Powering Through Artistic Paralysis

Last week I started this piece. It was quite different and exciting, but I painted myself into a center (not a corner:)). This was a painting that just flowed out of my brush without much planning. As you can see, I got to a point where I couldn't figure out how to resolve the area around the heron. Every time I looked at the overpowering white amidst the colorful painted areas, I just was paralysed with the fear of ruining something that I liked. I tried out certain ideas with pieces of paper, just to cover the glaring white, but I really couldn't get a clear vision of the completed piece, thus postponed working on it.

Yesterday I returned to the studio with determination to finish the painting. I started with extending the rock pattern from one side to the other, behind the heron, connecting the sides. Then I wet the upper portion and softened the edge so I could continue the petroglyph wall to the heron. I suggested petroglyphs and let it fade out. I decided to put water below and indicate water with some flowing symbols, and make the enclosed blue areas into puddles with circular marks.

I'm not sure where it came from, but it seems to have some power.

Food Web, 15 x 22

Celebrating Grandparents Day

We were invited to Vancouver to celebrate Grandparents Day last Friday with our granddaughter Marin. We arrived at 11:00 to take her out to lunch.

Mimi (me) and Marin at Burgerville.

When we returned to the classroom, Marin's super organized teacher had a project for Grandparents to do with the students.

Marin's teacher giving instructions.

Marin with a question.

Dabbadoo (Mike) and Marin working on their project.

The grandparents then left for coffee and cookies before heading to the auditorium for a Veterans Day program.

"See you later."

We spent 2 nights at my sister Barbara's house and enjoyed her company as well as visiting with our nieces and nephews and their offspring. After returning to Eugene Saturday night, we had dinner with more family before heading up the McKenzie Highway.

We have driven rural forested roads for nearly 40 years, and this was our first head-on collision with a deer. The doe jumped out into the road from a brushy area, smack dab in front of the car. There was no time to swerve. The deer was dead on impact and our car suffered some external damage. It was lucky that we were in the 4-Runner--a higher vehicle. Mike and I are fine, but the accident shook us up a bit.

And since I hate to end my entry on a sour note, here are a couple of photos of my lovely zygocactus truncatus, aka Thanksgiving cactus. Just in case you think I don't learn anything while blogging, I did a little reading and found out these plants are native to Brazil where they grow off of trees. Wouldn't that be a sight to see them blooming there!

 

 

Sticking with a Painting and a Theme

Convocation, 22 x 18 inches

This is truly a mixed media piece that was born out of my dedication to a theme/series and experimentation.  My goal was to use a low horizon vertical composition  because I find that a visually delicious format.

I started with pasting a few pieces of rice paper on the rocky area with gesso. (Something that is new to me.) Next I put on color in the background and rocks and grasses with transparent watercolor, my most familiar medium. 

As soon as that was dry, I experimented with tinted gesso to create the upper background. Prior to putting that on, I'd notched an old credit card in preparation to scrape through the opaque gesso while it was wet. You can see that method reveals some of the transparent watercolor underneath. When I left the studio at the end of the day, I thought the two portions of the painting (watercolor on the bottom with opaque gesso on the top) was a disaster, but that was Thursday and yesterday was another day.

When I went out to the studio yesterday, I faced trashing the painting or trying more experimentation and chose the latter. I thought creating a window effect would unify everything, so I taped a pleasing sized paper to protect the inner part of the painting and used my mouth atomizer to spray a darker blue-green, trying to use gradation--darker at the bottom, lighter at the top. 

The painting was shaping up, but the top was too vacant. The question was how to make it interesting, yet tie the whole piece together. I'd recently carved a stamp of petroglyph images (Native American rock carvings) on a rectangular stamp. That was cool, but too big, so I carved on the edge which was about 3/4 inch x 4 inches. Again using petroglyph images. After stamping with acrylic paint on a sample sheet, I recarved the edges to be irregular and more stone-like. Then I cavalierly plopped the stamp on the top of the painting.

When I stepped back, I realized that the stamp was WAY off center! Had I measured--no. I immediately took a wet cloth to the paper to remove the acrylic before it dried. That's when I messed up the surface in that area. Geez, just when I was beginning to like the painting. 

So that's when the dark rectangle at the top came into being. I did that with more atomizer spraying. The smudging was a brilliant mistake, because my cover-up created a lovely showcase for the stamp. I used a little bit of stamping on the rock to add more unity.

Up until this point, the herons had not been painted. I often leave the detailed work to the last. Why paint something detailed and lovely, only to ruin the rest of the painting? So I painted the birds in watercolor, used pen and ink to add some line and calligraphy work to the piece. I'm glad I kept going. I learned a lot, built confidence in my ability to problem-solve and ended up with a pleasing painting, don't you think?

