Fall, Union Station

I have painted this scene from my window many times. Why?  It is never the same; the sky changes, the colors of the street change, and the light is always changing on Union Station. Each time I begin, my eye always catches these variations. The Phillips museum in Washington has just opened a show "Seeing Double:Van Gogh the Tweaker". Van Gogh repeated paintings, changing them and "tweaking"them. Which of my paintings are the best? I want you to decide

Red Light

I am back to the Plaza again. I really am drawn to the colors created by the stoplights. Of Course the winter gives added drama. I am not content to paint a scene that has no meaning to me. I respond to the energy of the city and that is why I paint cityscapes.

Snowy Evening, Grand Blvd.
This painting is of our snow in Kansas City two years ago;just a mess. I walked on the link in Crown Center and was struck by how really hard it was to get around. Of course most of the traffic had left for the suburbs. Snowy evenings are always beautiful in the city, as the lighting turns the snow beautiful colors. I never finished it-kind of a mess and started to sand in down to paint over it-my husband stopped me

and encouraged me to finish it-I needed one more piece for my show in September and this is how it turned out. Sometimes it is more interesting to work on a piece unfinished then a white panel. I may paint this is a larger format in the future. I could make Christmas cards.

Westheight, Rainy Evening

In the spring, I was commissioned by a former native of Kanas City, Kansas to create a painting of Westheight, the Historic district developed in 1915. My students, at Sumner Academy created a book of architectural drawings of the city with Larry K. Hancks, writing the history of the architecture. The book is entitled A Gift To The Future. His description of the beautiful district is as follows:
The design that was developed had streets in gentle curves that followed the slopes of the terrain, large lots with generous setbacks, utilities underground or restricted to the rear property lines, and landscaped parklets at the principle street intersections. At the time, it was one of the most advanced subdivision plans to be prepared anywhere in the Kansas City area. And as the area developed in the 'teens'and early '20's, much of the architecture was equal in quality to the planning.
The paintings was displayed to the Westheight Association August 13th.

A.M. Departure
I've been painting a series on trains this summer. I reworked this several times, as I wanted the focus to be on the city at the end of the bridge. I did like the door at the bottom as it reminded me of Edward Hopper's paintings. He also did many of railyards. I painted the door lemon yellow, but

that distracted from the city. My solution was-darken the yellow to orche. The train paintings are small, but who knows I might enlarge one. I haven't posted the other two, as I am still trying to make corrections.

West Bottoms After Rain
It has been a while since I have posted-not that I haven't been working-I have 8 new paintings for The Late Show Gallery in September. West Bottoms is the view from our bedroom. We have lived here a long time and have seen many changes. I have painted this view any times, starting in 1990. This is the lastest work.

Bright Lights, Saturday Night
A long struggle with this painting. I had finished it a few weeks ago and just didn't like the outcome-I have been looking at it out of the corner of my eye, and finally decided to make some adjustments. Is it done?

The National Weather Center Biennale
I returned from a great weekend in Norman at the National Weather Center Biennale opening. The art was diverse and with the theme of weather, provoked the viewer to appreciate the visual beauty of our planet and the drama of weather  changes in the environment. The juried show was stunning in the atrium of the National Weather Service. I entered Rainy Night, Kansas City and was pleased at the placement of the piece. The text was mixed up with a statement I made for another piece (this painting is not of the Plaza) but the theme fit both pieces so not much of a problem. The catalog is available at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum in Norman, Oklahoma. There are 100 pieces in the show.

Evening Stroll

This is going to get a "paintover" decided I hate this painting;large panel-I will use it for something else-the sky is really flat.Oh, Well!

Block in for Evening Stroll

small study for Evening Stroll

Evening Stroll

It has  been a while since I posted! Did a painting that did not work out and I worked and worked trying to fix it-I should just have moved on. My recent painting, Evening Stroll is I think more successful. Another Plaza scene in the rain. I was drawn to the asymmetry of the composition.
A note about the process. While I have done extensive plein air painting, I now work from photographs that I take-I usually have a camera with me. I think everyone needs experience in working in the landscape-an experienced plein air painter can make adjustments to photographs. Photos tend to flatten the scene and exaggerate contrast. I just have no desire to stand on a street corner and paint. Light can change in seconds, so I prefer to take a photo of the scene and make something that works-I also tend to paint out of my windows-but even that I usually take a photo for information.
I sometimes use a graph to quickly lay it in-why? Because it is very fast. I can block in the composition is half an hour-do I use this as a crutch? No-I have already have studied the photo and pared in down to what I think will work; the trick is to move on from the photo-but that is true in working outdoors-the important thing-have a passion for what a painter does-I have that passion with cityscapes. I did an 8"x10" study before I did a much larger painting, 20"x24". Again this is another aid that lets me plan my composition. Now I will put this painting way for awhile and then bring it out and see if there are corrections that need to be made.