journal spring may-june 2020

 

spring

Siberian iris buds opened today to sunlight and birdsong. Here's 40 seconds of beauty. Turn on your audio.

 

spring studio art show

You, your family, and friends are invited...to my studio art show and sale


See five decorated rooms brimming with art
with prices from a few dollars to thousands.
Delight your eyes with unique, hand-made gifts, living art, succulents, cards, glass, silks, giclees, original watercolors, pastels, small original oil paintings, and more.

This was scheduled for April 25 & 26, but...

a virtual gallery tour

Due to the virus, my April 25-26 studio art show and sale has changed.

It's rescheduled for May 2020 (exact dates and times t.b.a).

So you are now invited to visit my online studio art show and sale.

My plan is to post 360 degree interactive panoramas of the gardens and gallery. So you can maneuver through each room at your own pace...scrolling around the spaces in your computer or phone (I recommend a larger screen).

In an attempt to share relationally, I'll try to create a video or two where I can share about my newest art - maybe play something for you on the baby grand piano.

Maybe an online auction.

And I'm quite pleased that my friends around the country and world can visit my studio show this year. 

 

 

thirty days of painting

This spring, with covid19 keeping us all home, I challenged myself to thirty days of painting - Monday-Friday, for six weeks. This time I painted in oil paint on canvas, and in dry pastels on colorfix paper.

I put all my social activity time into the studio, and challenged myself to work small and try to complete five paintings a week. This was a bit ambitious. I ended up painting on Saturdays also, to complete the paintings that required additional time.
Click or tap here to see more...

 

fifty days of painting - spring 2018

Two springs ago, I engaged a self-challenge to paint for fifty consecutive days. I painted in watercolors.
Click or tap here to see and read more on my fifty days of painting.

 

 

 

 

 

spring garden action

Even recorded in slow-motion video these hummingbirds' wings are a blur. They are delightful visitors and residents of the gardens.

 

 

commissions


This rough compositional sketch will become a 3 x 5 foot oil painting in full color. Click here to see the work in progress.


And here the under-painting mostly in alizarine crimson is complete. See more...


 

classes

dye-painting silk workshops


April 2019 abstract "scribble" silks emerged in dynamic color. Silk in front right is the group project. Amazing!

experience silk painting in a lakeside studio

Consider a silk painting workshop for yourself and/or as a gift.

ease

At the age of eight or nine, my twin nephews painted a beautiful dragonfly silk. To this day it is one of my favorite silks, likely because children create freely and without inhibition.

the dyes do the work

Dye-painting silk in the serti method is something most anyone can do. The richly colored dyes migrate through the silk weave creating lovely patterns. A very "forgiving" medium, these dyes won't make muddy color. Even if you mix up a brown, the silk's sheen will create a metallic bronze version of your brown.

In a friend's words, "dyes in silk is like watercolors on steroids."

 

classes info

 

Click here or on the "classes" tab at top to see upcoming classes schedule...

Due to covid19, there are curently no scheduled classes.

 

 

 

glimpses of spring


Creamy primulas emerge every year, reminding me of Grandma who planted them years ago.


native oxalis


flowering quince


a spring watercolor of Grandma's quince and red shed

 

 

select past commissions

 

 

silk-in-glass commission

I'm pleased to announce my first completed installation of silk laminated within glass. The artwork fills the spaces between open trusses of a residential interior. The photo at right two of four panels. Click to see more.

 

 


Land and Sea Passage

As students, faculty, and visitors enter Gilson Middle School in Valdez, Alaska, they are greeted by a vibrant suspended mural--over 26 feet wide. Read more...

 
 

 

Macroscape Slides

Three new glass artworks resembling over-sized microscope slides measure two feet high by six feet wide. Each artwork is uniquely created in mouth-blown art glass laminated onto dichroic float glass. They are installed in the Margaret Murie Life Sciences Building at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
 

  

 

Illuminated Passage

This suspended mural of dye-painted silk measures over 300 square feet. For Liberty Middle School in Spanaway, Washington, it depicts junior high years in a metaphor of a river passing through a canyon.
I love it. It turned out to be all I hoped for and more. Read more...

 

 

Experimental Image Glass

I continue to collaborate with Seattle glassblower Jim Flanagan to create gently abstracted imagery within colored glass. Click here or on the photo at right to see our most recent sheets of blown glass (and scroll down, as the newest work is near the bottom). 

 

 


Tree of Life

Commissioned for a thriving church in the town of Dunwoody, near Atlanta, Georgia.

 

 

 

 

Discovery

This mural in dye-painted silk was commissioned for Katchemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College of the University of Alaska. Discovery was installed in Homer, Alaska, in June of 2012. Read more...

 

 

Generations: Incubation

Kenai Peninsula College etched mouth-blown glass public art installation

Click here to read about Generations.

Here is a link to KPC installation photos

 
 

 

 

studio and story

 

 

 

 

2011 nest images on cotton paper

Click here to see photos of ten images completed in January 2011

 

 

 

stone impressions - watch the art-making process on video

People often ask me how I create a stone lithograph. It's hard to explain in words so I have a short video that shows the process.

Click here for photos and video on stone impressions.

 

 

 

silk rivers

These river silks were inspired by and modeled after the beautiful Fremont antique glass we used for the Kenai Peninsula College installation.

 

 


flowering

My Grandma's name, Florence, means "to flower" as in the sense of a blossom. And 2012's flowers were an explosion of color. See photos in her memory...

 

 

 Be silk scarves


Links...
gallery of Be silk scarves
significance in Be-ing
silk care
displaying silk

 

 

past journals