Houses, Landscapes, Flowers and Dreams

Experiencing nature, landscape, and the built and natural environments that surround us has the power to transform our being. But truly the most powerful part of the experience is our personal interpretation of it.

The artist’s responsibility is to interpret the world, not merely to document it; to imprint the stamp of their own experience upon everything they create, and therefore make every subject they tackle new and fresh through their conception. Real magic comes when a viewer encounters the art and makes their own deduction of the artist’s conception.

Creating a personal interpretation of our world was a key factor in the making of my series, Houses, Landscapes, Flowers, & Dreams. Dedicated to paintings paired with poetry — the poems and art unite in an interactive & symbiotic relationship; the poems enhance the art and the art gives visual substance to words. Nature inspired this collection of words and images through which I urge people to view our environment differently. My goal was to create a body of work that evokes some sort of neo-romantic sentiment regarding nature and humanity’s place in it.

I explored many of the subjects as both drawings and paintings in an attempt to demonstrate how vastly different the mood of a piece of art can be by simply changing the medium it is created in.

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Cliffside House in the Mountains Beyond Stangarten Dell
Acrylic on Canvas
$4,650.00/sold
17 5/8” x 17 5/8”

Field of Flowers
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1200.00
A gently gurgling stream flows through an idyllic landscape populated by a burst of sensuous flowers. "Field of Flowers" is strongly influenced by the Japonisme. I explored this composition as both a watercolor and acrylic painting in an attempt to demonstrate how vastly different the mood of a piece of art can be by simply changing the medium it is created in.

The House by the Pond
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1400.00
An old stucco farmhouse makes its home near a bygone fishing pond.

The House on the Hill
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1800.00
On a shadowed hillside, viewed through a stand of stately trees, sits an old Tudor-style dwelling. At the foot of the hill a dock leads to a small pond bordered by cottage roses.

The Park Entrance
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1300.00
A finely built stone gate and a venerable old oak tree mark the entrance to a 1903 Arts & Crafts era park.

The Bent Tree
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1200.00
A meadow dotted with glowing white flowers stands before a great arching tree, framing a view across the river to a lone house set amongst majestic fields.

Field of Flowers
Acrylic on Panel
$1500.00
A gently gurgling stream flows through an idyllic landscape populated by a burst of sensuous flowers. "Field of Flowers" is strongly influenced by the Japonisme. I explored this composition as both a watercolor and acrylic painting in an attempt to demonstrate how vastly different the mood of a piece of art can be by simply changing the medium it is created in.

The Old Gatehouse
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$2000.00
Set near an ancient apple tree and a garden of regal sunflowers, an old road leads to the caretaker’s gatehouse of a long-abandoned Arts & Crafts estate.

Bird with Irises
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1000.00
On a low tree branch, a lone cardinal finds respite among a field of flowers and a shady leaf canopy.

Bird with Pinecones
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1000.00
A colorful bird alights onto a branch dotted with newly formed buds. Below, bright yellow flowers arise, heralding the arrival of Spring. Above, a cascade of pinecones weighs heavily on evergreen needled branches.

Cardinal
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1200.00
A majestic cardinal settles on the branch of a curiously barked tree near a rising stem of lovely purple flowers and cluster of white irises.

The Forest Path
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1300.00
In early Fall, a leaf and flower strewn path climbs a quaint knoll through a thicket of trees.

Field of Flowers
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
900.00
A gently gurgling stream flows through an idyllic landscape populated by a burst of sensuous flowers. "Field of Flowers" is strongly influenced by the Japonisme. I explored this composition as both a watercolor and acrylic painting in an attempt to demonstrate how vastly different the mood of a piece of art can be by simply changing the medium it is created in.

The House by the Pond
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1200.00
An old stucco farmhouse makes its home near a bygone fishing pond.

Bird with Irises
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1000.00
On a low tree branch, a lone cardinal finds respite among a field of flowers and a shady leaf canopy.

The Bent Tree
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1200.00/sold
A meadow dotted with glowing white flowers stands before a great arching tree, framing a view across the river to a lone house set amongst majestic fields.

The Old Gatehouse
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1500.00/sold
Set near an ancient apple tree and a garden of regal sunflowers, an old road leads to the caretaker’s gatehouse of a long-abandoned Arts & Crafts estate.

