Sunset and Smoke
Oil on Arches Huile paper, 53x36
In the summer, South Beach on San Juan Island is often touched by the smoke from fires as far away as California, making the sunsets intensely pink and orange. Driftwood and kelp are strange shapes on the flat canvas of the shore, and the movement of the paint creates its own organic shapes. This is a large piece on Arches Huile paper, going the surface a velvety look.
From my small studio at the Friday Harbor Atelier, in the small harbor town (yes, Friday Harbor) on San Juan Island, I paint abstract landscape paintings with a touch of sacred geometry. I love to go to the beach at the San Juan Island National Historical Park called South Beach, with a unique 2-mile beach covered with old-growth driftwood. I take photographs and sketch the fascinating forms there. Then I go back to the studio and work from those primary documents and allow the painting to emerge. I hope my paintings can transport you into a space of imaginative form, color and spirit.