The series I've been working on this summer was inspired by our first visit to Walla Walla, Washington, just over a year ago. I'd been taken with other artists' musings on this landscape (Gayle Bard's, in particular), and I knew I had to see it for myself.
Our friend Nancy Page, a WW native, suggested we (my husband David and I) take our cameras to Middle Waitsburg Road, the wheatfield-flanked back way to up-and-coming Waitsburg. We drove it first at sunset, stopping so frequently that we nearly missed our chance at dinner at the other end. (Travel tip: If you ever get to Waitsburg, go to jimgermanbar for cocktails and a light dinner, then cross the street to dessert at the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe--both established by Seattle veteran chefs.)
Back to the landscape: The geology of the Palouse is described in Wikipedia as being "peculiar and picturesque silt dunes formed during the ice ages." Think of gently rolling sand dunes blanketed with golden wheat as far as the eye can see. Nothing short of sensuous. And then they go and call the landforms "humps and hollows." A bottle of Walla Walla wine, and wordplay is inevitable.
To get a bird's eye view, we drove to Steptoe Butte a couple of evenings later. Check this out:
So, I'm entranced. We made a second trip out to WWW later last summer, and three more since June of this year. We now know both Middle and Lower Waitsburg Roads quite well. I look forward to returning sometime in the fall, when the grapevines are turning, and again in winter, after the fields have been burned. A local tells me that's when the soil takes on a violet hue.
For someone who has always been so entranced by water, I was curious as to why I found this landscape so appealing. I got my answer in late June when I made a trip back to Minnesota ("land of 10,000 lakes") and ventured from my home town of Minneapolis to the rural southeastern part of the state, where my mother grew up and where I visited throughout my childhood. It's a wave-like landscape lined with quiet country roads, old barns, silos, and old white farmhouses like the one my mother was raised in. While the glaciers didn't carve curves quite as sinuous as in the Palouse, the Minnesota cornfields roll in their own reserved way.
In our five trips to WW, hundreds of photos have been captured, which will be narrowed down to a dozen (maybe fewer) to immortalize in paint. In a future post, I'll talk about how and more importantly WHY I've chosen the handful of images I have. To see the paintings inspired by the landscape, go to my Preview section. I anticipate up to a half-dozen more. All will be featured in my next solo show at Seattle's Fountainhead Gallery in May, 2011. The first of the series, Palouse Sky, will be hanging in the Summer Group Show a the same gallery, opening Saturday, August 7. Reception from 5 to 7--stop in and have a look!
