“Here’s a wake-up call to anyone who feels the call to make art: Don’t WAIT! Start small, start with a sketchbook, collage or something you can make at your kitchen table. For professionals and amateurs alike, life has a way of making you feel like you don’t have time, your setup isn’t worthy, you don’t have the right materials, etc.” ~ quote attribution lost, though I think it might be Ruth Armitage

I’m still on my coffee table for art, but I am back to making art.

I got a minor cold this week. I felt achy and crankier than average on Wednesday. By the time I clocked off for the day, I was SO cold. I’m never cold. So, I took my temperature and wasn’t shocked to see it at 99.7. I just hoped it wasn’t going to be COVID. I didn’t particularly have any “symptoms”, other than feeling bad and the fever, but I sat on the couch and pouted under three blankets. The next day I suppose I COULD have worked, but my nose was running and felt bad. If I was going into the office, I wouldn’t have wanted me around. So, I figured working from home was the same and so called in sick and spent the day watching movies and keeping hydrated. Friday I was still sniffling and coughing a little, but I did work, with the caveat that I could leave anytime. I blasted through my “basic” work, putting aside anything that wasn’t ordinary, and made a good dent in my inbox. Between the cold and a weather system that came in, neither the dog or I got our normal walkies in and so I wasn’t sleeping well. But yesterday, everything cleared up a little and I got enough exercise to sleep. And today, well, except for the occasional sniffle, I’m feeling pretty good. This little story is to demonstrate of the scope (very small) of my artistic endeavors this week.

A few months ago, to prepare for my first teaching endeavor, I got some liquid charcoal from Schmike. There is a second brand on the market called Nitram, which I have been told granulates more. I ordered some recently and wanted to give it a try. So, I got out some paper scraps and gave it a go. In the end, I added watercolor crayon over the top of the charcoal on most of these small paintings. I did one “large” painting with blank paper and just the charcoal.

I have to be honest; I don’t like the Nitram as well as the Schmicke. It’s much waterier. Without the grit, the interest of putting down the paint isn’t there. Still, I enjoyed playing with design. I may add watercolor crayon on top of this one as well.

I’m going to keep this post brief. I’m still feeling like the coach with blankets is a nice place to be.

Spuddle: A useful verb from the 17th century that means to work feebly and ineffectively, because your mind is elsewhere, or you haven’t quite woken up yet. To be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing.

Lately, I’ve been massively attracted to the idea of finishing and/or using up. I’ve been working on finishing a book that’s been open for three months, a scarf that was started before Covid, and the remaining gel pens that my mom purchased at some point in time. The latter are absolutely useless; they hardly contain any ink. But I’ve been doodling away for a few minutes each night, using up 6-10, and generally making progress toward finishing the batch of pens, but not much else.

However, I think I’ve nailed down my next painting. Just as soon as the rest of these pens run out…

Some of you may notice that I didn’t post last week. That was a deliberate decision on my part. I had made it through a week of work and then taught my breakout at the WSO convention. Sunday was designated for chores in the hopes that a four-day workshop with Linda Kemp (Negative Painting Addicted) would be as easy as possible. Hopefully, you’ll forgive me for not posting when you see the length of this post.

Exploring Value Studies with Liquid Charcoal

I volunteered to teach a breakout session at the WSO Fall Convention. It was my first attempt at teaching, and I am thrilled to report that it went okay. No one threw things. No boo-ing. In fact, most people looked like they were having fun. I had scheduled the pace to be brisk, so the class wasn’t doing any one thing for a long time. I usually had five minutes between exercises to go around to each person and answer questions or just provide encouragement. I had been worried that I wouldn’t be able to provide honest and encouraging feedback, but that wasn’t a problem. Each person had something in each of the exercises worth an honest, “Oh, I like that.” Some people had individual projects that turned out better than others, but the goal of the class was never to create masterpieces. I wish I had thought to grab some photos of peoples’ work, but I was too nervous to ask.

Linda Kemp: Negative Painting Addicted – preview

Saturday, after teaching my class, I had signed up to have Linda critique my image “Yellowstone Dancers” as part of the juror’s lecture.

