White Cabin by the Pond

Oil on canvas on panel, 6 x 6 inches -- SOLD

This is a piece I painted at the Sunnyside Park in Pullman, WA, before, then touched up in the studio today. The sun was getting low, casting long shadows on the rolling hills. I simplified the light patterns and shadow patterns in my composition, as it was already busy with a lot of stuff going on in the scene.

Wheat Street No. 2

Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches --

This is the painting I worked on this weekend. This is the second and larger version of another painting I did in the past (below). On the larger version, I added a few more details such as pipes and posts.  It reminded me how much fun it is to paint on a large canvas.

Sketch from the College Hill

Pen on paper, 6 x 8 inches --

This is one of the sketches I did during my last visit in Pullman. It was so overcast in the mid-afternoon that landscape looked less exciting for plein air painting without strong contrast of lights and shadows. I drove up the College Hill near WSU, and walked down a trail toward the bike pass along the rail road with a camera and sketchbook. This old building and grain tower was sandwiched between a highway and railroad with busy traffic and so on. But I drew only what I wanted to show. Plus I didn't want to spend a lot of time to include all other stuff around my main subject. I really liked the result. Nice and simple with enough information of tonal values. It could almost be anywhere. Now I feel like I could create a painting out of this. I think I'll do sketch like this more often and post it on this blog.

Sheep Meadow

Oil on linen on panel, 6 x 8 inches -- Click here to buy

Last week visited my husband who's working at WSU in Pullman, WA. On Sunday, it was sunny and less windy. So I went to the Sunnyside Park to paint. There's a farm house with sheep barn by this park, I painted this scene from the park side. There were several mother sheep with new born babies in the field. I spend a lot of time taking photos and sketching until the sunlight got lower and the light and color turned more ideal for the afternoon ambiance. I was drawn to the golden glow of the trees that were contrasting the silver-blue roof of sheep barn.

Yellow Apple and Silver Pitcher

Oil on linen on panel, 6 x 6 in -- Click Here to Buy

This yellow apple is also from the WSU fruit orchard shop in Pullman, WA. I love the nice big leaf with a long stem. Since their apples are not coated with wax like store-bought ones, you don't see many glossy highlights on them. I experimented on this painting by putting a piece of sky-blue craft paper on the right wall to create bluish reflective light. So the shadow has a little bit of blue tint, contrasting with the warm light source from the left.

For a limited time only, this comes with a contemporary black wooden frame. The frame has 7/8" face, with a crisp clean line and it is 1.5" deep. It is ready to hang or stand alone on a counter top.

Chicken Named Dove

Oil on canvas on panel, 6 x 6 in -- SOLD

This is my new chicken painting. This is a chicken named "Dove" that our friends in Pullman have as a pet. She is a white Ameraucana, so she lays blue-green "Easter eggs." This breed is partly descended from chickens that were in what is now Chile, before the first Spanish conquerors arrived. Humans crossed the Bering Straits land bridge from Asia to the Americas at least 10,000 years ago, but chickens were domesticated in Southeast Asia about 5,000 years ago. After that, chickens were carried throughout the South Pacific by Polynesians in their dugout sailing canoes. So the only way chickens could have made their way to South America before Europeans arrived was by way of... ...Easter Island! (Of course, that's not why we call blue and green eggs Easter eggs.)

Mrs. Robin

Oil on linen on panel, 6 x 6 in --


This is a female robin who was soaking up the sun by Mr. Robin. I think she is Mrs. Robin. Rendering branches to create specialty is a challenge.

Mr. Robin

Oil on linen on panel, 6 x 6 in -- SOLD

There are so many robins in the residential neighborhood in Pullman, WA. During a winter afternoon, many of them were soaking up the warm sun shine on the tree branches. I noticed that this robin was male, because of its vivid reddish belly.

Dancing Pears

6 x 6 in, oil on linen on panel -- SOLD

The other day, I got these pears from the WSU fruit orchard, in Pullman, WA. I like painting fruits from there because of the wide variety of colors and shapes I can choose from. The problem is that some of them have the bottoms in odd shapes, and have to sit in a particular way. Then I don't always like the way the stems are pointing at. This makes the still life setup even more challenging. So before I settled down with this composition, these pears dances all over the little stage for a while.

Red-tailed Hawk on Telephone Pole

6 x 6 in, oil on linen on panel -- SOLD

During a weekend, my husband Peter and I drove to Steptoe Butte, WA, from Pullman, taking a minor and more scenic rout. Peter spotted a red-tailed hawk on a telephone pole. Red-tailed hawks are the icon of the countryside around the Northwest.

Red Barn in the Summer

Oil on canvas on panel, 6 x 6 in. - 

This is another painting of a red barn I did in Spokane, WA, two weeks ago. It was a typical hot and sunny day of the summer in Eastern Washington. I liked this barn because it still has the old shingle roof, instead of shiny metal roof.

Pink Shack and Horses

Oil on canvas on panel, 6 x 6 in.

I painted this shack and horses from Sunny Side Park in Pullman, WA, in a cloudy afternoon. There were several horses in the pasture, coming and going briefly. There were some young ones, as well. Next time I will try varying the shapes and colors of the horses. When I saw the same scene on a sunny day, the subtle pink of the shed was not noticeable. I think it might be interesting to paint the same landscape under different weather conditions, as well as time of the day.

Meadow Yellow

Oil on linen on panel, 6 x 8 in. - SOLD

I painted this near Palouse, WA, a few years ago, toward the end of the summer. The yellow was unifying the scene so nicely with a patch of the blue sky reflecting on the water.

Wheatland Sunset

Oil on linen, 9 x 12 in.

This is a bird's eye of a wheat field from Steptoe Butte, WA. I painted this from a quick field study which I did on the hill just before sunset.

Three Trucks

Oil on linen on panel, 9 x 12 in.

I saw these trucks and red barn near Steptoe Butte in the Palouse region, WA. I took the photo and did painting at my studio later.

Antique Gas Light

Oil on linen on panel, 7 x 5 in.

I painted this antique gas light outside of an old brick building in Pullman, WA. The building is probably over a hundred years old.

Antique Store

Oil on linen on panel, 9 x 12 in.

This is a scene from the Main street of Palouse, WA, I was drawn to the rustic look of the building. I'm not even sure if they sell antique, but I title it "Antique Store" because it looks like an antique building itself.

Green Window

Oil on linen on panel, 6 x 8 in.

This is another painting I did at the same corner, but from a different angle. I loved the reflections of green leaves of the trees on the old fashioned windows.

Corner Flowers

Oil on linen on panel, 6 x 6 in.

I painted this at the intersection of Grand Ave. and Main St. in downtown Pullman, WA a few years ago, but didn't get to post it before. It was so noisy and the car exhaust was so bad, that I figured that it was not worth painting at a busy street corner. I was still in a shade to stay away from heat.

Bride & Groom (complete)

Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in.

This is the finished painting! After adjusting the skin tones and the flowers in the foreground, I enhanced the landscape in the back to add more points of interest. In this picture, the couple is on the top of a big hill in the Palouse region. The landscape signifies the beginning of their new adventures, and they wanted to emphasize the characteristics of the landscape to remember where they started their married life together.