The Sally Project
I was a nineteen-year-old university student when I met Sally, a white-haired, bandana-wearing woman in her sixties. She was pursuing an MFA in painting. She was so exuberant about creating art that she inspired me to decide I would become an artist, too, once I came closer to retirement. Forty years later, it’s time. As I climb an intentional learning curve in art, I share these posts to keep myself accountable. May my efforts inspire others the way Sally inspired me.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Rediscovering Gouache
Sunday, October 6, 2024
Beauty and Irony
While Coming into Mt. Shasta |
I love the unexpected inspiration that comes from road trips. My husband and I traveled recently up I5 and then over to the southern Oregon coast, then inland to Portland for a few days. We headed back home via I5.
This scene struck me as we entered the town of Mt. Shasta for the final night of the trip. The town is the namesake of the second highest mountain (after Mt. Rainier in Washington State) in the Cascade range.
To be honest, the beauty of those simple sheds and solid colors is what first caught my eye. The irony of that simplicity against nature's rugged majesty is what caused me to paint the scene.
In Love...with California Live Oaks
California Live Oak 2 10" x 10" watercolor Arches 100% cotton cold press paper |
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Iowa
Friday, September 13, 2024
The Joy of Practicing
Corner of Morton and San Jose 7" x 10" watercolor on Arches 100% hot press paper |
So this week I took two mornings to drive around our island in search not of subject matter that reaches out and touches me, like travel does, but that at least interests me in terms of light/dark, textural, or color contrasts.
For this painting it was the light/dark contrast of the sun-soaked houses (including that bright white trim of the charcoal-colored house on the right) with the darker trees and the shade they threw on the sides and foreground.
The yellow right-turn sign on the bottom left was the icing on the cake. I left it out of the value study below but decided to keep it in the top painting.
This is not a painting I’ll frame, but painting both the value study below and the full-color painting above did provide me with a couple of hours of transcendent joy as I practiced with lights and darks. And it might make a fun card folded in half to some friend who appreciates my quirky paintings.
More About the Sally Project
I met Sally forty years ago when I was twenty and she was the one in her sixties. I was a waitress at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant on...