and have these rich dark yellow yolks. It makes such a difference when the chickens can run around and eat what they like!

The variety of warm colors in the chicken eggs is so wonderful! When I began the painting, I was thinking the eggs were just different shades of brown. As soon I began mixing colors, I was surprised to learn that the eggs were flesh-tones loaded with pink. I especially like that each egg is one-of-a-kind instead of something uniform and mass produced. And I loved this setting with the old-fashioned tablecloths.

June Art Events

June 14, 15, & 16 is the Edmonds Arts Festival! Did you know this is the 57th Annual Edmonds Arts Festival? Honestly, the Edmonds Arts Festival is one of the largest and best in the region and not to be missed! In addition to the wonderful outside art booths, there is an excellent juried art show inside the Frances Anderson Center on the same site. My painting, "Within the Willow" will be in the juried show, so be sure and stop by! For my original blog post on this painting click here.

Saturday, June 15 is the Museum of Northwest Art Auction in La Conner, Washington! This will be the 5th year in a row that I have had a painting in the auction and probably the 8th year I've attended the auction!

This is such a very fun event! Although tickets aren't cheap, the food and wine are fabulous. And, if you are interesting in purchasing art, you will certainly save yourself the price of admission on the deals you get purchasing artwork. Plus, you're supporting an organization that does so much for Northwest artists! My watercolor painting "Lilypond Reflections" is available in the auction.  To see my original blog post about this painting click here. To preview the complete online catalog for the auction click here. My painting is on page 22.


I also want to mention that this week my blog is two years old! This is my 84th post in the past two years! My blog has grown from a handful of wonderful supportive family members to over 200 viewers per month! I am so very grateful to each one of you who read this blog and follow my artwork! I am so thankful to you for your support in my crazy art career and so honored that you are with me on the journey! Thank you!

Men with Flowers

"Men with Flowers"  18" x 24"  $750 Framed  

Opening day, May 4 at the Redmond Farmer's Market was such a beautiful spring day! The vendors were all happy to be there, the Redmond High School Band played, and the atmosphere was so festive!

The flower sellers had buckets and buckets of such beautiful tulips! I took a ton of photos, but this image really captured my imagination. The spring morning light raking across the tulips was lovely, and it was so charming how these handsome guys were hard at work arranging bunches of flowers to sell. Maybe I just have a soft spot for men bearing flowers. :)

Several people have asked why leave the pick up truck in there so prominently? The pick up is such a perfectly masculine icon! I think it reinforces the contrast of the manly men and the delicate flowers. Plus the dark blue with the glowing yellow light is just delicious!

I hope you enjoy my painting!

"Men with Flowers" detail