This is a painting of Seattle, the place I have made my home for over 35 years. It features the Smith tower, which was the tallest building west of the Mississippi for decades. It is dwarfed by the rest of downtown, and especially the Columbia tower, which looms behind it, just a few blocks away. This painting is part of a swap, it is not for sale. It is about the size of a credit card. Just for fun!
Portraits can be fun, like this one of a young talented cousin of mine who resides in Rome. He’s about the same age as my sons, and I like to imagine they would have been friends if they’d grown up together. Thanks to facebook, there are always notices about which plays or films he appears in. This painting is not for sale.
Since my childhood, I have loved all animals and one of the things that often inspires me to paint would be a photograph that shows the character of another animal. I am friends with someone, a long time dog owner, who recently adopted a kitten. I have followed the story of the dog warming up to the cat, and the cat’s antics. After a compelling photo of the dog was posted on facebook, I could see his long suffering, patient soul, the dog, that is, in his relationship with the silly annoying young cat. And I had to paint it. Not for sale.
More than 40 years ago, I lived in sunny Idaho, and grew giant sunflowers. It was so easy to do. I tried to grow some after I moved to Seattle, and found the experience to be rather discouraging, so I quit. This year, thanks to my husband’s feeding of wild birds in the yard, I found a surprise growing there; a beautiful healthy sunflower. It stood all by itself and lit up the rest of the yard on a cloudy day. This painting was done using negative space. instead of painting the flower, I painted around it. It was a lot of fun to do. This little beauty is for sale, $50 takes it home, all money received goes directly to wildlife conservation.
Sometimes when searching for a subject, an artist will make splashes and color and then decide what to paint. This painting started just like that. I finished it a couple of years ago, and set it aside; it still was not pleasing to me. Last week, I looked at it and knew what I had to do to make this painting sing. I hope you like it. It is for sale, only $50 will bring this 5″ x 7″ painting home to you. All money received for paintings goes directly to endangered species conservation.