Lisa McShane Art

1 White Hellebore. Oil on Linen Panel. 4" x 6". I've been looking at the loveliest hellebore outside my studio for a month now. It's huge, with perhaps a hundred blossoms. This may not be my definitive work on the white hellebore but it's a start. I'll return to this again.

Dentelle de Bruges Hips. Oil on Linen Board. 5" x 7". I have a crazy amount of rose bushes. It's true. My urban lot is tiny yet I have approximately 70 rose bushes. And trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials - all the elements of green chaos. These hips are from a rose called Dentelle de Bruges that grows on our front picket fence. It's a huge brambly shrub that covers itself in small, sweetly scented white flowers in June. All winter we (and by we I mean my husband, the birds and me) enjoy these great multi-colored hips.

Dan's November Tomato Harvest We live in the Pacific Northwest, on the coast just south of the Canadian border. Not a hot spot in the tomato growing world. To compensate for our general lack of heat units and sunshine, gardeners come up with creative ways to grow what we treasure most: tomatoes. My husband has nailed it. Last year I was working in Seattle and so in late September he pulled the tomato plants out of the ground and hung them upside down in my studio. It was a mess! But it worked. This year he hung them under the deep eaves outside my big glass doors. For nearly two months I've had a shriveling green curtain with ripening tomatoes as my view. When my son told me about a remarkable sunset on Friday I told him I saw bits of it through the tomatoes! But it's paid off: these were picked yesterday. Amazing!

Heirloom Tomato. Oil on Gessobord. 5" x 7". SOLD We have had a bumper crop of tomatoes in the garden this year. Yesterday evening I went out to pick a big bowl of them to make sauce and found this giant one dangling from our heirloom vine, hanging over the alley. I had to paint it. I love the satin smooth skin with the bulging sides. I'm planning to have this one for lunch.

Late July my husband noticed a little wren each evening, just at dusk, next to my studio. It would hop onto the forsythia and yell a bit, then jump onto the wall by my light, then it would tuck itself under the eave. Just its tail poked out. He tried to identify it and narrowed it down to a regular House Wren or a Bewick's Wren. If you have thoughts on this, be sure to share it with me! The shot below is looking towards my studio from the garden. The Casa Blanca lillies were in full bloom and the sunflowers just gearing up. If I took the photo today it would be ALL sunflowers. They're making a serious attempt to take over the world. Or at least, this part of Bellingham.

Rosa moyesii 'Highdownensis'. Oil on gessoboard. 7" x 5". We've had sunshine here in Bellingham for over a week now and my roses are blooming. This afternoon I painted this cutting from my garden. Rosa moyesii grows like a tall shrub - it's about 10' tall with great dappled shade in my back garden. Single red roses. Love it.