Author Archives: Tara Choate

A little exploring

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Every once in a while I get an idea to go exploring. Thursday, at work, a new report came out about how beavers can be used in watershed restoration, and they mentioned some beavers were living in the Columbia Slough. This was enough to inspire me to give this a shot.

canalIt wasn’t a good day for beavers on this hike, though the mosquitoes were fairly awesome. I did see some nice wildlife though.

And away they go

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Yesterday I went down to the UPS Store and shipped my three Equine Art entries up to Emerald Downs. They need to arrive by Tuesday (UPS Store claimed they would get there Monday) and the show will run from July 10-12, with opening night and awards on Thursday the 9th. I won’t be able to make anything except the final day when I’ll drive up and admire the show and enjoy the racing.

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Now the only thing left to do is wait. I have the most hope for “Shoes & Shadows”, though I’m please with the way “Comin'” progressed and I’m comfortable with it being finished. “Weiner’s Circle” is the most unusual to send to an equine art show, but I’m hoping the racing crowd will make the connection with Weiner Dog races.

How to create a meltdown

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1. Oversleep

2. On a Monday

3. Because you overslept, you have to use the emergency transport plan.

4. Be sure not to have much gas in the car.

5. Also helpful to be one day away from payday and have your checking account be low so putting any significant amount of gas in the car is not possible.

6. At work, have an all day meeting.

7. Have the meeting a place with the cooling system as loud as possible.

8. Make sure all the speakers are soft spoken so you can hear NOTHING.

9. Create an agenda where nothing will be done and everything will be discussed. If possible, have lots of agenda items about “process” and “collaboration” and “team-building.”

10. Serve a lunch that doesn’t violate anyone’s dietary needs, but that no one in their right mind would willingly eat.

11. Tell someone they are going to be part of a presentation and make them really nervous about it. Then don’t have them be part of the presentation.

12. Being sure to do #11, have a phone call that you’ve been waiting for come in 2 minutes before the presentation is about to start (or even closer if you can manage it.)

13. Whatever the subject of the phone call, make sure it’s important enough that it can’t be skipped; when you answer the phone, find out what you need is now delayed by two weeks.

14. When you get  home (to a hot house), have to go to a Weight Watchers meeting where you fully expect to pay for a bad week.

15. Weigh in.

16. Talk to a customer service person who can’t solve your problem and recommended calling an 800 number.

17. Have the 800 number only be available from 9-5.

18. If possible, have the subject of #17 be sensitive, so you don’t want your co-workers to overhear.

 

If this hasn’t created a meltdown, here are a few more sure-fire add-ons.

  • Have it be a few days away from a holiday so gas prices are at the MAX!
  • To ensure maximum hunger, find out what a least favorite food is and serve lots of it so there is no possibility of being full.
  • A good subject of the important phone call would be a broken air conditioner during a heat wave.
  • Add PMS

Finishing “Comin'”

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I took “Comin'” to my critique group on June 17th.

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When you go to a critique group, it’s important to keep your ears open and your mouth shut. I don’t think I did a good job at either this time. A few things I just wasn’t going to do, but what I heard was that the piece needed some serious work.

1. The white bars weren’t working

2. There is not enough interplay between the horse and background (add some green to the horse)

3. The “rider” area was not working.

4. The mane wasn’t reading as such.

5. The left shoulder of the horse (shoulder on the right side of the painting) was too big

6. The nose was too skinny

With those points in mind, I came home with a a decision to make: Go big or go home.

Here’s my decision.

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Of course, when I took a step back, more things appeared.

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I still am seeing a few more things, but time is getting short. I figure that I have to pack up and ship on Thursday. So one more painting night, and for better or worse, this year’s entries are going up.

Coming home through Metolius Reserve – Day 3 (Sunday)

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Sunday morning I got up early and hit the road. I wanted to visit the Metolius Preserve.

I took 302 pictures over a 2.5 mile hike… and here’s the best of them.

At Smith Rock – Day 2 (Saturday)

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While I spent the majority of the day at Smith Rock painting….

I did a few more things.

I saw climbers (I don’t understand this hobby…)

climber

I saw a pair of peregrine falcons chase off a red tail hawk.

I saw various animals while painting.

I visited a nearby Alpaca farm while waiting for the awards to be announced.

I saw an osprey with a great nest along the way.

