Well, folks, Oregon has decided to do it’s leap year impersonation of Alaska. Wednesday we got about four inches of snow (enough to pretty much crash the state) and since then it’s been COLD!

The snow has evaporated or melted some, but each evening everything freezes up again and now we have various levels of ice.

This is NOT bad news. For one thing, I LOVE the cold. I suffer all summer and come autumn and winter, I want cool (and prefer cold.) I love the rain, but the snow is so much fun. Entertainment and adventure in one white package! Also, I live very close to my job, so my commute has been a breeze (unlike many people I know.) (Note how I am patting myself on the back for my good planning.)

But, this weather bring other perks. Number one…

The Return of Ice Painting!

To remind the audience, a couple of years ago I experimented with ice painting. A few weeks later, we had another cold snap and I tried again.

I totally blame Liz Walker and Margaret Godfrey for getting me started with this. They were infected by Kathleen Conover. All three, however, have been very generous with their knowledge.

From Kathleen Conover I learned that the tough part of the process was the transfer of paintings from outdoors to indoors because when the water unfreezes it tends to pool and remove the crystal effect. Therefore, I know to babysit my paintings for a while after they make their move.

Liz Walker has been particularly generous. Here are a few of her tips:

• The biggest hassle is just mixing up the paints (Tara’s note: try to get them to a “pour” consistency reminiscent of 1% milk)
• Put down a tarp so you don’t get paint all over the patio.
• The effect is very subtle.
• Works well with pthalo blues/greens especially, but I’ve added azo nickle yellow (acrylics) for a nice effect.
• I do it on 140 wc paper (cold press or hot press) but Susan Cowan has good results on Yupo.
• When you bring them inside, QUICKLY move them to a utility sink because that ice starts to thaw and DRIP color everywhere. You might want to put them in a plastic dishpan in the utility sink to catch the excess drips.
• Except for Yupo, the patterns won’t drip off as the painting “melts”.
• Then just use some sort of soft rag or viva paper towels (because they have no texture/pattern) and press them over each wet painting so the excess water is off.
• Then just dry the papers flat and they will be ready to paint on!!

You’ll notice that Liz has a different impression of the “melting” watercolor that Kathleen. As my experience is more like Kathleen’s, however, I’m going to try to do a little babysitting with mine. I suspect part of the difference is that Liz has done more with acrylics and Kathleen says she sticks with watercolor.

So, do you want to see my experiments?

Elk

Also based on my previous experience, I decide to put down some masking and “paint” with images in mind, at least to start.

“Scents of the Season” – with masking

This image is from my trip last year to Reedsport. As I was rooting around choosing colors, I decided to try a freebie Daniel Smith trio (Rose of Ultramarine, Quinacridone Gold, and Cerulean Blue) from my October Francesco Fontana workshop.

“Scents of the Season” – frozen pour

So far, it’s looking good to me! Let’s hope it survives the trip to the inside.

Modern Charger

I liked where this was going so much I decided to invest some sleep time (I stayed up until past midnight!) and do a couple more. As horses are my favorite subject, I looked around from some pictures that might do well. And I remembered the beautiful Drum Horse stallion, Apollo, from June’s horse workshop.

“Modern Charger” – frozen pour

At Liberty

What works is worth repeating, right?

“At Liberty” – frozen pour

“At Liberty” – detail

Use it all up

Of course, it’s good to have a plan for those extras. I ended up with masking fluid to use up, And it’s impossible to mix the right amount of paint. Here’s that result.

Ice painting start – “2016 Random 1”

detail

The best tip

But probably the best advice is Liz’s tip about a tarp – because this is what my back stairs look like.

I just feel lucky the dog escaped getting painted.

As I said in A Bold Goal, I am still working on finishing paintings and have some more to show off.

Based on the feedback from Done?, I decide to add a bird to “Confidence.”

I also worked on taking my critique group’s advice and I think I’m done with “Chasing Dark.”

Another critique group victim is “Painted Warrior”. I settled on a crop, changed the angle of the head, and added some collage. I may need to do a little on the feet, but I’m liking where it’s at.

