The Chairwoman

Old Blue
Acrylic on Canvasboard

I've been participating in a couple of online painting-a-day challenges. Finished 30-in-30 Challenge for January 2017 with Leslie Saeta www.saetastudio.com --she's posted that she'll be hosting another such challenge in September 2017--and I'm now in the midst of another challenge of a painting each day for March--see public group page Today-Start Art on Facebook.

One would think I would simply paint something every day. Why the reliance upon a challenge to motivate me to show up in front of the easel?

I'm thankful that for whatever the reason I have, because I can see my painting taking on a recognizable style. This has been a revelation to me, as I've always been rather loose with my painterly approach. I know I wouldn't have gained this insight or self-realization if I hadn't daily been applying paint or sketching. My results are changing. I hope it's for the good.

In line with this most recent challenge, I'm finding I'm drawn to those objects that occupy home interiors, such as accessories, beds and most noticeably, chairs. Heretofore I've painted flowers, landscapes, seascapes. But with this most recent stint of painting chairs are making their way into my painting world.

Chairs. Is there a metaphor for chairs? I came across "empty chairing," which because of recent political connotation refers to leaving a chair empty during the course of a debate to indicate and embarrass the chair's occupant/candidate who chose not to participate. But I don't feel that's germane in my instance.

There's also the reference to ritual of leaving a chair empty during Jewish circumcision ceremonies, set aside for the prophet Elijah. Well, I'm not Jewish and I don't participate in such ceremony.

All references, though, seem to highlight the missing person. Am I acknowledging a person missing in my life? Am I the missing person that I need to find and take my chair?

Maybe there is NO rhyme or reason for the chairs. In any case, I think I'll continue painting chairs until something else shows up demanding to be painted.

Works for me!

Little White Chair in the Bath
Acrylic on Canvasboard 8"x 10"

Alfred's Red Chair
Acrylic on Gallery-wrap Canvas 3"x 3"

Preliminary Sketch
on 9"x 12" Gallery Wrap Canvas

What Next?

There's always something old and something new, kind of like marriage. Kind of like life.

Although Little Dog Art Gallery is only one year old, it is going to become the something old. Not sure what I'll keep doing with it. The brick and mortar will close, no lease, no cleaning the floor and toilet, no interacting with gallery visitors and gallery activities. But the website and the blog will remain active. The website is set up for online sales. I hope there will be an ongoing viable path to represent other artists and their art.

I don't know YET what that will look like and how it will function. To be continued ...

In the meantime, nothing remains in stasis, everything is dynamic, always changing.

Even though I'm probably better known for my photography, I've been at the easel trying some new painting approaches. I want to take my images in a different direction, so I'm experimenting.

Results are rough and unformed. I seem to want to simplify my imagery. More conceptual? More minimalist? I don't even know yet how to define it. It's too early to define.

Even my color scheme is changing, becoming more earthy.

Something feels good about the direction.

Show of Hands Acrylic

My Doggone Dog  Acrylic

Daybreak  Acrylic

The Small Things ...

Sometimes the smallest things make or break a day.

This has been the hardest Spokane winter I've experienced since moving here in 2011. I'm told it actually has been a typical Spokane winter, and the other winters I experienced here were very mild. The ice has been challenging to my aging lack of balance and nonexistent recovery capability. Shoveling snow hasn't been on my list of fun things to do.

Admittedly, conditions are/were far worse in other locations. I suppose I should be grateful for what I experienced. And that's where small things have made my day. Today I didn't have to clean snow and ice off my car. I didn't have to shovel any snow. I was able to walk across the parking lot without falling on icy asphalt, and I was able to walk across the street without having to climb awkwardly over an accumulated berm of ice and snow. It made my day!

I safely and successfully made it to the gallery, where I've been working on the incoming March exhibit; the last exhibit of my LITTLE DOG Art Gallery, which will close the end of March.

I've been thinking about the year since opening the gallery. I had grand ideas. Some turned out well, some flopped, but I had a great deal of fun with all of them, with the artists, the gallery visitors, the neighborhood ... the awesome experience gained and lessons learned!

Long ago, a dear friend gifted me a lovely hand-marbled paper mobile she had made. After all of my moves and inconvenient locations, I finally found a huge window--at the gallery with its 9' high walls--in which to display the mobile. Every day I've enjoyed watching it move on the slight breeze from the gallery door opening and closing, or from the winter heat register just below it. The 1" brightly marbled paper circles have danced and entertained me.

Having the gallery experience was incredible and I'm sad that it is coming to an end, but those small dancing bits of paper made my day every day for this past year!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know?

