Lisa McShane Art

Rosa Moyesii 'Highdownensis'. Oil on Gessobord. 5" x 7". This week we've all been dismayed by the earthquake in Haiti. Like me, I bet you've thought about how you can help. I'm doing 2 things: 1. I'm donating this painting to the effort. That's right, it's for sale on ebay and 100% of the proceeds go to the Haiti Relief effort. Please consider bidding . This is Rosa Moyesii 'Highdownensis' - the flower that came before last week's winter rose hips . It's grows in tough places. An apt contribution to the enormous need in Haiti. 2. I'm participating in a worldwide art auction, 140 Hours for Haiti . This is a big effort that goes live on January 29th. So more later on that. If you're an artist - please visit the website to join this worldwide effort! Please bid today - the reserve on this auction is just 99 cents - so dive right in and join with me in sending a donation to Haiti. That's right, you bid, we donate, and y...

Rosa moyesii 'Highdownensis' Hips. Oil on Linen Board. 5" x 7". Rosa moyesii 'Highdownsis' is a massive shrub with a place of honor in my yard. And by shrub, I mean a 10' tall tree. It has tall, vertical canes, scary thick with dangerous thorns, and for 6 weeks in the summer covers itself completely with charming single red flowers with gold centers. Here's a painting of Rosa moyesii 'Highdownensis' from last summer. It doesn't produce many hips - there were perhaps 15 on my shrub following about 1,000 flowers - but the ones it provides are fat and shiny. They were all perched at the end of the thorny 10' tall canes but I managed to cut off a few. 'Highdownensis' is feeling the end of winter as the growth buds were pushing out on the stems. We had sunshine today and the yard was alive with robins, jays, little brown guys and some robinesque birds I totally plan to look up.

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.

Jude and the Apricots. Oil on Canvas. 10 x 8. $150- This is a Jude the Obscure Rose, one of the David Austin English roses. Couple of great things about this one: it blooms mid-July when many roses are resting or done, and it has an incredible fragrance. Fruit, vanilla, with a bit of classic rose - lovely and strong but not overly sweet. It's a globular shape, deep gold stamens inside, and this enchanting apricot color. Pictured here with the same apricots from the previous painting. They're a little riper and thus redder. The rose is in a Twin Brooks Dairy cream bottle. We're just around the corner from Nelson's Market in Bellingham and they carry Twin Brooks milk from a Whatcom County dairy. I love walking to the store to get local milk in a glass bottle. Better quality, smaller carbon footprint - all good.

Pink Rugosa. Oil on Canvas. 10 x 8. This is a Ritausma Rose, a Rugosa. It's a fantastic, sweetly scented and freely flowering rose. One of my husband's favorites. My roses are not grafted, they grow on their own roots, and so with a rose like Ritausma, it has cool thick brown stalks shooting up from the ground. I've had it for 3 years and in another two, it will be a wonderful thicket. The thicket makes the following happy: my husband, the birds, the neighbors and all the people who walk by on the sidewalk.

Roses and Milk Jar. Oil on Canvas. 14 x 11. This is a small painting of a David Austin English rose, Jude the Obscure, with the lovely Duchesse de Nemours peony. What great flowers! With summer in full swing, I've been painting flowers this week. The milk jar is a bonus of where I live. There's a great corner store a block away that carries milk in glass jars from a local organic dairy. I always have one or two on the kitchen counter waiting to be traded in for a full container.

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.