Good times on the river

One of my favorite drives is on the road from Bozeman to Big Sky, Montana. Running along a narrow mountain canyon, the road winds through spectacular scenery and occasionally crosses the fast-flowing and ruggedly beautiful Gallatin River. It’s a mecca for fly fisherman, and although I’ve never mastered the sport, this time of year triggers memories of my dad and his lifetime of fishing adventures.

My dad, Dale Stull, was an avid fisherman and tried, unsuccessfully, to share the fun of fishing with his daughters. He truly loved to get up before dawn, grab the bait, and hit the river. However, to this day, I believe neither my sister nor I are willing to bait a hook, and we are terrible at sitting for long periods of time in a boat. So he often traveled with his fishing buddies to remote locations and came back home with wonderful stories of life in the wild. Some of his favorite locations were fishing at off-the-grid camps in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska or on one of the thousands of crystal-clear lakes flung across northern Canada.

This week, my painting, Fly Fishing, 8” x 12” Watercolor, strives to capture the art and adventurous spirit of fly fishing – the thrill of standing in a cold, fast-moving stream, sending the line sailing out above the water, and waiting for the next big catch.

 

 

 

May arrivals and Great Blue Heron

After months of gray, the world around us has exploded with COLOR! We are blessed with a variety of blooming wildflowers in the woods around our house. Although my Grandma Ellen was a master in identifying wildflowers (and wild mushrooms!), I’m lucky if I recognize two or three of them. However, beautiful Trilliums, False Pennyroyal, Spring Blue-Eyed Mary, and Jack-in-the-Pulpits are familiar and provide beautiful early color below the canopy of trees.

It’s especially lovely to smell fresh dirt and see green again - with farmers in the fields and cows and calves, sheep and lambs, and even the local Clydesdale horses with their new foals returning to the pastures. For Mom’s Day, one of our daughters gave me the Goats of Anarchy book – and I agree with author, Leanne Lauricella: “Baby goats are just about the cutest things on the planet!”

And a wonderful variety of new songbirds appeared at our feeder this week, including: Indigo Buntings, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Baltimore Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

This week’s painting features of one of the heralds of spring and a favorite summer bird in this area. My painting, Great Blue Heron, 7”x13” Watercolor (framed 15”x21”), was a commissioned artwork, and I’m hoping it looks lovely in its new home in North Carolina.

If you are interested in purchasing or commissioning a painting, send me an email for more details and pricing information.

 

 

In tribute to Ruby and Paul

Yesterday, we lost a dear friend. Ruby was a gentle spirit and resident beagle in our Blake Lake neighborhood. And although she belonged to Ken and Bev, everyone on the street knew Ruby. She loved to roam in the woods behind their house and the find of a rogue chipmunk, squirrel or rabbit was met with a joyful round of howling. On one of the first days after we moved into our new house, Ruby met me coming around the corner from our kitchen. She had wandered into the open door and made herself right at home. In time, she would come in the door, walk directly to the kitchen and wait patiently for me to open the “treat” drawer. However, after a diagnosis of a mass in her tummy this spring, Ruby didn’t make it through the surgery yesterday, and Ken buried her last evening in her beloved woods. We will deeply miss her.

My husband, Paul, will celebrate his birthday this week and in honor of that occasion, this week’s painting is one of his own photographs. One of our favorite things to do is take roadtrips and follow the “blue roads” – those roads that veer off main highways and roam through rural countryside. We have seen incredible vistas and discovered so many wonderful places in these journeys. Row Boats at Cornamona, 8.5”x12” Watercolor, came about on one such adventure. As we came around the corner of this loch, we saw a group gathered near the boat launch preparing to go out fishing for the day. Paul stopped the car, visited with them for awhile and then took this picture of their boats.

 

 

 

Light makes all the difference

My husband and I are usually on different schedules – he’s a morning person and loves to get up early and charge into the activities of his day. On the other hand, I’m a night person; typically getting my “second wind” about 7 p.m. and then working on projects late into the night. However, this routine has changed dramatically with Daylight Savings Time. Now, most mornings, I’m up as soon as the first light comes in the window. And a few days ago, I was actually up in time to see the sunrise! This is astonishing – even to me – but it has everything to do with the light.

In a recent drawing class, the instructor said that we can’t have light without shadows. And it is in the creating of deeper shadows, that we become more aware of the light. Isn’t that amazing? This is especially true when working with watercolors where there is no pure white color. The white or light spaces in a watercolor painting are intentional and have to be well thought out ahead of time by the artist. I’ve thought about this statement so often, and in my art, I’m more conscious of the tremendous role shadows play in creating light as well as depth and balance.

This week, my painting is all about light. Celtic Sunset – 11”x15” Watercolor, portrays the sun setting on the Wild Atlantic Way, a rugged driving route along the west coast of Ireland.

 

 

Sheep on my easel!

Even though the weather doesn’t always cooperate, we are “officially” into the Summer season here – the dock is in! Dedicated fisherfolk are already cruising up and down the lake, but we tested the water temp on Saturday, and it’s still icy cold! We'll wait awhile before jumping in.