Finally, I worked on “Maroon Ensata”, an abstracted flower painting I started a few months ago. I may do some outlining still, but at least it’s filled in.

That makes  me half done with my goal. Seven more to go!

I’m needing an opinion, folks.

Today, I decided to tackle “Confidence” last seen here.

I didn’t update you all about the stage where her skirt was red (with polka dots) standing on a beach.

When I took it to my critique group they encouraged me to fix the horizon.

And, though they didn’t comment on it, I never felt the polka dots really worked.

So tonight I did this.

Better. But does she need to be looking at something? I added a digital boat.

If you’ve ever wanted to tell an artist what to do, now’s your chance. Leave a comment.

Well, folks, back to our regularly scheduled painting program.

A Single Goal

This weekend I had a goal. And it had nothing to do with shopping or decorating or turkey (though those things did enter into the picture.) No, my goal was about getting organized.

The purpose of getting organized was to reveal a project on December 1. But the more “organized” I got, the more things I found I had to do to achieve that goal.

Layer 1

First on the list was to find my studio. Over the last few weeks a lot of various items have piled up in there. The biggest was this.

I have needed a new kitchen table for quite a while. Actually, it was less needing a new table than new chairs, but the table was really too big for the space. So then… well… I blame the rest of the story on Pintrest and my mom. But I got the bright idea to install a “bar” for a table using a live edge piece of wood.

I don’t want to go into the whole saga, but the piece was installed with my mom’s help on Friday.

So, with the first layer of this archeological dig removed, I began on the other things that had been piling up. Three Craigslist ads, two Goodwill runs, and a trip to drop off at the Restore place, and I was ready to begin adding some storage that had been moved into the room from another project. And that pretty much covers Saturday.

Today has been about finding the actual paintings in the studio and taking stock. See, here’s my real goal. I want to run a “cyber” sale during December. I have done almost no shows, sales, or other events this year and there is a lot of inventory in my studio. I’d like to start 2017 with as much of a clean slate as possible.

With this goal in mind, I’ve updated my website pages and made a list of projects that I’d like to finish to go into the new year prepared.

In addition to all this, I put the finishing touches on three paintings!

Learning the Ropes

I added a few more dark areas, detailed the whiskers, and added my signature. C’est finis.

The Sunworshiper

This image is from a reference photo I took at the Portland Corgi Meetup 2016 Corgi Beach day. I’m going to donate it to them for the 2017 Meetup.

The Enthusiast

This image is also from a reference photo I took at the Portland Corgi Meetup 2016 Corgi Beach day and I’m going to donate it as well.

Continuing Goals

So I’m going to work hard on finishing the other 14 paintings on my to-do list. “Chasing Dark” and “Confidence” are very close to being done, so I hope to have those out in the next few days.

Let’s hope no shiny objects cross my path…

Late last week my boss came to me and asked where the October report was. I looked at her dumbfounded.

“It’s October?”

I’m not sure why this was a shock to me. I should have figured out it was October when my convention happened. But after all that was over, it’s like I went into a sort of temporary numbness. I went to work, I did normal things. Time just wasn’t happening.

And now it’s November. The clocks are falling back. I should take the opportunity to evaluate all my clocks.

So, in that spirit, I ventured into my studio this afternoon and spent the majority of this rainy day in there laboring on a surprising number of works in progress.

Watercolor Society of Oregon Spring Show Entries

I am delighted to tell you all that I made the WSO deadline and submitted these two paintings for the show. It will be a while before I know if one of them got in. The spring show is “Aqueous Media” because acrylic is allowed; “The Turn” can only be entered in this show because it has acrylic on it.

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Corgi Beach Day 2016

Next, I have been working on a double of paintings inspired my trip up to Cannon Beach in July with Key for Corgi Beach Day 2016.

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Keeneland Morning

Last (I’ve actually been working on these the longest) are a couple of paintings inspired by reference photos I took at Keeneland in 2014. I got a little distracted from my goal of horse feet, but I’ve enjoyed working on paintings focused on light and dark.

[image removed]

Yes, you saw this one above, but it’s worth showing again.

Miscellaneous

Finally, I’ve finally painted in the American kestrel for this painting, started at Margaret Godfrey’s workshop in May.

[image removed]

I’m liking it. I’m thinking about adding some acrylic to the branches to punch up the color.

Well, my mind may have been elsewhere, but at least some good painting has been happening!

After the convention was over, the real fun of the Francesco Fontana workshop began.

Monday – Value

After getting the room and various logistics set up, our group of 26 settled down to learn. The daily format was a lecture followed by each of us going back to our table to work on our projects, with Fontana roaming the room to give individual attention and advice.

Fontana started us out with value studies. He had each of us bring up a subject we wished to paint, then redistributed the paintings so that we were working on a reference photo with no “meaning” built into it. Our job was to develop a three-value study, then translate that into a painting, starting with the darks first (traditionally, watercolor is built from light to dark; this method is more common with oil and acrylic painters.)

I liked this exercise a lot, but I had two problems. First, I had a cold and was, essentially, miserable and drugged up. Second, the reference photo I was assigned was a building; I hate painting buildings.

Still, I did my best.

Fontana looked them over and said, “Well, they are kind of confused. But I forgive you. You’re sick.”

Tuesday – Composition

On that note, I decided to stay for Tuesday’s lecture, then go home and see if a nice nap would help me be able to paint the rest of the week. It was a good decision.

The topic of the day, composition, got slightly muddled because Fontana also introduced the issue of color theory.

The assignment of the day was to take a reference photo you wanted to work on and change it in some way. Turn it from horizontal to vertical, light to dark, or in some other way get away from strictly copying the reference photo.

Wednesday – Color Theory

I felt better with 10 hours sleep plus a nap and vowed to paint the day away. Today’s topic was all about color, with Fontana saying he had gotten sidetracked yesterday and combining two lessons.

Fontana’s color theory is to select a main color, then select the complement: red/green, orange/blue, yellow/purple. From there, select one other adjacent color (essentially you can select any of the remaining four) to give the painting a temperature (warm vs. cool) focus.

Frankly, this is the concept that I had the most trouble understanding. I’m not sure how it differs from traditional triad theory because, essentially, all colors are available in both. Fontana’s method does have the advantage of accenting one side of the color wheel, so that’s something to consider.

Fontana said, “You’re getting it.”

Thursday – Brush Work

I think this was the day that I liked best, and it was certainly successful with the class at large. Fontana talked a little about brushwork, suggesting the intriguing idea that he things in “planes” to “carve out” the painting. His point was that every brush stroke matters, and he challenged the class to create a painting in 100 strokes or less.

A few of the class members produced really stunning paintings. I was not one of them, but I’m still happy with my results, enough so that I went on to paint a couple of larger paintings along this same theme.

As you can see, I sort of forgot about anything except the two color complement scheme.

At the end of the day, Fontana said, “I love your concept.”

Friday – Wrap up

By Friday, i think I was not the only one feeling the effects of a long week. The lecture was a recap of the weeks topic with a challenge to bring it all together into a single painting that would be critiqued at the end of the day.

I started with this value sketch, trying to simplify the shapes as much as possible and not become attached to particular things.

Then I began, using Fontana’s color theory (red/green with purple) and starting with darks first.

I forgot to challenge myself to 100 brushstrokes, but other than that, I hit the other points.

Fontana said, “I love it.”

I love it too. I’d like to do it again a little bigger. I’d like to push the shapes and bring some more primary color into it instead of concentrating so much on neutrals.

But I do love it.

Conclusion

This is the first time I’ve been able to take a Watercolor Society of Oregon workshop (pesky job…) and five days is a lot, especially fighting a cold and coming off 4 days of convention work. But if I had to start somewhere, this was an awesome one.

More than once I felt a little like this was “painting boot camp.” Fontana kept us focused on the basics of good painting, but each with his own twist so the topic felt fresh and new.

Fontana himself was charming and warm and did his best to give everyone some attention. He commented that this was the best workshop he’d done because it was so nice to work with only more experienced painters (apparently back in Italy he teaches a lot of beginner workshops.)

I have a lot to work on back in my own studio. But a lot of ideas too.