People used to ask me what inspired my paintings, but that was when I was doing more abstracts. These days, no one bothers to ask, because it is obvious that I’m totally inspired by forests and gardens. Just walking from my house to my studio, I’m inspired by the vine maples and fir trees surrounding the buildings.
My problem isn’t getting inspiration, but looking for new ways to portray the trees and leaves. I find that using different materials, techniques and formats helps me to stay creative, but I also look for other means as well.
AUDITORY STIMULATION
I often use different tempos of music to create energy and help me to paint. Besides my own library of CD’s, I listen to a classical music radio station that used to say they were heard from “the Cascades to the coast”. After hearing that phrase several times a day for a few years, I was inspired to do a fantasy panorama painting that incorporated both mountains and coastline.
Sometimes people give me an idea that leads to a painting. Someone once commented that there were “no red irises”. I did a lot of research and discovered that people are trying to develop a red iris, but so far they have only been able to get a deep red or a coral, but no true red. I decided to create my own red irises in a painting featuring mostly primary colors.
MEMORIES AS INSPIRATION
I recently returned from a trip to Idaho where I visited the timber ranch where I was born. It is now a state park and I was able to photograph the trees and distant vistas of farm lands and hills. I’m really excited to be able to paint the area of my special childhood memories.
Other inspirations come from themes for shows. I will be having a show at the Sheridan Lawrence Gallery in September, so of course the images will be all autumn scenes and colors. After that I will be painting the hollyhocks I photographed in Montana for the spring show at the Portland art Museum Rental/Sales Gallery.
Below is “Spring Celebration”, a 36″ x 48″ oil painting of red irises from my imagination. It is featured in the Xanadu Gallery July issue of their Collector catalog.
