How about a Christmas Sale?

Tomorrow, Thursday, get online and check out my Facebook page around 1:00 Rocky Mountain Time. You'll see I am doing a little bit of house cleaning. Actually it's house emptying, as Daniel and I have decided to make the big move from glorious Montana to sun-warmed California this January. There are fifty very practical reasons why this is a good move, but I don't think my heart will ever leave Montana, or even the Northwest really... this is a special place, filled to the brim with special people. It's scary and sad and exciting all at once.

So it's time to let go of some things... and paintings that I've had around, that don't quite fit into the larger bodies of work, but that I still love... well, let's just say the prices are going to come down, wayyyy down. Hopefully they'll never be this low ever again! But I wanted to give folks an opportunity to own a piece if they've never quite been able to before. So it's first come first serve. First person to message or state in the comments that they want to buy it gets dibs! So tomorrow, hop over to my facebook page look for the album titled Christmas Sale, it should come up around 1:00 but then again my connection is finicky at times so we'll see ;) Anyway,  take a look, you might see something you like :)

 and here's a super stealthy sneak peek at 5 of the 17 or so pieces that will be posted

Studio Visit, Kerry Nagel

Some people just get art on an entirely different level. My friend Kerry Nagel is one of those. Whenever we visit I always come away feeling inspired and determined to delve deeper into my own creative outlets.  Delightfully new thoughts crop up, artistic possibilities seem endless. She is a person who has her finger on the pulse, specifically, at the moment, in the three dimensional, sculptural world of fiber arts.  It's fascinating to hear her describe the processes she has developed and discuss the history and evolution of her pieces and the ideas that brought them into being. Observing how she surrounds herself and lives with art as a collector has inspired me as well. Her choices are fearless, eclectic, whimsical and serene. When one enters her home, one needs to just sit and absorb for a moment, look around and let the beauty permeate.

Last month my friend Kim Lindstrom and I drove down to visit Kerry at her beautiful home in Lake Mary Ronan.  Here are just a few pictures from the day. Kerry's home itself is a work of art (designed by Kerry and her equally talented ex-husband Scott in collaboration with Malmquist construction) you can see it in detail here as it is for sale. It is laid out in three pods;  a garage and woodworking shop, a living pod that also has a cleverly situated guest room, and a curving gallery hallway which leads to the sleeping pod, which includes two bedrooms, a master bath and Kerry's art studio. It's so thoughtfully and originally designed that one simply must visit.  If only I were a professional photographer... but here you are, a little peek.

One of the beautiful little farms alongside the road to Lake Mary Ronan.
Flathead Lake in the distance.

 In the living pod, Modigliani over the fireplace

 Close up of the pod shown in the first picture,  titled Chinese Lantern

Kerry and Kim discussing the construction of one of her pod pieces

 Kerry's beautifully designed, curving hallway gallery includes artists, Susie Brown, Scott Nagel,  Donna Gans, Kathy Bonema Leslie, Burt Brent, myself and Olivia Stark (with whom Kerry collaborated on a large body of figurative sculptural work, one of which is positioned in the hallway under the middle window).

 Golden Anniversary

 A ceramic column by Margret Gregg (my favorite!),

an early, colorful vessel For Pablo, and a bodaciously bosomed 

painting of my own which Kerry bought when I first met her in 1999

 One of Kerry's first paper sculptures, Emergence

 The sculpture in the middle is titled Whalebone

 Peeking into the art studio

Homage to Ace

Moroccan Pod

Close up of Scroll

 The artist in her studio with Wishbone and Why I Don't Eat Oranges


Thank you Kerry! We had a wonderful time :)

Persimmon Pics

 

 "In Livingston" getting framed up the day of the opening, there is always one last thing to do!

 

 Jeweler  Callie Cooper working at the Persimmon Gallery. My "Cut Flowers" series on the wall.

 Green Framed Landscapes and the Anthropologieland series

Kim and Corrie viewing the landscapes

  Wayne taking it in 

Four super talented artists; Persimmon members Jill Gotschalk, Callie Cooper Deliah Albee and Louise Lamontagne one of my favorite oil painters! It was such a treat to be in their company!

Also, the Persimmon Gallery Co-op members have asked me to stay on as a represented artist! So you can count on being able to see my work in person the next time you stop in. Thank you Persimmon artists!

Friday Opening, New Work at the Persimmon Gallery

I will be showing an entire body of new work, featuring mostly landscapes and a few still life, all done in the encaustic medium. If you are in the area please pop in! The pieces will be up for two weeks after the opening. I would love for people to see these encaustic works in person, as the depth and richness of the medium is difficult to observe with a computer screen. Also, because of issues I am having with my studio space, I may have to stop working in the encaustic medium for a while and focus on either oils or acrylics for the immediate future.  So this is it folks! It's gonna be a good one.

Flathead Valley

Flathead Valley 8 x 10 Encaustic on wood

Now this one is definitely the Flathead Valley. I worked from a photo I took on a recent drive down to visit my friend, artist Kerry Nagel (of which a post is in the works). It's somewhere between Somers and south Kalispell area.  I love the fields down there at the north end of Flathead Lake. It's gorgeous country.

