New Website!

After much procrastination, frustration, and a little inspiration, my new website is up and running!  

NEquall.com

Check it out! There are lots of new paintings, updated information, and just...more.  More is better!

As long as you're here, I might as well share a couple of new paintings...

Away From It All  plein air pastel  12x24

Under Surveillance  20x20 pastel  

November Update

What a year this has been!  I've rolled up my sleeves, and am ready to get this blog up to date!

I have a solo show up until November 5 at Fisher Flowers and Fine Art in Roseburg, titled Painting The Dream.  The show looks great!

The annual Painter's Showcase show at The Reserve was mid-September, and I was very happy to receive an honorable mention for my painting The Golden Hour.

The Golden Hour  12x12 pastel   Honorable Mention Painter's Showcase

I participated  in four plein air events this year.  Here are a some of the paintings that I completed...

Wednesday Afternoon at Smith Meadow  12x24 plein air  (Lake Oswego Chronicles at the LO  Festival of the Arts- sold)

Tuesday at Luscher Farm  24x24  plein air oil paint  Lake Oswego Chronicles at the LO Festival of the Arts

12x 24 oil paint, plein air,  Willamette Valley Lavender Festival    sold

Ninety Seven  plein air pastel  12x12  (Willamette Valley Lavender Festival)

Discovering Gold  12x12 plein air pastel (WA County Plein Air)

Spring 2015

Bliss   12x12 pastel  N Equall

I was honored to have my painting "Bliss" chosen as best in show at the 2015 spring juried show at the Oregon Society of Artists.  What a surprise!

I've been on a cat painting kick lately.  I'm still painting birds too, but there is something so interesting about cats faces.  These latest tabby cat paintings are of our last inside/outside cat, Buddy.  He has been gone for about seven years, and I can finally see his photos without tearing up.  He was a real character, and was a big boy with a big personality.  Sadly, he was taken by coyotes.  My cats are now indoors, and are only allowed outside on a harness or in a secure area.  No more free roaming.

Here are some more cat paintings...

Pussycat, Pussycat  8x8 pastel  sold

Where Have You Been?  8x8  pastel  sold

 

Purr  8x8  pastel  sold

There is Nothing Like A Tabby Cat  20x20  pastel 

New ( Little) Paintings

I love making these little 6"x6" paintings.  These three will be making their debut at the Wild Arts Festival this weekend at Montgomery Park in Portland.  There is a link at the bottom of this post for a two for one admission coupon.  

The first one is one of my favorite spots to paint on Sauvie Island, just off Rentenaar Rd.   It's a beautiful place, and has the added bonus that I can park on the side of the road and paint right out of the back of my car.  It seems like there aren't very many places around here where that is possible.  

Our Little Corner of the World   6x6  pastel  N Equall

This second painting was done on location at the Beaverton Creek Wetlands Natural Area, from the little bridge.  This painting was done plein air, which simply means it was done outside, on location.  

Beaverton Creek   6x6 plein air pastel   N Equall

This third painting was also plein air, and was also painted on Rentenaar Rd on Sauvie Island.  This canal is further down the road from the other location- almost to the dike, just before the boundary gate.  It was painted on a beautiful October afternoon, with sandhill cranes hanging out in the field to the right of the canal.  Their cooing conversations were magic.  

The Space Between   6x6  plein air pastel   N Equall

Click here for 2 for 1 coupon for admission to the Wild Arts Festival

Countdown to the Wild Arts Festival (and a link for a 2 for 1 admission coupon)

I'm feverishly working to get ready for the Audubon Wild Arts Festival this weekend (November 22 and 23) at Montgomery Park in Portland.  It's bananas around here!  I've got stacks of new greeting cards,and a bunch of new paintings all framed and ready to go.  I'm excited about the tan kraft paper shopping bags that were just delivered, ready to be filled with a new painting, crisp white tissue, and a black raffia bow.  

