Brushstrokes

To Each Her Own

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...

Brushstrokes

Breathless Reds and Phantom Blues

“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...

Brushstrokes

Steps to Parnassus

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...

Brushstrokes

Pompous Paws

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...

Pompous Paws - The Story Behind The Art
Brushstrokes

Morning Hello!

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,...

Morning Hello! by Shirley Kleppe
Brushstrokes

Pink Waterlily

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...

Pink Waterlily - The Story Behind The Art
Brushstrokes

Spring Rubies

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...

Spring Rubies by Shirley Kleppe
Brushstrokes

Summer Serenade

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...

Summer Serenade by Shirley Kleppe
Brushstrokes

Spring Poppies

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...

Spring Poppies by Shirley Kleppe
Brushstrokes

Morning Rockers

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...

Brushstrokes

First Sculpture at Age 16

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...

Brushstrokes

First High Color Watercolor, Hot Pots

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,...

Brushstrokes

Dear Mr. Chihuly

Unfinished Business Somewhere after 1997 and 1998, my father was moved to Sylvia Thompson's Assisted Living in Sedalia, Missouri with Alzheimer's Disease. When Dad no longer knew me, a part of my life died. I had been actively painting and was represented in many...

Dear Mr. Chihuly

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