I have always let life get in the way of art. It's hard often not to let that happen. So many other things seem so urgent and important that art gets its turn when I have nothing else to do. It can be easy to question why life duties and busyness always win. But I and perhaps you, really don't like the feeling of starving to death for creative endeavors! O I did get work done, but just here and there, even thoughit is SO enjoyable. 

So here we go - I just posted a recent commission for a friend - a portrait of her cat. And I posted a small painting of Sunrise Mount Rainier - a lupine covered meadow. Will be posting regularly and painting daily (even If I don't finish every work every day) and plan to upload 2 pieces at least each week.

I only paint what I love. That's enough to be going on with in a world crammed full of subjects. I love nature - landscapes, rivers and lakes, the particular light of a particular moment, close ups of the secret beauty of  the land, trees and flowers, animals, birds of all  kinds, the ocean and especially Mt Rainier National Park, which is so close to where I live.

I

hope you will join me on this endeavor this year and comment on what you like. Paint along and share your work too. I'd love to see it, whatever subjects and media you enjoy.   

This painting was a "shot in the dark" - I always think sunsets are risky to paint - can be too garish, too boring, too something, but this was such a lovely vivid sky, I decided to throw caution to the winds and dare to put some color down. It was fun. Hope you enjoy it. Am now working on a field of mountain flowers at Mt. Rainier - hungry for Spring. Will try some more sunsets and skycaps too. 

Finally got another picture finished. This one is an 8"x8" oil painting on canvas on birchwood panel.  It is a painting of a wonderful very old gas station near the Longmire entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park. The photo doesn't do it justice color wise, but it is a warm evening scene. I remember coming to the park as a child and seeing people get gas at this station. It was probably built in the early 1950s or earlier. The tall red gas pump has lost the hose, but otherwise seems pretty good. The white and blue box on the pole behind it is probably an old telephone box. I'm surprised it hasn't been vandalized, but it is padlocked to the pole next to it.  Thought it would be nice to try to capture this little building and pump before it gets torn down. As always you can buy this painting from Daily Paintworks.com. You can buy it now for $75 at: 

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/elisabeth-seeger/the-old-gas-station/692934

This was a crazy complex and difficult painting to do, but very interesting effort! This is the view from a spot on the road as you come down from Paradise Lodge to return to Longmire in Mount Rainier National Park. It is another of my collection of Mt Rainier paintings which I hope to publish in a book soon. I really loved the wild noisy splashing rapids here framed by our region's very copious greenery.  This painting is my first long painting - it is 12"x 24" on stretched canvas and is  available on Daily Paintworks - www.dailypaintworks.com in the auction (1 week) or Buy it Now for $290.  10% of all my sales goes to the Nature Conservancy as part of my commitment to ForMotherEarth.com to support environmental causes.

This California Tortoise Shell butterfly was perched on a small tree branch by a stream in the Eastern part of Mount Rainier National Park. The shadows cast around it were a striking blue color which was lovely with the orange butterfly. This was done from a photo I took on the east side of the park. It is a California Tortoise Shell butterfly. It was the hardest painting I have ever done!! Such a variety of shapes, colors and edges and paint application. Took an insane amount of time, because I just kept working at it - probably should have moved on a lot sooner, but the challenge was fun. Have you ever noticed that we seldom really see the creature between the lovely wings? It was almost furry looking, with big eyes and long antenna. Interesting.

As always you can purchase this painting from my Daily Paintworks gallery (www.daily paintworks.com). The price for this 8x6 is $60. I have given up on auctions to allow people to buy without waiting.

I will be establishing an Instagram site probably today as well, which will also link to my Facebook page. I will be doing some YouTube videos as soon as I finish learning how to do that! - Lot of learning!!! 

This is a painting I did from a Google Earth Street View picture. Google allows painters to use their street view scenes as long as we say where we got our source. I hope to go to Ireland next year to paint in County Clare. This was fun to paint, I hope you like it. It is available on Daily Paintworks on Monday May 7 for a beginning auction price of $60 or you can buy it now for $110. This was a first effort at painting the ocean, and I enjoyed painting the water, the reflections, which were quite dark, and the grasses.

This is the second of my new paintings for 2018. I wanted to try to paint the Mountain in such a way that it has mass but is a bit 

mystical in its appearance - a little less blatantly WHITE!!!  I think this succeeded. The scene is from a horrible photo I took looking west from Chinook Pass east of Mt. Rainier.  The title, "The Mountains Belong to the Sky" is a quote from Irby Brown's teacher, Olin Travis, which is included in a very beautiful book about Irby Brown, called Irby Brown, Southwest Landscape Paintings by Richard Brunson. I am finding that advice extremely important in painting Mount Rainier and other mountains.

As with most of my works, this painting may be purchased from the Daily Paintworks site. - Auction starting at $60

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/by/auction/836073 or visit my gallery there. Still working out the bugs in my memory of how to put that link here for you, will do with next posts. 

Other artists I am enjoying right now - check them out - Carol Marine, Michael Chamberlain, Clyde Aspevig

This is my first post in a long time. It is great to be painting again. I have "retired" as an Episcopal priest and so have returned to painting. Will get blogging and offer you all some of what I have and am learning as a painter. Meanwhile, check out the youtube site for the Bay Area painter, Michael Chamberlain - great! This is a painting I did of a small runoff stream at Mt. Rainier National Park. I loved the energy of the stream and the wonderful grasses and lush greens of the moss. This painting is available on the Daily Paintworks Site check out my gallery there too

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/836076