My booth will be located on the second floor.  From the escalator, it will be on the far right aisle, third booth in (#48).  I'm still pinching myself that I'm in the show- I'm just thrilled to pieces.

Here are a couple of  new paintings that I'll be bringing to the show...

Crow Family Portrait IX   12x12 pastel  N Equall

click the link below for the coupon

 Wild Arts Festival 2 for 1 admission coupon

Chip- The Indoor Cat    16"x16" pastel  N Equall



 Hopefully bringing the cat to an Audubon Society art show doesn't ruffle any feathers!

Wild Arts Festival Postcard

Here is the postcard for the Wild Arts Festival.  I'm so excited to have my crow painting featured on the card!  Happily, the original is available, and will be at the show.

I just shot some new photos of the little crow family that dines here at my house, so I will be working feverishly to have some new crow paintings to show at the festival.

Crow Family Portraits VII  12x12 pastel

What's New?

Here we are...November already!  The summer absolutely flew by.  I  have one new paintings to show, and a lot of work that needs a little more attention before it's ready for viewing. 

 I participated in Roseburg's Umpqua Plein Air competition in September, and am finishing up three paintings for the Oregon Society of Artists "200 for $200" show that opens this Friday night.  I'll post those soon- they're not quite finished yet.  I also participated in my first Painter's Showcase show at the end of September.  This painting won an honorable mention...

Goosey V  11x14 pastel

So now I'm working to get ready for the Portland Audubon Society's Wild Arts Festival, November 22 &23 at Montgomery Park in Portland.  I was thrilled to find out that they used one of my paintings on the promotional postcard as well as the two for  one coupon.  Sweet!!!
 Click here for 2 for 1 coupon- Wild Arts Festival

Lavender Festival, Art on Broadway and Muse in July

I've been busy!  The Yamhill Lavender Festival is this weekend (July 12 and July 13) and the plein air art show looks fantastic.   I have five paintings hanging at the show, and  I won an honorable mention for one of my paintings from Jackson School Lavender.  It's a wonderful event in beautiful Beulah Park in Yamhill, OR. It's a lovely 40 minute drive west from Beaverton, and is a great way to spend a Sunday.  Admission is free, there are vendor booths with lavender products, live music, food booths, beer, pony rides, and the plein air art show.  I'll be hanging out at the show tomorrow.

I am part of a group show with Painters Showcase this month at Art on Broadway in downtown Beaverton. The reception for the show is tonight, July 12 6-9pm.  The show will be up through July.

I I'm also part of a group show at Muse Art Supply in SE Portland at 45th and Hawthorne with other Oregon Society of Artists open studio painters.  I have four paintings hanging, and one of my paintings made it onto the Muse newsletter.  Woo hoo!  

A Tricky Start to the Plein Air Season

 And we're off.  Plein air season has begun.  I say this as rain pounds against my window.  It's just a spring thundershower, but wimpy me is inside with the heat on.  Maybe I'll go outside to paint tomorrow...

I did get my paintings submitted to Plein Air: A Chronicle of Lake Oswego which is part of Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts  June 20-22, 2014.  They were due last Friday, and even with the grandkids here, I got the photos of the paintings shot and emailed.  At least I thought I did. Yesterday, I got a frantic phone call and email from the organizers, wondering where my work was.  What?  I sent it.  And they didin't have it.  I had no idea that there was a problem.  No messages on the computer that it didn't send...nothing.  The organizers graciously allowed me to resend the images.  I'm not kidding...it took 15 emails to get the images to them.  Six images.  I tried sending them all at once, splitting them into groups of three, sending them individually...and they finally all got there after 15 tries.  Some of the emails just vanished in transit, which I think is really weird.  I don't get it, but I'm happy that they arrived!

Here are the pesky images that they will be picking from...all painted on location in spring weather at Lusher Farm in Lake Oswego, and the Upper Easement next to Jantzen Island.

