Work!

I present...drum roll please... New Work!

My intent for this body of work was to sharpen my technical skills and further develop my personal style. I can't get over how fun it is to paint the Palouse. I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by such unique landscape...it has been a great place to live while I learn to paint!

Tree Composition No. 2    18x24

Tree Composition No. 1    18x30

Tree Composition No. 3    18x24

Palouse Composition No. 101    24x30

Palouse Composition No. 103    18x20

Palouse Composition No. 106    8x10

Palouse Composition No. 105    8x10

Palouse Composition No. 102    24x30

Palouse Composition No. 104    8x10

Trees!

 I really enjoy the challenge of painting trees...the way the light dances through them, the shapes, the shadows and the mystery.

 

Watercoloring

We had some beautiful young models one day. It was quite a challenge to paint 10 year old girls that enjoy running around. They wore great colors and shared a fun yellow hat.

Watercoloring

For the past six weeks I have been keeping busy with a watercolor class. Watercolor was completely new to me, I had not a clue as to what to expect. The first couple of days were quite frustrating, the paint wouldn't do what I wanted it to, and it seemed as though the harder I tried, the worse the outcome. Many horrible paintings later, I finally realized that I couldn't force it--I had to let the paint do its own thing. Once I figured that out, I would lay down color and guide it into a composition, exploring reactions of water, paper and pigment.

After six weeks, I had 90 paintings. Varying in size, most however are on the small side of things, about 4in x 6in. This first set of paintings is of buildings around Moscow.

 

 Tomorrow Night!
 http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=145462805527042

Nothing New

           Her neck was sore from looking out the window. She watched the trees, fields, sky and road signs go by. This drive was nothing new. She had seen the same trees, fields, sky and road signs in every season, at all times of day. She had this drive memorized—she knew of every bump and pothole on that long stretch of highway. Though it was a natural reflex for her to move with the momentum of the car as they made their way down the torn up piece of road, it still didn’t prevent the valuable drip of coffee from bouncing out of the paper cup onto her distressed pair of jeans. What a waste, she thought. It was that hot steaming cup of black Ethiopian Yirgacheffe that pulled her out of bed so early this morning. The thought of that smooth, rich, liquid meeting her lips, encountering her tongue and warming her entire body is what got her through the mundane morning routine.

       It was an early morning adventure, and she had needed to get up extra early to leave enough time to primp and prep—go through the motions that beautified the natural beauty. It hadn’t taken the entire hour for her to get ready, but she had needed the few extra minutes to pack—one of her least favorite things to do. She could never predict what the weather would be or what her mood would entail so she stuffed a mélange of random clothing into her pink hard-shell suitcase. She’d found the task to be mentally draining and physically daunting and was out of breath from bouncing up and down on the suitcase in an effort to get it closed.

       They drove down the road silently—conversation was not a necessity. She examined her husband’s face, a face that she had looked at countless times, a face she had memorized.

       “What?” he asked after noticing the stare.

       “Nothing,” she answered. “Should we get gas?”

       “We can make it.”

       She moved her stare from his face to the window. The world passed by and she couldn’t remember if she had packed her night cream. Making notice of nothing new, they quietly drove down the familiar road.

 

Wednesday Night Dinner

Wednesday Night Dinner   16"x20" charcoal and chalk pastel on paper

I got kind of artsy fartsy with this piece, it was my final project for my drawing class. I wanted the drawing to have a diorama feel to it. I also liked the idea of putting bright and bold figures in a dingy room.

Painterly Palouse

Tomer Butte Composition no. 6    24"x48"

Tomer Butte Composition no. 5  18"x24"

The most recent of my Palouse Compositions. I was looking at Van Gogh's Arles paintings and Cézanne when I was working on these. My intent was to distort the perspective a bit and draw the viewer in, to explore the painting.

Self Portrait 18"x24"

I was looking at the work of Egon Schiele when I went about this painting. I focused on the figure, attempting to create an interesting composition from the pose. It doesn't look exactly like me, I am however happy with the composition.

Surrealism

Three Bathers 18"x24"

For this assignment we were to create a surrealist type painting. I was looking at Miró and decided to experiment with biomorphic shapes. The composition is my surrealist version of Cézanne's Three Bathers, 1879-1882. This painting is a bit of a stray from my normal style, but I was able to learn from it. When I showed it to my husband he said, "That's interesting" and continued to describe it as something that looks like it's from the 1980s...and I responded with, "Thank you?"

