Captain Lulabelle’s Fine Art
Inner & Outer Landscapes
Local artists make discoveries
By Bonnie Lou Cozby
For the Observer
PENINSULA - Adding a shard of glass to a painting, finding new uses for nature’s found objects, creating art for the garden rather than the house or simply turning a blank canvas from horizontal to vertical gave four area artists the chance to explore new ways to share their artistic sight while discovering new joy and satisfaction in the process.
Their work and that of other artists will be featured at the 37th annual Peninsula Arts Association Fall Art Show and Sale, “Harvest of Art” is Oct. 5 through 8 at the World Kite Museum in Long Beach.
Bette Lu Krause lives in a beach bungalow not far from the sea on the Long Beach Peninsula. In a space uniquely her own, her home is a mixture of travel mementos, family remembrances and art. As a naturalist aboard eco-friendly sea cruises, Krause travels to many of her favorite places in the Pacific Northwest. Over many years, she has created a diverse library of photos taken while onboard these ships or while guiding tourists on hikes through rain forests and other magical places. This library serves as an inspiration for many of her expressionist landscapes.
“It is hard to hang on to your time,” Krause said while explaining her painting technique. Most of her works result from a time-consuming layering process. Working in acrylics and using a brush and palette knife, she may use up to 10 different photos as layer after layer goes on the canvas, until, in her words, “the painting underneath, the real painting, finally emerges.”
This has been her usual technique until a recent four-day, Northwest Guides’ Open Fast. Held in eastern Washington, during the recent lunar eclipse, the experience led her down a new and different path.
Meeting at a predetermined area, the six guides prepared to hike to their individual spots. Using a stone pile as a daily check-in point, one between every two guides, allowed each guide to be on their own during the fast but still remain safe. Krause was compelled to bring her paints and canvas along on the fast, something she had never done before. When she reached her spot, she found there were shards of a mirror at the base of a large pine tree. After painting the tree and the moon, she decided to add some of these shards to her piece as well.
“I had brought paper before, but not canvas. The fast helps you to push the edges and hold things in larger context and as an artist, follow what comes from inside. The broken mirror made me think … the mirror is broken … mankind sees through a broken mirror, seeing only himself and not the entire world or other creatures, or how he fits into the world as a part of it,” she said. “I had never added anything to my paintings before.”
This new grouping of work, “The Broken Mirror Series,” features a few shards of glass attached to each painting. Partially hidden in some spots by layers of paint, they reflect the viewer as he studies the vision of the world Krause has created.