June 2011--Once Again a Busy Month

June has whipped by somewhere between a wild wind and a tornado. It started out with a week of having two grandchildren visit. In this photo I captured a rare nice day and a calm moment.

Marin is learning the joy of spotting birds, and we are thrilled to have another future birder on our hands.

And, of course, art is an important component of any visit.

Exercise is a must also: walking for me, bike riding for Marin, and in the lead, Noah on his Spiderman scooter.

The highlight of this first week of summer vacation is the arrival of Little Bit. We now have a well trained, kid friendly horse for grandchildren to learn horsemanship.

Noah is the first one to ride her.

We returned Marin and Noah to their home in Vancouver, WA, to witness our daughter Rachel's 2nd Marathon finish. In May she ran and finished her first marathon in Eugene.

The following weekend, with the help of Rachel's husband Josh and master barbecue chef, daughter Meg, we returned to Vancouver to throw a surprise 35th birthday party for Rachel.

After the birthday bash, we scooped up granddaughters Angelica and Marin to return to Blue River with us for a horsey week. We arranged with Little Bit's former owner to do some instruction. The moment we arrived, the girls were in the pasture with horses. Angelica renewed her friendship with Tuscany, a beautiful Arab mustang who is not trained.

And, believe it or not, no one else, with rare exception, can even touch this horse.

So this week is one of learning how to work with a horse who knows its job is to cooperate with people.

Marin and Mike groom Little Bit.

We are grateful that Nichole is willing and available to share her wealth of information on horses in general, and specifically Little Bit.

So, here we are at the end of the month of June. The rain has returned for the day, but the schedule is definitely one of summer. With all the activity of the day, we are eating dinner at eight, going to bed later, and the grandchildren are sleeping in.

Today is Tuesday, art workshop day. I'm thankful to have this one day set aside for art, since it is a struggle to make time in my own studio. I am feeling very thankful for these long days so full of wonderful activities.

2nd Week at the Vida McKenzie Community Center

What an enjoyable way to spend a Tuesday afternoon--painting with other artists! I'm thankful that this Workshop/Studio time is working out because it is inspiring to be around other painters. If you are reading this and want to try it out, feel free to drop in.  We will meet June 21 and 28, and skip July 5 because of the holiday, and begin again on July 12.

My goal as an instructor is to show at least one technique or use one composition style each week.  Participants can use it or not, but they leave each session with more art information. I also am taking several books each week (I have a library of art books) for use there or to borrow.

This week I extended the idea of last week which was using an underpainting. I added lifting paint from the paper this week to create an interpretation of this Scottish bridge.

I began with an underpainting made with Antwerp blue, Aureolin yellow, and Burnt Sienna. After drawing the bridge on the paper, I lifted all the underpainting colors off, to create a nearly white bridge. From there I tried to simplify the scene as much as possible, using a lot of the underpainting to create the background trees and water. I see a few things to correct or add at this point, but I do not want to overpaint this one.  I love the simplicity and the implied vegetation.

My New Weekly Studio-Workshop

Last Tuesday afternoon, four artists joined me at the Vida McKenzie Community Center to paint, get some instruction, and receive pointers on improving their work. This will be a weekly event, Tuesdays noon to 4 p.m. The Community Center is about 25 miles up river from Eugene/Springfield, and 12 miles down river from my house in Blue River. There is plenty of room for a large group. I'm charging $25 a session. Feel free to contact me, or just show up.

 

 

The idea I shared was to work on a sheet of watercolor paper with an underpainting. I prepared 2 sheets the night before, both using a triad of primary colors. The following 2 paintings were painted over an underpainting of alizarin crimson, aureolin yellow, and cobalt blue.  The floral was painted in Tuesday's session.

 

I haven't figure out how to finish this piece, but it's been fun dropping in a mixture of colors and painting around the shapes.

 

Gifts from the Universe

There are weeks that bring me gift after gift, and this was one of those weeks.

My friend, Ruth, invited me to her house to paint on Monday. What a great start to a week! She has a studio large enough for several painters, really, but on Monday it was just the two of us. We talked, we were quiet, we were talkative, we laughed, we shared ideas, and critiqued the ongoing work. A great day!

In the last few weeks I have twice seen a GBH (great blue heron) fly out of our front pond, but never with the camera nearby, nor really time to catch the bird in a photo. So seeing this magnificent creature is one thing, but I loved the tangible proof I found of it's existence. As I was walking along the pond's edge at dusk the other evening, I found this large feather. Who else could leave such a lovely quill?

Two days ago I was talking to my friend, Dan, who enjoys birds as I do. We were comparing notes, and both remarked that this was an outstanding spring for birds and bird sightings. And then he told me that he had several of my favorite birds, lazuli buntings, eating at his feeders. I was jealous, as I had not seen one yet, and only hoped that because he is six miles down river from me, the buntings hadn't made it as far as my house. Well, sure enough, this morning I discovered 4 pairs of these darlings eating seeds left by the weeds in my driveway. Beautiful!

Another bit of welcome news, I had my follow-up appointment after last week's physical this morning. I seem to be in great shape, according to the lab work. Best news of all was that the small skin biopsy taken last week is not malignant! Again, a wonderful gift.

Now, if it's not asking too much, I will be much relieved to have Mike return in one piece from rowing the Colorado River down the Grand Canyon (a 3 week trip). He gets off the river tomorrow and flies home Sunday night. I will be so happy to have him home again in Blue River.