A Christmas visit with our daughter, Amanda, ended up with us looking at some of our favorite paintings that reside as copies on our computers. We also challenged our mental acuity to complete a puzzle we had made from one of Kären's painting. Wow -- her brushwork! Her visual surprises. It made me appreciate that painting so much more.
So given it's the end of the old year, I thought I'd post images of some of the paintings from past years where the back stories we shared with Amanda felt like we were in a time capsule -- and, of course, the puzzle. In this post I'll stick to representational paintings -- except the puzzle.
Alaska Monolith
Alkyd on panel 12 x 16 inches
During a visit to Alaska's Matanuska Valley, I revisited some of the areas where we spent so many happy hours hiking, skiiing and photographing the joys of living in Alaska. And yet, somehow, after countless trips into the Hatcher Pass area of the Talkeetna Mountains, I never noticed this peak. Talk about an artists special abilities to see what so many miss! Hopefully this painting, based on a photo I took that day, rectifies that problem.
One Last Thing
Acrylic diptych, Each 9x12 inches
Creating Shutterfly calendars during our visit led us to focusing on Kärens photographs of ravens. Which leads me to include one of my favorite paintings by her, a diptych of a pair of ravens with one of them getting in the last word. In case you didn't notice, each painting is of the same bird. Yes, that's one of the advantages painting has over photography.
Along the Cutoff
Alkyd on panel 12 x 16 inches
It was May and yet winter still lingered along the Haines Cutoff between Haines, Alaska and Haines Junction, Yukon. Ahead of us, as we drove north, a mountain glisteneded like it was coated in ice. We had to get photos of it. And then a pullout appeared. Look closely and you'll see a willow ptarmigan that greeted us when we turned off the highway.
Along the Dempster
Watercolor. 9 x 12 inches
Kären captured this view during one of our very favorite drives -- the Dempster Highway leading from near Dawson City, Yukon, 478 miles (769 km) north to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. While the route is an artists and photographers dream, it does present several challenges -- a rocky road surface made to shred tires and the further north you drive mosquitoes so thick that when you face into a stiff wind, they take advantage of the shelter you provide and your back look like it's been spray painted with pepper. But, the views and wildlife -- oh my.
El Cabezone
Alkyd on Canvas 20 x 24 inches
Gazing out our plane's window as we approached Albuquerque, New Mexico, we viewed
in the distance
one reason why the southwest holds such mystique -- El Cabezone. We had to see it up close. Sure enough, in a couple of days we were bouncing down a dirt road closing in on a trail leading up the volcanic plug. But, wait, the most artistic view of El Cabezone seemed to be looking up a stream bed we crossed on the way. So here it is. For the record, we were able to climb half way up the mountain until it transformed from a hike into a technical climb.
Watercolor 14 x 21 inches
To keep up her teaching certificate, Kären had to take so many hours of continuing education. And, somehow a class on brown bears qualified. To meet the course requirements she had to complete either a written paper or a painting. In true Groth fashion she did both, with the paper including illustrations, plus a separate painting -- each one being completed, in true Kären fashion, on butcher paper -- a surface not considered to be archival. I was so taken by the painting of Baird Glacier I convinced her to create another version on a surface (watercolor paper) we could have framed and enjoy without watching it deteriorate.
Bessie at the Helm
Watercolor 9 x 13 inches
Kären based this painting on a photograph I took of my kayaking. companion, our golden retriever Bessie, as we kayaked out of LeConte Bay in the USFS Stickine - LeConte Wilderness Area. After two nights camping , the second near the face of LeConte Glacier, a drizzle had descended on us. So I decided to head back to Petersburg with Bessie pointing the way home -- well maybe would have if she had been awake. Come to think of it, that night camping close to the glacier is worthy of a blog post because, let's say, it failed to meet the definition of uneventful.
in the fiord
Four on the Point
Alkyd on Canvas. 18x 24 inches
17.5 miles south of Petersburg the only bridge across Blind Slough leads to the Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery. We never fail to stop in the middle of the structure to enjoy the views both up and down the Slough while we try to spot wildlife from bears to swans. I based this painting on the view further up the Slough where four alders that grow on a point of land jutting into the Slough were backlit by the morning sun and as it's winter coat of ice was relinquishing it's frozen grip
Alkyd on canvas. 18 x 24 inches
In days of yore we had a fleet of watercraft. A 17-foot fiberglass boat, a 17-foot Klepper kayak and a 17-foot aluminum canoe -- all purchased under different circumstances with no consideration of length. The day I took the reference photo for this painting a friend and I paddled the canoe upstream from the bridge across Blind slough -- come to think of it -- past the alders in the above painting "Four on the Point." There we landed at the mouth of a tiny stream that used to drain a large pond created by a beaver dam. I say "used to" since the beaver are no longer there so neither is the pond. But, I digress. I painted "Tongass Backwater" from the mouth of the stream. For the record the day we discovered the pond was missing, we dragged the canoe around log jams and over all-matter of foot-entangling brush (never finding enough water to float the canoe) only to discover a grassy meadow behind the beaver dam.
And now, (sound the trumpets) Kären's painting that we had made into a puzzle.
Watercolor
Kären let her imagination run wild as she joyfully painted this rendition of the view from our living room window. Somehow our local deer herd seems to relish carrots they have stolen from the snowmen while our house has been moved across the street.
And finally, the "Why Snowmen Don't Have Noses" puzzle. With only 252 pieces it still proved to be a real challenge.
