Lisa McShane Art

'The Day the Clouds Blew Through'. Oil on Linen. 30" x 60". My solo show at the Lucia Douglas Gallery went well. Many thanks to all who attended! I was overwhelmed by the support and sales and so glad to see you all. I'm back to stretching large hunks of linen onto frames and priming all of it. The work begins anew.

Moonset over Bellingham Bay. ©2014Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen Panel. 16"x20" My office window faces west and this past summer and into the fall we had stunning and colorful sunsets. This day, the moon set at twilight. We've also seen an increase in air traffic at our nearby airport, creating contrail patterns in the sky.

'End of the Day, Gorge' . 2014, Oil on Linen. 44" x 44". The Columbia River Gorge has been a focus in my studio for the past month or so, ever since my husband and I took a trip there in September. It was a road trip that started in Spokane, Washington and took us down the edge of the state on the Palouse Scenic Highway, into Oregon and the Wallowa Valley.  We visited the John Day area, a sprawling National Park complex that we both found to be interesting and stunning, but with no accommodation or food. We ended up reaching the gorge near Celilo Falls at dusk.  I've scheduled a show, Lucia Douglas Gallery, this February. Right now that feels just around the corner and I'm spending long hours painting.

Road from Jump Off Joe. ©2014, Lisa McShane. Oil on Linen. 18" x 36" I'm delivering a commissioned painting today. It's of a road through wheat fields on a ridge in Eastern Washington. It's funny to me to be painting this road - this is where a large group of us went sledding in high school. I think we were supposed to be in class but there was snow. This is also where my husband used to run with his friends in high school, high above Kennewick with great views in every direction. He's got a great blog on geology here . Artists - you don't even want to know how many readers he has (yes, people love geology!) Click here for information on hiking in the area. The post I like to describes the ridge as "one of only 18 peaks total in Washington state to be isolated from a taller mountain by a radius of 25 miles of more." It's not that it's tall, it's just on its own out there.

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.

An inventory system for art should focus on tracking your art. It should do that easily, intuitively and it should quickly allow you to put together a list with images and prices for your gallery. It should also be a system that survives when your computer - for whatever reason - does not. I need an inventory that will last for 20 years; I hope my computer lasts 5 years. I've tried most of the art inventory software systems out there. I bought 2 or 3 and downloaded trial versions of the others. There was always something that didn't work and often it was that they were clunky or looked ugly. I'm an artist. I don't ever want to see strange cartoon icons. Some just had too many 'extras' that slowed down my process. I'm never going to use an art inventory system to write letters. I just need to keep track of my work. So I kept trying out new programs and then wrote about my research in this blog post here .  And in 2011 when Artwork Archive contac...