“Yellowstone Dancers” (2021)

Because I had entered this image in other shows, and hadn’t heard back from them yet, I had NOT submitted this as one of my images for this show. Naturally, Linda loved it. She literally said there wasn’t anything she would change (though she did tell me not to be afraid to go darker.) Isn’t that always the way? The one thing you don’t enter…

While proud that she like the painting, I felt a little frustrated. I love this painting, but I’ve been hesitant to do more because it has received NO love from jurors. Obviously, that shouldn’t slow me down, but it does make hesitate. When I told Linda that, she said, “They just missed it.” I’ve often commented in the past about juror’s prejudice about animal paintings, and her remark reminded me that it’s a definite issue.

Linda Kemp: Negative Painting Addicted – Day 1

I arrived for Day 1 (October 10, 2022) very excited about the workshop. I had heard good things about Linda’s past workshops, and the fact this workshop sold out well before the deadline indicated her reputation was solid. For me, her style of painting was less important than the fact that she paints a lot of animals. It’s hard to find workshops that explicitly discuss animals, unless the focus is pet portraits. I hoped there would be teaching about design and meaning.

Linda is an instructor who liked to keep her students busy, which I wholeheartedly approve of. She started us right off on the fundamental basics of negative painting.

Water lily exercise

The basic idea of negative painting is that you start off with base, then add layers of shapes. “Where does the color go? Around the shape,” Linda repeated several times a day. After the initial lesson, Linda encouraged us to use our own reference photos and work through some basic exercises.

Cranes – negative painting exercise

After lunch, Linda had the class do a series of brush exercises. While these felt basic, I think the results show that I could use the practice. Knowledge of these strokes would become important later.

From there, Linda eased the group into aligning these strokes into leaves. “Where does the color go?” As she pointed out, leaves can be as simple or complex as we make them, the key is to assemble them.

With the remaining time, the class worked on projects created throughout the rest of the day. I found myself working on these two paintings, concentrating on brushstrokes.

Linda Kemp: Negative Painting Addicted – Day 2

Here’s the bad thing about writing about a workshop after an event. Things get fuzzy. I believe I started out the day working on these. The essential idea being to start work on a toned surface and place the desired negative shape on an appealing part of the toned surface.

I am sure that somewhere in there, Linda gave a lecture on color theory. I know the horses above were impacted by this lecture; I just can’t figure out which came first.

Her point was that, as painters, we spend a lot of time worrying about value, but it is possible to do paintings based on hue or intensity. She also talked about using colors at their brightest and how simply adding water adds a slight gray cast to them.

In the afternoon we worked on a technique Linda called “wet into wet.” I added the quotation marks because it is slightly different than what is usually meant by working wet into wet. For Linda’s version, the idea is to have a base layer that is still wet (paper wetness is a very important element in this, which I did not master) when you put on the second coat, using very strong pigments with a minimum (preferably none) of water. As you can see below, I had too much water on my brush… and paper… and paint. The third piece was better, but only because I put the third layer on when it was dry.

From here we were encouraged to use this technique to work on our own reference material. I chose a beehive I had photographed once.

I probably should have stuck to something I knew, such as horses or birds. The idea was that the honeycomb under the bees would be the darkest. Unfortunately, I struggled with wetness and we moved on before I could completely solve the problem. Linda came by and said this to a (very discouraged) me: “You are doing complicated shapes. But I’m not discouraged. You have the idea.”

The final exercise of the day was about paint movement. Linda showed us a method of letting the paint “to its thing” in a controlled manner.

The concept idea is to collect three, freshy, blobs of paint color on a round brush. It’s important to have at least one “base” color and one “takeover” color. A base color is a color that has a strong granulation factor: Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre. Linda called them the soil colors. The takeover colors are almost everything else, but in particularly the quinacridones, phthalos, and other paints that have a lot of syllables. The base colors slow down the speedy takeover colors, creating a pleasing mixing factor as they blend while following the water. Using the comma stroke learned on day one, the globs of paint are deposited on a wet piece of paper. Then the artist can allow gravity to do its thing or direct the flow in a desired direction. At a dryer point, use a slightly damp brush to pull up marks that may indicate foliage or other desired attributes.

