My work is featured at the Robert Ray Gallery thorough the month of August, and will be available for viewing through the remainder of the gallery season. Check out Algoma, an artsy town on Wisconsin’s East Coast!
New Work - The Rivermouth
I enjoy visiting the beach at the mouth of the Santa Ana River in Southern California. During the dry season it is a flat, sandy tidal inlet thankfully left alone by the development all around it. In 2015 I stopped there, took a photo and later made the drawing below. The gulls and terns like to congregate there, and they help bring the place to life.
Gulls and Terns, 22” by 30” graphite on rag paper, 2015
This year I made two paintings of the same photo I took there in October, 2025. The clouds and their reflection on the wet sand fascinated me. And the the gulls and terns were there!
Warm Day, below, is also my first painting done in casein, an intense opaque milk-based paint. I like using it!
A Warm Day at the Rivermouth, 15” by 20” casein on board 2026
The sky in the painting below is from Lake Michigan, morphed with the same beach as above. The color of the sky dictated the color reflected on the beach, and I had to guess how it would work - a very different atmosphere.
A Blue Day at the Rivermouth, 36” by 48” acrylic on stretched canvas, 2026
"The Hum" is now available
Announcing the official release of my adventure-fantasy novel...
The Hum — An extraordinary Journey of Awakening
340 pages, paperback: A hero’s journey complete with maps and illustrations.
I'm excited to announce the official release of my adventure-fantasy novel...
Young Gordy Love, who hears the Hum, has a dream that takes him to New Island, where he finds plenty of trouble, magical places, deep friendships, and eventually love.
A personally signed version of The Hum including a New Island road map, travel tickets and post cards is available for $34 here on the New Island Maps and More page.
The Hum is also available on demand at these outlets. Just click the links:
Cheers and Happy Holidays!
—Lee
What New Island is About
The 1950 classroom map above, recently found in a second-hand shop in Wisconsin, USA, reveals New Island when it was controlled by the USSR. By 1964, during the Cold War, the Island was declared a classified strategic entity by both the American CIA and the Russian KGB, and was removed from all maps worldwide. (See the full story in the New Island Guidebook.)
Since about 1995 I've been exploring the idea of an alternative culture - one more place out there where people consciously care for one another and for the land they live on.It started with a long series of paintings of imagined landscapes, but they had a real-world look about them. My interests in mapping and in pre-agricultural matriarchal cultures led me to combine these landscapes into an entire island-nation, situated in the south Indian Ocean.
While researching that region's real-world history and politics, an alternative history emerged, based on the fateful wrecks of three ships beginning in 1799. The island's climate, geography and prehistory also helped shape the historical turn of events, all the way to the present.
I see New Island as a plausible fiction, a 12,000 square-mile what-if waiting to be discovered. What if there was a truly by-the-people democracy leaning gently toward a matriarchal culture? And what if the Islanders cared deeply enough about their island, and the world beyond it, to live truly sustainably?
I’ll continue to share New Island, and its messages, as much as possible with the world at large.
"The Hum" is now available to order!
A Hero’s Journey to an Island of the Imagination…a coming-of-age fantasy.
I just published it! Check it out on my Amazon Page.
The front and back cover.
Here is the brief synopsis:
A family tragedy shocks young Gordy Love into a powerful dream that transports him from his California home to New Island, a place where certain laws of physics have been altered by Hum energy. Most of the Islanders hear, feel and enjoy the Hum, as does Gordy.
It is 1964, the Cold War is on, and the Soviet Navy controls the Island. When Gordy literally washes ashore, he is promptly arrested and charged with espionage. But two Islander lunchroom servers see the Hum in his eyes when they bring him his meals. They not only free him, but launch him on an epic journey that will change them all, including a sorceress-scientist named Roselin.
After years of research, Roselin Bell realizes the Hum has a dangerous dark side. When a mysterious explosion destroys an entire Islander tribe, she knows the disaster was her fault. Will the Hum’s dark side trigger a worldwide catastrophe? Will Gordy be able to save Roselin from herself? Find out in this coming-of-age journey of loss, love, discovery and redemption.
Gordy and his friend Lane hike into places like the Coast of Nevermore.
“The Hum” will take you to New Island, my alternative reality set in the Indian Ocean. When he discovers what has happened to his mom, Gordy is sent there by his friend Mr. Barnes on “a raft that seems to know where it’s going”. There he meets two witches, many friends, a finds out what loving is all about on a journey both inward and outward.