Palette Knife

Palette Knife Composition 18" x 24"

This was the first assignment of my spring semester painting class. The instructions were to combine two romantic landscapes into one composition and apply paint using only a palette knife. For inspiration I was looking at Cezanne as well as the artist Robert Moore who is from South Central Idaho.

A Place To Think

A Place to Think  42" x 42"

 I ended up changing this painting quite a bit. I just wasn't satisfied, I'm not sure if I am now, but I'm closer.

Paralyzed

Terri pulled open the door, took two steps and then froze. It was the sight of an average sized house spider that had brought her to this abrupt stop. She was paralyzed by something that looked as though it wouldn’t survive a sneeze. Slowly she backed herself up against the wall between the noisy water fountain and the drooping palm, managing not to take her eyes off of the creepy crawly creature. She quickly scanned the lobby in a silent attempt to seek help and also as a reaction of embarrassment. The waiting room could have been any other dentist’s waiting room. A man sat with his head tilted back, his slicked-back hair formulating a grease spot on the outdated wallpaper. He moaned every so often; it probably had something to do with his swollen cheek. A mother bounced her baby boy on one knee and tried to soothe her scared and sniffling young daughter, she spoke in a strong confident voice, “You’ll be fine.”

 An old lady held a worn-out Reader’s Digest eight inches from her face. The lobby music, smooth jazz, couldn’t drown out the receptionist’s attempt to communicate with the non-English speaking patient that needed to schedule a root canal.

Terri was relieved yet troubled that no one had noticed her extravagant exit from the bathroom. As if going to the dentist wasn’t bad enough she here she was, now having a stand off with her biggest fear. On the fear list, spiders stood well above the fear of heights, fear of success and the fear of hitting a pedestrian with her car. It had also been one of her most embarrassing fears. As she stood cornered by the eight-legged arachnid she remembered the time when she was seven and Bobby Johnson had placed a plastic spider on her desk. She shrieked louder than Aunt Gretchen would sing at a Christmas party, and also as a direct result of the gag, Terri wet her pants. Bobby couldn’t have planned the disruption at a more perfect moment. All eyes of the classroom were on the nervous Shannon Hatley as she rambled on about the 5 to 7 inches of rain that Portland, Oregon had received which caused the rivers to flood. When the frightened Terri shrieked, 19 pairs of eyes moved from the current event report to Terri, and then to the puddle beneath her seat.

            The sound of her last name being butchered got Terri’s attention, “Ms. Rude?” The dental hygienist read from her clipboard with no confidence, “Ms. Rudd?”

            Terri looked up at the cute twenty-something girl in bright pink scrubs. The perky dental hygienist connected with the look of terror on Terri’s face, “Oh Ms. Rudd, there is nothing to be scared of.” The hygienist started to make her way across the lobby toward Terri. “It’s just a cleaning and check-up.”

            Terri’s eyes grew larger as the bimbo hygienist walked toward the spider with no awareness of its presence. Terri readied herself for the spider to run straight toward her. She tensed up and tried to calculate if she would be able to jump up on the water fountain. The hygienist’s crisp white sneakers tromped their way across the lobby’s worn out industrial carpeting. Terri began to perspire; her backside was now plastered against the wall, she felt around for something to grab but couldn’t find anything. She wanted to cry or scream or just say something. Terri felt the world closing in on her as the hygienist with her very white straight teeth and very white sneakers, neared her. The hygienist with her endearing gaze came closer to Terri, she began to reach her arm out to Terri and then, the hygienist’s size seven and half crisp white Reebok came down on the helpless spider. Terri relaxed, and the hygienist with her tilted head and extra wide smile, placed her calming hand on Terri’s arm, “That’s it, just relax. You’re going to be fine.”

Sneak Peek

Here are a couple of close-ups of my most current paintings, each painting is 4ft by 3ft...You'll get to see the whole thing soon, as they will be displayed at the Wawawai Winery this June.

Words of Wisdom

The coffee was kept on the top shelf of the cupboard.  I lifted my leg to the counter and pushed myself up. My boney knees wobbled on the cool linoleum as I reached for the giant red can of Folders. Although I was only seven, I was already a coffee making pro. Pavarotti’s voice blared into the kitchen from the living room—my dad sang along with the sad clown.

