This was a busy weekend! On Friday night we went to my art opening at CHASE, which was great fun and went really well. Here are a couple photos of my section of the show (thank you Heath!).

Saturday was my son’s 5th birthday! I can’t believe it! He’s an awesome kid, and these 5 years have flown by.

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Bright and early Monday morning I went down to CHASE Gallery (808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., Spokane WA) for the May-July show setup. It was a great experience and the show looks fantastic! I hope you’ll be able to come to the opening on Friday.

“Chase Galllery will be hosting a reception for Betty Hageman, Ellen Picken, Kathleen Secrest, and Jessie Lee Rasche on Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. during First Friday! Hope to see you here!” – Spokane Arts Commission

The 4 artists (including me), Karen Mobley of Spokane Arts Commission and one of Karen’s co-workers, whose name I really wish I remembered, all worked together for a couple hours to get the show up on the walls, and in the end it looked amazing. This photo is of some of my paintings, halfway through the decision making process.

Snow Cows / oil on wood / approx 12 x 20 in. / available in my gallery of available paintings / inquire / Love It guarantee

This is a painting of a snowy landscape in central Washington, halfway between Seattle and Spokane off I-90. There are some cows grazing and standing close to each other. Because it was snowy and overcast, the whole scene was washed out with a beautiful warm blue-grey.

I started this painting right over the top of an old painting ‘start’ that I’d set aside, and sketched in the trees and cows right over it. I thought about using  blue or grey for the sketch, since the scene is so monochromatic. But I decided I wanted there to be some excitement, so I sketched in the darker shapes with dark red. You can see evidence of that in the pinkish color around the edges of the trees. After that I focused on getting the colors and values right, and trying to get the depth and the feeling of the day. I love painting washed out snow scenes.  I’d love to read your thoughts.

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Aren’t color charts beautiful?

I did this color chart for my watercolor paints. I have six colors, and each one I mixed with each of the others. The colors with the “*” on them are pure. I had some funny surprises. Three of these colors are relatively new to me – I’ve been using them for about a month (hansa yellow, prussian blue and paynes grey), and they weren’t what I expected.

Hansa yellow is not nearly as cool as I had hoped, but it’s a lot more transparent than I had realized. The pressian blue mixed a bit differently than I had expected. And the paynes grey makes some really nice rich colors.

Next I’m going to make a chart and try out 3 color combos – looking for great neutral browns and greys.

I did the same thing for my oil paints a number of months ago and it was really useful.

On a personal note, Happy Easter! This morning a neighbor had an Easter party – an egg hunt and some other fun games. So cute!!!

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Here is the “finished” watercolor sketch of a father helping his daughter read and paint. I’ve started a new page where I’ll make ‘sketches’ available for $35: jessiesfineart.com/sketches.html. These will be paintings or drawings that are incomplete ideas, but that really like and want to “put out there.” If there seems to be interest, I’ll keep adding to the section. I’d love your feedback!

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Reading / approx 9×10 in / watercolor / email me to purchase or inquire

UPDATED photo.

In this painting I was going for a that feeling where you can almost see something but not quite… This one is a bit more abstract that the paintings I’ve been doing lately. What do you think?

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Scoters / 30×40 in / oil on canvas / available in my gallery of available paintings / inquire / Love It guarantee

Here is a watercolor self-portrait painting of me and my son walking in the park. I’m going to hang onto this one for a while – maybe keep it for my upcoming show at CHASE gallery. For available paintings, see my art gallery.

Yesterday was so fun. We bought some inflatable swards at Target and found a little alcove and had a nice long sward fight. And then we had a picnic at Rattlesnake ridge. I want to have a picnic again today, but the rain is pretty heavy and cold. Maybe I can talk him into it anyways. :)

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NEW:  I will be making some sketches available, unframed, for $35, on my sketches page: jessiesfineart.com/sketches

I’ve been painting some flowers set up in my window again… And in the process I pulled out some of the first flowers I painted. Here they are!

Above: Blossoms / 6×8 / oil on canvas / Visit Sketches Page

White blossoms from the back yard. I like the translucence that came through in the green soda bottle.

Below: Weeds / approx 9×9 / oil on canvas / Visit Sketches Page

These flowers look like black-eyed susans to me, and they are growing in huge numbers in empty lots around here. They’re very pretty.

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I got quite a ways on a new watercolor painting today. I’m putting it aside to ruminate on the background. I’m loving their portraits too much to be objective right now. (I’d love your comments!)

The last several weeks I keep starting and starting and starting – sometimes with great starts. But I haven’t been in the mood to finish anything. I just want to start! Which I guess is fine since sometimes I get into the mood to just finish things…

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