Northwest Fall Colors

Fall Reflections

16x20

Oil on Canvas

The Pacific Northwest has provided some beautiful fall colors recently and inspired a series of landscape paintings that showcase the autumn season. This oil painting is now dry and on display at Ugallery and a study I created of the same scene on a 5x7 inch stretched canvas is for sale in my Etsy shop.  Check out the landscape section of my Etsy Shop for more original small format oil paintings. 

The paint is still wet on a second in the series, and several more compositions are percolating in my head. Can't wait to share them. Check back soon for more autumn inspiration.

Mushroom Picking

Island Trees

16x16

Oil on Canvas

This painting resulted from a trip I took with friends a few weeks ago, just after the rains began to fall for the first time in the Puget Sound Region of the Northwest. The goal was to find wild mushrooms. It was a new experience for me and I depended on my knowledgeable friends to teach me what to look for. We tramped around the forest near Lake Cushman in Washington State, looked under trees, shady damp areas, and under large shrubs. It was fun even though the air was damp and the ground soggy. The vision that excited the painter in me the most was when we emerged from the forest to the shoreline of the lake. There was a tiny island not too far from shore. The sun had just peaked out from the clouds and made the leaves on the deciduous trees of that little island sparkle with the first color of autumn. I snapped a lot of photos and couldn't wait to get home and attempt to recreate the beauty of that afternoon. The result of my efforts is this oil painting. I am happy to say that it has been accepted into Ugallery and is now on display. Reproduction prints are also available as well as a little mini-version in my Etsy Shop.  I also painted the image using acrylic paints. A 11x14 inch version in acrylic paint is available here. The mushroom picking adventure was a success in so many ways. I was declared the best mushroom hunter of the day and was pleased to share my finds with my knowledgeable guides.

Working on a Series

I've been working on a series of square landscapes size 24x24. I have finished the two below and am excited to continue the series. Both are available as fine art prints on stretched canvas from the landscape section of my print shop. When I can get some better photos, the originals will be submitted to Ugallery and, with some luck and the approval of the curator, appear in my personal gallery. In the meantime, I still have two more canvases waiting for paint.

Working on the Square

This week I discovered a box of 12x12x1.5 inch canvases in my closet. I usually order in bulk to save a few dollars, but storage can sometimes be a problem, so the extras end up in the closet or under the bed. Sometimes I forget where they are, so it was exciting to discover a set of four wonderful little square format canvases. The discovery set in motion a series of sketches and a nice collection of square format landscape paintings.  Here's where I began:

I like to make little value studies that help me formulate a good composition. I did several pages of sketches before deciding on a design for the first square in the series. Here is the result of my first square of the week:

The original painting is for sale at Ugallery. Prints are available from my print shop. The rest will be sent to Ugallery as soon as the rain quits falling and I can get some better photos. Below is a quick shot of the four completed paintings. It was so much fun creating these guys that I just ordered some more square canvases. Can't wait for them to arrive.