I Know A Place   12x24 plein air- oil paint   N Equall

Through The Trees   12x12 plein air pastel  N Equall

A Warm Welcome  12x16  plein air pastel  N Equall

The Way Things Used To Be  12x12 plein air pastel  N Equall

Lucky Clover  6x6 plein air pastel  N Equall

Along The Path  6x6 plein air pastel  N Equall

May 2014

I've been busy painting at Lusher Farm for Plein Air: A Chronicle of Lake Oswego.  It was such a wonderful surprise to be invited to participate, and it's been an adventure trying to get back into the plein air groove.  It's coming back...slowly.

One of the best parts of Lusher Farm for me is the dog park.  It's big, the views of the hillside and farm are beautiful, there are nice restrooms and safe parking.  I took Deuce, my sweet chocolate lab, with me to paint last weekend.  It was his 11th birthday, so to celebrate he got to spend an entire afternoon in the previously unexplored timid/shy dog area of the dog park.  It was great!  In the past, we've gone to the big, all purpose dog area.  The last time we went I realized that while my boy is still full of fun, he can't keep up with packs of young adult big dogs.  So we tried the other area.  Deuce had a blast meeting a steady stream of non-aggressive dogs that were more into sniffing then wrestling.  I met some very nice folks who had their dogs there for some off leash fun, and got started on a couple paintings for possible inclusion in the plein air event.

On Monday, I went to my first Painter's Showcase meeting.  I'm so excited to be a new member!  I had to pinch myself- I was sitting there with more than twenty of the area's finest artists that chose me to be in their group.  I'm thrilled to be part of PS, am excited to get to know the other members, and be part of the big show they put on in September.

I also received notice today that I've been accepted into the Wild Arts Festival in November.  Yippee!  I was rejected a couple of years ago, but tried again this year with a more cohesive body of work, and a clearer vision of what I really want to be painting.  Birds.  Wetlands.  Nature Refuges.  Repeat!

I am so happy to have these awesome additions to my art show calendar.  It feels great!

Plein Air: A Chronicle of Lake Oswego

I am excited to be an invited artist participating this weekend and next in Plein Air: A Chronicle of Lake Oswego.  I'll be painting this Saturday, May 10 at Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego, and somewhere down by the river with Jackie McCartin at Foothills Park/Roehr Park  on Sunday.  My fingers are crossed that the weather is cooperative!  Paint out days are May 10-11 and May 17-18 Finished artwork will be displayed at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts June 20-22.

-click on the link below for more info, and to see a list of the other participants-
Plein Air: A Chronicle of Lake Oswego

Three shows this weekend!

This weekend I will be in three shows here in the Portland metro area.

Chip  8x8 pastel     at Celebration of Creativity this weekend!

Celebration of Creativity starts this evening and runs thru Sunday at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, OR.  I have ten paintings hanging, twenty framed and unframed paintings in the bin, and lots of cards.  It is always a wonderful show.   The church becomes a big gallery.  It's not a booth type art show. This is the first time that I've been invited to participate, and I'm thrilled to be part of it!  Click here for more info.

I will also be participating in the Buckman School Art Show and Sell, at Buckman Elementary School in SE Portland (close in).  This is my fourth year being asked to participate, and it's sure to be lots of fun with lots of great arts and crafts.  This is an art focused elementary school, with something for everyone.  They have performers on stage, more than 100 artists showing their wares, and an art room so kids can try their hand at different activities.  It's running this year Sat 11-7 and Sun 11-5.  Click here for more info about the Buckman art show

Sunday afternoon is the Oregon Society of Artists Spring Juried Show at their gallery in SW Portland.  I'm going to try to make it for the ribbons, which will be awarded around 2:30.  I have one painting entered into the show.Click here for info about Oregon Society of Artists

Fall Home and Garden Show at the Expo Center Oct 3-6 2013

Crow Family Portraits VII  12x12  pastel  N Equall

Well, I made it!  Today is the seventh and final big art shindig in the past six weeks.  I can't believe it's already here.  In a couple of hours, I'll be setting up my booth at the Fall Home and Garden Show at the Expo Center in Portland.  The show runs Thursday thru Sunday, and I'll be part of the artisan village. Apparently my booth is conveniently located across from the chainsaw carver.  No kidding.  All I can do is laugh, and take some ear plugs.