Available now on Amazon for $17.
335 pages, paperback.
Holiday Open House this coming weekend!
You’re Invited
To a
Studio Open House
At Lee Mothes’s Oceans and Dreams Studio
Friday Evening Dec 13th 4:30 to 7 pm
Saturday Dec 14th 11 am to 2 pm
Above Kaukauna Coffee and Tea
127 W Wisconsin Ave, Kaukauna, WI
See Lee’s art, artifacts, and New Island
Contact Lee Mothes at: mothesart@gmail.com
Selections from my New Island Exhibition.
My classic prints will be available.
“Sunshine on Storm Surf” 30” by 96” acrylic on two canvases
“Gale Force” 22” by 30” graphite nearing completion - it will be framed for the show.
Hope you can make it!
What a year...
A branch office of my bank on New Island, a novel called The Hum, Australia.
The Bank of Kaukauna, in Kaukauna Wisconsin asked me to create a branch office in West Putney, on New Island. Besides the 45” by 62” acrylic painting above, the bank received documentation securing the bank’s site; local currency, a guidebook and a road map. West Putney is a neighborhood near Putney, the island’s largest city.
This deed and plat map were collaged onto the painting. Signed copies of these are in the bank’s files.
Next: Deciding when and how to publish my young adult novel The Hum.
Episode 1, Gordy, below, is written and illustrated in a graphic-novel style. Episodes 2 through five of this young-adult novel are so far in standard text format. I’ll know more by the next post.
It all starts here…
Now it’s time to take a break and visit my daughter in Australia. We’ll take some road trips, and see as many beaches and surf breaks as possible, mostly on continent’s west coast. I’ll post photos later!
Best wishes,
Lee
Front and back cover of the new Third Edition
The New Island Guidebook is on Amazon
The earlier edition sold out early this spring, and the Guidebook also needed some new pictures and updated articles, like the rogue typhoon of 2022. I also wanted to make the book available on an unlimited basis. Amazon is doing a superb job of printing the paperback edition, and now they handle the shipping!
It’s now available on Amazon at this link: Lee Mothes New Island Guidebook
New Paintings and New Island
News…
My artwork will be on display at the Miller Art Museum (https://millerartmuseum.org/current-exhibitions) in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, until April 3, 2023.
About 14 large surf drawings and paintings are in the museum’s mezzanine, and an exhibit of New Island maps and artifacts is on display in the Miller’s affiliate space, M3, a block from the museum.
New Paintings…
I’ve added six new paintings to my Paintings catalog, such as “Storm Surf and Sunshine”, below. This one is currently at the Miller Art Museum exhibition.
“Storm Surf and Sunshine” acrylic on two canvases, 30”h by 96”w overall
The 24-foot-long acrylic painting below was commissioned for a second home in Mexico. It will be framed and mounted on-site in April.
The full painting, and a detail of the center. I enjoyed capturing the late-afternoon sunlight in this mostly imagined piece.
New Island…
A new edition of The New Island Guidebook will be available on Amazon in a few weeks. This is a 200-page outline, with maps and illustrations, of the island’s history, culture and how to get around should you wish to visit.
Here is where it is…
“Backwash Bump” - the wild reaction of a heavy wave when the previous wave’s backwash hits it. This kind of movement and energy fascinates me!
More new paintings, print gallery, West Coast trip plans
Hi everyone…
Announcing two new 24” by 36” canvases, including “Backwash Bump”, above. (See the “Paintings” page) They will be on display at the Jill Logan Galeria in Todos Santos, a mission town on the Baja California peninsula.
Trip:
From May 28th to June 28th I’ll be on the Oregon and northern California coasts to get new ideas and some sketches of the surf. Best places I have found: Cape Kiwanda, Oregon and Big Lagoon Beach, California. The surf, even in summer, is consistently churning there!
Prints Page:
From May 25th to June 28th I’ll pause my Limited Editions page, since I will not be able to fulfill orders while traveling. These original litho prints, from my Oceans and Dreams series of paintings, were published between 1992 and 1999. I’ll be happy to take your orders after June 28th.
Have a happy summer!
Lee
The whole thing
Finishing the Big Wave
Left side
Right side
This 30” by 96” acrylic on two canvases is complete…with maybe a slight tweak or two before I hang it.
Large Painting of Big Surf
Enjoying the energy of big surf in this 96-inch-long acrylic on canvas. I started it in January, and hope to finish it in about a week or so.
Lost Coast in Southern Humboldt County, California. It’s worth the distance to get there!
