Art Is A Journey

About the Artist: Carrie Kahle

The first time I drove through the Snoqualmie Valley, back in 1985 or so, I knew I had to live here. After a few detours to other parts of the country, I was able to move my family here in 1993. That Thanksgiving a big snow storm dumped about 18” of snow in my yard, and I felt like I was living in the best place on earth.

I have worked at the North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington,  libraries since 1997, which provides me many resources to plan my next travel adventure. Drawing has always been an escape for me. I doodle on just about anything, to the delight and annoyance of my coworkers. In high school, I once convinced a teacher to give me an A on a very mediocre paper simply because I had illustrated the margins.

I started painting with watercolor because the materials were interesting. I loved the little tubes of paint and all the different names. They sounded so exotic. Largely self-taught, I’ve been influenced by the works of Winslow Homer, N.C. Wyeth and more recently, Tony Foster. As my insatiable desire to travel takes me around the world, I am constantly on the lookout for interesting and unusual scenes to paint.

My husband and I enjoy bird watching, and traveling to foreign countries to see the birds in their own habitat gives me the opportunity to view the landscape in a different way than the average tourist. Walking through the cloud forest in Taiwan, we came upon an old road grader that was slowly being over grown with vegetation and rust. I knew it would make an interesting subject to paint. The mountains in Iceland plunge directly into the water in places, and the melting snow left the earth a rich wet brown, a nice contrast to the glacial blue lakes and inlets, perfect for watercolor.

However exciting it is to travel around the world, it is a simple pleasure to return home to the peaceful scenery of the Snoqualmie Valley. I can always tell what the weather will be here – if I can see Mt Si, it is not raining.