A December Trip to Coos Bay

Last weekend, Mike, my sister Janice, and I took an overnight trip to Coos Bay. The main attraction was to attend the artist reception at Coos Art Museum where I have two pieces hanging. Since there were 350 submissions, I felt honored to have two paintings accepted.

I had fun planning the trip. We stayed at the Old Tower Bed and Breakfast, which I chose with Janice in mind. As an historian, I knew she'd enjoy the Victorian decor. We also took an evening walk, after the reception, at Shore Acres, a state part which is decorated with a zillion Christmas lights. It's really amazing with leaping frogs, breaching whales and pelicans all done with lights. The walk was cold and rainy, but we were prepared with layers and umbrellas. Mike only rolled his eyes when I suggested we have a similar display at our house next year!

 

Janice and me with Caribbean Cornrows I.

 

Here I am by Clear Sailing.

 

A group stops to look at Clear Sailing.

 

Janice and I marvel at the found items in this collage.

Things Learned and Acted On

One of the things I love about art is that it is always a learning process. I learn from my own mistakes, my successes, and other artists. After a day with LaVonne followed by meeting with my critique group, I came back home ready to improve the cherry blossom painting from a couple of weeks ago.

 

I took some suggestions from my critique group and the techniques I learned from LaVonne to soften edges, tie together some colors, and generally work over quite a few areas. What do you think?

 

Cherry Blossoms 22 x 30

I got lots of props from my group for Taking Off. It is a small painting and several people thought it should be turned into a larger piece.

 

As I was lamenting the long process of drawing grids and trying to transfer all the shapes to a full sheet of watercolor paper, it was suggested I get the small painting scanned and printed in black and white. So off I went to Kinkos, where for $3 I got the painting scanned and printed to nearly 22 x 30 ( the size of a watercolor sheet). When I got it home, it was simple to put the B & W print with a sheet of WC paper on top of it and place the 2 papers on our picture window. Using the sun for my light, I had a perfect light box for copying.

 

Trash to Treasure

Last week artist friend and master painter, LaVonne Tarbox-Crone, invited me to her studio to paint together. I have always been timid using gauche on my paintings, and I had asked LaVonne for help in learning how to use the opaque paint on my paintings. I took a total disaster to work on.

This is part of the process I'd used in my studio, before any fixing. The painting was inspired by a close-up photo of a creek. I started out by painting some rocks. I then covered up the white with masking tape so I could pour a wash over the rocks.

 

The pouring did not work well. For one thing, I'd used a dead color to pour and the rocks became dull and lifeless.

 

And this close up shows how the masking tape allowed leakage under the edges, so I got all these ugly spots on what I had hoped would be pure white and fresh color.

 

I wish I had a photo of what I had next, because in my frustration, I did some almost black zebra stripes over a large part of the painting, trying to imply water. Unfortunately I stopped photographing my progress because I was sure this was headed for the burn pile.

It was an embarrassment, but I took it to LaVonne's anyway. She first asked if we might scrub it. Heck, yes! This could not get worse. She took it to her sink and began to carefully wet, wait 10 seconds, then begin scrubbing with a sponge. She did lots of water and lots of scrubbing. In the end, maybe 10% was left untouched.

After the scrubbing, ghosts of my original rocks were left on the wet paper, and LaVonne demonstrated how to begin recreating the stones. She also showed me how to smooth out and hide ugly areas with gauche. Soon I was working over this piece myself. By the time I left her studio, The painting looked entirely different, but with possibility.

I brought it home and worked on it more. Here is the painting as I left it in my studio yesterday. It's pretty miraculous fix! Thanks, LaVonne, for the fruitful lesson.

 

November--A Month of Family, Artist's Bio, and Creating a Logo

Looking at my last blog entry, I see it's been less than a month, but it feels much longer to me. November has flown by with lots of stuff happening, yet I feel I haven't accomplished much.

On the family front, we got to see our grandchildren more than usual. They came to visit us. The weather was chilly, but clear, which allowed the following:

 

 

Swinging over the front pond,

 

Warming up with a tea party,

 

And sleeping like a baby.

And then there were birthdays to celebrate.

 

Our oldest, Meg, turned 35!

 

I rarely bake, but I made an old family favorite, Red Velvet Cake.

It was a great party enjoyed by family and friends.

 

My mom with son-in-law Josh.

 

Our oldest granddaughter, Kelly.

 

Grandaughter Marin, our current reigning princess.

 

And proof that grandson Noah is finally warming up to me!

And then there was Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving in Vancouver, where all Mike and I did was take a couple of side dishes. Josh and Rachel hosted, and Meg brought one of her speciaties, mashed potato casserole.

 

Here are Rachel, Marin and I dressed up for the day.

After dinner we crossed the bridge to Portland, visiting my sister Barbara's house.

 

Here's the photo we took for Mother's Christmas letter.

And then on Saturday, before leaving Vancouver, we had a little gift unwrapping. Rachel, Josh and their children will be in Germany for Christmas, so the grandchildren opened some gifts.

 

Noah with his favorite animal.

 

Marin with new art supplies.

 

And the three little grandchildren listing to Mimi and Dabbadoo reading "The Night Before Chistmas." This is a clever Hallmark book with a built-in recorder, so Mike and I were able to read the poem at home and the kids can listen to it by simply opening the book and turning the pages.

So, with all this activity, I have not produced any new paintings, but have 2 in the process. I did spend a day creating my first (and probably last) logo for Godfrey Engineering LLC.


Hand created image.


Computer created image.

I also read "Starving" to Sucessful by J. Jason Horejs. He's a gallery owner who is getting rich off of "starving" artists like me who are looking for a foolproof and easy way to sell art. But, honestly, the book is a helpful handbook to getting into galleries and selling art. Using his advise, I spent a lot of time wrting an artist bio, which I needed to write for Coos Art Museum. It was a long process and there is much needed decision making. It is also a document an artist should have for one's portfolio. If any of you are interested, I would be happy to share my experience and show you what I ended up with. Just email me.

Now that I am caught up, I am headed out to the studio to PAINT!