museum inspiration: Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA

Jen Elek and Jeremy Bert at The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA

Sometimes, when walking through an art museum exhibit (or gallery exhibition), I feel a buzz of energy that makes my hair stand on end. It is not only a function of the artwork I view, but where I am in my head, what I have been doing with my own artwork, and my openness to looking at something new. That buzz can be the start of a cascade of changes that results in new art ideas and practices.

Earlier this month, I felt a buzz when at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.

Even the exterior of this museum is exciting, with the enormous metal cone venting the "hot shop" where furnaces keep about 1000 pounds of glass 2400 degrees Fahrenheit!

Even better, inside the hot shop you can watch artists make their glass creations live, or you can stream it. It reminds me of some of my early Catholic lessons on hell and damnation.

Lenny Kravitz "Whole Lotta Love."

something right, something wrong

Drawing with a pen is a commitment. No taking it back, just keep on going.

Staedtler Pigment Liner pen on smooth paper in a Robert Bateman sketchbook.

When I first started to play jazz, after years of studying and playing a classical piano repertoire, I floundered. I kept thinking that there were "right" notes and "wrong" notes and it was my job to play the right ones. One of the intriguing aspects of jazz is the function of a "wrong" note to lead back to a "right" note in the ears of the listeners, even if the "right" note is not played.

These figure drawings are like jazz. A little something right, a little something wrong, and I trust your eyes to lead you in the best direction.

Ella Fitzgerald sings "Desafinado." Something slightly out of tune, on purpose, with this song!

drawing and bravura, a musical connection

I am back at figure drawing and the joy of the contour. 

No sketchy marks of approximation in this drawing. Just a bold line moving across the page, describing the model. When I wasn't satisfied with the drawing on the left, I started again to the right and addressed those aspects that did not satisfy me in the first. I held the same mindset with the second drawing: let a single line carry the form to completion.

With that thought, the word "bravura" came into my mind and was back in my own 40 year piano playing experience base.

Of course, when learning a new piece of music, there's a time for figuring out the notes and stopping at mistakes and correcting them (the "sketchy marks"), but sometimes a bravura play through is what's needed. Needed because it gives the sense of the bigger picture, the scope of the work, the whole.
Ever since I started art making in 2005, I have considered how art and music are alike. And I've hoped to find connection points between my art making and piano playing so that one could inform the other. With this experience in figure drawing, I have found a connection point. 

When I was learning this piece of music, even a rough play through was exciting! Gershwin Prelude No. 1 B flat major.

artists' forum at Trinity

Artists' Forum at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
147 NW 19th Ave
Portland, OR
 
Sunday, April 27, 2014
9:00 am-- 10:00 am

Come see and hear the artists of PDX Women in Abstract Media share their art journeys and talk about their paintings in a casual setting at Trinity Cathedral. Maybe you have a question? Ask away!

non-Apron painting

The "Apron Stirrings" show continues to hang and draw positive and excited comments. But, now, for a break from Aprons!

Everywhere I look, the Spring flowers are filling the landscape with color and pollen. Timing is everything when you paint between sneezes.

Since my acrylic paints are still out, I continued with them for this subject. The painting sat on my easel for a couple of weeks, unfinished, and unsatisfactory, with no line work. Then, one day I saw it and thought about my India ink and decided to "wreck" it. The lines brought focus and depth to what were good shapes but a boring painting.

Spring? Oh, yes. Bring it on!



The Lumineers "Flowers in Your Hair."

what stirs beneath the aprons

 Opening night of "Apron Stirrings" was fun and interesting to see and hear people respond to my paintings. 

And it gave me a chance to talk to people about the work, too. The open exchange of ideas is always stimulating and this night was no exception.

A Little Bit about “Apron Stirrings”

For the last several years, I have experimented with abstraction and ways to communicate in my paintings without being anchored by traditional representations of subjects. 

