A superstorm blew into Park City, Utah on February 18^th, 2016. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in five minutes when the storm overtook our town. I was so captivated by the drama happening in the sky, I pulled my car over to the side of the road and took pictures of the event. I have worked a whole series of paintings around that event, experimenting with the clouds, developing my techniques, exposing the reflective silver of the panels by scraping, buffing, and simply leaving it as negative space. My work is difficult to capture in a photograph as the reflective light quality is lost in the transition to a digital format.  The best way to experience my paintings is to visit the Summit Gallery or the gallery wall at Oohs and Aah’s in Park City! 

This rather large painting is currently in the Summit Gallery, 675 Main Street, Park City, Utah. I used different sizes of brayers to lay down the initial indigo and abstract the mountains and roadside. The area in the upper right is sanded with steel wool to let the silver reflection show through, bringing reflective light as opposed to the clouds which are painted, splattered and dripped into place. I felt like it needed some small shots of color and added the fuchsia to compliment the blues.

I have many incredible memories of warm summers spent on the lakes of Upstate New York. We would watch as the storms progressed from the far side of the lake to our shore, taking cover on the porch or, if we were at the beach, sheltered in the car until it blew over.  In the evenings we would often take a boat out to the middle of the lake and stargaze. These paintings are some of my happy memories.

I spent about ten years in Westport, CT.  Almost every day, I would head to Sherwood Island State Park, the oldest State Park in CT. It is a beautiful place and during the week, it doesn’t get many visitors.  It has a two lovely expansive, sand beaches on Long Island Sound, ruins of old farm houses, an orchard which must be from revolutionary times, wood and wetlands, (which make a wonderful bird sanctuary), and miles of paths to walk through it all. It is incredibly peaceful. This painting is a memory from my time on the beach at twlight, looking through the still grasses, across the sound to the lights on Long Island.