I had seen in movies, that a cup of coffee sobered people up, it hadn’t worked on him in the past, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I brought the steaming mug to his side and placed it on the table next to the ash tray, in front of the 20 ounce plastic cup of whiskey and water. I hoped that he might take a swig of my creation by mistake.  I was used to seeing my father like this—it was an average night at the Rudhe household.  My dad would drink, my mom would work and I would play in my room. That night’s routine however, was interrupted by my father’s serious tone, “Noël.” I turned and met him eye to eye. He had crouched down, his cold hand embraced my wrist. “You can do anything! You can be anything, anyone, go anywhere! There isn’t anything you can’t do,” He chuckled, and released my wrist, “just don’t forget to try.” He retired to his chair and lit a cigarette, I took the opportunity to run to my room and play with my Barbie.

A Still Life

Still Life Composition no. 1

This was my first attempt at painting a color still life. It's 9x12 inches on paper. I really enjoyed the challenge of painting so many shades of white. Many may think it's a boring piece, but I learned a lot from it by means of mixing and blending.

Tomer Butte Compostion No. 4

Tomer Butte Composition No. 4

The most recent of the Tomer Butte paintings.  Next, I plan to take on the challenge of painting the Butte covered in snow.   29inches x 32 inches

Composition No. 3

Composition No. 3

I heart making a monotype. With this one, I tried to bring out subtle textures within the ink as a way to intensify a soft palette.  22inches x 30inches

A Place To Think

A Place To Think

For the assignment, I was to create an abstract expressionist painting. For inspiration I looked at Hans Hoffman, I also was thinking about Cezanne and some of his still lifes. It's my biggest painting so far, 42inches x 42inches.

More Painterly Palouse

Palouse Composition no. 2

Palouse Composition no. 1

Here are a couple of my first attempts at painting the Palouse. There are so many different shades of brown in this area, I love the challenge of painting dirt.

Bad Idea

Bad Idea

He watched as the pavement came closer to his face, he could feel the one-wheeled contraption shoot away from him, into the distance. He watched his arms stretch forward—a protective reaction. It was this reaction, x-rays would later reveal, that caused his ulna to forcefully collide with his humorous resulting in a chip on his olecranon process, also know as a broken elbow. His wife had warned him…

Larry sat in the Kitchen amongst the smell of last night’s dinner festering in the garbage, he watched clip after clip on the internet, taking notes and ignoring the advice coming from the living room.

His wife raised her voice to just above normal.

“You know you’re going to hurt yourself,” she said as she watched Vanna in a bright red dress turning letters. “This is by far one of your stupidest ideas ever.” Her rant was cut short by a piece of popcorn that went down the wrong pipe.

The following day the decisive and confident Larry made his way downtown to the bike shop. He had snuck away for an extended lunch—work had been slow and he figured no on would miss the sound of his adding machine for a couple of hours. The sun was out but it wasn’t too warm. A heavy breeze prevented sweat on his brow, but bothered the hairs that were combed over his shinny baldhead. As he pushed open the bike shop’s heavy glass door, a small bell rang brassily. He was greeted by a mutt of a dog sniffing his feet and a voice from the back of the shop.

“Hey—how’s it going?”

Larry smoothed out his attempt at hair and replied, “Good, good.” He bobbed as he spoke. He glanced around the shop.

“Is there something I can help you find?” the twenty-something stoner of a bike mechanic asked.

“Well, I’m actually looking for a unicycle.”

The bike mechanic reacted with a tilted head and nodded with confusion, “Right on, right on, I think we have on of those around here somewhere.” He scanned the store and within seconds found a dusty unicycle hanging from a hook. As his grease stained hands retrieved the one wheeler he asked, “Have you ridden one of these things before?”

Larry reacted naturally with a lie, “Yup, had one as a kid.”

“You want to give it a test run?” the bike mechanic asked as he rolled the unicycle back and forth in front of Larry.

Excitement and nerves pumped the blood through Larry’s body as he took the unicycle out to the back parking lot. He recited to himself—sit up straight, look straight ahead, weight on seat, not pedals. The 43-year old-accountant placed a hand on the cool cinder blocks that made up the exterior wall of the bike shop. He looked down at the unicycle that he was about to master. Larry placed his right foot on the pedal that was highest—he took a deep breath and pushed down.

Not a winner

It didn't win, but that's ok...

i-scream

A good friend of mine owns an ice cream stand up on Mt. Hood. If you're ever in Government Camp, OR. on a hot summer day you can cool down with a Volcano Cone. Check it out on facebook...http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Volcano-Cones/161603977209499

 When I think of ice cream I think of being a kid...even though I eat plenty of the good stuff nowadays. I wanted to have a child-likeness with these designs so I stuck with bright colors and simple lines.