That Golden Hour, when the day gives way to the night. Inspired by memories from a trip to that other-worldly place Iceland. Cannot wait to revisit you.
Oil Painting by Jamie Lightfoot Eppenauer
Oil on Panel 16 x 20 $1,600.00 USD Available
Visit my Oil Painting Gallery.
Octopus Island, Oil on Panel 18 x 24 $2,200.00 USD Sold
The Last Ferry Home
Oil on Panel, 8 x 10
$600 Available
I have always loved the ferries that serve as transportation here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. For a girl from the landlocked Midwest, the idea that you could take a boat to work or on a weekend trip was new and wonderful and exciting to me.
Life is such an unusual thing. Just the fact that we live and that we eventually die is a miracle of sorts. Or maybe, it’s just the opposite of a miracle. One thing is certain: life is unpredictable and can be confusing and hard to understand.
I remember when my Grandfather from Nebraska passed away. He had a terrible cancer that was eating up his insides. He had a successful life in the standards measured by society: a nice house, big family, successful business, and an active member in the Catholic Church. He was in the Navy during WWII and very proud of that fact. But the last time I saw him alive, he told me, “all I ever wanted to do was retire, get a little fishing boat and spend my days on the water.” He was 80 something but passed away before that happened.
Truly living life is rejecting the ideas that society espouses about the achievements of a happy, well lived life. And I do believe that if you have lived the “perfect” life and strove toward meeting the expectations that the outside world places on you, you might also leave this life with an empty hole in your soul.
This is the constant battle of this world where there are too many distractions.
I picture my soul (or God) as a person swinging on a little hammock in my heart. Life goes much better for me when I choose to sit and listen to this voice. It never tells me to conform to society, to spend my day at the mall, to watch the news on TV all day long, or to buy more for myself so I have less to give to others.
Listen to the voice in your soul. Listen to the direction that it tells you to go. And then go that way before the last ferry leaves.
New Painting –
Wine Tasting with Friends
8 x 10
Oil on Panel, $600
This painting will be on display and for sale at the Small WORKS, BIG Drafts infused with Poetry event on Thursday, Nov 15 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm at the Hopheads Taproom in Woodinville. Hope to see you there!
Friday Afternoon
8 x 10, Oil on Panel
$600, Available
Remember that sunny Friday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. It was at the end of a stretch of Indian Summer and we all knew the rain was coming soon.
I played hooky that afternoon and ate lunch at an outside cafe. The city was hoping as everyone knew the rain was coming soon.
Lunch turned into an afternoon of wine tasting; savoring the last bits of sunlight. It was already starting to get chilly. You knew the rain was coming.
And it did.
The next day.
As the world seems crazier and crazier, I have been trying to focus on finding the goodness in each day. The goodness in people.
The sunlight before the rain.
This painting will be on display and for sale at the Small WORKS, BIG Drafts infused with Poetry event on Thursday, Nov 15 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm at the Hopheads Taproom in Woodinville. Hope to see you there!
Painting in Italy – where do I start. I felt like I found my true happiness and discovered it is not as hard to achieve as I thought. More on that later, but first Nicolo.
Yes, the landscaping is beautiful but so are the people.
Nicolo posed for us one morning at the Villa – it was a pleasure to paint him.
Nicolo
12 x 14
oil on Canvas
I am back from Italy and I have so much to share but lets start with this new painting as I completed it before I left for my trip and it is in a show TODAY at Molbaks.
Do you remember the TV show Cheers?
The Hollywood Tavern is our local Cheers bar. This is one of our favorite spots to wrap up the week on a Friday night. We have always enjoyed sitting at the bar versus a table. It is fun to meet new people and I find watching The Bartender engage in his art very enjoyable.
Thank you for today –
The key to creativity is found in the exceptional human capacity to synthesize our experiences, influences, knowledge and feelings into one, unified original thing – art. Think Like an Artist
My 19 year old daughter and I went to the mall last week to escape the horrendous smoke that is staining our beautiful city. It was the first time I had been to the mall in years.
The main intent was to get some fresh air and walk around a bit – I know fresh air at the mall, lol. But it is air conditioned and the air just felt clean. We also bought a few back to school items.
On the way home in the car, I was pondering what life is about. I ponder this a lot but being at the mall with all the newness made me think about it again. So much energy is put into working and then buying new things. At some point don’t we all own enough so that we can devote our energy to other things?
As my college-aged student is starting to figure out her path in life, I wanted to see what she thought it was all about. Plus she was a captive audience for the 15 minute drive home.
Her first response was “Mom do we have to have this conversation right now?” Yes, she is used to my headiness.
When I said yes, she answered without hesitation, “It is about loving and helping others.” She didn’t just say this to make me happy, she means it.
And I thought, “I have a done a good job raising you.”
I have the idea that we are all just walking each other “home.” This painting represents that to me. There are so many glimmering distractions along the way which can lead you this way or that, but the ultimate goal is to reach home feeling loved and loving others.
This painting won Second Place in the Woodinville Juried Art Show.
New original oil painting.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
Ever since I took my first photo, I have been interested in the space between the light and the dark.
This engagement with the play of light has continued in my paintings.
In the art world they call it chiaroscuro, “an effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something.”
I call it the space between the light and the dark, the edge of your comfort zone . . . where life begins.
Come and sit with me in the sunlight and we will tell stories of our adventures.
Love, Jamie
Click HERE to purchase.
One of the most challenging projects at our Elementary Art Camp was the Mosaic Vases. I had completed this project several years before and did not remember it being too hard. However the students still did an amazing job and had so much fun with this project and the vases turned out beautiful!
Keep reading to find out how we made these creative mosaic vases.
Step One: The first thing we had our campers do was draw out their design for their mosaic on a piece of scratch paper. We told them they could do anything they wanted. Some students did flowers, some did landscape scenes and one student even made a mosaic of our family dog, Rocko.
Step Two: Next, the campers picked out glass pieces and planned their design.
Step Three: The hard part – sticking different sizes of glass on round vase surfaces. This was the most challenging part of the whole project. We had glue that we normally used for mosaics but the pieces kept sliding around and falling off, our students were creative though and had fun making it work.
Step Four: Once the glue dried overnight the campers got messy the next morning and started putting grout around their glass pieces.
Step Five: After the grout set up for an hour or so the campers came back and polished all of their glass pieces and cleaned the grout off. The vases turned out so cool and looked even better with some flowers in them!
As our summer trip to Desolation Sound was coming to an end, we made a quick run to Refuge Cove for ice and wine. We then went through the Hole-in-the-Wall towards Octopus Island for one last summer night with the Flotilla. It was so incredibly hot, and the water was so so so cold.
Hunter took Alex and me for a long dingy ride to cool off from the heat and to collect some driftwood. We always enjoy our conversations.
Each boat in the flotilla spent the afternoon decorating pieces of driftwood with memories of summer in Desolation Sound. I painted a picture of our ship on the driftwood, and we all signed it.
Early evening we gathered at the secret cabin to hang our talisman and, of course, have some wine and appetizers. I would tell you where it is, but it is a secret.
As the sun was setting, we all dinged back to our boats for dinner.
The boat lights illuminated the undersea activity as we enjoyed one last night of cocktails and very vivid conversation. And lots of laughter.