West Coast Trip
I’m driving out to the Oregon and California coasts from Wisconsin… to get my annual ocean fix. I plan to sketch and photograph the surf and beaches there, and visit friend and places where I lived.
“Atlantic Northwest” 24h by 36w acrylic on canvas Available
New Work from the Atlantic Ocean
Finished some new acrylics inspired by a visit to Spain in 2019. The northwestern corner, Galicia, is similar in climate to the Oregon Coast, hence its “Atlantic Northwest” nickname. The light and the surf there were wonderful.
“Splash and Spray” 26h by 21w acrylic on canvas Available
Update on "The Hum"
The Hum is finished! Now it’s time to get the story out into the world.
Gordy’s view of the Eastern Coast from the Northern Highlands…his journey took him over much of New Island.
Here is the synopsis I plan to send out to agents by the end of this month:
Gordy Broome, 15, has known very little loving in his life. But he sometimes hears the Hum, a deeply resonant and soothing sound that has helped him get through several incidents of childhood upheaval. Late one evening in 1964, he witnesses a tragic family crisis, the shock of which immediately sends him into a bardo-dream that takes him across three oceans on a raft. The raft is wrecked in a storm, and Gordy wakes up on a beach on an unknown island.
It’s the middle of the Cold War, and the Island is administered by the Soviet navy. Gordy is immediately captured by a shore patrol, and a mysterious map in his possession prompts the base commander to accuse him of spying for the Americans.
When a civilian Islander cafeteria worker named Janie brings Gordy his meals, she sees Hum energy in his eyes. Janie decides that Gordy must be freed, and that he must meet Roselle!
Roselle Beall is a self-absorbed witch who knows more about the Hum than anyone else. By way of a chance discovery of an ancient text, she has found out how it works! This has changed her from an herbal-healer-witch to an obsessed specialist in applied quantum mechanics. She is also graceful, caring, and black – an exotic mix that enchants Gordy. When a devastating explosion rocks the Island, Roselle is shattered by guilt and grief - she knows she helped cause it by allowing Hum energy to go very wrong! Gordy, Janie, and others join Roselle in her quest to keep the Hum’s dark side out of the wrong hands.
The Hum is set at a time when the English-speaking Islanders and Soviet-era Russians co-existed in a cat-and-mouse relationship. This did not hinder the local cultural sprit, however. Gordy discovers rich (and gossipy) tribal cultures, alternative-gender relationships, a sky-clad lifestyle, and places such as Roger’s Dreamland and The Coast of Nevermore.
Gordy’s journey on the Island involves lessons in friendship, sexuality, and how loving can heal. But will all this overcome the emotional trauma that sent him here? And exactly how did he get here? And is the Island real, or has he landed in an alternative plane of existence?
Stay tuned!
—Lee
Announcing The Hum
Since September 2017, I’ve been writing a novel that takes place on New Island, my imaginary island-nation in the Indian Ocean. For several years I’ve wanted to ‘complete’ New Island, and a friend of mine suggested that, since the island is fully represented with many many paintings, why not create a story that takes place there, fully illustrated with my paintings, maps and other artifacts.
So I did.
The result is "The Hum" - a full-length older-young-adult magical-realism novel will be released at some point in 2020 or 2021...
The Beatty Ruins are a frequent stopping point on the North Bight Path.
Twenty years before my story begins, archaeology student and witch-herbalist Roselle Beall discovered an ancient library in the Beatty Ruins (above) on New Island's northwestern coast. She and two other Putney University seniors found 88 books and 34 scrolls wonderfully preserved in a tomb-like room under an old tower. It was the first writing ever found from a vanished prehistoric civilization known simply as the Old People.
Roselle managed to translate a certain thin book from the library. She found that the Old People knew themselves as the Kwanlin. She also discovered that the book she translated was a scientific treatise on the physics of The Hum, a pleasant, often healing sound that Islanders have heard ever since their ancestors arrived in 1799. The book further revealed that The Hum is where matter and energy intersect at the core of every subatomic particle throughout the Universe - the core of quantum physics.
Then Roselle discovered that the book, which she calls the Kwanlin Codex, also explained, in step-by-step fashion, how to manipulate Hum energy. Translating this part was her undoing…
In 1964, a fifteen-year-old named Gordon Broome had a strange and powerful dream that brought him to New Island. Gordy was In shock over the possible self-inflicted loss of his mother, and passed out in his bed, and suddenly found himself escaping a tsunami on a raft. After a three-week bardo-dream trip from Southern California to the south Indian Ocean, the raft was wrecked in a storm. He woke up on a beach on New Island's southeastern coast, not far from the Russian naval base at Kronstadt.
