Ebb and Flow of my Palette

Cumulus Enigmus

We are truly nearing end of summer now that we're into September. My time in Spokane is starting to ebb! Given that I'm typically only here half of each year, the warmer months, I have to find a balance between making art, showing art, and getting my summer fun in. This year I've thrown shoulder surgery into the mix! Resting, icing, medicating, Physical Therapy and getting adequate protein for post op healing are a full time job! See my post op news below.

On top of all that, getting ready to hang Ephemeral: Here and Gone for my September show at Helix Tasting Room downtown Spokane has had me pretty busy. There were lots of loose ends to pull together so that it all worked the way I've been envisioning it. Yesterday we hung the 20 piece show and I'm thrilled with the outcome! Even better than I pictured it in my mind all these months.

Ephemeral

Here and Gone....

This new series is an invitation to touch, fondle and feel the gritty quality of sand, the wavering carpet of the beach, the wild eruptions of salty sea crashing into ancient rock, and the cloud pocked skies ever unpredictably shifting in shape and hue. There's also a thread of weathered beauty that flows through the series, battered by the elements over time.

Ephemeral features a softer palette than my last few series'. Personally I am very drawn to muted palettes. I love the subdued and gradual way these tones echo and tease each other. I get a pleasant felt sense all over my body when I witness them in the hazy distance and when I observe them in use by other artists.

I have challenged myself to work in a stronger more chromatically contrasting style, and that's what my Forests and Nudes series' showed over the past couple of years. Before that though, one of my first completed series, and my first solo show, at Helix in 2022, Everland, featured pastel toned landscapes.

Layers of Land from Everland Series

Returning to this more muted style for Ephemeral; Here and Gone has been a sweet reunion with a part of me I've been missing. Though I do love both the muted and the bold palettes, for me the moody muted carries more depth of meaning and pensive inward reflexion while the bright and colorful requires and conjures freedom of expression and playfulness. Both serve their purpose in my explorations and endeavors to convey my truth using paint and mixed media as my mediums.

After the Ephemeral paintings were completed in early summer it was time to "clean my palette". Once a body of work is done it's usually time for something a little different. So I returned to a louder, more saturated color range to create a small work series you'll see at the Little Spokane River Art Studio Tour end of September. The one below is part of a series called Boneyard Books. You'll understand why they have this title when you see them in person.