The Evolution of a Painting

One of the things that motivates me in creating art is working in a series. I enjoy thinking of many ways to talk about the same theme using different ideas. Going out to the studio I don't have to think of what to paint, I have to think of how to express the different elements of my theme. 

As I said in my last post, my current work is all about the small pond just outside my art studio. 

I have been working on my third "Kimono in the pond" painting. Why putting clothing in the water? There are many influences behind this, but one is how the beauty of nature influences our fabrics. I like to think of the water plants and gold fish floating onto the silks of a Kimono, decorating the fabric. I also have a respect for and fascination of Japanese art. (An aside: the Kimono is a symbol of longevity and good fortune.)

Maybe these paintings are a reflection of my admiration of Monet with this waterlilies and Matisse who collected fabrics and used the patterns in many of his paintings.

So this third Kimono painting my goal was to place the clothing under the water instead of on top of the water. It started as a watercolor painting then evolved into a mixed medium using acrylic paint to put the water on top. Below you can see the development of this piece

This was the first start painted wet into wet. There was a weird spot that didn't take the painting well, so I flipped the painting over and used the back.

After taking the whole piece into my big sink, I softened all the colors. Next I protected the areas that would become waterlily pads and goldfish using Oramask film.

Next the Oramask was peeled off.

I painted the leaves, telling myself each was a lily pad portrait. They are painted more meticulously than my usual approach to art. I also painted over the lavender on the Kimono with acrylic to enhance the cloth.

It took some bravery to begin adding the water over the Kimono. From the first light colors I forged ahead with the dark to complete the water.

I spent studio time listening to Paul Simon where "50 Ways to Leave your Lover" became renamed to "50 Ways to Fix a Painting."

Wet into Wet

Flip over the painting and use a new side

Give the entire piece a bath

Lift off paint

Protect areas with Oramask film

Lift off the masking

Start a conversation with the painting and listen to it

Paint each of the 14 goldfish

Spend about an hour on each of the 12 lily pads and single lily

Carefully use light blue water ripples

Continue listening to my painting while adding the darks to create the final drama to the art

At the end, I realized that the Kimono had all but disappeared, yet the cloak is still there, hence the title, Ophelia's Gown. Remember Hamlet?

Ophelia's Gown
Mixed Media
29 " x 21"

In The Beginning of a New Series

Once upon a time on Fruitdale Drive there was a little child who was not yet in school. She entertained herself visiting the neighbors who tended to be housewives and retirees. One house stood on a small rise and seemed almost like a castle in a five-year-old's mind. As she climbed the stairs to knock on the door to see if she could visit, she passed a pond--a pond built of stones, a pond with the green of water plants. If she was still for a few moments she could see the dashing of orange goldfish. In this child's mind it was right out of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. 

Jump ahead seventy years and this child inside a seventy year old body had a dream of creating her own pond. I use the term "creating" because she truly is a creative artist who has an idea and inspires a group of those who care for her to make it happen!

First there is a wonderful architect (as this home is having to be rebuild after a devastating fire) who thought it was a great idea. He convinced the marvelous engineer of a husband to figure out how to get flowing water from an uphill stream to flow under the planned walkway. Next step was to inspire a young, physically fit and loving granddaughter and her partner to dig a hole and stream, then use rock to create the walls of the stream and pond. Oh, and there was so much more to it involving many months including more labor and strong young friends. 

Now this creative artist has decided to begin a new series that is not only about the pond, but more about the love for her that created it.

So if you have made it through my personal story,  here are the photos of the first in this series of paintings. The idea behind this first painting is how nature inspires creating beautiful designs for fabrics.

After a decent sketch  I laid out my table to begin. First step was putting down an underpainting.

Then I used Oramask film to cut out my goldfish shapes and place them on the underpainting. The masking allows me to paint more freely, not worrying about painting around an object.

And I used a limited palette. 

And here is the finished work. I used patience, allowing the painting to talk to me over the week.  Yes, I do believe in conversations between a painting and the artist if she is patient.

From Water to Silk
Transparent Watercolor
30" x 22"

A Fall Walk

 Yesterday's Bliss

After returning from our month away from Oregon, it's taken awhile to settle back into "being home." But yesterday offered one of the special days of autumn with perfect temperature, perfect light, and the perfect feel of being home. Mike and I took an afternoon walk through the woods to a McKenzie River water diversion area developed in the 1950's to provide spawning grounds for salmon. Our hope was to see salmon digging out a redd to place their eggs. We did see a few redd in the stream, but only one with a fish in it and she was busy working to prepare her spot to lay eggs. However, it was a bull trout and not a salmon.

(The word 'redd' originates from a Scottish word that means, “to clean an area or make it tidy”. Now I know what my grandmother meant when she would redd up the kitchen)

Here is what we did see . . .

Fall Colors

and more Fall Colors

A Water Ouzel in its Happy Spot

Amanita muscaria
It has hallucenogenic properties, but we didn't try it.🤣

Gorgeous Scenery

Traveling in Europe Part VII: Finishing Our Time in Europe with a few days in London

Since we were flying in and out of London's Heathrow Airport, we planned a few days in London to be less about sight-seeing and more about experiencing a neighborhood. We chose an airbnb in Fulham (a 40 minute bus ride to downtown London). It had a washer and dryer (which we needed after 2 1/2 weeks of living out of our suitcases) and a nice courtyard to sit in. Fulham is a multicultural neighborhood where we could get fresh fruit and veggies off the street and street food from a large variety of countries. 