But it’s the perfect time for tree planting which is one of my all-time favorite activities. Our yard is surrounded by a wonderful deciduous forest of Maple, Oak, Ash, and Cherry trees, but we missed the color of evergreens and wanted more privacy. This past Monday morning, Gregg’s Tree Farm delivered ten 10’ Blue Spruce trees to our house. They are beautiful trees and from the amount of rocks the crew dug up in each of the plantings, we’re assured the trees should be happy here. It so reminded me of artist Bob Ross’ comment from his TV show: “Let’s just add some happy trees here!” In the process of this planting, Monday also happened to be the day that the Luck tree service arrived to clean up some dead trees, and the arborists worked through the afternoon to take out two trees. It was an eventful day, but what a transformation! We are so enjoying more light in the yard and the lovely green of the Spruce trees.

Recently, I took a “Learning to Draw” class led by artist Paul Oman. It was a wonderful experience and gave me tools for moving outside my comfort zone in drawing and made a tremendous difference in my willingness to paint new subjects.

My painting, Free Grazing – 9”x12” Watercolor, portrays sheep in a meadow along the coast of Ireland. A few years ago, Irish farmers were having a grazing dispute with the government, and as a collective and in a demand for justice, they had all simply opened their gates. At that time, we were traveling in the Connemara region. As we maneuvered the narrow roadways, we were always mindful of the roaming flocks of sheep, especially in the evenings as they would bed down on the warm asphalt of the roads. It was an amazing adventure and such a beautiful memory.

Free Grazing - 9"x12" Watercolor

Spring Projects

We are so enjoying the sights and sounds of Spring. Last week, we saw three pairs of Sandhill cranes – including one pair leisurely walking across the road in front of us! What a wonderful sight! And it was a thrill to welcome two bluebirds to the house in our front yard yesterday. In the midst of chaos in the world around us, I’m thankful for the incredible rituals of this season and the ability to see God’s hand in the rhythm of each day – the lengthening of the light, return of the songbirds, fresh smell of dirt, and new buds on trees. We are blessed!

I’ve been away from my art for a while – it’s been a busy time with family and spring projects! This time of year, I always start getting restless to be outdoors working on yard and garden projects. Since it still looks like the “thawing of permafrost” out our back door, it seemed to make sense to tackle a simple indoor project like putting glass into the fronts of a couple of kitchen cabinets. Unfortunately, plans don’t always go as expected, and the project somehow morphed into a full-scale painting of our kitchen cabinets! While the mess of living with all your kitchen contents piled up on tables, chairs and floor is unbelievable, the effort was totally worth it. And I really need to share the story of how we chose the color.

In May 2007, I traveled with my mom to Holland. It was my first trip out of the U.S., and we went to visit our dear family friends, Val and Alvin Jordan and their children in Nijmegen. My dad and Alvin were in business together for 25 years, but the connection for me with the family occurred in 1994 when their 14-year old daughter, Katy, came to live at our home for a few weeks that summer. Katy had been struggling with school and her friends, and the experience turned out to be life-changing, not only for Katy, but for all of us. This trip was a wonderful opportunity for me to visit with the family and reconnect with the “grown up” Katy and her fiancé, Maarten, in their new home. When we got there, Maarten was helping paint their kitchen cabinets a lovely shade of blue-gray-green. When I exclaimed about the beautiful color, he grabbed a sheet of paper and swiped a paintbrush across it. I’ve carried that “color swatch” with me ever since. In starting this project, I brought the swatch to our friend, Angi, who owns the fabulous hardware store in Balsam Lake, and she matched the color perfectly! Here’s a view of our new “Holland Green” kitchen.

 

 



This painting, Rocky Shore – 12”x18” Watercolor, was completed just before we launched the kitchen project!

 

 

Trip to the North Shore

Early in February, we traveled up to Grand Marais, MN, to attend a two-day art workshop at the Art Colony. It turned into an eventful trip with a heavy snowstorm starting in Two Harbors and continuing all the way into Grand Marais, but it was a beautiful drive with huge snowflakes covering the trees and woods along scenic Highway 61. It’s always an inspiring sight to come over the hill on the south end of Grand Marais and see the panoramic view out across the beautiful waters of Lake Superior. At the time, the lake was completely open with no trace of ice even along the shoreline!

And traveling with our dog, Maddie, is always an adventure; it can be a formidable challenge to find hotels that allow pets. We are thankful that on our trips to the North Shore, we’ve found two that provide pet-friendly accommodations – the Voyageur Motel at Two Harbors and the Aspen Inn in Grand Marais.

Day One of the art workshop focused on helping us move our art practice from a hobby level to a business perspective. Through discussion and hands-on exercises, the facilitator challenged us to begin the process of self assessment and setting achievable goals. This initial step involved defining our individual strengths and the barriers (we may perceive) to accomplishing our goals, determining a vision of what’s possible, and then developing tangible goals for achieving one’s dreams. Day Two focused on cataloging art, learning how to price your work, and creating a viable marketing plan.

This week, my painting is called Quiet Cove – 11”x17” Watercolor and reflects some of the incredible beauty and rugged landscape of the North Shore of Lake Superior.