Autumn

Autumn 8 x 10 Encaustic

Fall in the Flathead Valley is a beautiful time. The fields are dotted with huge round haybales.  The aspen and then the larch trees turn blazing yellows and oranges... and everywhere you go the crisp breeze seems to be whispering in your ear, "get ready, work work work, get'r done!" because winter is coming.

This particular painting isn't really of the Flathead Valley. It's more of a memory of Pullman and the Palouse hills, mixed with the tree-lined, hay fields right down the road from my home.

Heliopsis

Heliopsis  8 x 8 Encaustic on Wood
Sold

Entrance

Entrance       8 x 10     Encaustic on Wood

I am deliberating whether to include the Anthropologieland series in my upcoming show at the Persimmon gallery... they are landscapes, but quite different from the other vein I am working in because they are more about the act of mark making and layering. They do look quite lovely all polished and framed up now... so if there is a place for them they might appear in the show.

Visiting Anthropologieland Again

Window Shopping     8 x 10     Encaustic on Panel

Inspiration

    Evening on Whitefish Lake

 

 Throwing rocks into Lake Macdonald

 

 Storm coming through the neighborhood

 Near Schnauss cabin

 Looking into Glacier Park

 Dusk, North Fork Flathead River

Morning mists south of Polebridge

Sneak Peek

  

Battleground  8 x 8  Encaustic on wood

Broken Tracks  8x8   Encaustic on wood (close up)

 

  Follow Me  8 x 8 Encaustic on wood

These pictures are a little sneak peek into my preparation 

for a show at the beautiful Persimmon Gallery

in Bigfork, MT.  The show will be opening during 

Last Friday Artwalk on October 28th

Foxy Commission

"The San Juan Foxes went to Sea"            Acrylic on wood panel                 11 x 14 in.

I just finished this little commission for a baby that is due this October. This baby is very lucky because his daddy is a wonderful banjo player and his mamma is sweet and creative and makes beautiful jewelry and his grandparents have a most wondrous boat named Hanna.

The moon and stars are painted over with glow in the dark paint. I love using the glow in the dark paint for nursery art because it comes in handy for the parents when a little distraction is needed to forget some tears, and for the little one it can be something fun to look forward to seeing when it's nighty night time.

I want to go to...

Desire, Anthropologieland Series

Encaustic layers with embedded Anthropologie tissue

8 x 10

Confession: I probably browse the Anthropologie website three or four times a week.. ok maybe like, eight times...  I've got it under control, I rarely buy anything, but I'd probably get into deep trouble if I lived near an actual store. Of course I love the expensive stuff the most! This couch figures prominently in my "if I won the lotto and bought a modest apartment in Paris" day dreams...  

Head in the Clouds

Cloud 

8 x 8 

Encaustic

OK I've been really geeking out on clouds lately, did you know there is a Cloud Appreciation Society? How awesome is the internet!

Scraping back to the good stuff

Lets Go Fly a Kite  

8 x 8 

Encaustic and Mixed Media
Sold

This was a particularly dreadful piece I had hanging around. I've been laying the paint on thick, a bit too thick in some cases, but this is a constant learning process, so that's alright. I was thinking how I wanted to rewind, you know, go back to where my vision went off course, so I went back, you can do that with encaustics! Pull off layer after layer. First I let Jolie have her way with it, gouging out deep gaps, which were then filled back in. Then we scraped and scraped and scraped, almost all the way back to the beginning. Then a few lustrous coats of translucence and an ochre wash to bring pieces of lost ideas back into being. Now I love it.

White Roses

White Roses 10 x 22 Encaustic on wood panel

The Chaos of Summer. Part III

The Chaos of Summer III

Encaustic

12 x 16

I don't really know where I'm going with this little series... I think it's just pure creative outlet at this point. Plus I might be starting in on a pretty hefty cloud obsession, amongst other things...

Yesterday...

 The Whitefish Garden Tour and Open Studio day went really well. There was a good turnout, paintings sold, children discovered the delights of rhubarb, sorrel and steppable mosses, and anyone that was interested got to learn about what encaustics are and how they are made.  I will definitely be doing this again! Here are a few photos from the day.

The working side of the studio (actually shot these the night before)

 The "gallery" side.

My office

 It was fun transforming this area of my studio into a little gallery. I took this shot before I fixed the

track lighting I see.

 My book nook

 My main work table, I'm currently on the hunt for one more large, sturdy table 

so I can start making bigger pieces. Mostly works in progress on that wall.

 There's the easel that Daniel made for me 10 years ago,  Jolie's heart painting, and my beautiful utility sink.

 This is why the paintings are hung just a little higher than normal ;)

 After the tour, the gardeners met up and relaxed in Bonnie's garden, which really deserves a post all it's own... I love her little greenhouse

 My favorite thing about Bonnie's outdoor decor

Topped off the day with a refreshing Wheatfish at Great Northern Brewery.