After looking for a place to enjoy the outdoors and a walk along the Thames, we visited the Bishop's Palace. This place was occupied for 1300 years by the Bishop of London--yes both Catholic and then Church of England. There were a few deaths along the way, of course, and we enjoyed reading the history of the various bloody religious conflicts.

The interior is now more of a museum, but there are some spectacular decorations left to admire.

Mimi is in charge!

The Palace has amazing gardens where it is open to the public and we saw lots of family parties and picnics on the grounds.

After a lunch there at the Bishop's Palace we walked back to our bus stop along the Thames River finding rose gardens and statues to enjoy.

I couldn't resist laughing as Mike and Hannah stopped to look at this sign! Yep, that's you two.

Okay! I couldn't resist just one more art gallery, Courtauld in the Sommerset house. It is a smaller museum close to the center of London.  After getting off the bus we had a small lunch, and a great conversation with an actress who was also having lunch before her performance. Hannah was pleased when she asked her if she was a dancer, because her body has the looks of a dancer. (Hannah is more interested in cheer-leading.)

It turned out that I had worn out my fellow travelers, and after a few minutes we agreed to meet at a nearby pub. However, I did enjoy seeing this art where I didn't have to shove aside other tourists to see a painting.

Cupid and Psyche (1789)
by Joshua Reynolds, First
President of the Royal Academy

I was especially fascinated by the work of Henry Moore from the late 1940's. It is such a reminder of how more impacted England (and all of Europe) by World War II. His work was done with pencil, pen and ink, chalk and wax. The piece below his interpretation of many people sleeping in a bomb shelter.

Before leaving the heart of London, we did head over to Herrods, the world's largest deluxe department store--Channel or Gucci anyone?

On our last evening in England, we went to a nearby pub in Fulham, The Goose. Finally we enjoyed a typical  pub meal! 

And with a full stomach and a good night's sleep, we Ubered to Heathrow and headed back to the USA.

Traveling in Europe Part VI: The Anne Frank House/Amsterdam

 

It is hard to believe that this child who died at 15 years old could tell a story that has captivated the world for over 75 years. Yet when we went into the museum and eventually into the annex where Anne and her family, along with other Jews, lived for 2 years without ever going outdoors, we were moved. Really "moved" doesn't cover the multitude of feelings this story evokes.

Leaving Germany as the Nazis took over was not enough to save the Franks. Even though The Netherlands was a neutral country, they were invaded and taken over by Germany. Anne's father saw this coming and built a secret annex above a warehouse in Amsterdam which would be Anne's home for two years. I don't need to tell the history of this, but I will say it is a story that brings one's emotions to the surface.

Inside this modern front is the annex the Frank family and others lived in for two years.

Perhaps one of the most stirring parts of the museum is watching the video of Anne's father (the only member of the family that survived the concentration camps) talking about reading Anne's diary. He states that he never really understood his child when she was alive--how deep were her thoughts and how much she had suppressed her emotions. 

Although all three of us travelers had read the diary, seen movies and knew the history, none of that prepared us for actually walking into those cramped rooms. We walked through the space thinking about these people not moving for all the hours that the workers below were in the lower part of the building, thinking about never going outside, never smelling nature. Because Anne wrote her diary and we can now know what those years were like. And we know death was just around the corner!

Should you go to Amsterdam and want to enter the Anne Frank House Museum,  here's the scoop to get tickets. Plan ahead!

https://www.annefrank.org/en/museum/tickets/ is the official ticket office. Tickets are only available through this website! Every Tuesday at 10am CET all tickets become available for a visit six weeks later.  

I recommend including the introductory program!

Traveling in Europe Part V: Stairs and Bikes--Amsterdam

Once again, we boarded a train for another city--Amsterdam. So much is said about this city. (Red light district, drugs, canals and flowers) Traveling with our 13-year-old we figured we'd focus on the canals and flowers.

There are indeed flowers everywhere--on windowsills, on houseboats. Flowering shrubs are planted in every small square of soil in the city.

We visited the flower market which was full of bulbs, real flowers, artificial flowers and flowers I've never seen before

Artificial flowers, but colorful.

I have no idea what these exotic flowers are.

Back to stairs and bikes--our very nice airbnb was in a building built in the 1890's. We were on the "first floor." We found out that the first floor is really the second floor and here's a photo of our climb to our apartment.

And then there were the bikes! A great number of folks in Amsterdam ride bikes rather than drive cars. Bravo! But watch out! There are bike ways and walk ways next to each other and sometimes we would weave over into the bike path and get  the ding-ding of a bike bell followed by a 30 MPH bike whisk past you as you jumped out of the way.

Parked bikes.

Bikes pulled out of a canal.

We were not able to get tickets to the Van Gogh Museum, but we did go to the Rijksmuseum.

.

A small piece by Vermeer.

We really were about museumed-out by this time, so we did a bit of wondering around the city.

Window shopping. What the heck?

We really enjoyed our neighborhood where we could shop for our own meals and sit at a nice corner restaurant for an afternoon drink.

A day we all enjoyed was on the water. We rented a small electric powered boat and tootled around on the canals of Amsterdam. Believe it or not, anybody can rent a little boat and see the city from the water. It was a beautiful day!

My takeaway was once again the architecture: tall connected buildings, fascinating elegant rooflines, interesting pulley systems near the roofltops and dramatic contrast of colors. 

Then it was time to head back to London under the English Channel on the Eurostar train system.