Pantone announced its Color of the Year for 2019 as Living Coral. I’ll admit, at first I was a bit disappointed, as I felt like the representation of the color I was seeing wasn’t really one I could relate to. It felt over saturated and a bit brash, which, if I’m being completely frank, most of the Pantone COTY seem to me (sorry, Pantone!).
But then, I began to look around– at my Pinterest inspiration boards and in my own paintings. And I realized that shades of Living Coral were everywhere!
How do you feel about Living Coral? It’s always interesting to see how much influence Pantone’s COTY has on the art world, whether directly or subconsciously. I won’t be purposefully adding it to my work, but you never know how things sneak in!
Water, water, everywhere. The abundance of water is a big part of what draws me to the Pacific Northwest. Here we have rivers, sound, sea, alpine lakes, streams, waterfalls, the mighty Pacific Ocean, all within reach.
Some of my favorite childhood memories happened around water– time spent at my aunt and uncle’s lake house in Florida continue to influence me as an adult. It was there that I spent mornings and afternoons– always a break for lunch and then a “rest” before more swimming, my aunt was a firm believer in that whole no swimming an hour after eating, much to my childhood frustration– in the cool, dark water.
For nearly a year now (the longest I’ve yet to spend focused on one series), I’ve been painting ECHOES, my abstract interpretations of what happens above, beneath, and upon the water’s surface. When we would go out exploring, I was finding myself taking photos of the water itself, instead of the scene as a whole.
I was fascinated by the way you could almost detect a sense of another landscape in the reflected surface, but it was often distorted and abstracted by the angle of view, ripples in the water, or fog upon the surface.
It’s these abstractions and distortions that most fascinate me. I’m not interested in an exact replication, but what I find happening is that the more I look, the more I see, and the more it pours out in the work.
You can see the latest of my ECHOES paintings on my website. I’m starting on two large canvases this week. I can’t wait to dive in!
In all my years growing up and as an adult in Florida, I longed for cold winters. I dreamed of snowy days and cozy nights, only getting small doses on quick trips North. Since traveling through the West and Northwest for almost six (!!) years, I’m finally experiencing the seasons as I always hoped to.
I hear people complain about the cold and snow, but for me, it never ceases to be magical.
The streets are quiet, all the bustle of life slows and is muted.
Colors become deeper and more saturated.
Everything sparkles.
Expanses of white bring colors and textures to the forefront, giving them room to breathe, space to show off. This interaction informs and inspires my work more and more as I seek to create paintings that emanate that same sense of peace and quiet.
I’ve never been an early riser. So catching the sun rise over the Atlantic when I lived in Florida didn’t happen often. But being on the West Coast, sunsets have become my happy place. At least three evenings a week, the Mr. and I walk the mile and a half from our apartment then down (and back up, ugh!) 188 steps to Richmond Beach on Puget Sound. Many Friday evenings we take a bottle of wine and end the week watching the colors slowly shift over the Sound. It is an incredibly peaceful and lovely way to begin the weekend.
Last night’s display was so incredible that Instagrammers all over the Seattle area were posting their sunset views. We were all taking in and experiencing the same collective beauty but each from our own unique perspective. What a gift of a communal yet individual experience!
These magical sunset views are informing my new work in the VENTERS series– not always literally, but in the way the light becomes soft and dreamy, how the sun melts into the horizon, the way the colors morph and move one into another.
See the current VENTERS paintings on my website here. The newer paintings are even softer and more dreamy, if you can believe it! Can’t wait to show you.
It seems like one coast or another has always been a part of my life. Growing up in Florida, I spent a lot of Saturdays collecting seashells with my mom on white sand beaches. Then five years ago, Mr. F and I crossed the country and I was introduced to the Pacific Ocean and the beaches of the Northwest.
I carry both with me and both coasts have inspired this new series, Venters. The title of the series, Venters, is the word for what the wind or tide drives in from the ocean upon a wave.
I love the way the light bounces off the waves, how the sand glistens in the afterglow of each kiss of the waves upon the shore.
And at the breaking and closing of the day, the coastal waters light up like the sea glass jewels they wash upon the sand. At those times, it seems that the ocean quiets and the earth revolves a bit more slowly. It is that feeling that I hope the Venters paintings capture.
Endless inspiration. That’s how I feel about Yellowstone’s prismatic pools. I could paint them forever.
These deep steaming springs draw millions of people to Yellowstone each year and with good reason. Their boiling temperatures create magical steam, rising above chalky rock and water colored unlike any other.
They each feel like a world unto themselves. An entire landscape within the vastness of Yellowstone.
I would seriously move just to be near these wonders.
For the LATITUDE show, I created a mini-series within the show, Prismatics, my abstract interpretations of the pools in paint.
Prismatics 1-16, acrylic on cradled wood panel, 6×6 each
See larger images of Prismatics 1-16 on my website and see them up close and personal at Art & Light Gallery in Greenville, SC through the end of March.
I like my trees tall. Really really tall. During the year we spent among the Redwoods in Humboldt County, California I was in tree heaven.
Of course, the beaches of the Northern California coast are a sight to behold– wild, desolate– they don’t call it The Lost Coast for nothing. But when we wanted a local hike, we liked to head into the deep Redwood forests.
It was there that we found trees so wide you could live inside and so tall you could not capture their entirety on camera.
But my favorite thing about the Humboldt Redwoods was the way the light filtered through their elevated limbs, drifting slowly down until it barely graced the forest floor.
A magical world filled with mystery and wonder. The trees seemed to speak to each other, I wish I had known what they were saying.
