The Matt & Amanda Swann Art Collection

Most of what hangs in our house was bought somewhere we were standing at the time — a gallery on the Oregon coast, a print shop in Bellingham, a shopfront in Oban. This is a note on who made each piece and where we found it.

35 works · 12 artists

Mark Bistranin

Skagit Valley, Washington · first acquired 2026

A plein-air oil painter of the Northwest — Skagit Valley farmland, Puget Sound and the San Juans, painted on location. Born in Denver and trained at the University of Denver, he spent some fifteen years working on Montana ranches before settling in the Skagit in 1989. He co-owns the gallery in La Conner where we found this piece.

This Is The Music We See

Oil on canvas, original

Acquired 2026 from Bistranin Studios / La Conner Seaside GalleryLa Conner, Washington

A Skagit slough catching the light below a golden hayfield, a lavender ridge under an apricot sky, worked in heavy impasto.

Monique Wales

Yosemite, California · first acquired 2026

Born in 1965 and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she is a largely self-taught printmaker who began exhibiting in 2012 and works chiefly in reductive relief. Her subjects are the wildlife of the mountain West and the case for protecting it. She has shown four times in Birds in Art at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.

Just Hanging Out

Reductive multi-colour linocut, edition of 5

Acquired 2026 from Mission GalleryCambria, California (now Corrales, New Mexico)

Two red-breasted nuthatches working over sugar pine cones.

Ken Ferguson

Innerleithen, Scottish Borders · first acquired 2026

A Scottish watercolourist of the Highlands and Islands. He read chemistry at Edinburgh, came to painting in the early 1980s and has worked at it full time since 1990. He is known for surfaces with no visible brushwork and for the afterglow that follows sunset over still water.

Im Abendrot

Watercolour, original

Acquired 2026 from The Jetty GalleryOban, Argyll, Scotland

The Isle of Rum from Arisaig at twilight, Eigg flat-topped at the left edge. The gallery sold it as Rum from Arisaig; the artist named it after the last of Strauss’s Four Last Songs.

Micah Crandall-Bear

Sacramento, California · first acquired 2024

A painter of abstract landscapes built from horizontal bands — atmosphere at the top grading down through strata to the subterranean — worked wet-on-wet in acrylic. His paintings are held by the Crocker Art Museum and in the collections of Facebook, HBO and Visa.

Drishti Study

Acrylic on canvas, original

Acquired 2024 from Modern Villa GalleryCannon Beach, Oregon

A wet-on-wet abstract landscape: deep teal sky grading to a pale horizon over ochre, rust and slate.

Sarah Finger

Bellingham, Washington · first acquired 2024

Working as Skyline Printworks, she hand-carves blocks for linocuts, multi-block reduction prints and jigsaw prints drawn from Pacific Northwest landscapes and the outdoors. A reduction print is carved and printed in layers from the same block, which is progressively destroyed as it goes — so once an edition is done it can never be reprinted. Her work also appears on Kulshan Brewing cans and 4FRNT skis.

Great Blue Heron

Six-layer woodcut reduction print

Acquired 2026 from Skyline Printworksthe artist's own studio, Bellingham, Washington

The Enchantments

Eight-layer multi-block reduction linocut

Acquired 2025 from Skyline Printworksthe artist's own studio, Bellingham, Washington

A lone golden larch above a turquoise alpine lake in the Washington Cascades, under a sawtooth granite ridge. Eight layers printed from three blocks, the last carved three years before the print was finished.

Salish Serenity

Jigsaw print, fifth edition

Acquired 2024 from Skyline Printworksthe artist's own studio, Bellingham, Washington

A starry indigo sky over alpenglow on a sharp peak, a braided river carrying the light toward you.

Bagley Basin

Five-layer linocut

Acquired 2024 from Skyline Printworksthe artist's own studio, Bellingham, Washington

A glacial creek braiding through a green basin in the Mount Baker Wilderness.

Diane Snoey Appler

Maui, Hawaii · first acquired 2024

A plein-air oil painter of Maui's coastline, working on location to catch scenes in passing light — tide pools, leaning palms, and the particular colour of the water on the south shore.

Mokapu Beach Morning Walk

Giclée print

Acquired 2024 from Viewpoints GalleryMakawao, Maui, Hawaii

Wet sand and tide pools on the walk between the Wailea Beach Resort and the Andaz, with the West Maui mountains across the water.

Sunset Palms

Giclée print

Acquired 2024 from Viewpoints GalleryMakawao, Maui, Hawaii

A low-leaning coconut palm across golden sand at Mai Poina Beach Park, Kihei.

Steve Thomas

United States · first acquired 2021

An award-winning illustrator working in the language of mid-century travel posters — flat colour, clean geometry, and a sense of somewhere worth going. Alongside his California Central Coast series he has produced licensed Star Wars and Disney artwork and a run of National Parks posters.

Shell Beach Sunset Palisades

Paper print, framed

Acquired 2026 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

Ochre cliffs above blue water at dusk, gulls turning over the shallows.

San Luis Obispo Seven Sisters

Paper print, framed

Acquired 2026 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

The chain of volcanic morros receding through low cloud, each peak named along the edges.

Cambria Moonstone Boardwalk

Paper print, framed

Acquired 2026 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

The boardwalk running out through coastal scrub, red-hot pokers at the rail, pelicans overhead.

Hike the Central Coast

Giclée print

Acquired 2022 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

Two hikers under an oak with a rope swing, above the green hills between Poly Canyon and Montaña de Oro.

Cambria By the Sea

Giclée print

Acquired 2022 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

The Moonstone boardwalk curving along the bluff.

