Karen Luke Fildes, Artist

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

Title: Gallery Launch
Location: Walking on Water Gallery and Studios
Link out: Click here
Description: Celebrate the Beauty in Bare Essentials featuring Karen Luke Fildes new watershed paintings.
Start Time: 5:00 pm
Date: 2009-07-10
End Time: 10:00 pm

Order a commissioned painting now to benefit “Walking on Water Studio.”  Choose which part of the watershed you would like to have captured from the glacier to the sea and help watershed awareness.  Payment options are available starting at $100 down and 90 days same as cash.  Visa and Mastercard are available through paypal.

Help bring hopeful awareness by celebrating the beauty in bare essentials!  Walking on Water Studio is launching its new gallery in the beginning of June with a grand opening on July 3rd.  Free workshops and classes will be available to encourage young artists and writers.

Small sketches were captured to study life in the watershed.  8 x 10 paintings are available at $100 and all proceeds of sketches go to the launching of Walking on Water Studio.  Prices are good through August 10.

Sabbath Moon $325

Salmon Sky $325 Sold

Riparian Cradle - Mineral Creek sold

Blueberry Sun - Nisqually Delta Sold

Firey Lil Tongues -$450

Bouree - $450 Sold

Wildlife Refuge $325 Sold

On Duckweed $100 Sold

Refuge in the Delta - $1000 Sold

Soft Entrance - Mud Flats 24 x 36 $700

Hush $525 20 x 24

Bough Blues $100 Sold

Meadow Tea $375 Sold

Thornton Creek Channel Sold

Winter Willow - Matthew's Beach Sold

Art is the wisdom of wonder

where mystery’s the host - who lingers

after all the others have gone home.

Continue reading Manifest

New paintings have filled Walking on Water Studio which is open to the public on Sundays in March and April from 4 to 9pm.

Karen Luke Fildes has finished 500 landscapes in time for her birthday and would like to invite the public to help her celebrate.  35 of these paintings are from her series, “Interplay: A Tale of Two Watersheds” and are now available for sale, or rather, “adoption”.  They are hoping to go home with their new owners with an agreement to to travel in their exhibition from late 2009 through mid 2010.  There are also small color studies for sale starting at $50.

Walking on Water Studio is located at 4333 Fremont Avenue North, Seattle, WA  98103.  Contact the artist for an appointment to view selected pieces in your home.

Event: Seattle Swan Day: Women Arts Festival

Date: March 28 at 7pm

Location: Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave. N.  Seattle, WA  998103

Description: Flow, The Feminine Attributes of Water

The Festival is presented by Steel Grace Dance and Jah Breeze Rhythms

For more info, go to www.swanday.org