Well, you'll notice there's a gap of about a year since my last post. Hmmm where, oh where has Kay West been?

Mid-March of 2016 an opportunity inexplicably presented itself, and I leaped on it! I opened LITTLE DOG Art Gallery, a brick and mortar fine art sales gallery in Spokane, WA, along with my silent partner sister, Mel.

Everything moved very swiftly and before I knew it I was scheduling upcoming art exhibits, hanging shows, arranging for in-gallery activities and artist receptions, lots of bookkeeping and paying out of commissions, meeting people, talking with gallery visitors, up to my eyebrows in art biz, et cetera.

It has been an awesome, invigorating, growth experience! I've met so many cool people and talented artists here in Spokane! Initially I was only showing other artists' work, but in the last couple of months I've started exhibiting some of my own paintings. You can check out Little Dog Art Gallery on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, plus our website at www.littledogartgallery.com.

Yes, I've continued painting and taking photographs. I had a dozen of my Bondo Series photographs in a summer exhibit at Liberty Building Art Gallery in Spokane. I was invited to exhibit work in a December group show at Marmot Art Space in Kendall Yards, Spokane.

"Red Lamp" in Liberty Bldg Art Gallery, Summer 2016

"Golden Nut" in Liberty Bldg Art Gallery, Summer 2016

"Frontal, Bondo Series" Marmot Art Space, December 2016

"Golden Curve, Bondo Series" Marmot Art Space, December 2016

Yup, Here I am posing in front of my displayed work at
 Marmot Art Space, Kendall Yards, Spokane, WA

I've pushed forward with my painting, so my work is becoming more loose, playing more with movement and pattern rather than realistic rendering a specific object.

It's been a fun year, with more growth and exploration to come!

Top o'the Morning to ya, Spring!

Adjusted my clocks around the house as I slipped into Spring mode this morning. I am already enjoying this change, as everything seems to sprouting a little bit earlier this year. Is it just my imagination or am I experiencing global warming up close and personal?

It was rainy and dismal most of the day, but I had picked up some daffodils at the grocery store--mine aren't yet up--and they provided just the energy lift I needed.

So, with a tip o' my Tam to St Paddy's Day, here are a couple iPhone shots of the green!

Happy Spring!

Featured by @jj_colorlove (Instagram) on 3/8/16 

Verbatim 2015: An art + text collaboration

It was a first for me, back in October of 2015; a collaboration of my photography with the poetry of Spokane's Christopher Cook. I was excited to be invited to participate in Verbatim 2015, an annual fundraiser for INK Artspace and Spark Center.

I first met Chris at the organizational meeting and found him to be open and receptive to working with me--my being a bit under the Spokane art scene radar--and to combining our respective talents. Chris is a long-time Spokanite, whereas I've only been here for about four years, and a rather reclusive four years at that.

He provided me with a lot of his published chapbooks and poems so I could get a feel for how he wrote, and he came on this blog site to see my photography. And so it began.

Chris is not only well-respected in poetry circles, but he also teaches at Gonzaga University and plays trumpet in the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. With his extensive background, he provided me with a list of visual resources from which to choose. He itemized places, which I then wandered around and photographed. Chris also pulled some strings, taking me through the Bing Crosby Theater and the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, where I sought to find some interesting behind the scenes shots.

This turned out not only to be great fun, but also an excellent means of learning how to get around downtown Spokane. Even though I've lived here for a time, I really had not explored much of the downtown area. Why not? Traffic is off-putting, so many one-way streets, abysmal parking, you name it. But, this experience forced me out of my shell, for which I'm most grateful!

It was quite exciting to work in this way. I am rather unstructured in what and where I photograph. This collaboration was awesome in forcing me to focus on the end product for a specific purpose.

I shared the photographs with Chris and he selected one grouping, a diptych of shots from The Baby Bar. This, as I understand it, is Spokane's smallest bar, located behind Neato Burrito on First Avenue.

Thus, the images were selected and the poet sharpened his pencil and went off to do his thing. I could hardly wait to read what Christopher wrote.

The evening of the gallery exhibit/auction and the corresponding performance of the written word came and went with great fanfare. Chris performed his farcical after hours essay, complete with musical accompaniment, and both of the photographs went to appreciative new homes!

Success!

What we experience along the way

I was returning to Spokane from a figure painting workshop at the Blanchard Community Center in Idaho and came across this really cool looking vacant/for sale church in Spirit Lake. Of course, I had to pull over and take some shots of the angles and lines it presented. Wouldn't you have done the same?

I love the serendipity of driving along and seeing some photograph-worthy subject matter I might not have had an opportunity to explore otherwise.

