“The Quiet Place By the River” 40″ x 40″ oil
Most of my paintings in the last few years have been landscapes and I’m always inspired by the beauty of the Pacific Northwest where I have lived most of my life. My studio is situated in a forest setting, surrounded by tall firs and vine maples, so it is natural that I’m totally influenced by them.
My husband and I usually go on at least one photographic trip in the fall to capture the colors of the leaves and give me some new material to paint for the next months. My main focus on the paintings is to create a cheerful and colorful representation of Northwest forests, rivers, creeks and waterfalls.
Although I don’t set out to create any kind of mood other that that, sometimes someone else picks up on something that has developed in a painting. In the painting above, the mood evoked was “calm and peaceful”. That was pretty amazing considering that I was completing the paintings for two shows and my own mood at the time I was painting it was anything but “calm”! The painting is part of my current show at the Sheridan Lawrence Gallery.
