Lisa McShane Art

Fields of Lucania. ©2014, Oil on Linen. 20" x 30". I am drawn to views of golden fields and skies. Simple farmland. I paint these over and over and sometimes I hesitate to show people. These paintings don't usually sell and it's clear to me now that these are images I paint just for myself. Practicing skies? Maybe. Thinking through light and atmosphere? Sure. Playing with shapes and composition? A little. But to me there's just something about these sweeping views of simple things. This one is in Basilicata, southern Italy, where we saw beautiful fields of wheat grown on a smaller scale than we're used to in Washington State.

Fall on Red Mountain. ©2014, Oil on Canvas. 22" x 44" Red and Rattlesnake Mountains are in the Yakima River valley of eastern Washington and they interest me in all seasons. The valley seems to capture and hold light and over the years, painting in the area, I've found some great vantage points.

Edge of the Sea. ©2014 Lisa McShane. 16" x 20". Oil on Linen Panel. I went fishing in May. It was a beautiful sunny day and I loved tracing the edge of the cliffs against the sky while people pulled in nets of fish, squid and octopus.

Toward the Islands. ©2013 Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 22x30" There's a beach not far from my house that's extremely contaminated. It's fenced off so that people don't walk their dogs but there's a small area where you can sit on logs and look out. I like to walk down there and look at the water. Towards sunset a small and varied army of watchers gathers to see what the sky and water will do. This is a painting I started nearly a year ago and struggled to finish. Most recently, the water didn't convey what I wanted. Yesterday I rode a ferry out to a nearby island and watched the water carefully, telling a friend what I was seeing. This morning I was able to complete the painting.

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".