The Harbor at Morro Bay

Giclée print

Acquired 2022 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

Fishing boats at the dock with Morro Rock catching the last of the sun.

San Luis Obispo By Air

Giclée print

Acquired 2022 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

A Pacific Air Lines DC-3 banking over Bishop Peak, with a deer on the trail below.

Avila Beach

Giclée print

Acquired 2022 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

Lifeguard tower, palm fronds and a sailboat offshore.

Pacific Crest Trail

Giclée print

Acquired 2022 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

Two hikers on granite above an alpine lake. The poster carries “John Muir” above the title.

Seattle Washington

Giclée print

Acquired 2021 from Just Looking GallerySan Luis Obispo, California

The Space Needle against the downtown skyline, with Mount Rainier behind.

Sarah Goodnough

Oregon · first acquired 2019

An Oregon painter whose work is drawn from the human spirit and the splendour of the natural world — birds in bare branches, seedheads, and wide washes of colour that sit between abstraction and landscape. She keeps her print editions deliberately small to preserve the intimacy of owning one.

Sunrise Serenade

Paper print

Acquired 2024 from the artist's own shoponline

Teal birds and budded trees against a sunrise of orange, magenta and gold.

Stunning Skylight

Giclée print

Acquired 2024 from the artist's own shoponline

A flock of dark birds in a bare tree beneath a confetti sky of pink, aqua and peach.

Whispered Reminiscence

Giclée print, limited edition

Acquired 2019 from Modern Villa GalleryCannon Beach, Oregon

Tall white seedheads on a textured ground of teal and ochre.

Inventing Possibilities

Giclée print, limited edition

Acquired 2019 from Modern Villa GalleryCannon Beach, Oregon

Bare winter trees hung with red, yellow, orange and teal songbirds.

Heart Tones

Giclée print, limited edition

Acquired 2019 from Modern Villa GalleryCannon Beach, Oregon

Slim saplings and birds against a mossy yellow-green wash.

Returning Insight

Giclée print, limited edition

Acquired 2019 from Modern Villa GalleryCannon Beach, Oregon

Berry-laden branches with three coral birds, over pale sage and cream.

Stephen McMillan

Bellingham, Washington · first acquired 2019

Born in Berkeley in 1949, he has worked in aquatint etching since 1974 and was artist-in-residence at the Kala Art Institute for thirteen years. His prints look photographic but are drawn freehand with brushes into the acid grounds of three or four separate copper plates, each printed in turn. His work is held by the Brooklyn Museum and the Portland Art Museum.

Valley Light

Four-plate aquatint etching, 2006, edition of 250

Acquired 2022 from Mission GalleryCambria, California (now Corrales, New Mexico)

A long panorama west from Helen Putnam Regional Park over the Chileno Valley near Petaluma, just before sunset.

Pelicans

Two-plate aquatint etching, 2014, edition of 120

Acquired 2019 from Mission GalleryCambria, California (now Corrales, New Mexico)

A line of pelicans over the cloud banks of Monterey Bay.

Tatoosh Range

Three-plate aquatint etching, 2009, edition of 250

Acquired 2019 from Mission GalleryCambria, California (now Corrales, New Mexico)

Ridgelines of the Tatoosh Range seen from the southern slopes of Mount Rainier, with Mount Hood far behind.

Jeffrey Hull

Cannon Beach, Oregon · first acquired 2019

A representational painter who has spent more than forty years on the Oregon coast, working in watercolour and oil at the line where water meets land. He shows from his own gallery in Cannon Beach.

Not a Whisper

Giclée on canvas, edition of 100

Acquired 2023 from Jeffrey Hull GalleryCannon Beach, Oregon

A fallen Sitka spruce at Silver Point, low sun across glassy evening water.

Fuchsia Blossoms

Giclée print

Acquired 2019 from Jeffrey Hull GalleryCannon Beach, Oregon

Hummingbirds at a hanging fuchsia in morning mist.

Kathleen Cantin

North Carolina · first acquired 2019

Born in 1951 and trained at the University of New Hampshire, she makes aquatint etchings of expansive, atmospheric skies. Her work is held by the Smithsonian Institution, the Philadelphia Public Library and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and she has taken commissions from the Franklin Mint.

Blow Ye Winds

Aquatint etching, limited edition

Acquired 2019 from Mission GalleryCambria, California (now Corrales, New Mexico)

Hot-air balloons drifting above a harbour.

Mark Peter McKnight

Indianola, Washington · first acquired 2018

A director of photography with more than thirty years behind a motion-picture camera — camera movement, choreography of action, the manipulation of light — now turned to still photography. His botanical work is characteristically soft, misted and low-lit, and is printed on aluminium.

Night Moves

Photographic print on aluminium

Acquired 2018 from The Gallery at Liberty BayPoulsbo, Washington

Mist drifting through tall backlit grasses at night, a single russet astrantia at the lower right.

Twilight Garden

Photographic print on aluminium

Acquired 2018 from The Gallery at Liberty BayPoulsbo, Washington

Two deep-blue Siberian irises in front of a misted field of orange candelabra primulas.

Red Currants

Photographic print on aluminium

Acquired 2018 from The Gallery at Liberty BayPoulsbo, Washington

Arching branches of red-flowering currant, a Pacific Northwest native, in his characteristic mist.

Images are the artists’ and galleries’ own photographs of each work, reproduced here to credit them; every artist and gallery is linked above. Descriptions are ours. If you are an artist or gallery represented here and would like an image changed or removed, please get in touch.