Crow Family Portraits VIII   12x12  pastel  N Equall

I've got a few new paintings making their debut's, including two more from my Crow Family Portraits series. In case you missed it, I have become the crazy crow lady in my neighborhood.  One of my neighbors asked me why I feed the ravens. That cracked me up.  We don't have ravens here in the suburbs, but we do have crows, and I have been feeding a beautiful pair that work this sector of the neighborhood for a couple of years.  Just the two of them. Well, until this past July when my pair showed up with three loud fledglings.  I had thought that my pair were siblings.  Wrong again!  Anyway, they enjoy eating our table scraps and the babies hang out here part of the time while the parents go out to work.  I love watching their antics.  They are adorable, and very curious.  Sometimes they sit on the gutters and try to look in the windows when I'm working in the studio, or holler at me from the tree outside my bedroom window.

Click here for coupon for the Fall Home and Garden Show

People's Choice Twofer!

Yamhill County  24x24  pastel     People's Choice winner at OSA Fall Juried Show '13

 I was very honored to be awarded the People's Choice award at the Fall Juried Show at the Oregon Society of Artists Gallery in Portland, OR.


 I also was awarded the People's Choice award at the Hillsboro Plein Air event last week.  Along with a lovely ribbon, I won a beautiful Guerilla pochade box and gift certificate.

Thank you to the People!

Hello Autumn  11x14  plein air pastel    available at the Walters Cultural Center Gallery in Hillsboro OR thru October 2013

Umpqua Plein Air 2013- Best of Show!

First Look   6"x6" plein air pastel  Best of Show- Umpqua Plein Air 2013

This was my third year participating in Umpqua Plein Air, put on by the Umpqua Art Association in Roseburg, OR.  As in previous years, the plein air event was wonderfully organized, with all the information spelled out ahead of time.  The actual schedule of events was different from previous years...this year, the quick draw was held for two hours on the afternoon of the first day.  

I arrived in Roseburg about an hour before the event began, so I had a chance to check in to my favorite little place to stay in Roseburg, the Rose City Motel.  It is the cleanest and most comfortable motel I've ever stayed in, and at about $50 per night, it is a real bargain.  The rooms look like they are straight out of Country Living magazine circa 1983.  I was in the garden room, and the bed was as comfortable as my own at home.  

The quick draw was held in the park outside the Umpqua Art Association gallery.  My painting was nothing to write home about.  It happens.  Plein air painting is hard!  

Quick draw entry- photo shot in the back of my car, complete with reflections on the glass and poor color choices.  It started off a pretty nice painting, but I killed it somewhere along the way.  Oh well.

There was a catered dinner in the park after the quick draw, followed by a nice talk from the show juror Brenda Boylan, who spoke on the Good, Bad and Ugly in regards to painting plein air. 

The next day dawned partially cloudy, with a high chance of thunder showers.  I had signed up to paint at the Norris Blueberry Farm about ten miles NW of Roseburg.  The farm was awesome.  I wandered around for about a half hour, taking lots of photos and trying to decide where to set up my painting gear. Once I got near the pond (complete with two swans), I knew my search for a painting place was over.  It was absolutely amazing. The swans begged to be painted- beautiful white feathers, exotic black lined eyes and beaks, and then those weird legs that looked like their flesh colored tights were falling down.  They spent over an hour preening themselves on a little island just off shore from where I set up my easel, and I was very tempted to paint them, but I just couldn't once I started to really soak in the territorial views.  

