Colorati Pears

Squared Pear

Moon Pear
Pears and Squares

Friends
Solo

Colorata
Family The first in this series was Dr. Beatty's Pear which is now hanging in his office at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. I enjoyed using the colorful pears with their organic shapes and matching them up with the boxes or squares that are not organic given their straight lines and right angles. We are the pears (especially me with my lack of breasts and lower center of gravity) and the boxes represent those man-made things we have to face in life. The boxes are not cleanly drawn, and sometimes they seep into each other. It's not all bad, it's just the minutia of everyday life.

Colorati

Chianti
Rosa

Arancione

Azzuro

Pia Reilly, a Swedish watercolorist that has lived in Petersburg for 20+ years and I are having a two person show at Seaport Gallery starting on November 23rd. It is called "Colorati" which means color in Italian because both of us use lots of color in our art. I did two series of paintings. The first are dog heads using amplified color. They are 24" by 24" squares.

Morning

This is my entry into the women's invitational Collage show held at the Clausen Memorial Museum during the month of November. It is titled 'Morning' and is made of fabric from Melissa Carraway's scraps pile with a background of acrylic paint.

Georgia O'Keeffe Skirts

Last spring I was privileged to be asked to help fabric artist, Susan Christensen, create skirts for our local dance troupe, the Steppin Out Dancers. The theme was Georgia O'Keeffe flowers so we used her palette to create skirts by painting dye on cotton. These are a couple of examples.

Lined goes to the Clausen Memorial Museum

I made some revisions of the painting "Lined" that I entered into the "Life Lines" show in 2006 and offered it to the Clausen Memorial Museum to be purchased with their Art Acquisition Fund provided by the Rasmuson Foundation. It was accepted and will be a part of the museum's permanent collection.

Their link is http://www.rasmuson.org/

This is what I wrote in the application: I painted “Lined” soon after a tour of Italy that concentrated on Renaissance painting. I was moved by the Italian masters’ use of the human form to portray emotion and tell stories. This is a Petersburg story of hard work and harvest. While the weight of the fish may be heavy, it also represents prosperity. The painting crosses time lines because the subject is obviously a Madonna type in green overalls and orange rubber gloves. I tried to blur the edges of reality with the symbolic fish and hard lined areas. My design also left the negative space fairly simple to try and keep the viewer concentrated on the woman’s face.

Fish on Parade

Our local mental health not-for-profit asked 14 Petersburg artists to decorate fiber glass salmon casts so they could put them out for auction as a fund raiser. After having spent a few days in Las Vegas I was in an Elvis state of mind, so I thought that the King and a King salmon could be a combined concept. I created "The King" with a little paper mache, some metalic cloth and some rhine stones...and of couse a little paint.

He now resides at Lee's Clothing on Main Street...but will probably spend some time at the Beachcomber Inn during the summer.

Ole

This is a painting of a neighbor's dog that I did as a surprise because he so kindly made me beautiful jewelery out of rocks I collected during my explorations. Ole is so smart he learned how to open the front door. My friends quickly taught him to close it as well after he enters...who needs a doggie door.

Summer Cruising

I've been out on my floating home exploring Southeast Alaska. Despite the time demands of fly fishing, kayaking and salmon mooching, I managed to paint a few paintings. We saw

lots of bears so it is not surprising I painted a couple.

And right before I left, I went to the mainland and found some tern nests at the base of a glacier. I was inspired to paint an Arctic tern.

John 'n Lucy

This portrait of John Pickens and his faithful dog, Lucy enjoying a summer day by playing some tunes spoke to me of pure bliss. This is living in the moment. John is concentrating hard on his playing and Lucy is his appreciative audience.

Elemental Pia

During a yoga-pilates class, Pia struck this pose. I had her reproduce it in my studio, and painted her stretching meditatively. Next to her, I placed the Chinese characters for, from the top down, shui (water), Tu (earth), Huo (fire), and Mu (wood). I couldn’t help myself, I added a little yellow to the traditional blue and red to honor Pia’s Swedish heritage. The circles above the banner and behind her head represent eternity and the cycles of life and death. We are made from the simple elements and we will eventually return to them. Pia has come face to face with eternity several times. I hope this portrait celebrates the fact that she is still here with us.

Steelhead Season

My husband is out steelhead fishing on this gorgeous spring day. I don't have the patience to catch this elusive fish, although I caught a few in the early years. The rewards are great if you do have the patience and skill because they are big and fight hard. We do all catch and release from flyrods here because almost all the legal ones are hens with eggs. This watercolor is titled "Steelhead Emerging."

Tea Party

My mother, sister and I decided to have an art show with a tea cup theme. Mum, Olga Neal, was inspired by spring flowers despite spring being late to her Nova Scotia home this year. This warm watercolor is titled "Tea and Daffodils."












I borrowed a tea cup from my neighbor which was originally light peach. As I painted with my usual strong pallet, the tea cup got redder and redder. The inspiration for the piece is my oft forgotten cup of tea. I don't know how many times I have ruined a cup of tea by dipping my brush into it instead of medium or turp. My piece is called "Forgotten Cuppa" and is oil on canvas.









Sadie painted the light shining on her morning cup of herbal Redbush tea. This watercolor is titled "Redbush Tea."

Dr. Beatty's Pear

This is the first of a series of paintings I am doing of pears in organic spaces with non organic shapes in proximity. "Dr. Beatty's Pear" was painted for my surgical oncologist who not only performed life saving surgery, but also provided patient and detailed information and advice after I got my initial cancer diagnosis and then after I got a devastating pathology report from the surgery. He took the time to answer all of our questions and along with my medical oncologist outlined a battle plan that has, so far, proved to be successful.

The following is a section of the letter that will accompany the painting when I send it to him in a couple of days.

