New Work for the Sedona/Scottsdale trip!

This is the newest completed painting off the easel. It's called "Snowmelt" and is 36x36, oil on canvas. I must be getting anxious for winter because I really enjoyed painting snow again. It's coming soon enough! Back to the Aspen painting waiting to be finished.....

Final Touches! My largest painting

30x90! All but the final touches are done. Wow! This is the Chief Joseph River by Wisdom Montana. What do you think?

Progress!

Coming along a little more slowly than I would like, but here's to progress!

Here goes!!!

Well, my largest painting EVER! This piece is 30x90. I have had the canvas with a partial drawing on it for three years - intimidating me into submission. I've finally got the gumption to dive in. I have absolutely NO idea who will have the space for a painting of this size, but I've got a studio wall large enough so it will have a home one way or the other :) Please excuse the messy studio, but I have been working pretty much non-stop and lost my studio helper (Marco) to a job. Maybe by January I can do a little cleaning ! LOL

Endurance, 36x48 oil on canvas

I've been working on this piece this last week. This is another previously thought finished piece, only to really dig in and push it a little further. The palette in this piece is so analogous, so subtle that it was lacking something that gave it "umph". I love the tension of the diagonal, the strong value key contrast between the foreground and the background. Something needed to tie the two together with a common thread. I cut back into the trees a bit more, gave them a little more definition to make the separation even more dramatic. Then I added a highlight of water coming down the diagonal to bring a little sky color into the green and break up the subtle values in the foreground. I also like the thin background layers against the thick foreground texture. I reworked a little brushwork in the distance to give the surface just a little more continuity, but I don't want too much. This painting really emphasizes a minimal composition and that is what gives it strength. It's always a challenge for me to paint this large and keep the quality as strong as I possibly can. It's getting me ready for my 30"x90" piece - WOW, scared to death to do something that big! Stay tuned.....

Sunlit Pines of Flagstaff

New piece off the easel! This piece was inspired by my recent trip to Sun Valley for the Kneeland Plein Air Exhibition. I was painting up by Galena Lodge and the side of the mountain fascinated me with the abstract shapes, shadows and color. I did a small little 6x6 of it which sold at the show, but it haunted me to do a larger one a little less abstract. I think I will do a series of this, maybe a couple more. Square formats fascinate me as well. For my upcoming shows, I plan on using quite a few square compositions, maybe a few more odd sizes as well. I am not quite ready to put my signature on this piece above - not for a day or two so I can live with it, but I'm pretty happy with the feel of it!

July Newsletter

So sorry guys for sending out a duplicate newsletter. I have STILL yet to figure out the size requirements for my website company and the first one was too small for anyone to read. The second one is too big for anyone to see! I'll get there, I promise! I'm just a little computer illiterate!

Eccentric?

I was on the phone with a dear friend, Lori McNee, yesterday commiserating over our tight deadlines and procrastinations. I confessed that it has been a "few" days since I had showered because I just keep rolling out of bed and heading directly down to the studio and painting until it is WAY past time to cook dinner, spend an hour with my honey and get some sleep to do it all over again. This will only last until Saturday because at that time I have to drive the work 4 hours to its destination. I really don't think I've had this tight of a deadline in a very long time. With my confession, Lori said I might be getting a little eccentric! Anyway, I started thinking and analyzing the way I work with the procrastinations and all. I think I truly AM a bit eccentric! I function best when my studio is a mess. I work best in my overalls and a ponytail, which is fine in the studio but NOT in the grocery store - WHEN I get to the grocery store. I have become a bit reclusive over the years when I used to be so outgoing and social. I generally perform best when pushed to the last minute and have no other choices. Any other time, my garden calls me first, a great cookbook catches my attention before the canvas, the damn computer imprisons me (notice I'm blogging this morning when I should be painting) - my lack of focus frustrates me. But in the end, there hasn't been a deadline I haven't lived up to. The paintings always get done and get where they need to be. I am a "functioning" eccentric. Maybe I'm no different than most artists. My family and non-art friends don't believe it but they are tolerant. They love me for my eccentricities, not my discipline. Most understand that there are times (more than I want to admit) that I am a flake. My memory is challenged and blamed on paint fumes. Maybe you can relate to all of this. I know when I hear of similar stories, I am relieved to a degree that this might just be an artists' mind. I love this artist life! We see the beauty in all, the positive in life and what we can create with it. There is never a problem that can't be solved some way. Show me the good and I'll hide from the bad! Yep, that's how I roll - I'm eccentric and quite proud of it!