The House on the Hill
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1500.00
On a shadowed hillside, viewed through a stand of stately trees, sits an old Tudor-style dwelling. At the foot of the hill a dock leads to a small pond bordered by cottage roses.

The Forest Path
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1000.00
In early Fall, a leaf and flower strewn path climbs a quaint knoll through a thicket of trees.

Bird with Irises
India Ink and Watercolor on Handmade Paper
$1000.00
On a low tree branch, a lone cardinal finds respite among a field of flowers and a shady leaf canopy.

Cliffside House in the Mountains Beyond Stangarten Dell, detail

Cliffside House in the Mountains Beyond Stangarten Dell, detail

Cliffside House in the Mountains Beyond Stangarten Dell, detail

The Hidden Fortress
Acrylic on Canvas
$1,000.00
17” x 12”
Where I grew up in rural New York, there were the ruins of an old castle from the turn of the last century. I used to see the remains of the castle on my way to the hospital for my physical therapy sessions, following a motorcycle accident that my father and I were in. Understandably, memories of the castle burned indelibly into my brain.

For the Hidden Fortress painting, I transposed the location of the castle to a Pacific NW setting so that I could re-imagine it, and deeply nestle it in the Cascade Mountains -- in a landscape unaltered by the hands of man.

Twin Roses
Acrylic on Canvas
$700.00/sold
10” x 8”

McKenzie River Yellow Flower
Acrylic on Canvas
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”

McKenzie River Yellow Flower, detail

From Out of the Thorny Wood
Mixed Media on Canvas $1,500.00
14 1/8” x 18 1/8”
The voice of a nocturne penetrates my sleep,
with words from afar that sing to me
a baleful dream
of things forgotten, unknown, as yet unfound,
a legendary palace with pillars downed.

The haunted sounds hold me at bay
and weave a misty tale of a mystic place.
So compelling I seek to find
this ephemeral city locked in my mind.

I stand upon its pinnacles obscure
lost to me yet they are so real.
Azure marble, onyx bright
still the night shade cries and cries
its tale that taunts and teases and ever evades
of gods asunder and buildings fane.

As I try with all my will and all my might
to find this place beyond reach of sight
I'm tangled in a thorny wood so thick and dense I cannot move.

Trapped within this unlikely cage
of dark green depths of tangled rage
through it's woven boughs I see
a precious glimpse of my fabled city
cast in ruin and out of reach
I fall into morose melancholy.

Though I know it is my destiny
to live in the dubitable palace of my dreams
Try as I might it evades me still
I've come to think it ever will.

-CJ Hurley

Flowering Shrub
India Ink on Handmade Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”

Gate at Eternity
Acrylic on Canvas
$3,800.00/sold
18” x 20”
At last I stood before the Gate at Eternity
My treasured reward for an arduous journey

The culmination of a lifetime’s quest
Of sordid trial and perilous test

The achievement that I ever longed for
My secret philtre, my magic elixir

Sages would praise this feat in elation,
But all I felt was hesitation

In the lap of the land an aeon moment alone
Neath ivory tower, leaf, branch, and stone

Damp mists rose from the deepening hollows
And all great paths were drowned in shadow

I was left with the westering sun of a darkening world
Ought I to seek this gate? -- My spirit furled

But all such thoughts were procrastination
In avoidance of my obsessive fixation

Emerging out from of my meditation
I looked upon the timeless gate
It was destiny to have reached this place

As I stood before the Gate at Eternity
Filled with doubt and much uncertainty

A burning question I could not escape
If I passed through what would be my fate?

-CJ Hurley

McKenzie River White Orchid, drawing
Mixed Media on Handmade paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 10 1/2”

Reed and Flowering Shrub
Acrylic on Canvas
$700.00/sold
10” x 8”

Twin Roses, drawing
Mixed Media on Handmade Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”

The Sweep of the Land Towards the Summit
Acrylic on Canvas
$1500.00
16” x 20”

Twin Bridges at Hillside Village: The Columbia Gorge from Rowena Plateau
India ink and watercolor on illustration board
$950.00/sold
21” x 17”

Flowering Berry Stalk
Acrylic on Canvas
$400.00
10” x 8”

Daisy
Acrylic on Canvas
$700.00/sold
10” x 8”

Nanten
Acrylic on Canvas
$400.00
10” x 8”

Among The Fallen
Acrylic on Canvas
$1500.00/sold
16” x 20”
A painting with dual meaning. On the surface it is an interpretation of the Lost Highway area of the Columbia River Gorge. However, the title, Among the Fallen, takes the meaning to a more deeply spiritual level -- that of sacrifice. It can be interpreted environmentally, as the sacrifice of one of our most precious natural resources -- trees. And with that, the importance of maintaining our precious environment and resources that are rapidly dwindling.