I thought long and hard about a thank you gift. Nothing seemed adequate so I am giving you a part of me in exchange for the part you took from me. Since my double mastectomy, pears have become my symbol. It’s the perfect shape, especially the Bosc pear in the painting. Pears are sensual and curvaceous with a lower center of gravity, like the new me. This one has the double meaning of having had a slice removed. “Dr. Beatty’s Pear” exists in an idealistic organic environment with blue skies and green grasses (I painted this during the longest winter in our history that included 224 inches of snow). The vagaries of life are close by, compartmentalized in non-organic shapes. It is meant to be a happy, hopeful painting tempered by a bit of reality.

Family Paintings

This is Ricky, my stepfather's grandchild. He is obviously having a great time at the beach.

Maegan is my niece. She is very artistic and I hope I captured her here while she was drawing in the yard.

Ben is my nephew and a wonderful guitarist as well as a good sailor, caregiver (professional nurse), carpenter, world traveler, spanish speaker and soon to be husband.

This is an early portrait that I did of myself for a self portrait show. I have always been a fan of
Frida Kahlo so this is a homage. The dog is my beloved labrador Roxy and the crow is the image of a crow I painted that won me an award in our local art show.
The dead fish reflects the fact that I was doing a lot of fly fishing for trout at that time.

This is one of my earliest oil paintings. It is of my granddaughter Ava taking a walk. She is asserting her independence by walking beside, instead of riding in her stroller.

This last painting is of my nephew Bevan. It was a birthday card for his mother, but later I developed it into a larger painting. He is gazing into the sun and dreaming.

Pumpkins the Cat Art Show

My sister, Sadie in New Zealand, has a cat that loves to curl up in her potted plants out on the porch. The cat lovingly called "Pumpkins" spends lots of time basking in the sun. Sadie sent a photo to the family of Pumpkins pursuing this pleasure and we agreed that it was paintable. So Mum in Nova Scotia (Olga Neal), her two friends (Roberta and Mary), Sadie and I all decided to paint Pumpkins. Here are the results.

"Pumpkins of Ahaura"

Watercolor on Paper

Sadie

"Pumpkins"

Watercolor on Paper

Mary Fraser

"Pumpkins' Patch"

Watercolor on Paper

Olga Neal

"Precious Pumpkins"
Watercolor on Paper
Roberta Way-Clark

"Potted Pumpkins"

Oil on Canvas

Annabelle Baker

My sister and my mother are watercolor artists. Sadie, my sister, in New Zealand just participated in an art fair. Here is the link. http://www.artinthepark.co.nz/

The piece at the right was recently painted by Sadie and is called "Music is in the Air".

South Harbor

South Harbor, a watercolor, was painted cerca 1997.

This is called "Buoy 11" and I tried to capture the special green color of water here. The Rogue is a hard working fishing boat and I caught the reflections of the tanner crab pot buoys in this watercolor called "Rogue Reflections".

Sentry came about from an encounter with an agressive stellar sea lion that was protecting his brood near a haul out in the Inian Islands. I painted this in 2003 (I think).
This huge sea lion was the dominant male in the south harbor and ironically named "Sweetie" by the fishermen. He would eat the scraps the fishermen threw into the water when they were baiting up for long lining halibut.

We dock our home in the south harbor. During the winter, the sea lions, especially the males are very active. I think of them as our neighbors.

Pear-ody

I painted this during the fall of 2005 while I was undergoing my second round of chemotherapy for breast cancer. The following was written for the show, Metamorphosis, where the piece was displayed.


2005 has been an amazingly transformative year for me. I turned 50 in January. Finally it became impossible to shy away from the stigma/joy/challenges/relief of being middle aged.

Secondly, I moved from watercolors to oils and have been reveling in their bold pigments and sculptural qualities. I love their texture and the freedom to make decisions midway through a piece. I’m having way more fun than ever before.

In early summer, I had to let my 15 year old dog go. Roxy was not well physically and I could no longer care for her. She was a part of my identity. She was my most constant companion and greatest muse. I still miss her everyday.

Lastly, and perhaps most dramatically, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in February. Unfortunately, my malignant tumor had been misdiagnosed as a benign cyst and the cancer was in an advanced state. While I felt great, I had to ingest tremendous amounts of chemotherapy that made me fragile, threw me abruptly into menopause and denuded me of every hair on my body. The first round of chemo was only partially successful, so after the surgeons attempted to cut out every bit of the cancer possible, the doctors put me back on chemotherapy to try and keep the cancer from spreading any further.

Surprisingly, the greatest impact of the cancer has been emotional. My illness has been a white water raft ride of discovery. Thrills and spills. Highs and lows. I have discovered the importance of my beloved friends and family, the wonder of each moment in each precious day, and the strength and devotion of my husband.

What do my pears have to do with all these changes in my life? I have always loved painting pears because of their gorgeous shapes. I use the pear as everyman. Each one of us is the same, a pear. Every one of us is so different. Each of these pears is a caricature of me during some phase of the changes that have occurred over the last nine months. I especially used color to provide you with a hint at my emotions. Also look at the placement of the pear in its space. One of the pears is missing a slice. So am I. One of them has been split in half and is vulnerable. Ironically, since my bilateral mastectomy, I am more pear-shaped than ever. Hopefully some of them look happy and hopeful and determined. And if they just look like brightly colored pears, that is good too.

Pia's Primroses

I was given these flowers by my friend, Pia. They are oil on canvas.

This my husband, Pat with our granddaughter in Aspen at Christmas in 2004.

This photo was taken a few days before I turned 50 years old in 2005. I was so innocent. It would be less than a month before I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I felt fantastic, ready to face the next decade. I would be blindsided. Here is Ava. She is my precious granddaughter, three years old here.