The art museums and architecture in culture rich cities such as New York City, Paris, London, Leningrad, Istanbul, and Lisbon to mention a few, plus a one year scholarship to study art in Japan and a one year sabbatical to study architecture and art for the purpose of creating an art history resource for my teaching endeavors for the Oak Harbor School District, have all enriched my work as an artist.
 
All this mixed in with my MFA studies at WSU have provided the tools I use to create my own fine art regardless of the medium. The visual arts are so much more than simply picking up a brush or chisel. For all well made art, the foundation for creating enduring work requires a solid understanding of composition and design. Without it, the work may survive as a statement, but it is unlikely to have the enduring impact of a well composed work of art. Whether my subject matter is a non-representational painting, a botanical rendering or if it is sculpture, the essence of the work is in its composition.
 
For example, most of my botanicals are from real life. They are carefully arranged in a vase (the flowers are kept in the refrigerator between painting sessions for 4-5 days). The museum board is prepared with gesso using a small roller, which leaves a finely textured surface. A lightly drawn pencil line frames the area for the painting. Upon drying, it is lightly sanded to leave very fine "pores".
 
It is from this point that the compositional elements become primary to the process. The negative spaces between the leaves, the stems, the vase, the bloom, the edge of the frame are all carefully laid out with acrylics, no pencil. The layered pigments are added and then partially removed. The pores hold on to some of the color. The next layer with another color is added and removed, then another and another until as many as 15 thin coats have been added. This provides "depth" and richness. Critical to the design is being deliberate in the choices made while being prepared to incorporate the more spontaneous elements of the process. The way lines vary, the way shapes relate to each other, the overall location inside the frame, and the use of value in the color gradients all add to the success of the composition. 

Wood Hyacinth, above, and below, Ethereal1 ​by Richard Nash 

Penn Cove Gallery welcomes photographer Sean Moore as our newest Guest Artist.

Sean's artistic sense strives to capture the spirit of the subject and moment. These then diverge into different tracks: Large Format Film and 8x10 and Digital. The large format film projects are used to convey his more abstract ideas related to the impermanence of life as seen through concepts of permanence. Digital work takes on wildlife imagery, looking for those strange and odd critter behaviors.
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All that said, Sean is not beyond capturing an image that just speaks to him if for no discernable reason than he likes it. 

Young Anna's Learning to Fly by Sean Moore

Welcome Ivy!
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Ivy found her way under the wharf at a very low tide to complete a plein air pastel of the underside of the walkway, highlighting the piers, which are set to be replaced.  Although long overdue, they served their purpose for many years and she wanted to capture that before they were replaced.      
      
Ivy usually starts with a vivid underpainting of pastels applied, as seen in the first photo below, left, that is  wetted down with mineral spirits. When pastels are wetted down they revert to wet paint and you use a brush to manipulate it just like watercolor, but when it dries, it turns back into a chalk like dry medium.  Then you use pastel sticks to work over this base for the finished look as in the second photo below right.