This was my most frustrating day. Water “rightness” was intrinsic to most of the techniques, and due to a combination of equipment, habit, and lack of practice, I was not successful. Luckily, a good night of sleep left me in a better place on Wednesday morning.

Linda Kemp: Negative Painting Addicted – Day 3

Linda started the day with exercises intended to start pulling together the lessons we had learned over the last couple days, specifically focusing on layering and suggestion. I elected to work in my notebook as opposed to a good piece of paper, so the paint quality on these is not fabulous. The first three are from Linda’s examples, the last five from my reference photos.

From here, I was inspired to work on this piece, which is among my favorites for the workshop. (Note: The reference photo for the birds had them with tucked heads, which doesn’t work as a painting.)

Avocets

After the initial shape, Linda provided a demo that mixed the negative painting, foliage, and paint movement. Unfortunately, I only have a photo of the first two. After the initial dry, Linda added more “movement” dots and worked the paint into a sort of curve which she pulled some branches from.

The really embarrassing part of telling this is that I’m still not sure how she got from the first photo to the second. I can SEE that she added layers, but I don’t logically understand how she got from the reference photo to here. And turned it into something appealing, because initially, I had my doubts.

After lunch we moved into a new lesson, which I will call paint pushing. Using a Cheap Joe’s Skipper Brush (or similar) the paper is wetted and then color applied in downward strokes. Working up the page, when one layer is finished, the artist does a shift and “pushes” the new paint color into the old paint. The result a pleasing mix of texture and color.

Cheap Joe’s Skipper Brush

Once the page is finished, and that’s pretty quickly, we were encouraged to go back and lift out shapes.

This was the most straightforward lesson, but also the one that I need to think about how to use.

Linda Kemp: Negative Painting Addicted – Day 4

The final day of a workshop always has a slightly odd feel to it. Lingering matters are addressed, such as a group photo. Ending logistics about cleaning up and timeline are addressed. Thank yous said. Addresses exchanged.

But the real tension of the day has to be the teachers. Can she pull it all together and give the students an opportunity for a masterpiece?

Knowing that we had created a large pile of starts the day before, Linda led us through an exercise on simplifying the landscape. Using tracing paper, we were to trace our reference photo using big lines. Then we were to repeat that using only 1) curves, 2) triangles (angles), and 3) squares/rectangles.

Then, using this exercise, Linda demonstrated “catching an edge.” The idea is to take the highly suggestive backgrounds created by pushing paint and develop them into an actual painting with the judicious use of the same color and a few negative shapes to complete the suggestion.

As with many things about this workshop, I understand the concept, but my execution is shaky.

To conclude, Linda asked us to do some free painting. I worked small and concentrated on developing the idea of layers and negative painting with animals.

At some point Linda came over and we talked about “Yellowstone Dancers” and working more in that series, but maybe like this. I asked some questions about where she would use symbols, and she encouraged using them “negatively” instead of putting them on the animal. In Pronghorn Antelope 2 you can just see where we talked about horizon lines and symbols.

Finally, on a note of real excitement, I finally got a “label” (see previous posts about my longing for this). “You’re a good shape maker,” Linda told me.

Conclusion

I would wholeheartedly recommend Linda Kemp’s workshop to another painter. It was well worth it. I learned a lot and have things to take home and explore. Linda herself was warm, competent, and organized. She walked the line between allowing each painter to do what appealed to them and having the entire class following an exercise. Additionally, WSO and the volunteers did a great job with all the logistics, and the facility was very comfortable.

The one disappointment, for me, is I didn’t really get a chance to have the kind of conversation I wanted to have about painting animals. It’s not a completely feasible desire. In a four-day class, with six hours of scheduled learn time, and twenty-five students, Linda could provide one hour to each student and do nothing else; or she can move the entire class along and have snatches of conversation. She made the right choice, but I’m still wishing for just a smidge more.

That smidge is going to have to come from me. I have oodles of ideas and techniques to explore, not just from this class, but from many others. With my volunteering off the plate, my move completed, and nothing really on the schedule until the spring, I’d like to take the winter to develop some ideas. I’m going to try to make 2023 workshop-less, but no promises. I need to get in touch with my own painting style.