Well, ??? Another mountain to move....

I have such a tough time being objective about a painting, especially when it is something out of the ordinary for me. I'm generally overly harsh or I get a crush and can't see it for what it really is. Here is the barn, all but finished. The hard lines of the mountains in Sun Valley area are a real challenge to make work in a composition. There is only one place around where mountains are angled so steeply. That's what makes it so beautiful! Still - tough to make work. What do you think?

Ok, it's the next morning and I've decided to take out the left mountain. Stay tuned....

Mountain considerably chopped down. Still having a tough time with this one...

Almost finished!

Working on my very large vertical series, with this new one "Woodriver Storm Rising" It is a 48x30. The other two in the series are Majestic and Queens Court following.

status update :)

Well, the admonishment to myself of FOCUS - didn't work. Went shopping instead. Sometimes burnout can kick your behind! Back at it tomorrow I guess. Will post the painting when it's done. I am so LAME!

Highly Unusual!

Not being one to usually put manmade structures in my work often, this barn painting is quite unusual for me! It's an old family farm and barn outside of Hailey, ID. I have always loved how it sits among the poplars besides the steep hillside. It always tells me I'm close to Ketchum, one of my favorite places in the west. I'm working out a few drawing issues, some shape placement problems and then I will figure out how to make the building feel natural in the environment. I have, as usual, put my largest and most difficult paintings for my show at the Kneeland Gallery off until the last week - so what else is new? I seem to do this to myself almost every time. The show is happening August 3, 4, & 5th, with the reception being August 5 from 5-8. It is my favorite show of the year. The patrons are wonderful! They come back year after year to watch us paint, purchase new pieces for their collections and cheer us on. We have developed such a special friendship with all the artists that have participated through the years. Opening morning is filled with hugs & smiles and catching up. The gallery staff is exceptional and treat us like old friends - very spoiled old friends! And of course, who can beat this landscape? It just doesn't get much better than this. And now, on to finish this "structure"......Focus Shanna - FOCUS!

River Aspens

Here is a small one, 12x9, oil on linen panel called River Aspens. It's headed for the Kneeland Gallery soon!

Violet Waters

After.....

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Let the festivities begin - AFTER I finish this painting! I'm actually working on a winter painting today - as if we haven't had enough cold weather around here. I do love painting snow though! It's almost finished and I thought I would post a before and after tweaking post. I am finding my palette sensitivity to be much brighter, "happier", these days - I wonder why LOL! I've given the piece a day to look at and contemplate. As much as I like the color, I am thinking that I will probably push the back plane even further back just a little with a purple umber glaze - just enough to push the value down a notch and tone down the color. It hopefully will make the blues pop even more, bring the treeline out to the surface and make the sky color more exciting. A couple of evenings ago, I went out on my porch cloud watching, as I do so much. There were these beautiful little highlights at the tops of the clouds as the sun was setting. The clouds themselves were actually the same value, different temp as the sky, but these little highlights looked like streaks in the sky. It was so beautiful! I decided to play a little with my painting and incorporate those streaks. I used them as little arrows down into the trees, without adding too much noise to the shape. Hmmm....how to add excitement SUBTLY :) Here is the before and I will post the after later this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Summer Harvest

Still working on those color notes and temperature changes!

Color Notes

Really working on fine tuning color notes and temperature changes this week (or any week for that matter). For as much as I have been called a tonalist and a subtle painter, my work REALLY has alot of color and I'd like to push the envelope a little more towards greys. We, as artists, generally work in this little bubble of our studio, surrounded by our own work, comparing palettes and compositions to the work that is around us. It is only when we get out to a show, hang our work next to another artist, enter a competition - that we really start to get an objective view of where we are. I've got Monet and Tryon out today to learn some lessons from the real deal. The piece I am posting is a simple little square composition and it is ALL about temperature changes in the sunlight and in the shadows. Very close value ranges within each, very subtle color changes with each. Don't know if I am completely done yet, but here is my days work progress! What do you think - still ALOT of color?

Quiet Cloud Cover, 20x20 oil on canvas