Snow Patterns

Snow Patterns - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7

Click to Bid

Variations on a theme. It's very nice to be able to drive through scenes like this in a warm, heated cab with someone who knows how to drive on icy roads! I think I'm all snowed-paintinged out, though all the patterns and the atmosphere have been really enjoyable.

Hillside Snow

Hillside Snow - Oil on linen panel - 5x7

Click to Bid

More snowy scenes, I thought the pines on the hillside were very elegant. 

Winters Breath

Winters Breath - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7

Click to Bid

One of the fun things about taking reference photos from the car is you can get so many angles on a scene. This is the same fence as the last painting, but from the opposite side. There's nothing like a nice fence to spice up a composition!

Follow the Fence Line - Oil painting

Follow the Fence Line - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7 

Click to Bid

There's something magical about the way a snowstorm simplifies a landscape. What was a tangle of native bunchgrass and cheat grass suddenly becomes only a white and yellow pattern, dotted with red willows and the wandering fencle lines. And of course, while driving through this magical scene I could enjoy it properly because my husband was handling the icy roads!

In the Trees

In the Trees - Oil on linen panel - 5x7

Click to Bid

I've been going through photos taken over the past couple months and found a series that really grabbed me. They were taken outside of Pendleton, Oregon, near and on Cabbage Hill, also called Deadmans Pass. While the pass was named for a group of emigrants killed by natives while traveling the area, the name is also fitting because of how dangerous the road is during the winter; Cabbage was notoriously treacherous even when traveled by wagon as part of the Oregon Trail.

Saddle Mountain Snow

Saddle Mountain Snow - Oil on Canvas Panel - 6x8

Click to Bid

Despite being seasonally appropriate, this picture is really from last winter after a decently heavy snow blanketed the local desert ridgelines. Sometimes you have to sit with a scene for a while before you know what to do with it!

Backlit Bonneville

Backlit Bonneville - 6x8 - Oil on Linen Panel

Bid Here

This was painted not far from my camping spot outside of Joseph, Oregon along the Wallowa River. The clouds were beautifully rimlit behind a dark mountain, the view made it worth tangling with the giant ants along the river shore!

Winter in Kittitas Valley

Winter in Kittitas Valley - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7

Click Here to Bid

A few weeks ago while dropping off paintings for the Clymer Museum's "Northwest Experience" show (where, have I mentioned, I won Best of Show!) I stopped at the viewpoint off Highway 82 overlooking Ellensburg, Washington. The turnout has the most stunning view over the whole Kittitas Valley, and the winter air lent a beautiful atmosphere!

Frost in the Air

Frost in the Air - Oil on Linen - 5x7

Click Here to Bid

I painted this little one on location back when we still had snow on the ground, now the past few days we've had highs in the 50s and 60s!

Winters Touch

Winters Touch - 5x7 - Oil on Panel

Click Here to Bid
A little plein air piece, completed at my new favorite car painting site along the Yakima River Delta, where the Yakima River meets the Columbia. I'm a sucker for the red willows in winter already, but I loved to golden cottonwoods and the patterns the snow made.

Across Bow Valley

Across Bow Valley - 6x8 - Oil on Linen Panel

Click Here to BidOK, I'm really falling for Canada here. Between the endless mountain peaks and free healthcare, there could definitely be worse places to be an artist! I think I would miss the smell of sagebrush in the spring, though. =)

This is the view from Whitehorn Mountain off of Highway 1/93, the Trans-Canada Highway. On Google Streetview there's HD imagery all the way up the snow covered ski runs, giving stunning views across the Bow River Valley and into a sea of mountain.

Utah, 65mph

Utah, 65mph - 6x6 - Oil on Panel

Click Here to Purchase

A little bit more abstract this time! I wanted to really capture the movement as we drove through the hills, I think the orange underpainting added a lot of energy to the painting!

Pahvant Dusk - Utah Landscape Painting

Pahvant Dusk - 5x7 - Oil on Panel

Sold

The fading light was simply fantastic along our drive from Phoenix, Arizona, to Salt Lake City, Utah. The intricate pattern in the mountain ranges were highlighted by the glowing sunset, I was wishing we could stop so I could do plein air work! Between our tight itinerary and the freezing temperatures, though, that was NOT about to happen! The photos bring back the vivid memories of this gorgeous drive, and that beats painting in the snow in my book.

Snow and Sage, Utah

Snow and Sage,  Utah - 6x6 - Oil on Panel

Sold

I'm very excited to finally start working from the amazing photographs I took while driving through Arizona and Utah. Not that my photography skills are anything to brag about, but driving through that scenery, it's hard NOT to take a good picture!

We were rolling north along Highway 15, the sun was creeping down and casting the most beautiful light on what I believe, in checking maps after the fact, was the Pahvant Range. We had a great view of them, I only wish the sunlight had lasted long enough to get a view of the Wasatch. Maybe next time?

A Walk in the Snow

A Walk in the Snow - 5x7 - Oil on Gessobord

Sold

Here it is, Daily Painting number 99. I can't believe tomorrow's will be number 100, time flies when you're having fun! It's definitely been an amazing learning experience for me.

The scene I painted here is from a local trail system that runs along the Yakima River called the Chamna Natural Preserve. The snow was an interesting challenge for me! Here are a couple work in progress shots:

Winter Path

A Winter Path - 5x7 - Oil on Panel

Well, it looks like my winter denial could only last as long as my stash of summer photos, and that's been running dry. So I'm facing reality and painting some winter scenes straight from the shrub steppe of Washington!