Although the focus of my work is native plants, which are for the most part delicate, ephemeral and many shades of green with touches of color, sometimes I just want to do something bright and bold. The farmer’s market is my place to go for colorful subjects–carrots, kohlrabi, tomatoes peppers…and those are just the beginning […]
Farmer’s Market Series: Jimmy Nardello Peppers
February 28, 2019 by · 7 Comments
I’ve been wanting to make a series of vegetable paintings with roughly geometric compositions…not the perfect symmetry of say, Ernst Haekel‘s compositions, but something funkier befitting to veggies. The first painting in the series is a round cabbage, so next I wanted something more linear as a contrast. These peppers reminded me of calligraphic strokes…rather […]
Wildflowers and a Gray Card in the Wallowas
September 1, 2018 by · 8 Comments
I recently spent a week in what is locally called “the Wallowas”, a pristine mountainous region in the uppermost northeast corner of Oregon far from any population centers, traffic and noise. Because of the high elevation, wildflowers peak in mid-summer when the weather is sunny and mild rather than during our rainy, cold spring here […]
Organizing Pigments
January 7, 2017 by · 14 Comments
I find the wealth of watercolor pigments available these days exciting…and a little daunting too! There are so many colors and so many manufacturers of quality pigments…how does an overwhelmed artist know which to choose? More than once, I have impulsively purchased a fabulous ‘new color’ only to find that I already had the same […]
Sketchbook–Quince Fruit
September 30, 2016 by · 6 Comments
We have an old gnarled Quince tree (Cydonia oblonga) in our garden that produces an abundant crop of fruit each year. We propped up the main branches recently lest they become so bowed down with fruit that the tree finally topples over. Quince trees have been in cultivation for millennia, in fact as a Greek […]
This blog is about my journey as a botanical artist--what I am learning, what inspires me and what I am currently drawing or painting. My desire is to continually hone my skills to better express my wonder and gratitude for the beauty of the creation around me in the Pacific Northwest (USA).