It’s been a busy week here at the Choate Den. Let’s do a recap and see if I can present a lesson. (Spoiler: I actually do!)

Strada September Challenge

As mentioned over the last few weeks, I participated in the Strada Challenge. And this year, I finished!

Coastal Plein Air

As I documented last week (okay, the second post last week) I have been working towards getting three of my paintings and two of Sandra Pearce‘s paintings down to Florence the Florence Regional Arts Alliance for their Coastal Plein Air Event. Friday, I took the day off to do just that, and ended up being very glad I did. The drive was lovely, but I was stunned to learn that I had won a prize for “Yaquina Rocks”! It’s called the Creativity Award and I think it might be a people’s choice award. Those are always fun because you feel like it’s your peers! Even more impressively, Sandra got FIRST PLACE for her painting of Yaquina Lighthouse. Way to go, Sandra!!!!

In case you were wondering, these are the three paintings that eventually had the combination of frame-ability (i.e. I had frames that fit them) and quality.

Word and Image

Saturday evening, I zoomed into the opening of the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita Word & Image opening. I was really impressed with the lovely, thought-provoking poetry and stunning artwork. I felt so honored to be a part of it!

I’ll purchase my copy of the book when I go down to view the show (unsure of the date on that.) In case you are interested, this is the link to purchase a book. Honestly, the poetry alone is worth it. The art is gorgeous. The typesetting and layout stunning.

Westminster Festival of Fine Art

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again. If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done. This next week I’ll be juggling my paperwork for pieces I’ll present to the Westminster Festival of Fine Art. I haven’t done this show before, and when I lived in Keizer, it seemed like a good idea. Now it feels a little more challenging. Here’s the event flyer in case you are interested in attending.

Watercolor Society of Oregon

And now my attention turns toward the Fall Convention of the Watercolor Society of Oregon. While I did not get into the exhibition, I still look forward to seeing the exhibit and all my friends. This year, I am trying my hand at teaching. I’m a breakout leader for a session called “Exploring Value Studies in Liquid Charcoal.” I’m more than a little nervous! While pre-reservations have passed, I happen to know a lot of the sessions this year have room for walk-ins. If you are an artist in any medium, consider attending. Show up at the Salem Convention Center between 8-9am and see what you can get into. Each breakout session is only $15!

With that, I will also report that yesterday was my last day as the webmaster for WSO. After eleven years, I’m handing it over to someone else. Specifically, a very competent individual named Dan who is currently amoung my favorite people in the world.

As I took a large hand in helping with this Fall Convention, by next Sunday I will be done volunteering with WSO. Not forever, but at least for a few years. I need a big break.

Wound-ier and Wind-i-er

Note: To properly understand this title, “wound” is not a cut or bruise. It’s in reference to yarn that has been wound into a ball. Similarly, “wind” isn’t the whooshing of air; it’s the action of winding a crank.

One of the things I wish I could change about myself, at least to some degree, is my type A tendencies when under stress. My obsessive tendencies came to a head on Tuesday evening when I went bonkers because I could not find mats and frames that fit the images I wished to take down to Florence. Specifically, I wanted to find a way to frame up “Between the Wind”.

But no matter where I looked, I could find a mat and frame that matched the piece. Everything was too small or too big. The result was me getting wind-i-er and wound-i-er to the point that I wasn’t able to do much more than nap that evening. Wednesday was not good as a result. I ended up crying at work and frankly I’m not too excited about the repercussions next week. Sigh.

A trip to Goodwill did not offer up any alternatives, so I ended up taking a different painting. As it turns out, I ended up taking Yaquina Rocks. Ironic? Oh, yeah.

When Sandra texted me yesterday to report the prize situation, she said she thought the other painting she had delivered was stronger. Clearly, neither of us is any judge of our own work!

The lesson of this little story should be something along the lines of “it’ll be okay” or “everything works out.” I’ll try to remember that… but I need to go stress out about the Westminster paperwork.

Art shows always seem to come at the same time. Feast or famine. It would be great to have one a month, but it’s more likely you’ll have five in one month and nothing for the next six. Right now, I’m entering the feast stage of the cycle.