I realize I don't allow myself the time to wander just to be open to those happy happenstances. Winter is setting in and my forays into the mountains might be a bit limited for the season, but there are other places I can safely wander in the meantime. I simply need to fill the gas tank, make sure my camera battery is charge and block out time to go where the whim takes me.

Spirit Lake ID October 2015
Print information available on inquiry

I currently have eleven photographs on display at Park Place in Spokane Valley. They will be up for the rest of November 2015. The photo below is one of my prints on 14"x14"gallery wrap canvas.

Snowy Winter in the Country
2014  $100
Shipping Available

Instagram @Flaming_Rust Feature

I enjoy seeking out and photographing grungy, rusty "treasures" and every so often, like yesterday, I receive recognition for such. These four images of mine were selected for the solo @Flaming_Rust feature grid! I'm ecstatic!

@Flaming_Rust is an excellent Instagram gallery for all sorts of deteriorating and rusting objects. I urge you to check out their feed, awesome! You'll be amazed at all of the colors of rust!

Sunset Rust

Daybreak Deterioration

Riddled With Rust

Gate Post

All of the above images are available for purchase at my Etsy shop www.kweststudio8.etsy.com

I greatly appreciate the hard-working hubs and galleries on Instagram where so many of us find a forum for our gritty, grimy visions of artistic expression!

Photographing While Waiting in Spokane Traffic

I had attended an event in downtown Spokane and was heading home. While out and about I normally snap a couple of photographs with my iPhone for my IG. I hadn't encountered anything to that point, so I decided since there were a number of stoplights between where I was and home, I would photograph something whenever I was stopped, waiting for the light to change to green.

I just pointed my camera out the window and  *click* There wasn't time to decide what best to shoot. Simply stop for the traffic ahead of me and spontaneously shoot ... whatever.

It was simple. It was fun. I won't make a habit of it, BUT it was freeing to do something totally unstructured, impulsive. Well, not totally unstructured ... I did crop them after I got home.

Here are five of the "Waiting for the Stoplight to Change to Green" photographs:

Trying to identify the why

Over the years, I've been known to paint a wide range of subjects. I've learned much from each, but recently I've had an inner nudge to really get down and dirty into painting landscapes.

I've tried to understand the why of this decision. With unlimited subject matter at hand, why focus my efforts on the land?

I've driven across the continental United States and repeatedly have been awed by the flow of one land formation into another from state to state, even from one area of the same state to another. There's a compelling movement of land mass, water, foliage, forest, desert, plains, mountain peak.

If one lives in one area for all of their life, I think they might not experience the extent of that incredible motion, the flow and change of the land.

A new friend asked me to articulate what I hoped to "say" with my landscapes, and I was stumped for an answer. I glibly responded with, "I'm an earth sign Virgo."  Perhaps my resolve to try this is too fresh and unformed. I thought of the geometric shapes to be explored, playing with a different palette of colors, but such technical considerations fell short. The heart of the matter wasn't yet identified.

Then yesterday I came across a quote by photographer Annie Leibovitz:

"I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed."

Bingo! I realized that, with the medium of acrylic paint on canvas, I hope to convey my interpretation of the living energy of the land.

Here I go!

Gluten Free Art, Please

At the request of Jeanine, the owner of Cole's Fine Foods, I showed up with four of my acrylic paintings for display to sell. She was delighted with what I brought and we quickly had all four paintings up on the walls where she wanted them.

However, Jeanine kept going back to one of the paintings, a landscape. She said she liked the painting, but there was just something about it that was off-putting. She couldn't identify why. After discussing, it hit both of us that it was a painting of fields, very probably wheat fields this being Spokane.

That was it! Jeanine has Celiac disease and her bakery is totally gluten free! She was subliminally reacting to the "wheat" in the painting! We had a good laugh about it, and of course I removed that painting.

Next day I brought back a replacement painting. Jeanine's happy. I'm happy.

First time I've ever had a painting rejected because it wasn't gluten free!

"Fields" 16x20 acrylic painting $125

Jeanine happy with "Sunflower"

Cole's Fine Foods, 521 Holland Ave, Spokane WA 99218 ... Family Owned.Great Food.Gluten Free!

A Featured Artist at Wild Wild West Show in Spokane WA

I'm excited to have been invited to be one of the featured artists at the Wild Wild West Show at Manic Moon & More Gallery in Spokane, WA. I'm SUPER excited that Ric Gendron will be one of the other artists featured. I've been a fan of his work since I first encountered it about four years ago.