Although that year in Humboldt had its troubles ( we got my mom’s cancer diagnosis and I spent two months out of that time in Florida with her ), we look back on it very fondly. The trees welcomed us and we would be happy to be among them again sometime.
favorite hike | fern canyon
Deep in the Prairie Creek Redwoods but just a few steps from the ocean lies this completely magical place. You feel the temperature drop as you descend from the trail above, ferns and mosses completely cover the soaring canyon walls. I couldn’t stop smiling while we explored this incredible place!
don’t forget | to set your alarm
If you want to catch a peek at the Elk herd in Prairie Creek. You’re more likely to see them in the large meadow outside the park’s visitor center in the early hours before the warmth of the day drives them back into the forest.
what i love most | the light
While Redwoods can be found in other parts of California, there was something about the combination of those giant trunks and the foggy coastal skies filtered the sunlight. No others are quite the same.
See my Redwoods inspired LATITUDE painting, The Birds Are Singing In Your Eyes Today here.
Every place that inspired the LATITUDE series has special meaning for me. But there is one that stands out among the rest. GLACIER.
I knew long before setting eyes on Glacier National Park that it was a place close to my husband’s heart– which of course, meant that it would be close to mine in a way that we always find love for the things our partners love. But I had no idea that seeing it would effect me so significantly.
On our first trip up the Going To the Sun Road, I was overcome by the beauty and grandeur that surrounded me. Blue skies met sliced mountain peaks, slivered waterfalls slicing into the green, windows down, Eddie Vedder singing to us through the speakers. I looked over to my husband and we both had tears in our eyes. We had found the place we both adored.
High up in Northern Montana, sharing it’s land with Canada, Glacier feels like another world. Remote and wild, to see Glacier’s best requires hiking deep into her bowels, sharing the wilderness with grizzly and moose.
As much dramatic as Glacier’s soaring peeks and icy heights can be, there is a softer side. The quiet found in the glassy reflection of Lake Bowman or Kintla Lake, the hush of the grasses along the North Fork river.
Glacier is where our souls find rest, the one place we’ve found that we never want to leave.
favorite trail | ptarmigan tunnel trail
I lovingly refer to this trail as “the death march”. We embarked on this 10 miler after we’d already hiked 5 miles into Iceberg Lake and my boots were not in the greatest shape at that point and by the end of the hike, I could barely walk. That being said, the views were spectacular and the trail grueling but isolated. An excellent reminder of just how insignificant we are in this vast landscape.
don’t forget | bear spray
There is a strong grizzly population in Glacier and we’ve seen more of them in this park than any other– from the car and from the trail. Making noise while hiking is the best way to keep from surprising one of the great bears– we sing or just shout out random words. Bear spray has been proven to be the best deterrent if a grizzly becomes a threat. Shooting one will just make it mad.
what i love most | the wild
While Glacier has it’s fair share of visitors, you can really get lost in the wild here without too much effort. You are sharing the same air as magnificent mountains and fierce predators, feeling lucky simply for coming back alive from each hike. It is an exhilarating place.
Glacier inspired four paintings in the LATITUDE show, see them on my website here, here, here, and here. LATITUDE can be seen at Art & Light Gallery through March 31, 2016.
Sometimes the love we discover for a place comes unexpectedly. We had visited Grand Teton National Park for a few hours on our way from Yellowstone to Jackson one summer morning a few years ago. While I thought it was a beautiful mountain range, I didn’t see the magic. Yet.
Fast forward to late August 2015 when a work contract for hubby landed us in Idaho Falls, ID, less than two hours drive from the Grand Tetons. We were only in the area for ten weeks and split our weekends between Yellowstone and the Tetons. As the landscape transitioned from the lush green of late summer to Fall and on to the beginnings of winter, I was transfixed not just by the enormity of the landscape but the variety of color and texture all around.
As the temperatures fell into Fall and parts of the park began to shut down for winter, the number of people we shared the park with dwindled. After six months in the overpopulated Bay Area, we relished the peace and quiet of sharing a hiking trail only with each other. And the occasional moose.
Getting deep into the Tetons and seeing those iconic peaks from different vantages was an amazing experience. But this places isn’t just about the mountains– there are calm, clear lakes in abundance, waterfalls and rocky streams to be heard before they can be seen.
In the Tetons, we found a peace and way of beauty we’d lost during the stress and sadness of the summer. We experienced our own “rewilding”, reconnecting with the wildness in this place and within ourselves.
favorite trail | granite canyon trail
Taking the Granite Canyon Trail was a last minute decision as the return route on our Grand Tetons backpacking weekend. In Fall, the trail was bursting with color and sweeping views were to be had in all directions.
don’t forget | comfy hiking boots
To really see the Tetons at their best, you need to get some miles under your feet. And the terrain is rocky and can be slick in the rainier months, so good hiking boots are a must. I wear Vasque boots and hubby wears Asolos. Little tip– forget fashion when shopping for hiking boots. Comfort and fit are much more important!
what I love most | changing Fall color
I was amazed by the colors of the Tetons in Fall! The aspens begin their transition in soft yellows and oranges, then burst with saturated hues as the temperatures drop. The prairie grasses go from jeweled mustards and burgundies to faded straw and lavenders. And of course, the entire scene changes as the light shifts through each day and season.
Follow the hashtag #findinglatitude on Instagram to see more of the places that have inspired the LATITUDE show and series. PLUS, share your own inspiring places by tagging #latitudefound!
This weekend, we found a bit of latitude in Oregon’s Applegate Valley and I want to know where YOU are finding LATITUDE!
If you’re on Instagram, use the tag #latitudefound to share photos of the places where you’ve found room to breathe. I’ll be sharing a few each week on my Instagram feed!