I couldn't decide which view to paint, so I started two paintings- one looking north, and one looking east. I could see both directions from my easel. Because of the chance of rain, I set up my big Eddie Bauer beach umbrella from Costco.  It's huge, it's beige, and it works.  

I am a fair weather girl, and I just don't paint outside when it's anything but dry and pleasant. That is, up until now.  This was a timed event, and I had until 4 pm to produce something for the show.  I was pretty excited about the sky show that was going on, and the constantly changing state of the light on the landscape.  A pretty major storm was moving into the northwest, and it was fascinating to be a witness to the subtle and not so subtle changes.   

I chose to do a 6x6 and a 12x12 painting for the competition.  I hoped that at least one of them would turn out ok.  I never know if my idea is going to pan out, especially with the added stress of being in a timed competition.  Painting outdoors is challenging under the best of conditions.  I settled on my compositions, sketched them in, and using thin oil paint, completed both underpaintings.  It was feeling pretty humid outside, so I did a little blotting onto the underpaintings to try to get them to dry faster.  I didn't want to put much pastel onto the surface before the Gamsol was dry, as it melts the pastel onto the surface, and gives a darker look to the light colors.

photo- the view to the north, Norris Blueberry Farm

The 6x6 almost painted itself.  As soon as I noticed the sun lighting up the edge of the treeline, I was interested.  Then I noticed the trees that were a bit further back, and that I could see through the trunks to the fields behind.  That was it. I was totally besotted with the scene.  I love it when that happens!

The 12x12 scene was almost as easy to choose.  The view up the valley was spectacular, especially with the storm clouds piling up against the mountains to the east.  Purple and blue. Delicious!

I had not really planned for inclement weather.  I had a fleece zipup, but I had neglected to bring long pants or real shoes.  I was fresh from Hood River, and it had been around 90 degrees there.  If not for that Eddie Bauer umbrella, I would have been up the proverbial creek.

As the storm blew in, it got colder.  The wind started blowing.   And then it started raining.  Hard.  I saw other artists make a run for cover, and I thought about packing it up, but then I realized that I was dry under my umbrella. My easel, cart, pastel box- everything stayed totally dry.  I was chilly, but dry.  I figured I may as well stay put and finish my painting.

I was amazed when, in the middle the pouring rain, there was a tiny break in the clouds behind me and a brilliant ray of sun lit up the trees I was painting.  It lasted about 45 seconds, and was absolute magic.  I've never seen anything like it.  Probably because I NEVER paint outside when it is raining. It was fun adding the bright gold sunlight to the back of the field in my painting, and made coming up with the title much easier!

Sunbreak   12x12 plein air pastel    N Equall

I had no problem finishing both paintings before 2:30, and was even graced with a break in the rain, allowing me to pack up and get back to my car without getting soaked.  I backed into an open shed, and got both paintings framed without incident, and then safely turned in at the art center.

I was totally surprised and thrilled to be awarded best of show for my little 6x6 painting First Look.  The paintings from the plein air event will be on display at the Hallie Ford Gallery at the Umpqua Valley Art Association in Roseburg through October.

I'm looking at these cloudy skies a little differently now, and actually had another opportunity to paint an approaching storm a couple of weeks later at the Hillsboro Plein Air event. More on that next time...

Intermission- between Hood River and Roseburg

Yamhill County  24x24 pastel  N Equall

September has been my art vortex of craziness.  The saga continues...

Cluck  12x12  pastel - Note there are weird reflections in the glass- I will replace this image as soon as I get the painting back...I forgot to take the photo before framing, and figured awful was better than nothing! OSA Gallery

PNPA was finished, and I had one day in Portland before I had to be in Roseburg (175 miles south of Portland).  I was afraid that we were going to run out of food for our diabetic dog while I was out of town, so I cooked up a batch of chicken, vegetables and barley, did five loads of laundry, straightened up the house,  framed two pastels for the OSA Fall Juried show, dropped them off at the gallery, and repacked for the three day plein air competition in Roseburg.

