flow

Each painting explores a new solution or raises a different question. Overlapping solutions and questions and a steady rhythm of painting.

It's a matter of FLOW. Listen to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the topic.

water

12 x 12, pastel on archival paper

Have you ever seen this "Incredible Water Art" video?

smoke on the water

12 x 12, pastel on archival paper

My love affair with music started early. I was only four when I became enchanted by my mother and grandmother singing in harmony (which I thought was magical) on our vacation road trips. It continued with babysitters who played Beatles' songs and listened to the pop stations on the radio.

I insisted on piano lessons when I was seven years old. It did not matter that my family did not own a piano. I knew it was for me and I wanted lessons. Lucky for me, my parents gave in and I began what has been a nearly lifelong passion.

But, when I was just nine, I became a genuine groupie of our neighborhood garage band. Garage bands were really popular in our town and every group dreamed of Capitol Records and Hollywood and being discovered. Fame and fortune, fancy cars, and the good life followed those dreams. Or, at least, winning the "Battle of the Bands" at the local high school.

I went to many of the band's rehearsals. Sometimes they let me try to sing along, other times they let me play the tambourine, but mostly I sat on a box or on top of a workbench and listened to the music. And one of the most popular songs in their playlist, was this: "Smoke on the Water."

Listening to it now still makes me think of the shy but cute drummer, Duncan, the smell of lawn clippings and gasoline, and the lyrics to this song.

Abstracting Water Slideshow

In the six months since I have returned home from Alaska, water has been on my mind. Here is a slide show of some of my new thoughts and explorations about water. More to come, I am sure of it. More to come.

Flow

Flow
18 x 24
pastel

Do you have "Flow"?

Flow

Finding Flow
18 x 24
pastel on recycled Wallis Museum Paper

Water Worry

I think about water a lot. I love to watch it move and flow. It is always determined to discover the lowest spots and to pool there. Maybe water is on my mind a lot because I nearly lost my life after falling into the 52 degree water of Puget Sound.

I may look okay, but somehow I always have a niggling worry about water.

Challenge of vertical

Lewis River 4
24 x 18
pastel on Wallis Museum

Turn the paper from landscape to portrait and a whole wagon load of challenges appear. Where is the interest? How can I move the eye of the viewer up and around and back up again? It's a sure sign that I'm learning something new when I pace around my studio and growl at the painting on the easel!

That pretty much describes my day.

How was your day?

Water, never boring

Lewis River 3
18 x 24
pastel on Wallis Museum

3 Stages of a Painting

final

mid point

beginning underpainting

Here you see three stages of a painting today. The bottom photo shows my initial ideas and the set up of value and color harmony with the underpainting. I was interested in the warm yellow/gold/orange colors with the green/blue/violets. These complements really create a buzz for me.

The middle photo shows the first applications of pastel. In this stage I try to get the flow of the painting to go right. I correct what feels clumsy or harsh and start to set up what will be the areas of most interest.

The top photo shows what I think is the final version. I am careful not to go too far, and it's possible that I will add more later after it rests. My first look tomorrow will be the most telling.

Lewis River
18 x 24
pastel on Wallis Museum

North Fork of the Lewis River

pastel and pigment dispersion
18 x 24 on Wallis Museum Paper

Lewisville Park is a special place for me and filled with memories. For about 15 years I took my sons to this park to play in the river, to throw rocks and frisbees, to run around, to climb on play equipment, to picnic, to walk and talk. Now my sons are married and live far away. My trips to the park are for walking or painting. I steer clear of the play equipment.

Many things have changed over time, but the river remains the same. It mirrors the trees and sky in its flat places and allows peeks of its rocky bottom if the light is just right. It whispers and roars over boulders and swirls and eddies and finds its way past. Relentlessly, it runs to the mighty Columbia River, and from there out to the sea.

Today I painted the water as it flowed over the rocks. And I felt the prick of sadness that my sons are grown and no longer go to the park with their mom. And painted just a bit of the jumbling of thoughts and feelings and the beautiful sight of flowing water.

It was a day like that.