I'm a recent graduate of Georgetown Atelier in Seattle, Washington and have just started to compile a new body of work. Much of what you see here prior to 2022 is older work and hopefully you'll note an improvement. Because I paint both in Contemporary Alla Prima (fast small and larger works) and polished realism, both categories are listed as tabs beneath this section. Stay tuned. I'm a work in progress.
About ten years ago, I was primarily a pastel artist. It was about that time that I became interested in still life, having worked primarily on landscape. My early forays into this genre were mainly trompe l'oeil or "fool the eye" kinds of things. I thought I'd try my hand at it in oil. Depending on your screen the colors may or may not look convincing. The screen can do nasty things to color temperature which in a piece like this makes all the difference. Do wish you could see this in person. It's more fun.
Time for a little alla prima piece. While polished realist pieces offer a challenge in terms of bringing a painting to convincing finish, alla prima painting (painting in one sitting), offers a freshness and immediacy that's hard to accomplish over several sittings. I try to keep my hand in alla prima painting because I learn more about color and paint handling by doing them. It also allows me to complete more paintings in a given amount of time, thereby increasing my practice. While viewing my two kinds of work may be sometimes confusing to a patron, I think that my personal handwriting manages to show through in both. What can I say. I have Gemini on my midhaven.
A class mate at Georgetown Atelier, created a very large beautiful still life of a huge conch shell the year we graduated. Of course, I've never forgotten that shell and the work that Holly put into it. This can't hold a candle and it's quite small to boot. But I'm still happy with it. I framed it in a beautiful arched frame that looks spectacular with it and will be hanging it at Gallery 9 this September. I plan to do a series of these small paintings in arched frames. Eventually, I should have enough to do a whole show of them. Fun!
It's been a beautiful summer up here in the great Northwest. And though I haven't posted (my bad), I've been busy. Although I'm noted among my friends for having a black thumb and I have trouble growing them, I still love to paint flowers.This one took a while between family visits and other things - among them plumbing woes.
I'm proud to announce that I am a new artist at Gallery 9 in Port Townsend, WA. I showed for the first time this past Saturday for the Port Townsend Gallery Walk. If you get out that way, come and visit. It's a beautiful gallery with a great stable of fine artists.