Among The Fallen, detail

Taiga in Green
Acrylic on Canvas
$400.00
14” x 10”
Look my friend,
for I tell you there is a sign in the landscape.

It breathes with a life more magical and of more consequence than
the runes of the most ancient cryptic tome,
far afield of the acrid and caustic air
of our most ingenious industrial machine.

Seduce me not with clever words in praise
of the latest even more clever metallurgical device,
for device is another word for a trick -- a ruse,
ever producing noxious outpourings of poisonous waste
in mockery of the pure waft of a rain swept morn.

Addiction is borne on the heel of dependence.
Answers and truth and mastery are not the bedfellows
of the synthetic.

Look to the river
the sea,
the stone,
and the tree.

-CJ Hurley

Gate at Eternity, drawing
Mixed Media on Bristol Board
$3,500.00
22” x 28”

Waterfall and Evergreen
Acrylic on Canvas
$1500.00
14” x 18”
I am attracted to nature in its pure, unrefined and natural state -- untouched by the hands of man. However, as a painter, I know that the assembly of compositional elements needs to be refined to make good picture making. Paintings like, Waterfall and Evergreen, are idealizations of nature.

Stages of the Rose
Acrylic on Canvas
$700.00/sold
10” x 8”

McKenzie River Yellow Flower, drawing
Mixed Media on Hand-made Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”

Hidden Fortress 2
Watercolor, India Ink and Gouache on hand-made paper
$800.00
28” x 22”
Where I grew up in rural New York, there were the ruins of an old castle from the turn of the last century. I used to see the remains of the castle on my way to the hospital for my physical therapy sessions, following a motorcycle accident that my father and I were in. Understandably, memories of the castle burned indelibly into my brain.

For the Hidden Fortress painting, I transposed the location of the castle to a Pacific NW setting so that I could re-imagine it, and deeply nestle it in the Cascade Mountains -- in a landscape unaltered by the hands of man.

The Hidden Fortress 2, detail

Daisy, drawing
India Ink on Paper
$400.00
16” x 13”

The Blue Gods
Acrylic on Canvas
$2000.00
36” x 24”
In the twilight veil of green mystery
dwell the haunted vestiges of spirits indigo

Sapphire eyes swayed the fates of history
burning wildly at the destinies of shadows

Aeons uncounted this mighty game played without end
until blue-grey mists borne on changing winds

Swept away the memories

The gods of an unknown land The realm of the blue gods

-CJ Hurley

Rowena Plateau Wildflowers 2: Yellow Flowers
Acrylic on Canvas
$700.00
12 1/2” x 10 3/8”

Rowena Plateau Wildflowers 2: Yellow Flowers, detail

Moonglow, drawing
Mixed Media on Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”
Tears fall short in praise of the full moon
whose rays pierce the night with more intensity
than Sol Invictus blazing the parched desert
of an unforgiving world

By what better light to tread the way?

-CJ Hurley

Taiga: The Sign in the Landscape
Acrylic on Canvas
$400.00
14” x 11”
Sub-arctic color puts on the most spellbinding play,
outshining the performance of the most clever mind,

freezing the body and synapses not with bone chilling winds and frostbitten air,
but with paralyzing beauty.

No one can outshine the divine.

Taiga, taiga I know that knowledge lay hidden like some forgotten palace
in the deep green depths of your mystery.

Whatever name we give to the road we tread through life,
there is a sign, a light, a path, a way to be found in your landscape.

The landscape, deeply contemplated holds hidden wisdom

order and chaos
bounty and desolation
positive action and destructive action
health and sickness
beneficence and harmfulness
life and death

There is truth to be found in the landscape -- in Nature

Woe the infractions taken at her expense,
disrupting her harmony,
sending her balance off kilter,
leaving her tattered, torn, and scarred beyond repair.

