Mama Does the Work

Does this bring back memories to you? Mama Does the Work depicts the toil and hardship of women during the early 1900's, when the man smoked his pipe and sipped home brew companionably watching his woman work. This is a very different painting for me, but I'm excited to tell you the story. The idea came from an old faded photo . . .it even had the title Mama Does the Work hand written on the back. My neighbor and friend is a genealogy researcher and this old dog-eared photo was among a bunch of family photos. It's a puzzle as not one of their extended families know who these two are. 

So here's to moon-shining and to hard working women!!!

Oregon Trail . . . from the Imagination of the Artist

Have you ever started a painting that took on a life of it own? I have more than once, but today I'm talking about my new painting-in-progress. It's a 15" x 30" oil painting telling a story of two families on one of the Oregon Trails on the east side of the Cascade mountains. They are almost to their new homestead and feel elated. The trail I've devised is in the hills east of Mt. Batchelor. Two related families include three children, two dogs and a milk cow. Oxen pull the two wagons.

I thought I'd bring you along as the painting and the story develops, a third finished . . . I think. Does one ever know when a painting IS finished?

Before:

And completed in September 2013: "The Long Journey

Does the Age of the Artist Make a Difference?

I published this article in my newsletter and thought it's too important to go to just a few subscribers:

John Updike, the renowned author wrote well into his later 70’s . . . when he passed on he still had works to be published.

Claude Monet, born in 1840 died in 1926 at the age of 86. It was only the last few months as he became enfeebled did he cease painting. Some of his most renowned paintings were done when his eyesight was failing. His earlier paintings were excluded from juried exhibitions.  Later in life his paintings received great acceptance by collectors.

Currently, California artist Robert Lewis, who is well past the age of retirement, is a happy, active plein air painter who wins awards in many outdoor painting events.

So now after so many years, the true me is here! When I enjoyed success as an artist in the 70's and 80's, I believe it was a means to an end to support horses in training and showing. Now, I breathe and dream of producing art as I see and feel it in the beauty of Oregon.

I came across this quote that means much to me . . . . I don't know the author . . . . but, "You make art or you die. Isn’t that the case for most artists?"  

Telling a Story . . . . In Oregon (Dec. 2012)

My newest painting tells one of many stories about what might be a good day while looking for an Oregon homestead. The background setting is the east side of Mt. Jefferson. The family; consisting of two couples, two 12 yr old children, a young child and two dogs. There are four oxen, a milk cow and two covered wagons. WOW why can’t I tell a simple story?

In between, while I’m waiting for this story to dry, I have two fun paintings in various stages. One is a horse drawn sickle mower, the other a barn that I was particularly taken with on the road to McMinnville.

December 28, 2012

It’s two p.m. on Sunday afternoon and for the first time the National Weather Service alert sounded on my cell phone a few moments ago! The storm landing on the coast will bring blizzard conditions to the Willamette Valley. Being a lifetime desert person I’m excited . . . .what will it bring? Snow? Sleet? Rain? Wind? Darkness?

The house is solid, warm, cozy, the kitchen cupboards and freezers full.  As I paint and look at the stillness of the afternoon sky brooding in darkness, I think I should have a blank canvas before me to await an inspiration. I think I am a blessed and lucky person to be plucked up from an almost hermit-like existence into a world of vibrant beauty. I’m waiting in anticipation . . . . . . . 

The Oregon Trail (Dec. 2012) . . . Why is Oregon So Beautiful?

 The Oregon Trail is a 2,000-mile east-west-north-south wheeled wagon trail that connected the Missouri River to Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of Idaho and Oregon.

The beginnings of the Oregon Trail were laid Lewis and Clark, fur traders and trappers from about 1811 to 1840.  These trails were only passable on foot or by horseback. But by 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been made to a fort in Idaho. Wagon trails were cleared further and further west, eventually reaching all the way to the Willamette Valley in Oregon which is where I live.

From the early 1830's through about 1869 the Oregon Trail and its many offshoots were used by about 400,000 settlers, ranchers, farmers, miners, and businessmen and their families

My consuming art interests are in painting stories relating to the life and hardships of the migrant families of Oregon and the beauty of the countryside.