My friend Jayne played bagpipes at the awards.

jayne

And I met a pair of schipperkes (but only one posed).

skiperkeIn short, I took 250 photos this day.

Off to Smith Rock – Day 1 (Friday)

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So Friday I left work and drove over to Redmond.

startI made pretty good time, though there was an accident along the highway that held traffic up for a while. Fortunately, a little parade of geese passed by to keep us entertained.

geeseOnce passing over the mountains, the landscape shifted to agriculture in a big way.

Once I found my AirBNB stay, I headed over to Smith Rock to scope out the next day’s painting. Along the way I admired various wildlife.

But Smith Rock was the superstar of the evening.

Still, I ask you. Would you climb this thing at night?

All told, I took 236 photos this day.

Smith Rock Paint Out

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This weekend I ran away from home to Redmond, in eastern Oregon. As usual (at least for me) where I was going was a different place than I thought, but the great news is that I found it okay and got settled on Friday night in time to go exploring (more about this in tomorrow’s post).

Saturday dawned and I headed out bright and early to greet it. The rules of this painting competition gave all the painters from 8am-1pm to start, finish, and frame their painting. After turning in the painting, the paintings were judged, award winners selected, and the top 25 finished paintings selected to go to a show at the Redmond Airport.

One of the things I was excited about on this journey was the opportunity to see nesting Golden Eagles. While I did see several of their ten nests (only one is occupied each year, the others are territorial markers), of course no Golden Eagles showed up to pose for me. Just so you know, each nest is about the size of a mattress.

nest

I selected my painting view for the day, hoping to see the elusive eagles. I wore my hiking boots (good choice), lots of water (another point), and even dragged out my shade tent (worth it, even thought it was a very pleasant day). On the demerit side, I left my paper at the stamping station to set all this up (they don’t stamp until 8:00am so no one gets a head start) and someone inadvertently walked off with it. So, in spite of getting up early and diligently setting up, I still didn’t get started painting for 45 minutes after the start.

With some effort, I shook it off and began work on four pieces. It’s typical of me to work on multiple pieces at once, though most painters will concentrate on one (or two) pieces. My fellow WSO-ers Jayne Ferlisch and Kim Smith worked on one full sheet piece for their painting. I worked on four quarter sheets. And felt like getting one up and framed was pretty good.

Below I have arranged each one as a progression so you can see my process.

Piece 1 – Vultures

I blocked out this piece first. I added the vultures toward the end to add interested to the big open area.

Piece 2 – Strata

This is the second piece I blocked out. I think I got a little more handle on the composition at this point.

Piece 3 – Sky Show

One of the notable things about the early morning is that there were no clouds. Then airplanes started going over, adding a little interest. It was amazing watching how fast those clouds moved, though. I was trying to capture that.

Piece 4 – Crevice

When painting en plein air (outdoors) the light changes very rapidly. With this piece I was trying to re-concentrate on the rocks and the shadows.

 

So, which one do you think I ended up choosing to enter in the show?

strataframed

Strata

And I’m delighted to report…

ribbon

That ribbon means that my painting made the top 25 and is selected to go into the show.

Fellow WSO-ers Jayne and Kim also made it into the show, with Kim even winning third place with her full-sheet piece.

kimpiece

Kim Smith’s third place entry.

Proving that you should always read the directions for these things, however, I soon found out that to actually BE in the show, I would have to retrieve my painting and turn it to the Redmond Airport on Monday. Luckily the AWESOME Jayne (who not only paints, but plays bagpipes (how awesome is she)) saved my bacon and offered to take my painting.

This is a great event and I’m already thinking about doing it next year.

P.S. More over the next three days about what I saw and pictures I took while on this little break.

Getting my paintings in a row

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Once again, painting night has rolled around. Tomorrow is the final critique group before I have to ship my paintings up to Equine Art.

“Shoes and Shadows” has come back from “Galloping Out”. I made one small adjustment and rephotographed it. It will go up, and I’ll use my new image to submit it to the American Academy of Equine Art Fall Show.

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I worked tonight on finishing “Comin'” and I’ll take it to critique group tomorrow. With their advice, this will be another piece going up to Seattle and maybe even another entry in AAEA.

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My final entry for Equine Art will be “Weiner’s Circle”. The tag line for this show is “The Horse and a Whole Lot More.” Each year they have Weiner Dog Races that weekend. Even though this isn’t strictly about horses, I think it will get a chuckle.

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