Karen Luke Fildes, Artist

Karen Luke Fildes Celebrates Watersheds, Unveils New Paintings at the Lakewood Gallery at 9514-D Gravelly Lake Dr. SW, Lakewood, WA 98499 on Saturday, November 19, 2011

Landscape artist Karen Luke Fildes will present a collection of recent oil paintings in Walking on Water: a Tale of Two Watersheds, from noon to 8:00 p.m., November 19, at the Lakewood Gallery in Lakewood, Wash.

For the past three years, Fildes has focused on the magic of water, on land, in the sky and beneath the ground, while exploring the wild Nisqually River Watershed and the urban Thornton Creek Watershed in Seattle. “It has been a poetic journey filled with surprises of hope for our Northwest water resources and the plants animals and people they support,” she says.

During her Lakewood gallery opening, Fildes will share personal insights from this journey and explain how others can care for their local watersheds’ well-being. She will be joined by David George Gordon, author of Nisqually Watershed: Glacier to Delta, A River’s Legacy published by the Nisqually River Interpretive Center Foundation and Mountaineers Books. One of her watershed paintings will be offered in a silent auction on that day and the proceeds will benefit the Nisqually River Council.

“The contrast between urban and rural watersheds is impressive, but Fildes has found the most beautiful parts of both worlds,” says Gordon. “Whether portraying the tideflats at the relatively untrammeled Nisqually Reach or the man-made stormwater retention ponds of Thornton Creek, these paintings present the dynamics of our watersheds with clarity of vision and plenty of heart.”

The Lakewood Gallery is at 9514-D Gravelly Lake Dr. SW, Lakewood, WA 98499. For more information, contact the gallery at (253) 584-1774 and info@ lakewoodgallery.com.

Sat, Oct 8 at 6:00 p.m., “Walking on Water” House Concert!

Hosted by David and Kaitlyn Pew, this party will be off the hook!

My daughter, Marian Call, and I are having a tailgate show/concert based on the theme Walking on Water. She is Alaska’s singer songwriter, who delivers spicy folk funk. She’s celebrating the release of her third album,“Something Fierce”… and believe me, it is. It is honest and smart and yes I’m proud. Go to http://www.mariancall.com to see. She’ll sing at 8:00, I’ll show Watershed paintings and give a little talk from my Walking on Water journey, and we will have a funkadillyishous time. This is a Seattle house concert/show in a private venue, so there is limited space. Get your name on the list! It will be a blast. Contact me -mailto:northwestcolor@gmail.com or 206-595-2171 for details and the address.

… an art party in my trunk

I come to your home, office or venue and show my newest paintings and prints. I bring a basket with baguette, cheese and a pear and something sparkly to drink.

New paintings are now available to anyone at tailgate prices through August 10. Others are orphans from previous series along with hidden favorites stolen from the archives. Prints start at $22, oil paintings start at $100.  Some of you have asked… some pieces from Phoshilaron will be in my trunk.

Call Karen at 206-595-2171

or email her at northwestcolor@gmail.com

The catch is:

You let me give my thirty-minute spiel on watershed awareness and I try to turn you on to loving northwest light and the benefits of noticing the changes of the day.

If you do not live within driving distance, order a painting or commission a piece of your own. I accept paypal.

I am waiting for the next series… the next thing to paint.  In the mean time I just finished illustrating “The Secret World of Slugs and Snails” or “Life in the Very slow Lane” by my husband, David George Gordon.  It can be pre-ordered at Barnes and Noble and it comes out in February.

I finished a series of 500 landscapes … Mostly Northwest landscapes captured in the interest of studying water and light.  (Water in the sky, in sea, on mountain, in the dark places where riverbeds hide and up from the ground inside trees and other reaching things.)  It was a monumental adventure which has not really been celebrated or revealed due to economic change and various other happenings.  The economy was hard on me during these last couple of years… and paint (pure pigment) is now too expensive to purchase while the luxury of having my own work studio is out of the question.   After several incidents of theft I was forced to move out of my studio.  During this ridiculous eviction I tragically lost the computer holding documents proving my project’s completion.  And yet, somehow I remain glad for each moment learned.  I learned so much about one thing we all agree to respect, water.  And water is about change… which is my story.

I have fallen in love with Sharpie… it is a good instrument for me.  Most of my work lately has been done with a Sharpie.  See my Sharpie page … maybe I’ll post pics.

I am interested in returning to my love for the portrait and will be accepting winter commissions.  I hope to finish my series of fifty virgins in the next two years and consider my current charge as nanny a privilege.  It is timely (I tremble at the honor) to be allowed to look inside the heart of a child who has lost a loved one.  I hope I am growing in awareness toward a chance to complete my mission with the added integrity of experience.  My goal is to help the four children I care for find art, music and awareness during a time of adjustment.  I love my life and find the Sharpie a great companion.  In the mean time, if you are interested in a commission or looking through my pile of paintings you can contact me at northwestcolor@gmail.com.

I’ve been in the studio laying out color sketches from this past week. I walked down in the Thornton Creek Watershed again yesterday, tracing through the wetlands behind the Meadowbrook Community Center. It was time to pounce since the change of light came this week… everything expands during the autumnal equinox.  The moon, the yonder mountains and the color. There was another woman wandering back in the mulched wonderland and she was looking as bewildered as I was at the surprise of the secret park and its peculiar placement-behind the concrete community center. It is an addiction- to find beauty in peculiar places. My son, with all of his quirks, continues to fascinate and even dazzle me and I thought about how good it feels to notice a flashing moment. I worked my way down from Meadowbrook through neighborhoods and into gulches until I found myself at Matthews Beach where the creek enters Lake Washington through a cement culvert.  I through down a bunch of color sketches finding olive and gold as the surprise of the day.  It smelled like mulch and the blue heron greeted me as usual.  There were people around… the kind who know to take time to notice the day.

I love those people who find their passion nurturing a Watershed. It’s a new thing for me… getting down in a creek, with black rubber boots, just to look at the expressions and contour of water flow. It’s something we all agree on; that water is a good thing. For the rest of this month I am immersing myself in water with a celebration on the 30th. I think it’s like a baptism of sorts to paint water and the light that touches it. Right here in North Seattle starting under the Northgate parking lot is a treasure called the Thornton Creek Watershed. And the people who fight and care to honor the water are heroes to me.

I want to honor them by noticing the urban watershed. There are reasons to know where your local water flows, and to take time to watch it and interpret it. It is our life force. Without it we are just shriveled up dead moldy pruny skeletons. So now, I grab a glass of good Seattle tap water and I paint.

These are oil sketches on canvas from my week… they will be completed within the week and will be available over the weekend.  I will be showing several new works on October 30th in Walking on Water Gallery.  If you cannot attend the celebration, call me to arrange a private showing at 253-677-1621.

If you are interested in a painting, please email me at northwestcolor@gmail.com. 

Friday, October 23 from 5 - 7, presale for “Urban Flow”.

Karen will be painting and getting ready for the final show on the 30th.  Stop by to view paintings, to talk about holiday commissions.

Friday, October 30 from 5-9 pm, “Urban Water” Celebrating the Flow and those who care about it…

An artist has fallen in love with urban water.  Artwork will feature hidden urban treasures and eyesores within Seattle Watersheds.  Show celebrates those who continue to love urban waters by caring and nurturing Seattle Watersheds.

http://walkingonwaterfremont.com