“tIDELINE TO ALPINE”
A collection of work inspired by Willapa Bay, the fertile Wallowa Valley, and the peaks and tarns of the Wallowa Mountains.
Or, continue on here to read more about the inspiration behind the work and preview the pieces.
I’ve spent the past few months cloistered in my studio, painting the places that speak straight to my heart.
WILLAPA BAY and the narrow peninsula bordering it shaped me, taught me to love the land and water as family, and lives in the deepest part of my heart.
Fetid tideflats, elderflowers falling on salmonberry blossoms, sunlight filtered through alder leaves. The geese stopping over in the flooded meadows on their way somewhere. Quiet black bears and fawns nosing through a thousand ferns; here is a place I felt safe and a part of something, from the time I was a small child wandering barefoot into the warm water of low tide.
tide PAINTINGS
“Come Quick, Don’t Say a Word (Geese Flying Over)” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 16” x 20” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged redwood
“Twin Fawns (Sperry and Tater)” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 5” x 4” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged pear
“The Carol Ann, the Moon, Some Pelies” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 13” x 17” (NFS)
Framed in salvaged Bigleaf maple
“Launching Bud’s Canoe” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 5” x 4” (NFS)
Framed in salvaged Bigleaf maple
“Littleboy in the Rhodies at Dusk” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 14” x 11” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged redwood
The fertile WALLOWA VALLEY has been my home for the past several years; slowly, slowly, I fill my pockets with the bits of knowledge that make one feel they know a place intimately.
Bits like how the golden eagles show up around calving time and the hawks congregate over the fields after haying. The old yellow homestead roses bloom in half the town’s yards each June, and the swallows flit and dip over the rivers and creeks and through the dark barns.
valley paintings
“Magpie and Mustards” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 5” x 4” (Available)
Framed in salvaged Bigleaf maple
“Chief Joseph Waking” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged pear
“Apple Blossom Sky and Swallows” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 17” x 13” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged wild cherry
“Wilson Lane Horses” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (Available)
Framed in salvaged pear
“Wallowa Longhorned Lady” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 14” x 11” (Available)
Framed in salvaged Bigleaf maple
“Black, White, Pink, Brown” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (Available)
Framed in salvaged pear
“Pink Sky, Red Barn” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 14” x 11” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged wild cherry
“Winter May” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 11” x 14” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged Bigleaf maple
“First Cut / July in the Valley” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged Bigleaf maple
In the high ALPINE, time shifts. Here I am a visitor, not meant to stay. The stunted, brave flowers and the brilliant mountain bluebirds, the glowing tarns and the rugged, snowy peaks, the high contrast of sharp noon sunlight and shadow on white stone, visit me in dreams when I’m home in bed.
ALPINE PAINTINGS
“Glacier Blue” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged redwood
“Snowmelt Lush” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (Available)
Framed in salvaged redwood
“Fox & Tarn” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 13” x 17” (Available)
Framed in salvaged pear
“Wrong Trail Lupine” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (Available)
Framed in salvaged redwood
“High Summer at the Highest Lake” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 11” x 14” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged wild cherry
“The View from Leigh’s Porch” • Watercolor and gouache on paper • 4” x 5” (SOLD)
Framed in salvaged redwood
A note on frames:
Each of the frames in this collection was hand built by cabinetmaker Jonathon Plummer, of Joseph, Oregon.
Together Jonathon and I selected salvaged woods that we thought would pair nicely with my paintings; Jonathon then milled the wood and afterwards we reassessed. We moved forward with Bigleaf maple, wild cherry, pear, and redwood. The redwood came from old telegraph poles that were removed from Central Oregon (La Pine area) around the year 2000, and which had likely been installed sometime around the 1870’s.
Each frame is a visually clean, elegant, work of art in itself and the warmth of the wood and Jonathon’s fine details work with my paintings to create a sum more than the parts.
Framing with archival materials was completed with care by Kendrick Moholt
of Enterprise, Oregon.
