Janette’s Northwestern Works

Columbia Gorge
Red Tail Hawk's View - 48 X 60 – Oil – Collection of Gonzaga University
Tree Farm - 36 X 48 - Oil

The North Cascades
Broken Wing – 2008 - 9 X12 - Encaustic
Red Mountain – 2008 - 9 X 13 – Encaustic
Rockwall, Lake – 2008 - 9 X 12 - Encaustic
Top of the Mountain – 2008 - 8 X 12 - Encaustic
Mountain Mist, Trees – 2008 - 8 X 12 – Encaustic
Whirling Clouds – 2008 - 8 X10 – Watercolor
Mountain Bloom – 2008 - 7 X 10 – Watercolor
View from the Cliffs – 2008 - 7 X10 – Watercolor
Alpine Trees - 2008 - 7 X 10 – Watercolor
Cascade – 2008 - 22 X 30 – Watercolor – Private Collection
Rocky Cliff – 2008 - 15 X 10 – Watercolor – Private Collection
Verdant Mountain – 2008 - 7 X 9 - Watercolor

Stehekin
After the Fire – 2008 – 12 X 18 – Sumi Ink
Alpine Burn – 2008 – 12 X 18 - Sumi Ink – Private Collection
Distance – 2008 – 16 X 12 - Oil
End of the Road – 2008 - 20 X 24 - Oil
Golden Sunset – 2008 – 12 X 10 - Watercolor
Moonscape – 2008 - 14 X 11 – Oil
Mountain Storm Clearing – 2008 – 14 X 12 - Oil
Orchard – 2008 - 24 X 20 – Oil - National Park Service Collection
Rainbow Falls – 2008 - 48 x 36 – Oil

About the North Cascades Works
My time spent in the North Cascades was very dramatic underscored by the cloudy and rainy weather. While there I made drawings, photographs and watercolors. To stay dry, I was often making watercolor paintings in the car or in the campsite under cover, having to work from recent memory rather than in situ. I think of J. M. W. Turner, the English watercolorist who's works show so much atmosphere and sometimes a vortex shape of clouds, such as in the painting, "Snow Storm: Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps" and "Goldau." I recognized similar sublime light and clouds affects as Turner painted produced in the Alps as I noticed painting inspired by the storms and terrain in the North Cascades. He walked miles in the Alps and I felt an affinity with him too as I hiked and became aware of the constantly changing light and space due to the atmospheric conditions. In this set of works I did my best to capture these beautiful moods of mist on mountains.

About the Stehekin Works
I painted the Stehekin works during my Artist Residency for the National Park Service in the North Cascades National Park Complex at Stehekin, Washington, September 2008 
Stehekin has no roads into it, no television and only one public satellite phone. I came by passenger ferry from the other end of 55-mile long Lake Chelan from Chelan, Washington on the “Lady of the Lake.” My home would be the historic Imus House with a view of the mountains soaring across Lake Chelan.

I stayed at the place called “the way through”, the meaning of the word Stehekin as named by the Salish Indians. I kayaked over to the other side of the lake to see the pictographs of man and mountain goat on the rock wall in red ochre – perhaps made by some of the first artists in this valley. I am proud to try to carry on a long tradition.
My first drawings were made at the historic Buckner orchard, which later would lead to an oil painting that will be a part of the collection of the National Park Service. (See the image of “Orchard”.)

I painted, hiked or biked through one beautiful day after another. Many times I sketched on location or made oil paintings plein aire. Sometimes I took photos or worked from memory or sketches back in the studio. Every day was full of art and discovery.

In short, I have been one of those striving towards satisfying the National Park Service Mission: “…to conserve the scenery and the natural historic objects and wildlife and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

“… that In Wildness is the preservation of the world.” Thoreau