As some of you are aware, I've been posting a lot of images of Rust and Decay to Instagram. This has been an offshoot of my Bondo Series of photographs started when I lived in Redlands, California during the 1990s.  My Instagram photos, however, are solely iPhone photography in a square format.

I thought it would be interesting to present these Instagram photographs as tangible prints. I wanted to do something a little out of my comfort zone, so I've had the rust and decay images selected for the Wild Wild West Show printed on stretched canvas. I'm delighted with how well they've turned out and am curious to see how they'll be received.

The show opens Friday, May 15, 2015 at Manic Moon & More Gallery on Augusta (just off Monroe) in Spokane. Besides Ric Gendron's paintings and my photographs, there will be many works of art by other talented Manic Moon & More artists. It's going to be a terrific show! Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 11:00-5:00.

I'm going to include several of my images that will be in this show. If you want to see the rest of my iPhone images in this show, just let me know. All works are for purchase! Please feel free to contact me at kweststudio8@yahoo.com with any questions about the Wild Wild West Show, or about the images themselves.

You can view my entire Instagram gallery of iPhone images @kweststudio8. Let me know what you think; I'd love to hear from you!

Memory Wheel 14"x 14" Stretched Canvas $100

Orange Peel 14"x14" Stretched Canvas $100

Chain Link Corrugation 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Elk Skull 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Frenchy's Corset 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Paint Shreds in Pink 14"x14"Stretched Canvas $100

Oh! The photographs included in the RAA Featured Artist Display!

I forgot to include the images for the twenty or so matted photographs that are also part of the display now up at the Redlands Art Association in Redlands, Calfornia. I'll assemble those and post them within the next week.

Stay tuned ...

While I'm in the midst of posting this, I'll also add that I'm still having a ball posting and viewing photographs on Instagram. I have posted over 400 images in my Instagram gallery, but I've decided to refine the photographs uploaded to only black and white images from today through the end of April. I'm enjoying the challenge of taking photographs that make strong black and white images.

All of my Instagram photographs are taken with my iPhone camera. I'll share some of those on this blog shortly. If you just can't wait, go to @kweststudio8 on Instagram and see for yourself!

Show Time! Featured Artist Display in Redlands, California

As I type this in Spokane, WA my featured artist display of paintings and photographs is going up at the Redlands Art Association Gallery in Redlands, CA.

I still consider Redlands as "home," even though I moved up to Washington state in 2003. I lived in Birch Bay until 2011, when I moved to Spokane where I've been now for almost three years. Oh my! Has it really been that long, and my sister Mel Slater still puts up with me? Bless her and her roof over our heads!

The Featured Artist Show: I've been a member of the Redlands Art Association for over 30 years, and volunteered while I lived there in a number of capacities such as gallery manager, put together the newsletter, librarian, board of directors, workshop instructor, et cetera. A lot of time and effort was poured into that community art organization, just ask my sons!

With that background, I was tickled pink to be able to provide artwork for this featured artist display back in my hometown. Since I cannot be there, one of my other sisters, Sandy Davies, accepted the responsibility to mount the work for me.

The logistics have been a little different. The cost of shipping framed artwork to another part of the country would have been beyond my fixed income budget. Ever one to adapt, all of my paintings in this show are under 11" x 14" as are also the matted photographs. Nothing is framed. I kept to this size restriction so I could pack EVERYTHING in Medium Flat Rate USPS boxes. I'm told everything arrived in good order and Sandy is now using little metal clips to hang the artwork in a professional, albeit alternative, manner.

I'm thrilled that my friends and acquaintances who are interested can see what work I'm currently creating! I've already sold one of the paintings in the show and am thrilled about it!

I'm uploading photos of the paintings with this blog entry. Hope it all displays well for those of you who are interested and not able to make it to Redlands.

My show runs from April 19th to May 9th at Redlands Art Association Gallery at 215 E. State Street, Redlands CA. Their phone number is (909) 792-8435 where you can call about prices, and you can access their website www.redlandsartassociation.org  for hours and other information about the benefits and services they provide the community of Redlands and environs.

Birch 11 x 14 acrylic

Blossoms 11 x 14 acrylic

Amalie  9 x 12 acrylic

Blush of Morning 11 x 14 acrylic

Eucalyptus 9 x 12 acrylic

Daffodils in Blue 11 x 14 acrylic

Dusk Along Coast 11 x 14 acrylic

Mokume Gane 11 x 14 acrylic

Moonlit Geraniums 8 x 10 Acrylic/Colored Pencil

Night Wind 9 x 12 acrylic

Outside In 11 x 14 acrylic

Silhouette 8 x 10 acrylic/pencil

Stuck With a Way Out 9 x 12 acrylic/graphite
(This painting is already sold)