TSOOES SUNSET
 ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/ RED OAK FRAME
(SPRING 2014)

     While living on the Pacific Coast, first at Ozette and later at Neah Bay, we were treated to a feast of amazing sunsets.  Each one was unique and was an attempt to exceed the other in some fantastic beauty contest.  Just recently our friend Meredith Parker sent a photo of one such sunset taken from her mom Tillie’s home on Tsooes Beach.  Mer’s photos are wonderful works of art and I cannot do justice to the beautiful photo that she sent.  What struck me most was the intense reds and coppers of the sunset, and how the wet sand of Tsooes Beach reflected them back to the sky.  This is my attempt to capture some of that beauty with paint and to try and relive some of those memorable sunsets from our past life on the coast.  The inspiration for this little painting comes from Elizabeth Colborne’s woodblock prints.  Colborne’s small sunset prints are a personal favorite of mine (see David F. Martin, Evergreen Muse: The Art of Elizabeth Colborne, ©2011, page 41). I am always taken by the bands of color here in the northwest as the sky, hills, mountains, and bodies of water all meet one another.  Maybe it’s because my eyesight is poor that I lose the fine detail, leaving just the areas of contrasting colors.  This painting was another attempt to show the beautiful experience of a Pacific Northwest sunset.  It’s done as if it were a woodblock print, only it’s actually a painting on wood.  I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods.  I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.

DIMENSIONS:          WIDTH:    17 ¾ inches
                                     HEIGHT:  10 ½ inches

                                                    PRICE $250