A question to my fellow artists.  Is putting natural colored rice paper on your surface as a preparation to paint considered "collage"?

San Francisco Gallery

Mike and I just returned from a four day get-away to San Francisco. The primary purpose was to transport 5 paintings to a San Francisco gallery where my art will hang for 3 months. The secondary purpose of our trip was to have a couple of fun days in a city.

We left home on Wednesday, driving well past dark to Vacaville, CA where we found dinner and a room. I'd arranged to meet at the S.F. gallery on Friday when they opened, and we had only a 1 1/2 hour drive to make from Vacaville.

Being on Blue River time, we arrived early at the gallery and waited a few minutes for someone to arrive. (It's crazy to us that stores don't open before 10 or 11 o'clock.) The gallery,The Artist's Alley (http://www.galiara.com/), is on Mission Street, between 4th and 5th. Luckily it was very easy to find as it is just off the Bay Bridge in downtown S.F.,  across the street from Bloomingdales.

We were soon meeting with Rachel, the young woman I'd been talking to for a couple of months. She opened the gallery and showed me the space where my work would hang.

After dropping off the paintings we went to our hotel, checked in and decided to look at some other galleries in the city. We found one building full of small galleries, each showing just one artist's work. What was amazing to me, was that the norm in these galleries was to be totally ignored by the staff. Each gallery seemed to have one or two people sitting behind a computer, never looking up. We finally found one gallery with a very friendly person who was informed about the artist's work and was open to sharing that information. The more he spoke about the artists, the more interested I became in the art. Now that's the kind of gallery to be in!

We also enjoyed some street performances,

riding cable cars, and going to the California Academy of Sciences. Another thing we really enjoyed in S.F. was some amazing food!

On Friday, my art was up on the walls, and we attended an event being held at Artist's Alley, celebrating Filipino Recognition Month.

We left San Francisco on Saturday morning and visited my niece and her husband in Davis. We had a great day there looking at bees (Kim's work) and visiting a walnut orchard (Carolyn's work). I now know a lot more about both subjects. Since they were harvesting the nuts, we were able to see big equipment and giant sorting machines.

Here we are having lunch in Winters where the temperature was around 78 degrees.

Kim and Carolyn

Mike and me

We left Davis yesterday morning. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, and the air was warm. We drove about 9 hours to get home to Blue River where it was already dark, raining, and building a fire in the house was the first order of business. 

Seeking More Sybolism

I have been thinking about adding a more personal approach to my paintings. After listening to several speakers at the last Watercolor Society of Oregon Convention, I began taking an inventory of things I am most interested in, connected to, and feel passionate about.

I've chosen to paint a series focusing on my love of Oregon's landscape, my connection to rivers through rafting, and interest in wildlife (birds in particular.

I also thought about the elements of design that I like doing the most, so I'll emphasize patterns and lines in this series.

I'm going to use the GBH (Great Blue Heron) as my symbol for river wildlife, so you can expect to see herons in every one of this series.

To create this painting, I thought about the strata of the river canyon--the sunlight, the water, thick forests, rocks, gravel bars, rock cliffs, etc. In this painting, I was trying to express these elements in an abstract way, while keeping design elements and composition in mind.

 

River Strata, 21 x 14 inches

A Second Try at Resist

I had so much fun with the first ink and resist painting (the one of Mike and the cat) that I decided to try it again. This time I used white gouache to resist the ink and painted on a smaller piece of paper (11 x 16). I was able to do more detail using gouache, so decided to use a subject I've used a number of times, the Sheldon McMurphey Johnson House which is in Eugene.

After letting the gouache dry completely, I put black ink over the surface. I let that dry overnight and this is what I got after rinsing the painting completely.

I decided to paint portions of the framed area. Did I make the right call on leaving the sky white, or should it be painted?

Victorian Lace, 16 x 11 inches

Here are my other interpretations of the SMJ House.

 

Proud Lady, 21 x 18 inches

 

Checkered Past, 29 x 21 inches

The Evolution of an Idea--Comedy/Tragedy

I've been asked to post the photo and first painting I did of the Roman ruin that has inspired two pieces.

Here is the photo.

And this is Ancient Voices, the first painting I did.

From there I went to the idea of Comedy Tragedy masks, and I'll post the photos of that painting as it evolved.

 

This is the painting as I left it 2 days ago. I darkened the corners to keep the eye from being drawn out of the painting. I also added more connective lines and passages to pull things together. And finally I enhanced the writing on the banner with darker calligraphic marks.

Comedy/Tragedy, Mixed Media 21 inches by 29 inches