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backwoods fishing forgiveness oil lake wilderness denise gilroy

Forgiveness of Oil: The Palette Knife Paintings of Denise Gilroy

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backwoods fishing forgiveness oil lake wilderness denise gilroy

The forgiveness nature of oil paint frees Idaho artist Denise Gilroy to express herself freely with a palette knife. Backwoods Fishing, original oil painting by Denise Gilroy.

There’s something about forgiveness that sets us free. Anyone who has incontrovertibly messed up (that would be all of us, I imagine) knows what this feels like.

You can’t fix the situation. But the person on the other end can by retracting judgment, pulling back, and through grace, release us from a debt we cannot pay.

But as awesome and as supranatural as forgiveness is, it is not limited to relationships between humans. For artists, certain mediums are forgiving, because they allow the creator to “mess up,” without having to throw out the canvas with the baby’s bath water. For painter Denise Gilroy, she finds artistic amnesty in oil paint.

“I tried painting for years with oils, and thought it wasn’t my thing. But I finally realized that the forgiveness of the medium is perfect for me,” the Naples, ID, artist says.

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Aspen trees, golden in the autumn, are visible from Denise Gilroy’s renovated milking shed studio. Cabin in the Aspen, original oil painting by Denise Gilroy

Oil paint dries slowly, giving the artist time to reflect, make changes, sometimes even wipe down to the surface of the substrate and start over. Gilroy appreciates this, especially since she has made a conscious choice to use a tool that takes extra finesse and care, an added element of grace, so to speak: the palette knife.

The Power of the Palette Knife

“I painted with brushes for years, but as I got more frustrated with getting caught up in detail, thought I would try a palette knife to loosen up.

“It was a mess at first, but now I can’t not use the knife. I may not get the detail a brush may provide, but that is not my goal.

“I want a more impressionistic feel to my work.”

Gilroy paints both in her studio and plein air, finding benefits in each. An outdoor enthusiast who developed a keen appreciation for the mountains when she grew up on the East Coast and spent summers in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, Gilroy has always lived in or near wilderness. For 30 years she made her home in the Sierra Nevadas of California, and now lives 35 miles south of the Canadian border.

clouds forest wilderness creek denise gilroy

Gilroy finds that the boldness of the palette knife works well with the forgiveness of oil paint to create the mood she seeks to convey. Clouds over Wounded Buck Creek, original oil.

“One of the main reasons we moved to the beautiful area in which we now live was for me to be able to paint my surroundings,” Gilroy says. “The house we bought has an old milking shed out back that my wonderful partner converted into a beautiful studio for me.

“I never had a studio before, so it is my heaven.

“It is usually messy, but that’s the beauty of it; I don’t have to put everything away like I would if I were painting in my dining room.” (There’s definitely a forgiveness about a space that allows us to be messy.)

Room with a View

Windows look out onto a seasonal pond, rich with wildlife and surrounded by aspens that turn glowing gold in the fall. Sometimes Gilroy just sits in the studio, music gently playing, while she looks out into the vista. In the winter, when she needs to shovel a path through the snow to get to her heaven, she chooses to work in the warm, lighted studio as opposed to setting up a chair in the cool, frosty woods. Come warmer weather, she moves her palette and easel outside.

sunlit marsh swamp lake pond denise gilroy

It is quiet and peaceful in the wilderness. Sunlit Marsh, original oil painting by Denise Gilroy.

“I love waterways, creeks, rivers, ponds. And I love spending time near those places.

“Often, I paint on location, and I love being alone in the woods.

“I like to share the places I get to go to with my viewers, and I hope that others will see the beauty that I see. In a way I say, ‘Look how lucky I am,’ with every painting.”

A Sense of Forgiveness in the Wilderness

Gilroy travels to plein air events throughout the west, and has participated and placed in numerous prestigious shows, including Charlie’s Miniature Roundup at the C.M. Russell Museum, MT; the Montana Miniatures Out West Art show; and the Dixie State University Invitational Art Show of the Sears Art Museum in Utah. Awards include First Place at the 2020 Palouse Plein Air, ID; Judge’s Choice at the Into Nature Show at the White Bear Center for the Arts, MN; and Artists Choice at the Hockaday Museum of Art Plein Air Paint Out, MT.

Where she likes to be best, though, is in the woods, in the mountains, in places where there are wildlife, domestic animals, and landscapes that she brings to added life with a palette knife, an array of oil paints, and a skillful hand. And whether she’s in her studio heaven or outside, she’s where she wants to be.

“Northern Idaho has proved itself as one of the most beautiful places to live, providing plenty of subject matter, both landscape and wildlife.”

A little bit of forgiveness, a touch of grace — in oil paints, in life itself — goes a long way.

