Lisa McShane Art

'In the field' a group show of northwest landscapes Lucia Douglas Gallery Exhibition: June 7 - July 29, 2012 Reception: Saturday, June 16, 6:30 - 8:00 Lucia Douglas Gallery is at 1415 13th Street in Bellingham. I'm thrilled to participate! 'Year after year, spring comes.' ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen, 24" x 24". This painting is on display in the show and it's my third painting of the Twin Sisters. Spring arrived while I was observing. 

'Summer Field'. ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 16x20". Some paintings come together quickly and some take a great deal of time, week after week. Then others can sit for months or longer on a shelf in the studio gathering dust, challenging me to figure out their issues. 'Summer Field' is one of the latter challenges. I believe I started this nearly a year ago. And then my vision for it faded. But I've always watched fields go by out the side window of the car. I find them compelling and I wanted to capture that quick glance. A few months ago, rather than start a new painting, I picked this back up and sanded it down, built up new layers, sanded them down. I like the texture and I'm satisfied with the colors and the sky. I finished 4 paintings last weekend, and this is one of my favorites. I just dropped it off for a show called 'In the Field' at the Lucia Douglas Gallery in Bellingham. The show opens June 7th with the reception June 16th,

'Mountains at Dusk'. ©2012 L McShane. Oil on Linen. I have most of my frames made for me by Steve Whalen at Mountains Edge Frames . They all look great but every once in awhile, there's a remarkable match between an image and the frame. I don't usually order my frames with a gold edge. In fact, this is the first one I deliberately ordered that way. But I did, and it's perfect. Just FYI, in case you're thinking about framing.

'Lonely Field', ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 20" x 12" I don't usually paint my dreams but an intense visual memory came back to me recently and so I captured it. Years ago I rode my husband and I rode our bikes across France camping in fields. He's a restless sleeper but I didn't really know that then. One night I awoke alone in a field with a full moon and fog. It was hard to see very far. The memory of that has stuck with me.

"Spring in the Foothills". ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 16" x 20" I've been painting outside when the weather is clear lately. In particular, an area to the east called the South Fork Valley. Usually I paint the view to the east because I'm keenly interested in capturing the mountains in changing light. But sometimes when I need shade there are overhanging trees with a view to the south: Anderson Mountain. Lately the grass has been crazy green with patches of mustard flowers. Until last week it's been a little cool and the snow patches were hanging on.

Lake at Night. ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 9" x 12". There's a cold and lovely mountain lake near me that I drive by often. There is very little public access to the shore so the glimpses I see are at 60 mph on Interstate 5. But this is what I see when I pass at night: a few lights reflected in the deep blue water.

River of Memory. Lisa McShane ©2012. Oil on Linen Panel. 24"x36". This winter - and I write that believing that Spring is not yet here - I've spent time painting in the south Fork Nooksack Valley, near the very small town of Acme Washington. This is the view to the east - the North Cascades. Specifically, the Twin Sisters. Yesterday my husband pointed out that one of the interesting features about the Twin Sisters is that no matter what angle you see them from, there are always 2 peaks visible.

Mountains at Dusk. ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen Panel. 15"x27". I've been sketching and painting in a beautiful valley just to the east of me for the past few months. This is the view. A friend has a property where I can draw and paint for hours. No-one stops by to ask what I'm doing or to tell me the great news that their niece paints watercolors. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) I love the quiet. There are ponds, rugged hills, a river and views of the North Cascades. Unlike much of the country, our winter has been cold and wet. The mountains have had a lot of snow and with the rain, we haven't seen them much. But every once in awhile they come into view, deep with snow.

Winter Lake. ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 20" x 16". It's been a dark winter here in the Northwest - we are all feeling the darkness and understanding gray in an entirely new way. These past few months I've been drawn to painting that dark, gray landscape, puzzling through the mystery of this area. A highlight for me these past few months has been a composition class I took with Deborah Paris . It was challenging - all of her classes are - but this one challenged me in a new way. Deborah had us draw the landscape onsite, then take the elements from those drawings and compose them into something new. No photographic reference, just drawings, notes and memory as reference material. This painting is a result of that.

Palouse Road. ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 36" x 50". I always have a painting of a road in progress in my studio. Now that this one is done, I'll be starting another one soon. This is the Palouse, an area of rolling hills in southeastern Washington. My cousin's wheat farm in Connell is on the very edge of the Palouse; the rolling hills are at their most distinct just north of Walla Walla. The soils are very productive for wheat and wine grapes and the patterns those crops create on the landscape add to the feeling that the entire world is rolling.

Valley in Winter. ©2012. Lisa McShane. 18" x 22". Oil on Linen. When I drive east in the winter across the Yakima Valley the sun sets early on frozen fields. It's not warm out but the sky is often glorious to the west.

Last year I ran across a painting called 'Cumulus' by a 19th century Russian painter named Fyodor Vasilyev. I loved it and decided to copy it. That's harder than it sounds. I started this painting in April, while at a workshop at Deborah Paris' studio, and signed it today. While working on it I narrowed the cloud, widened it, created a foreground, painted the foreground out, darkened, lightened and darkened the sky. 'Cloud', ©2012 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen Panel. 24" x 24".