SMALL PAINTINGS

This is just a small masonite panel I had laying around. I thought I would try painting on panel since canvas is more expensive. Having a woodworker downstairs (husband) will really help!

I prepped some panels with gesso and tried it out. Above is about 11" by 8".

It's very different then canvas in that there's no texture. I didn't realize how much I use the canvas texture to put down thin layers of glaze. This is much harder if not impossible to do on this panel.

This one turned out really great! It's only about 10" by 8". I need to do it bigger!

Every time I go down to the area where these structures live I am overwhelmed by the images. I need to paint more of these!

VANILLA HOUSES

I've been thinking about this painting for a long time. I noticed these houses and the way the morning light hit them years ago while driving a truck. I had to paint them!

Getting a photograph was even a hassle. I had my husband take me up here in his pickup in the early morning. He was able to drive his truck over the curb and onto the grassy area since there is no place to pull over. I needed to stand up in the back of his pickup bed in order to get the high-angle that I would see the scene while driving the KW.

I took quite a few photos, so I will have lots of subject matter for this series.

This type of housing development really bothers me. I see the developers come in and take out every tree, bush and every other kind of living thing. Then, they start building these houses, which are all basically the same, with very little variations, side-by-side-by-side. So close together you can spit on your neighbors house! Giant boxes, no style, no trees....why would people want to live there?

Here is the first, acrylic on canvas, 18" by 24".

Anyway, I'm starting this new series, Vanilla Houses. So entitled because they are so bland, so similar, and almost always pastels and beiges.

[A series? Yikes, does that mean I have to do at least eight of these, too?]

RENTON RIVER DAYS

I entered three paintings into Renton River Days Fine Arts Contest. I said to my husband, if I win a prize I want to put that money toward finishing the plumbing in my studio.

Lo, and behold! I won the purchase prize (biggest cash prize) with my Testament #4: Harbor Island. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken a picture of it and now its gone! Lesson learned the hard way.
While at the reception, I was told my other Testament painting, #3 sold to a man that owns a school bus company. Now, I definitely have enough money to get the plumbing finished.
Water in the studio, what a luxury!

Here's #3:

Here's one of my favorites. I put it in the show, but nobody paid any attention to it.

I titled it, Egress: