Category Archives: Painting

No more challenges, please!

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This week, a Facebook friend nominated me for the “Post seven black and white photos about your life” challenge. Christine, I’m sorry to turn you now, but I’m afraid I’m at max right now!

Stealth projects continue apace. I spent my painting time this weekend prepping for next weekend’s seminar by the estimable Bev Jozwiak. I’ve wanted to take a workshop from her for a while, but I never seem to get my act together. Then, a few weeks ago, she posted that her weekend workshop in Portland had a cancellation and I took a chance, got on the wait list, and actually got in.

The directions to the workshop say:

Bring photos to paint from (Come with drawings done, as I like to dive right in, and focus on painting!) Everything from people (I don’t consider myself a portrait painter, besides faces, think about the figure from the back, and slight profiles too) birds and animals. Feel free to paint flowers, still lives, or whatever you love. I can help. The lessons will be more about design, clean color, color mixing, values, lost and found edges, etc., than it will be about painting an exact subject so feel free to paint your passion.

It goes on to suggest bringing 4-6 starts, depending on how fast you paint. As I am a fast painter, I’m going to try for six and see what happens.

Bev provided one subject:

And I’m prepping the following photos.

That’s a total of five, and I may add another.

In addition to all this, I have taken on another challenge. This week I started the National Novel Writing Month Challenge (NaNoWriMo).

For those that don’t know the idea is to write 1667 words per day so that the end of the month you have a 50,000 word novel completed. The idea is NOT to write well or even coherently so much as it as to get people out the starting box and into the finisher category.

When I was in high school, I was obsessed with romance novels and wrote three complete novels (I don’t remember the word count.) But college, then life happened. I’ve started various stories over the years, but they have all gotten stuck on about chapter 3.

I’m taking this challenge for a variety of reasons that I actually don’t want to talk about right now. Let’s just say that while the timing could be better, sometimes you just have to act.

Wish me luck!

I should have some paintings to show you next week.

Something I CAN post

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I am still working on stealth projects. Earnestly… never-ending-ly… working on stealth projects.

However, this week I finished this year’s 6×6 painting for the Audubon Society of Portland’s Wild Art Festival. For a recap of past projects, go to last year’s post.

Found Treasure (2017) – 6×6 painting for the Audubon Society of Portland’s Wild Art Festival

A few months ago I found that cute little feather and it’s been sitting on my desk. When I decided to use a collage I’ve been working on, I got to the point where I liked the background so much I didn’t want to continue. Then I saw the little feather and I knew what to do. I tied the feather on and wrote “Found.”

I LOVE IT!

If it’s still there when I go, I may have to buy it back.

In other news, Saturday I went on a bird walk put on by the Luckiamute Watershed Council at Luckiamute State Park. I learned quite a bit, not the least of which is that “Calapooia” means “People of the tall grass” and exactly what grass that was. We saw 42 species and I was tired by the end of the trip.

Here are some pictures so you can judge the beauty of the day for yourself.

Finally, to end this post on a Halloween note, I’ll show you the 3cm x 3cm drawing I did to enter in the Faber-Castell #fabercastelloween Challenge! I had to learn how to use Instagram to do it, so be VERY impressed.

 

 

 

When you are unprepared for your dream to come true

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Artistically, I’m still on stealth projects. I hope to have something to show you soon, but I won’t know if it turns out until a little later in the game.

The big excitement this week was my own stupidity.

Back in September I got word that my painting, “The Turn”, had been accepted into the Northwest Watercolor Society annual Waterworks Exhibition (members only.) This is a BIG DEAL! Getting into Watercolor Society of Oregon (WSO) is a big deal. This is REALLY BIG DEAL!

I was on vacation at the time, so I celebrated, but didn’t do much else (Foolish Action #1.) A few days later I got a phone call (still on vacation) asking if I had received the acceptance packet… because the first thing I should have done was not celebrate, but let them know I got it! I apologized and assured the beleaguered show chair that I had indeed received the packet, I was very excited, and my painting would be coming.

Then, Foolish Action #2 happened. I got distracted. Vacation, the WSO show, the Paint the Town show. My attention, never great, just kind of went away. But after the WSO show, I sat down and read over the packet.

I was in trouble.

I had to buy a frame and the shipping time for that is usually about 10 days. That put me beyond the “shipped paintings must be delivered by” date.

Foolish Action #3: I decided to “save” money and drive the painting up to Seattle. This WOULD be a savings because I would be able to get a less expensive frame and would not have to pay for shipping (just shipping coming back.)

There is some possibility that this decision would have been okay, but I forgot another part of the equation. It’s (effectively) monsoon season in the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle traffic is ugly, though Portland is getting bad too. Plus, Seattle planners seem to have a moral objection to “through” lanes, so in addition to making the current turns, you have to be very careful about what lane you are in. Add torrential downpour to the equation, and I white-knuckled large portions of the trip.

But my painting go there, and NWWS posted the following montage on Facebook, so I know it’s been hung.

When I dropped off my painting, many of the paintings were out, but not hung. It’s not very good manners to look at a show before it’s been hung, but my quick glimpses shows the paintings were amazing. I’m not being modest when I saw that I wonder if my painting (however sharp it looks in its new frame) was included as some kind of mistake.

But it’s up now and I’m going to go with it.

Anyone wanna play hooky and go back up to Seattle Thursday for the reception?

Stepping back

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Wow, I’ve painted two days in a row. And blogged both days. Someone mark the calendar.

Unfortunately, I’m still on “stealth projects” so I don’t have much to show. Instead, I will explain a decision I’ve been coming to for a while as I show you random pictures from my cell phone that I claim one day will be paintings.

As this is from an i-phone, I’m not sure anyone can see how great the shadows were. But they were cool enough that I contemplated doing a landscape with buildings…

The end of pet portrait commissions

The decision to step back from pet commissions has been coming for a while.

While I enjoy painting pictures of animals, having to do it to meet the tastes of other people is sort of dragging me down. All joking aside, this project was a difficult one for me. Another project I have has been ongoing for over two years because I am so stuck. I finally just restarted it, which is something I don’t like doing.

My painting time is limited and I feel like this is something I can take off my plate (after I get done with my current load.) If I was painting for a living, it would be different, but there is really no point in having a job that interferes so much with my painting time if I have to treat painting as something to please someone else.

Also… the deadlines are killing me.

The final straw came recently when I did not get paid for a commission. It was a friend and someone I thought would honor her word. When it became obvious that she had taken the painting and “ran”, it made me wonder if the small amount of monetary reward was really worth it. (Also, I don’t think I have to go into how hard this “friend’s” actions were to deal with personally.)

I can still do gifts or spontaneous paintings, but right now I’m stepping back from commissions.

 

To detract from the trauma of this announcement (wait, only I’m traumatized…?) here are more photos that I claim might become paintings.

 

 

The extra bedroom

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I grew up in a three-bedroom/1-bath house. We always had an extra bedroom that I was relegated to whenever my grandparents came over. As a teenager I remember being fascinated by that room and it’s haphazard contents: sewing items, old textbooks, photographs, old computers. I remember wondering why my mom (sorry, Mom) didn’t DO something with the room.

It’s taken me 30 years, but I now have an answer.

THE WOMAN WAS TIRED!

Since coming back from Montana, I feel like every day has been a struggle just to get basic needs met.

The first week, obviously, was all about unpacking and foraging for food. That weekend I had my “Plant and Patio Party” where several friends came over to help me install the plants that would complete my summer-long yard improvement project.

The next week (I think) a few things started falling into place. Groceries  made a modest comeback and the laundry was now in its proper spot. But before I could get too excited the WSO convention came along. In addition to heading up to Troutdale to admire my painting, Saturday I took classes and made small talk with all my painting buddies.

I painting these three starts based on a reference photo in my journal and Doug’s inspirational teaching.

I was supposed to go back up to the convention on Sunday, but I decided to skip out in favor of finally catching up with  my grocery shopping (gosh, I am SO exciting!)

Maybe taking a day to plan for the week helped, however, because about mid-week I caught a glimpse of my “studio” and realized that it bore a striking resemblance to “the extra bedroom.” Items were piled up, chairs rested helter skelter, the goodwill pile was out of control. It took me 45 minutes on Thursday evening to get down to the “painting” layer.

So today my goal was to find enough time to actually get in there and paint. Once again I am up against some deadlines which seems to be my main source of motivation.

I’m proud to say I DID do some painting, but I can’t show you any of it. All three are deadline-driven stealth projects. But to prove my honesty, here is a glimpse of all three.

I’m going to try to get some more painting in tomorrow. I’d like to get to a place where I’m working on what I want instead of deadlines.

But before I forget, it’s been pretty exciting around here the last few weeks and I have been too busy to share.

The American Academy of Equine Art’s 37th Annual AAEA Fall Showcase is currently up (you can see the show online as well)

The Turn got into the Northwest Watercolor Society (NWWS) show (my first non-horse national show.)

Artists in Action’s “Paint the Town” event is finally up. When I went to the opening reception on October 4 I was THRILLED to see that not only had I received an Honorable Mention but one of my paintings has the coveted red dot (sold)!

I think you, and I, are now all caught up to date. Fingers crossed I can continue this good work…

Gathered

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I spent the weekend in what my mom always called “putzing” mode. I didn’t do anything exciting, but I certainly did a lot of little projects.

After the exhaustion of Friday, I slept well and then slept in Saturday morning. After (finally) getting up and walking the dog, I hit the Farmer’s market. Apples are coming into season, but berries are having their last gasp. While coming home, I saw a sign for free figs and I decided to stop and pick some to do some preserving. 

I ended up making three varieties of fig jam: simple (an unfortunate pale green color, but yummy), blueberry fig (shown above), and Southern (contains ginger).

I also fussed around my yard. In spite of my lack of posts, I am making steady progress on my big yard project and I think I’ll be ready for my big planting part on October 1.

I saw some nuthatches checking out the newly placed birdhouses this morning.

I also started on my Peace Pole, though there were an unfortunate mishap with the nozzle to the spray can at one point.

The next step will be tracing the words on all the sides.

Key got good walks both days and went to training today. I went to church and heard a good sermon.

Art-wise, things have been a little slow, though that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. My time in the studio has been spent mostly framing things. My piece for the American Academy of Equine Art, “At Liberty”, was framed and shipped to North Carolina.

I framed a few personal pieces for my home and I’m awaiting a delivery for “Scent of Season” and the three paintings I am entering in Paint the Town (Artists in Action.) Additionally, my mom and I will be driving over to Montana to see family and friends in a couple of days, and I will drop off “Strategy Session” in Big Fork while I’m there.

In short this was the kind of weekend that helps me get back to center and gather myself for things to come.

Let’s hope I can keep that in mind for a little extra time.

Studio recovery

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Thank you all for your kind words, calls, stop bys, and other support from my last post. I process things with this blog, and occasionally, well, it’s just not the cheerful artist tone I’m trying for.

But among my goals for the weekend was to put my studio back together. After “only” an hour an a half, I was able to get down to paint and paper again.  After making several piles and doing some general sorting, I realized that I am once again “down to the deadline” on two projects.

The first is a long-term stealth project that I hope to deliver next month. I have lots of pictures, but I can’t show them yet. I guess you’ll have to hold your breath until October!

The second is the Artists in Action Paint the Town event. The summer has FLOWN by and I have only made it to three events, but I only have a couple more weeks before my chosen three pieces need to be matted, framed, and turned in. I’d like to turn in the full limit of three pieces, and I think it would be good to try for one from each place. With that in mind, I took a look at my options.

Busch Park – June 18

This was a good day, painting wise. Of my four starts, two turned out well. While I will probably turn in “Bush Pasture” I also made small adjustments on “Over Bush Park.”

Hummingwood Farm – July 7

After spending so much time just clearing out my studio, time got away from me and I was only able to finish “Hummingwood Cottonwood”, though it is “Fenceline” I will probably turn in. I hope you can see where “Fenceline” is going by comparing it to the initial draft above.