Crow Family Portraits IV  pastel   N Equall
Artreach Gallery thru 9/29/13

I was already committed to participate with the Westside Artist Guild in a group show at the Artreach Gallery in downtown Portland in a show titled Five O'clock Shadows.  I decided to use only bird paintings for that show, so before I had left for Hood River,  I packed and delivered ten 8x8 pastel bird portraits , and three 12x12 crow portraits for my friend and artist Patty Gifford to deliver to the gallery for me.  That show will be up thru September 29.

Next time...Umpqua Plein Air 2013!

Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2013

All I Ever Wanted  6x6  plein air pastel  N Equall

This past month has been bananas!  Like the rest of my crazy life, everything happens at once, and September has been no exception.  I participated in three plein air competitions,  had 15 paintings in two group shows, and have been preparing for the Fall Home and Garden Show at the expo here in Portland, OR which will set up Oct 2.

May Days  6x6  plein air pastel  N Equall

At the end of August,  I went to the Columbia River gorge to participate in Northwest Plein Air 2013, a juried plein air event put on by the Columbia Art Gallery in Hood River, OR.  A juried event is one where the artists submit an application with examples of their work and the organizers choose who they want to participate, in this case 35 artists.  This was my third year participating in this event.   I rented a great one room cabin in White Salmon, WA using www.airbnb.com.  It was just across the Columbia river from Hood River,and served as a peaceful home base during the five day paintout.  For this event, each artist could submit up to five paintings at the end of the five days of painting, all done in plein air, meaning they were all painted outdoors in the open air, and had to be painted within the past year.  

Fluorescence  11x14 plein air pastel

I was a bit nervous about the weather.  It had been stormy during the week before the event, and the hard rain actually woke me up the night before the event started.  I was pleasantly surprised on the first day when the alarm went off at 6 and the sky was bright pink with no clouds in sight.  It ended up being hot and sunny during the days of the paintout.  I brought two finished plein air paintings with me, one painted in May across the gully from the Tom McCall Nature area in Rowena, and one painted at Wild Rain Lavender Farm in Yamhill.  I painted and framed three new paintings during the paintout- two painted at The Gorge White House, and one painting of the view looking east down the gorge from the AniChe Winery in Underwood, WA.

Painting is normally a solitary endeavor, although I do attend a weekly open studio at Oregon Society of Artists, and oftentimes paint outdoors with another artist or two.  Attending plein air competitions is the complete opposite- lots of people painting similar subjects in the same real estate.  I love getting to know the other artists, but it can really mess with my mind to see other artists doing spectacular things when I either haven't started, don't have a clue as what I'm going to do, or don't like what is happening on my easel.

Inevitable  11x14  plein air pastel  

Then there is the problem of where to paint.  The gorge and surrounding areas are stunning, but deciding exactly where to paint can be a real problem.   The organizers had suggested painting locations every day, and they were all terrific.  I have to find some type of connection, inspiration or emotion with the landscape if I hope to come up with a painting that pleases me.  That little piece of the puzzle can be elusive. It's always such a relief when an idea for a painting  floats up to the surface like the answer on a Crazy 8 ball.

 I struggled a bit, but finally came up with three paintings that I wasn't embarrassed to let people see.   I spent my last day at a nice quiet park with a boat launch on the Washington side of the river where I touched up and framed my finished paintings.  I really wished I had found that park earlier in the weekend, because it had a beautiful brushy wetland area with the gorge as its backdrop.  Next year.  

The Sunny Side   12x12 plein air pastel

As Labor Day weekend came to a close, I turned my paintings and cabin keys in a day early, and drove back to Portland to spend an extra night at home to do laundry, regroup and repack the car before driving to Roseburg, OR to participate in Umpqua Plein Air 2013.  

The Plein Air Northwest show at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River, OR will be up thru September 29.