Wenaha GalleryDenise Gilroy is the featured Art Event at Wenaha Gallery from August 30 through September 26, 2022.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

 

 

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Clouds Fascinate — The Photography of Nancy Richter

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bateman island fall autumn columbia river richter

Bateman Island Fall, a photographic landscape of water, trees and sky by Nancy Richter of Kennewick

Clouds fascinate her

She is a grandmother now. But Nancy Richter has never lost a child’s fascination for a sky full of clouds.

As a kid, she did what lots of kids — even in today’s techno-world of substitutionary reality — still do: she lay in the grass and watched the world above.

“I grew up in Montana — Big Sky Country,” the Kennewick photographer says.

foggy country road clouds autumn moody nancy richter

Fog and mist are simply clouds that decide to come a little closer to earth . . . Foggy Drive, photograph by Nancy Richter

“I never tired of the surprising shapes and colors of clouds. Their randomness, unpredictability, and beauty are fascinating to me.”

It is no wonder then that from the time Richter received her first camera — a Brownie Instamatic for Christmas when she was ten — she has focused on capturing the form, the mystique, the emotion, and the feeling of clouds. As technology advanced and Richter exchanged her Brownie for a Minolta SLR, then a digital camera, she kept chasing the timeless yet ever-changing vista of clouds. And though she photographs much more than the sky overhead — landscape, macro, flowers, rusty abstract surfaces, portraits, events — she retains a lifetime goal of finding the perfect combination of landscape and clouds.

Moody, Brooding Clouds

In 2011, she met photographer John Clement, of whom she had been a fan for years. The two arranged a photography day trip to the Blue Mountains in Southeast Washington. And from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m. they went to one wonderful spot after another.

country meadow landscape barn clouds sky nancy richter

In Nailed It, a country landscape and brooding, moody clouds form one of Nancy Richter’s favorite photographic combinations.

After this most amazing day, one Richter affectionately dubs “John Clement Day,” she discovered that she had taken yet another step on her photographic journey.

“I find my own way to the loveliness that’s out there, following dusty farm roads, stopping along the banks of lakes and rivers, and making my way up to the top of hills covered with wildflowers,” Richter says.

She likes her photos to be unconventional, a bit off balanced and moody, she adds. Art is best, she considers, when its subject or material is unexpected, inviting the viewer to stop beyond a first glance, teasing him or her to discover new elements and depth.

“That’s what I want to convey: something a bit off the beaten path, something that holds the observer’s interest.”

Clouds Combined with Landscapes

Within a short radius of her Kennewick studio, unusual and intriguing landscapes abound. Less than 15 minutes from her home are spots in the Horse Heaven Hills that open out into vistas of Rattlesnake Mountain and other significant ridges of the Tri-Cities area.  There’s the Palouse (“That place is divine. Nowhere exactly like it on earth”). And there are the Blue Mountains, a combination of bare grass hills with forest in the ravines, farmland interwoven between.

The roads to these places can be a little dicey, though, but than again, that adds to the adventure of it all.

“One time I got stuck in the mud up to half my tire,” Richter remembers.

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A flower peeks from its foliage in Pink, photography by Nancy Richter of Kennewick

“A man and his 5-year-old daughter just happened to be out in the middle of nowhere with a jeep and pulled me out with a strap.

“When I first told them of my dilemma, the daughter’s comment was, ‘My dad can do anything!'”

Such is the mindset of a child, a mindset that Richter maintains with that persistent, lifelong, deep-rooted fascination with clouds. And to this day, in the process of looking up, she often finds that the ground beneath her feet is steadier, firmer, more secure.

“Sometimes when I am dealing with unpleasant emotion, the sky provides pleasant distraction,” Richter muses.

“It gets me outside and moving and enjoying. It helps ground me.

“Funny, that the sky would help me touch the earth.”

Clouds, Light, Quality, and Emotion

Richter shows and sells her work throughout the Tri-Cities area, and participates in the Thursday Art Walk in Kennewick. She has exhibited at the Richland library, You and I Framing in Kennewick, the Crossroads and Carnegie Art Center in Baker City, OR, and the Larson Gallery in Yakima. At the latter, she received the Women in Photography Award, as a well as a Purchase Award.

Richter doesn’t remember whatever happened to her old Brownie — she could have sold it at a yard sale; it may be in one of those memorabilia boxes we all cart around. But what it started will never be lost, as she discovers, and captures, a world of possibility, imagination, and enchantment. These elements transcend time and technology.

“When I take photos I feel an attraction to the scene. I’m feeling excited or having fun or am just delighted with the amazing light in that moment.

“I want people to enjoy what they see, to feel pleasure in the colors, to experience the light and the quality.”

