happens

Here's the palette.

Here are the preliminary sketches.

Let's see what happens!

Tommy Emmanuel. Shows me that sometimes when I think I know what will happen, there are still surprises out there. And sometimes the surprises are good!

abstracting a scene

The gap between representational art and abstract art fills me with some interesting ideas.

In the pen and ink sketch above, I started with a representational scene. Where were the roads/ramps leading down to the water? Where were the trees? Buildings? Cars? Then, I looked at the scene again and asked myself "What are the most essential lines or shapes in this scene?" Each of the following five sketches is a different answer to that same question.

 "What are the most essential lines or shapes in this scene?"

Our time on the boat this summer offered many opportunities for quiet meditations and observations like the one you see above. 

I look forward to my time in the studio now when I can explore those designs with paint or maybe with woodcut. It will be interesting!

plein air in the Columbia River Gorge

Here's my pastel plein air set up at the Vista House in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. 

Early in the day it was not too busy at this popular view point and overlook. To stand in the landscape, open to all it has to reveal, is a heady experience. More observation leads to more understanding and that leads to more personal response to the landscape.

To the East, Vista House View, 10 x 10, pastel on paper

As the morning heated up, more people came. In cars and on bikes. In motorhomes and in trucks. Many people took photographs of me painting. Many people wanted to talk to me. As you would suspect, it spoiled my concentration.

Distracted Abstraction, to the East, 8 x 8, pastel on paper

Instead of getting frustrated by that, I decided to just paint an abstraction of the place, plus my feelings about being so distracted by all of the people. 

Vista House, built 1918

If you are interested in seeing more of the Columbia River Gorge area, I recommend the book Wild Beauty: Photography of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867 - 1957.

More about the Vista House here.

The Weavers sing "Roll On Columbia."

Courtney, charcoal, 28 x 26

I've known and loved her since she was a little girl. As soon as she started to play the flute, I started to accompany her. She sat as one of my first models when she was just 14.

 Now she is a beautiful young woman, taking on the world in her own way.

Her kindness exceeds her beauty.

And right now she is very ill.

I think about her every day.

And I wish her every good thing. Health. Peace. Restoration.

Soon, when she is well again, we will do the happy dance together. 
In the meantime, blessings to her.

Joan Baez. "Forever Young."

summer reading

monotype, 8 x 8

I collected many new art books after taking Joseph Mann's painting the figure workshop earlier this month. Now my reading is all about Matisse, Cezanne, Post-Impressionists, Picasso, Leland Bell, and others. 

Here's a portion of my summer reading list. Maybe you will see something that piques your interest!

Henri Matisse: A Retrospective, John Elderfield

Henri Matisse Drawings 1936

Cezanne, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Cezanne His Life and Works in 500 Images, Susie Hodge

Post Impressionism, Nathalia Brodskaia

Picasso and Photography: The Dark Mirror

Anne Baldassari

Leland Bell, Nicholas Fox Weber

The Killers "Read My Mind."

workshop with Joseph Mann

I spent two weeks in an intensive workshop with Joseph Mann, Portland artist and popular teacher at Portland Community College. I never go into a workshop expecting that I will paint a masterpiece, and I did not paint one this time, but I did paint differently and boldly and I learned many things that will work their way into my work in the days and years ahead.

The first week, we painted the figure in the interior. The space, a warehouse in Northwest Portland, was perfect! We all had enough room to spread out and the models had a protected space for their poses.

In the photo at the top of this post, you see how I am trying to fit the elements together like a puzzle where the figure is one piece among many. My head got the concept right away, my hands and eyes had trouble getting it on to the canvas. Line. Value. Color. Shape. Pattern. Shake well ...

Figure drawing is different from figure painting. We had a chance to do both. Since I have drawn figures longer than I have painted figures, I feel much more ease with drawing. The ease I feel translates to fluidity. With time, I hope to create that same energy in my paintings. Practice. Practice. Practice. I get it.

The second week of the workshop was all about painting the figure in the landscape. Take all of the distraction and overwhelming information of plein air painting and add figures into the mix. Easy to find chaos. In the painting above, I used a device from Japanese woodblock prints and put giant leaves in the foreground to give a sense of peering through the screen of foliage to the figures.

Under the shade of leafy trees at Laurelhurst Park in Portland, we were cool in the nearly 90 degree weather. Line. Value. Color. Shape. Pattern. Bugs. Passersby. Lawnmowers. Shake well ...


Speaking of "shake", here's KC and the Sunshine Band singing "Shake, Shake, Shake."

 

orange crush

"Orange Crush" Glen Alps

I am tickled pink, (maybe I should say "tickled orange") to show you a new addition to my art making collection of equipment and assorted creative stuff.

I am now the proud owner of a Glen Alps Press! Glen Alps was a artist, printmaker, teacher, developer of  the "collagraph" process in printmaking, and creator of about 30 presses. You can read more about Glen Alps here and here.

My press was stored in a trailer for the last year and has a lot of rust on its unpainted steel parts. Prior to that, it was used (and I suspect, abused) at a community college for many years. No matter. It is a tough machine, built for abuse and heavy and frequent use. Once we get it all cleaned up, it will be my work buddy for the printmaking I want to do! (Here's what it will look like when it's restored to its working order condition.)

Monotype attracted me years ago and I have taken several workshops and classes to learn more about the form. I loved those experiences, but felt like I could do more and learn more with a press of my own. In the privacy of my own space, I can try big and fail big and stretch and grow in my own ways. That day will come soon!

When I look at my old monotypes, I understand why I have remained excited about it.

monotype with Chine colle

The former owner told me that this press was nicknamed "Orange Crush." I like that!!

takes a forklift to move it!

REM "Orange Crush."

rhythm

6 x 8, acrylic and ink

It's when I can do it in straight time that I know how to swing it, how to stretch the beat, and play with the elements to make it my own. With music. With painting. Music and art. Wildly different. Strikingly alike.

With these new paintings, I am deliberately missing the downbeat and shifting the rhythms.
Frank Sinatra was a master at it. Here's one of my favorites, "Fly Me to the Moon."

to be free

I found it along a worn path in my yard, this perfect bird nest. No broken eggs nearby let me hope that this nest was no longer needed and the chicks had flown to their own lives in trees nearby.

But the nest! The nest!  I carefully picked it up and brought it to the studio, where I could study it.

I sat it on a satin cloth and pulled my lamp over to light it. It was beautifully crafted from small sticks, moss, grass, feathers, and white dog hairs. Every piece of its construction was fitted together with the others in such a way that its form did not shake or shift as I moved it.

There are times when the hurry-scurry of life wraps me in a cloak of I'm-too-busy-to-stop-and-see. It seems that this cloak becomes a strait jacket of ever increasing immobility and distance from what touches my soul.

And then, I found the nest. Such a small object, and yet it touches me so deeply, I am left gasping for breath. The strait jacket falls away. And I am back. Trying, in my own way, to be free.

Leonard Cohen "Bird On the Wire."

you are invited!

In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art

First Friday 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Sunday Market 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Holiday Hours

And by Appointment

InBoccaalLupoFineArt@gmail.com

Celebrate With Us!

Please join us for the opening July 5th.

Marilyn Woods

Katherine van Schoonhoven

Patty Lampley

Jackie McIntyre

Corrine Loomis Dietz

Roxanne Colyer Clingman

Bridget Benton