 

In “Apron Stirrings” you see part of my experimentation. Only two things remain constant in this series: a very real subject (Bill Park’s printing apron) and a limited palette (Cadmium Yellow, Quinacrodone Red, and Pthalo Blue). From there,  I let the paintings flow and develop over the course of a year. 

Communication involves not only the artist, but the viewer. What you see and how you experience the relationships in the paintings is part of your personal life story.  There is no right or wrong story and I love that!

Although the series started with an apron, the paintings are not about aprons at all. They are about the complex dynamics of relationships. This is what stirs beneath the aprons.

In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art Gallery presents

 "Apron Stirrings"
Katherine van Schoonhoven

April 4 -- 27, 2014

2025 SE Jefferson Street
Milwaukie, OR 97222

Opening night: April 4, 2014

"Apron Stirrings" 
Opening Night and Artist's Reception
Friday, April 4, 2014
5:00 -- 8:00 pm

In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art Gallery
2025 SE Jefferson Street
Milwaukie, OR


The show is hung and it looks exciting and vibrant and beautiful. In addition to the Apron paintings, you will see many of my monotypes at the show. You can see them in the painting above, arranged on the floor before we put them up on the wall.

I hope to see you at the reception. If you can't make it then, please come by and see the show at your convenience. 

Gallery hours are: 
Thursday 1 - 5
Friday 1 - 5 (except 1st Friday, open until 8)
Sunday 10 - 2
or by appointment

Special thanks to gallery owner and artist Roxanne Colyer Clingman for her unflagging encouragement and hard work. Without her, this show would not have happened. Thank you, Roxanne!

Opening night April 4, 2014!

You are invited to 

"Apron Stirrings" 

at In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art Gallery for my solo show.

Opening reception is Friday, April 4, 2014 from 5:00 -- 8:00 pm.

Hope you can make it!!

Ella throws it down!

"Ella Throws it Down" 32 x 24, acrylic

"Every child is an artist. The problem is 

how to remain an artist once we grow up." 

Pablo Picasso

There's nothing so refreshing as inviting a child into my studio to play. Before long I remember what it is to be fearless, curious, and completely involved in art making.

And so it was when almost seven year old Ella came to play. She picked up art materials and experimented with vigor and abandon. My role as guide was hardly needed as she drew, painted, and created some wonderful and very personal expressions of art.

For some of our splashy fun with acrylic, I had her wear an apron to protect her clothes. Ella wasn't thrilled, but she complied. As soon as she was done with the acrylic work, she asked if she could take off the apron. Of course. I was intrigued to see her not only take off the apron, but throw it down. That gesture was priceless.

After she and her mommy left, I picked up my sketchbook (you thought I was going to say that I picked up the apron, right? Hah!) and quickly sketched some little thumbnail ideas of Ella in the studio, including her throwing down the apron. This painting came from some of those sketches.

As I worked on this painting, I thought about times in my life when I put on some covering of protection. I accept that I needed it for a time, but when I am released from that need, do I take it off? I might ignore the constraints, the itchy neck, the binding strings, and adapt myself to the discomfort of it. Over time, layer upon layer build up to create an entire shell of protection and my voice becomes muffled under the burden of it all. 

I think I will take a lesson from Ella. When protection is no longer needed, I'll take it off and THROW IT DOWN! 

This painting, and many others that relate in some way to aprons, will be in my solo show "Apron Stirrings" and I hope you will come to see it!

"Apron Stirrings"

Artist reception: Friday, April 4, 2014

In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art

2025 SE Jefferson

Milwaukie, OR 97222

971.258.2502

Triad at Trinity, opening reception

Triad at Trinity
Portland Women in Abstract Media
PDX!WAM

Nikki Dilbeck
Ann Fullerton
Jan Heigh
Bonnie Garrett
Collin Murphy
Katherine van Schoonhoven
Marilyn Woods

Exhibition: March 9 -- April 27, 2014

Reception: Sunday, March 9, 11am -- 1pm
                   Guitar music by Allen Matthews
                  Kempton Hall
Forum with artists: Sunday, April 27, 9am

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
147 NW 19th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97209
503.222.9811