Over the next few weeks, I have a variety of art-related opportunities. As usual, I’ve waited until the last minute to finalize things.

Chronologically, one deadline passed yesterday. I delivered my painting “No Dumping” to the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita as part of their Word & Image show. Saturday is the opening, and I’d love to go up again for the real thing, but I’m not sure time will allow.

The next deadline is Friday, when I will deliver three of my paintings and two of Sandra Pearce‘s paintings to the Florence Regional Arts Alliance for their Coastal Plein Air Event. (Note: Dropping off three of my paintings is not confirmed. More about that later.) I’ll turn around and collect the paintings on Sunday, so between going 2 hours south Friday, 2 hours north Saturday, and then 2 hours south again Sunday, that weekend is shot.

A mere five days later is the Watercolor Society of Oregon convention. I’ll be teaching on Saturday (a first for me) and I need to get my presentation to 100% (it’s about 85% now). Three days of playing with friends, then I bounce into a four-day workshop with Linda Kemp.

During this workshop period, I also have to drop off paintings to the Westminster Festival of Fine Art. They’d like to have people volunteer at the show, but I’m not sure I’ll have the stamina!

Finally, my painting “Transitions” will be exhibited in the American Academy of Equine Art Juried Exhibition in Aitken, South Carolina. Other than arranging shipping, I won’t have to do much for that one, though I’m constantly tempted to just hop over for the opening.

And then… nothing. For quite a while.

More Trouble Together

With all of the above going on, brush buddy Sandra Pearce and I had made plans for her to come down to the beach house last weekend and paint up a storm. I had done a few paintings the weekend before, when the painting window first opened, but I hoped to do some more work while we painted together. Sandra arrived Friday morning and we hit Yaquina Head.

Four studies at Yaquina

We went out to dinner at the new Pelican Brewery at Siletz (a little pricey, but food was good (other than desserts, which were weird)) then headed home to watch episodes of Landscape Painter of the Year.

The next morning, we got up early and hit Sally’s Bend-LNG before moving on to the South Jetty at Newport, then Brian Booth State Park (otherwise known as Ona Beach.)

Over the course of the weekend, Sandra managed to put together two lovely paintings, which are matted and framed and waiting for transport. Me? Well… I spread a lot of paint, that’s for sure. The problem, though, is one of location. The rules of this plein air event are that all painting must be done on sight with only “minor” changes being allowed back in the studio. That’s really hard. I need time to tiptoe up to the finish. The following are paintings done and “finished” at the site, with the black and white version being the same painting in black and white to get an idea of value.

Painting 1 – Yaquina Bay

Not bad. I think there needs to be a little dark connecting the pelicans and the dock.

Painting 2 – Oysterville Marsh

Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were VICIOUS here and I ended up painting this mostly in the car! Unsure if value pattern balanced.

Painting 3 – Four Studies at Yaquina

There are things I really like about these studies, but they were never intended to be submitted.

Painting 4 – Yaquina Rocks

This one is an “almost”. I think the land needs to be pushed back to create a better focal point.

Painting 5 – Yaquina Waves

Again, there are some areas I really like in this painting. But i think the foreground is too dark. Or bright. Or something….

Painting 6 – Sunning Harbor Seal

Fun, but not submittable.

Painting 7 – Ona Sentries

Sandra really liked this one. I’m not sure a value study is… enough.

Painting 8 – Stump Abundance

I think there are some good passages in this, but it needs an overhaul to be effective. The front left pushed back, the foggy rocks defined, the trees grounded, etc.

Painting 9 – Ona Memories

I must be honest. This was painted at Ona Beach while looking at areas that weren’t necessarily adjacent to each other. Artistic license, right? I feel the floodplain doesn’t read correctly and the foreground bushes need more authority.

Painting 10 – Between the Wind (Brian Booth Trees)

I like this, but I see some areas I need to add paint and I’d like to make a couple areas just a smidge darker.

Conclusion – Tell me what you think!

So, keeping in mind the rules, which of these would be your choice to frame and send down to the show?

Right now, I’m leaning toward Sandra’s choice (Ona Sentries), Between the Wind, and Yaquina Rocks. Tell me what you think!