By 1986, I was using photography to stage my compositions instead of just ‘finding them. We have a summer home on a lake in Missouri. We were living in Oklahoma at the time, and drove to the lake often throughout the year. When summer arrived, my children and I...

“Breathless Reds and Phantom Blues” watercolor is the seventh painting in the “Pots and Jars Series”. The series started with “Pots and Jars,” using natural colors of browns and blues in a realistic, representational technique. The next in line paintings in order...

During our years in Oklahoma, I was still depending on my photo archive from Arizona for painting subject matter. I saw a tile staircase from Sedona, Arizona in Tlaquepaque with great shadows and color. It brought me back home and what I loved. The title to the...

During a trip to visit my mother-in-law in Houston, my husband and I made a day trip to Galveston Island. We drove all over the island, especially through the older neighborhoods. I was watching for potential painting compositions, when we drove past a huge group...

This is the preliminary version of my painting, Good Morning, Hello! It did better than his big brother! Morning Hello! was completed May 4, 1988. The painting's first show was "The Kentucky Watercolor Society's 11th Annual National Exhibition" The Kentucky Museum,...

My hometown is Sedalia, Missouri, which is the historic location of the Missouri State Fair. My Sedalia ancestry family lived just blocks from the fairgrounds. I rode my bicycle there often. During a summer visit to my parents, we made our usual trip to visit the...

I suppose all these stories will mean something eventually, as I am the only one who knows 'the story'. Again, I was in a funk with the early Oklahoma winter of 1987 and turned to my spring flowers. One of my favorite places for compositions was Tlaquepaque in...

My Summer Serenade painting was from my inventory of photographs from Tlaquepaque. The scene is from the side of the chapel. This painting is on a 'half sheet' at 15.0" h x 22.0" w of d'Arches 140 lb cold pressed paper. I used Winsor & Newton tube pigments, and...

During the years around 1981, I was teaching local classes for the Desert Botanical Gardens and the City of Phoenix. I was experimenting with rice paper painting. I found that mounting the rice paper with white glue to illustration board to stabilize it for...

Every child’s wish is to go to Disney Land in California. It was my wish too, but very delayed. My Sedalia, Missouri family lived in the Central Midwest, which made Disneyland too far west for us to drive on two lane roads. I watched every single Mickey Mouse Club...

This project almost didn’t get off the ground. I had received notice of the competition when it was announced, and even printed off all the rules. Vacation came and the ‘Art Panels’ shuffled to the bottom of the pile on my desk. Like so many good intentions, I...

Sometimes the story behind a painting is more important than the art itself. This painting had a long journey. It all began when a friend and I went to see an installation of Dale Chihuly’s glass. I had never seen it up close, but when I did, I became thoroughly...

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is The bird is on the wing, But that’s absurd From what I heard The wing is on the bird! - Anonymous Spring Jubilee Silver Willows and Bubbling Waters There are times when I really need to experiment...

Have you ever wondered how you got to where you are today? I was pondering this question of the high school art years after my last high school class reunion. I was enrolled in the six week Kansas University Summer Art Program for high school students my year...

A year after painting the very successful “Pots and Jars”, I decided move into high color. I changed my signature from “Kleppe” to “Outrageous Red,” although I sometimes use “Kleppe”. I was taking a Graduate Watercolor class at Arizona State University in Tempe,...

  ROOM TO LET ROOM TO LET, SCENE TWO These two watercolors represent two ways to approach the same composition. The first painting was a half sheet of 300 lb. Arches watercolor paper, cold pressed. I chose a very limited palette of Holbein turquoise blue and...

After Dr. and Mrs. Ben E. Klein were discharged from the Navy after WWII, they moved back to his home town, Sedalia, Missouri to establish his dental practice. Their first home was in his mother's apartment rental  building, the front apartment of 614 1/2 South...

There was a point in my life where I only had a Kodak Instamatic camera to use. I was thrilled, since it was my next camera after my Kodak Brownie, which was broken. I did not care if the prints were small, and somewhat out of focus. Nevertheless, I used those...

This painting is a study in duality. The demise of mom and pop businesses and the common man. This painting takes place in Kaiser's Ice Cream Store in September of 1986. When we lived in Edmond, Oklahoma from 1985-1987 with Sonic Corporate, we took many rides...