He was immediately captured by a Soviet Navy shore patrol, interrogated as a possible spy for the Americans and put in a holding cell. (The story takes place in 1964, in the midst of the Cold War.)
Two civilian food service workers recognize that Gordy can hear The Hum!. They see Hum energy in his eyes, and then they get him out.
Thus begins the narrative - Gordy learns a lot about Hum energy, about friendship, Love, and the people and culture of New Island.
More later...
Open Studio Show in November, and More
Here is what is going on with projects, artwork, upcoming classes, and my New Island project...
Holiday Season Open House - See My Expanded Studio…
Come up and see my new workspace and the new artwork on the walls.
Feel free to chat, have a coffee, and look around.
Open-house reception dates:
Friday November 15, 2019, 2 pm to 7 pm
Saturday November 16, 10 am to 3 pm
Sunday November 17, 10 am to 3 pm
And
Black Friday (November 29th) 10 am to 3 pm
(after the craziness, have a coffee and relax!)
Small Business Saturday (November 30th) 10 am to 3 pm
All artwork is at reduced prices during November!
Where:
127 West Wisconsin Avenue, Kaukauna, WI 54130 (Upstairs inside Kaukauna Coffee & Tea)
Expanded studio and gallery
My long-time studio-mate moved to Colorado, so I have taken over the entire space!
I'll have better light to work by and more walls for displaying artwork.
My newest ocean/beach/surf artwork is on display...
Come by and see the new studio, original paintings, drawings, sketches and prints; and my New Island Project.
The gallery now contains the original artwork and documentation of this imaginary island-nation, The Commonwealth of New Island. Coins, postcards, postage stamps and copies of The New Island Guidebook, and the New Island Wandering Guide road map will be on display.
Classes and Tutoring
1. Beginning watercolor painting workshop at Mud and Prints Gallery, Appleton, WI - for three weeks on Wednesday evening: February 19, 26 and March 4, 6-8 pm.
2. "Painting Skies, Water, Waves and Landscapes in Watercolor" - September 28 - October 3, 2020, at The Clearing in Door County, WI. This is my full-week watercolor painting intensive for beginning and intermediate-level painters.
3. Tutoring service. I offer private tutoring in drawing and watercolor painting techniques in my studio. Tell me what you'd like to learn and I'll share with you what I know. I'll work with you on your schedule - weekdays or weekends. $40. per hour. For inquiries, e-mail me at mothesart@gmail.com.
Last but not least…
In development: a fantasy sci-fi novel that takes place on New Island
I'm pleased and excited to share this: I've been writing a novel (223 pages so far) about a 15-year-old boy named Gordy who, by means of a very strange dream, finds himself washed up on an unknown island, and also in an alternate reality. He has one thing in common with the locals - he can hear The Hum.
Gordy and a friend take a long walk on New Island’s eastern coast. From The Hum.
I hope to hear from you soon!
New Artwork, and another Trip to California
Driving to the northern California coast beginning this morning! I do this every year, when possible, to get new ideas for my artwork - my ocean fix! I will send updates and pictures in the next few weeks.
I Just returned from a family trip to the northwest coast of Spain where I found some lovely surf breaking at Cape Tourinan. New paintings from this trip are in the works.
New Inspiration, a New Island Novel, and New Painting...
NEW ISLAND
I’ve been working on a writing project - a novel - that takes place on New Island. The first draft is now in the hands of four wonderful readers. It’s about a boy named Gordy who finds himself landing there and then discovers a lot about Love and how the Universe works.
I plan to publish the story as a way to complete the project. New Island needs to be seen!
In January, Dana of nortfornow.com taped an interview about New Island and my artwork in general. Here it is:
https://www.northfornow.com/blog/ask-an-artist-a-commute-to-new-island-with-lee-mothes-ep-12
NEW PAINTING
A recent 16” by 20” acrylic painting titled “Surf Riot” completed in February. It is available through the Jill Logan Gallery in Todos Santos, Mexico (She will ship anywhere).
Cheers,
Lee
Figure in watercolor and graphite pencil
Classes in January and February 2019
I’ll be teaching beginning watercolor painting and also figure and portrait painting in watercolor this winter in Kimberley and in Appleton, WI.
See the “Classes” page for more information.