The Siskiyou Arts Council hosted a solo exhibition of my paintings, featuring “wilderness watercolors,” paintings created on location in remote settings in the western US, Mexico and New Zealand.
From red rock desert cliffs to mountain glaciers, these paintings offer an intimate view of places that most folks will only visit in photos.
Among the colorful paintings were scenes from deep in the Grand Canyon, from the tundra of Alaska’s Brooks Range and the beaches of Baja California. I create these pictures on river trips, hiking, backpacking, flying by float plane into the Alaskan bush.
My style is a combination of painting and drawing, with lively pen and ink details overlying watercolors, chalk and crayon. My art supplies are packed in, either on my back or in the bottom of a dry bag carried by raft or kayak. If I’m lucky, I brought a camp chair. More often, I’m sitting on a boulder in the shade of some friendly tree, rinsing my paintbrush in the pool at my feet as I try to capture the excitement of a splashy rapid or the beauty of a downriver view.
A video slideshow accompanied the exhibit and further highlighted the journeys. This was a storytelling show as well as a visual delight. Each painting was displayed with it’s own story, often including a photo of the artist as she painted it.
Watercolor is also a wonderful activity for children and I am an art educator and writer as well as an artist. In addition to paintings, my art teaching books Great American Artists for Kids and Discovering Great Artists were part of the works presented at the Siskiyou Arts Council. The books were available for sale throughout the show dates.