As you can see, I used an opaque white to tune down the red sky in “Hummingwood Cottonwood.”

Cubanismo – August 5

Once again, I basically ran out of time and didn’t have a chance to work on the third of these paintings, but I’m very pleased with the progress on “Smoke over Cubanismo”, which is the one I will probably turn in. I also made a series of adjustments on “Through the Rows” but I just don’t think that one is quite as strong.

As always, I love it when you comment. If you have a favorite, let me know. Maybe I’ll change my mind about which to turn in.

The melted artist

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Greetings from Oregon which is currently imitating Arizona, Nevada, or possibly the Sahara. Seriously. For the last week, we have been experiencing record-setting triple digit highs: 106, 104, or 108 depending on where you were. It was so hot that my porch got up to 94 degrees one day, event with the fan plugged in and the mister going.

To beat the heat, I have been getting up at 5am to walk the dog. This is completely unnatural behavior for me. The only upside has been the collection of gorgeous sunrises.

As for actual painting… well… my excuse is that it’s been very hot.

On a more positive note, I did meet the deadline for the October WSO show, so either “Scent of Season” or “Modern Charger” has a fighting chance to get in.

Each got one last minute adjustment.

I have until next weekend to figure out what (if anything) to enter in the NWWS show. If you don’t try, you don’t get in.

In other art news, this next weekend I will be doing the Englewood Forest Festival. The weather is projected to be cooler, and even if it’s not, it’s a very shady park. I hope you’ll consider swinging by.

This weekend I participated in the local Artists in Action “Paint the Town” event at Cubanisimo Vineyards. Again, I battled the heat, even in my shady spot and ended up with a light sunburn on my neck. It was a beautiful spot, with red tailed hawks and bluebirds everywhere you looked. Unfortunately, my camera chose to misbehave (that’s my story…) and I don’t have pictures to show off. You’ll have to make do with my works in progress.

I worked on them some today in the studio, but I reached a frustration point and decided to do this.

I’ll paint red if I want to

Yes, my artistic maturity level dipped.

Signing off… got to get up early again tomorrow to walk the dog. This heat wave is expected to last through Wednesday. Ugg.

Eventful times

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It’s been a week since the Ruth Buchanan workshop and I feel like I’m getting back to “real” life finally.

Equine Art 2017

No prizes or sales this year at Equine Art 2017 at Emerald Downs. Of course, I couldn’t attend because of the workshop, but from the names of the winning artists, it looks like it was a strong show.

American Academy of Equine Art

But I did hear from AAEA that “At Liberty” got in.

This is my second time into an AAEA show; if I can get in again, I can have the title of “Juried Member.”

Other news

In other news, Key (my dog, you’ll remember) had been acing his nose work classes and is now officially “on scent”. He doesn’t seem to impressed; it’s really all about the food when you’re a dog.

I manned the Salem Art Fair booth on Sunday for Artists in Action for a few hours and had a blast. I met a professional unicorn and watched Celtic dancing. It was too hot to do much more than people watch, but it was well worth the time.

10 paintings – “Hoof beats”

Saturday I basically rested. It was blazing hot and I was exhausted. It was a good use of time, and toward the end of the day, I started to think about my homework from Ruth.

You told me on the first day that you get distracted by color. I want you do do a week of painting in two colors, and then add three colors. Send me a timeline of your work and we’ll go over it.

So, I hereby put my feet to the fire and announce my plan:

The rules

  1. Try to make these paintings show-worthy (no, “It’s just an exercise”)
  2. Do a value sketch for each
  3. Between 1/4 and 1/8 sheet
  4. Properly stretch the paper
  5. Draw the base (no tracing)
  6. Count strokes (slow down, use your brush

I’m not putting a timeline on this, but I want to do 10 paintings in both the two color and three color. So, 20 paintings total.

Gulp.

Well, I’ve been wanting to do a series.

This will not be my only painting, because I have other commitments. But I am going to try to focus.

I can hear you laughing.