Wenaha GalleryNancy Richter is the Featured Art Event from Monday, November 18, through Saturday, December 14 at Wenaha Gallery. She will be at the gallery for the Christmas Kickoff Art Show Friday, November 29, from 2 to 6 p.m. Richter will be joined by Colfax rope basket creator Nancy Waldron and jewelry artist Andrea Lyman.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment.

 

 

Bend in the River, original oil painting by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jim McNamara.

Mountain Man Painter — The Landscapes of Jim McNamara

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Bend in the River, original oil painting by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jim McNamara.

Bend in the River, original oil painting by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jim McNamara.

Jim McNamara is a man who moves mountains, because that is what landscape painters do.

“Cameras can do a better job at exact duplication,” the Walla Walla fine artist says, “but one of the great advantages of being a painter is the freedom to move elements around to suit the needs of the composition. So if a tree isn’t where I want it to be, I move it.”

McNamara, whose day job until retirement 15 years ago was in public education as a school psychologist, has been drawing and painting all his life, thanks to a bunch of determined women:

Dirt Road, Big Sky by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jim McNamara

Dirt Road, Big Sky by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jim McNamara

“The nuns at St. Bridget Elementary in Omaha saw a spark in me and coaxed my parents into sending me to summer school at Joslyn Art Museum when I was barely old enough to ride the bus,”  McNamara remembers. Art classes continued in high school and college — interspersed with courses in English literature, counseling, and school psychology — and specialized workshops followed throughout adulthood, as McNamara studied under some of today’s outstanding outdoor painters: Jim Lamb, Ned Mueller, Ken Roth, Matt Smith,  John Budacin, and Ralph Oberg.

The result of all the study, eclectic interests, and hard work has been McNamara’s unique style, blending brushstrokes with realism, plein air with studio work, a painterly attitude with attention to detail:

“My colors and shapes are broadly realistic but I prefer to employ a ‘painterly’ style,” McNamara explains. “I think painting is more interesting and involving if it leaves something to the viewer’s imagination.

“I like to see brushstrokes in a finished painting: it adds a textural dimension, and makes the work more fun to look at close up.”

McNamara, who prefers oil but forays into watercolor on occasion, is a consummate landscapist, focusing on broad, sweeping images of the Pacific Northwest and West, which he captures both on scene — en plein air  — and in his studio, inside an old house, built in 1900, with the high ceilings and quantity of windows that prompt other artists to sigh with envy.

“Where I paint is what I imagine was once the master bedroom,” McNamara says. “There are paintings on the walls, as well as art books, paints and brushes set up. I have an iMac with four or five thousand images to keep my mind occupied in the winter, when it’s hard to get outside.”

Trailhead View by Wenaha Gallery artist Jim McNamara

Trailhead View by Wenaha Gallery artist Jim McNamara

With such an ideal set-up, one would think that McNamara would stay in the studio all the time, content with the absence of rain and wind, but the Great Outdoors seductively calls,  and McNamara has painted en plein air from the Rockies to the coast, covering most of the western states in his travels with his wife. His favorite painting experiences involve backpacking to some remote location, setting up his easel, and painting directly from nature.

“Painting outdoors produces the most accurate color and the most spontaneous result,” McNamara says. “But because outdoor conditions are not always ideal in the Northwest, especially in winter, I do rely on reference photographs, which are always taken by me.” Hence, the iMac, with its 5,000 images.

While in the earlier years of his full-time painting McNamara entered juried shows and competitions throughout the  region — the Wallowa Valley Festival of the Arts and the former Walla Walla Carnegie Art center, the latter where he won People’s Choice Award and sold the painting the same day — the artist now concentrates his time on as much painting as he can get in. Most of his sales generate from his home studio, The Fort Walla Walla Winery on Main Street, or Wenaha Gallery in Dayton, with one of the most pleasurably memorable sales being to a collector in France, in Walla Walla for a wine tasting — from one area known for its wines, to another.

“I think representational art always makes a statement because it regards its subject as important and significant,” McNamara reflects upon what he does. “Just the act of intensely looking at a subject for the sometimes lengthy time required to render it gives it significance.

“I believe the natural world deserves being looked at intensely and wordlessly.”

Wenaha GalleryJim McNamara is the Art Event: Pacific Northwest Artist at Wenaha Gallery from December 16, 2014 through January 10, 2015 at Wenaha Gallery’s historic Dayton, WA location, 219 East Main Street.

Contact the gallery by phone at 800.755.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

Wenaha Gallery is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional framing, and original fine art paintings and sculpture by notable Pacific Northwest artists.   Books, gifts, note cards, jigsaw puzzles, and more are also available. Visit at 219 East Main, Dayton; phone 509.382.2124; e-mail art@wenaha.com.

This article was written by Carolyn Henderson.