Sweet, sweet rose

I hoped to paint today with the Portland Plein Air Painters at the Washington Park Rose Garden but the gray skies kept me from painting. It didn't keep me from admiring the flowers and taking photos of the ones that were open.

This has been such a cool spring, the roses are late to open. But the sun came out this afternoon and I hear it's going to stick around for a few days.

I can hardly look at roses, without thinking about these famous lines from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

JULIET:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

Day Three: Make Pastels

It's a little like a cooking project, mixing, kneading, dividing kneading more. More water. Less water. We made this many pastels today and divided them equally (more or less) among the eight students in the workshop.

The colors look delicious. I can't use them until they dry all the way through, but I am eager to do it. Some of the colors are the very ones that are missing from my pastel box.

I learned a lot over the three days of this workshop. And, I'm so grateful to Kitty Wallis for teaching! We are so lucky to have her in the Portland area!

A new painting

Here's the painting I worked on for the rest of today. On the left is the under painting, done with Createx Pure Pigments on Wallis Sanded paper. The under painting gives a structure under the pastel for the building up of the entire piece.

The second photo shows you how far I took this painting today. I was pooping out by the end of the session, but I like some of what is happening here.

The painting is done from a photo I took at Kalaloch Beach on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Using the value palette

You can see my value palette off to the side. Kitty had us translate a black and white photograph only using the colors in our value palette.

It goes to show how value does the heavy lifting in a painting! I personally have never seen a man with a green face. Well, maybe once...

Workshop Day Two

Today we started by creating our own value palette. The object is to have a playful group of colors that are even steps from light to dark on a value scale. This is so much easier to do with grays!

One the left you see my process. First start with five broad value fields and then test colors on top of those fields to determine if they are lighter or darker.

Are you eyes crossing yet?

On the far right you see my final value palette.

Workshop painting, Day 1

I never expect to paint a masterpiece at a workshop, but I like this one. The scene is the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. Oh, sure, there is plenty of room for improvement, but I like the light on the water. I can hardly wait for tomorrow!

Color Reactivity

Another exercise with color. This time, take the same color pastel and make two squares. Surround the squares with different color fields and observe how the center color changes, or reacts, to the surrounding color. I LOVE this exercise! I think I can fill a huge sheet of paper with the little boxes. It might not be art, but it's fun!

Value Matching

Day one at the pastel workshop ("Basic Color Intensive") with Kitty Wallis. I feel so lucky to be working with this world class artist! Our first exercise is to take a pastel and make a mark on a sheet of Belgian Mist Wallis Paper. Then, try to match that mark with another pastel from a different color family. It is not as easy as it looks! Good matches are revealed when you squint at the pairs and the line between them becomes less distinct. You can tell that I'm having trouble with this exercise!

Rainy Gardens

It seems that there is always an excuse to avoid painting. Today the excuse was rain. It would have been so easy to stay home and drink a cup of coffee instead of driving to a park to paint.

Today, I didn't take the easy road. I went to the park. And got a little wet. And painted a little painting. Watercolor. Isn't that appropriate for a rainy day?

I have the sneaking suspicion that if I stop looking for (or inventing) excuses for myself, and simply paint no matter what, I will become a better artist.

Languages

"I tell people that I speak three languages," the 15 year old daughter of a friend told me. "English, a bit of Spanish, and music." At 15, she is wiser than this middle-aged woman!

Only in the last few years have I realized how musicians and artists speak a language quite different from English or Spanish. And the world is a lonely place without other native speakers.

I consider myself fortunate to have a community of artists and musicians around so that we can revert to speaking music and art together. "See how the light bends around the tree and almost deforms its branches!" "That 2/4 measure in the midst of the 4/4 meter makes my heart flip in my chest!"

To some, gibberish, but to others, a cup of cool water on a dry and dusty day. Are you thirsty?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHMyrhilkdo&feature=related

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=nUDIoN- _Hxs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWqC_KxAp84