Yes, there is a sign in the landscape,
and it is a sign of the times.

-CJ Hurley

Reed and Flowering Shrub, drawing
India Ink on Paper
$400.00
16” x 13”

Rowena Plateau in a Driving Rain
Acrylic on Canvas
$700.00/sold
12 1/2” x 10 3/8”

Rowena Plateau in a Driving Rain, detail

Flowering Shrub and Berry Stalk
India Ink on Handmade Paper
$400.00
16” x 13”

The Procession of the Nine Bells of the Universe
Acrylic on Canvas
$2000.00
18” x 24”
Klang Klang Klang chimes the
Procession of the nine bells
Of the universe

Their thundering peal echoes
Across the cerulean sky

Hear you their summons
Oh subject of all things vain?
It does not matter

They assay with their ringing
Hiding truths in their singing

Ceaselessly they cry
Their calling their sole duty
Without being heard

Klang Klang Klang Klang Klang Klang Klang
Klang Klang Klang Klang Klang Klang Klang

-CJ Hurley

Rowena Plateau Wildflower - White
India Ink on Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13

Gnostic Truth: The Iris
Acrylic on Canvas
$700.00/sold
10” x 8”
Blood rain beats on the
hard cold ground turned to muck.
The white iris shines pure.

-CJ Hurley

Stages of the Rose, drawing
India Ink on Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”

Blue Lake at Stangarten Dell
Acrylic on Canvas; Handmade and hammered copper frame
$2,650.00/sold
19” x 17”
Verdant vale
Of everlasting shade

Hilly dale, forested glade
Icy blue waters
Spirits once knew

Dewy mornings, mountainous views

Of unspoiled beauty
No one can tell

Only wind whispered tales
Of Blue Lake at Stangarten Dell

-CJ Hurley

Blue Lake at Stangarten Dell, detail

Blue Lake at Stangarten Dell, copper frame detail

Blue Lake at Stangarten Dell, copper frame detail

Where the Trees of Rogareth Grow
Acrylic on Canvas
$1500.00
15 3/8” x 19 7/8”
There is a place I long to go
due east the abode of the mountain trolls.
A village nestled fain in gigantic snows
where the trees of Rogareth grow.

-CJ Hurley

Moonglow
Mixed Media on Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”
Tears fall short in praise of the full moon
whose rays pierce the night with more intensity
than Sol Invictus blazing the parched desert
of an unforgiving world

By what better light to tread the way?

-CJ Hurley

Nanten, drawing
Mixed Media on Bristol Board
$400.00
16” x 13

Flowering Dogwood
Acrylic on Canvas
$400.00/sold
10” x 8”

Iris
India Ink on Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13”

Diptych: The Whisper of the Wood: Nine Votaries for a Weary World
Acrylic on Canvas
$4000.00 ($2,000/each)
18” x 18” each

The Whisper of the Wood: Nine Votaries for a Weary World, left panel detail

The Whisper of the Wood: Nine Votaries for a Weary World, right panel detail

House of the Minaret
Mixed Media on Canvas
$2000.00
18” x 24”

Flowering Dogwood, drawing
India Ink on Handmade Paper
$200.00/sold
16” x 13

McKenzie River White Orchid
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
$400.00/sold
12 1/2” x 10 3/8”

McKenzie River White Orchid, detail

Rowena Plateau Wildflowers 2: Yellow Flowers
Mixed Media on Hand-made Paper
$400.00/sold
16” x 13

The Mote in the Eye of God
Mixed Media on Canvas
$2000.00
18” x 18”

The Mote in the Eye of God, detail

Echoes of a Forest Dreamed
Mixed Media on paper
$7,500.00 /sold
40” x 32”
I had a vision of a murky wood beside a river. The tangled roots of the trees knotted at the forest floor and spilled into the flowing current, eager to slake their thirst. Great boulders, set like stepping stones, spanned the course of the river, yet were just far enough apart to prevent passage to the wood on the other side. Bright orange leaves, glowing with mysterious light, fell from the trees mockingly – they easily crossed the water on the wind.

Captivated by the scene and unable to ford the river, I stared deeply into the forest beyond, knowing full well that my dreams would be fulfilled if I could only get to the other side. The forest contained all possibilities…