Enjoying Being Back in Our Happy Place

 

Seventeen months have passed. Today I sit in a recliner in our new bedroom looking out on our beautiful back pond--the feature that sold us on this property 37 years ago. I marvel at the Douglas firs, azaleas, pink dogwood, and rhododendrons that survived the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. What didn't survive was the house and garage full of our acquisitions of 50 plus years of marriage. It turns out we can live without those things. We now look forward to the next chapter I will title "Back in our Happy Place." After all, it is the property, the community, the rural beauty that we are forever attached to.

I am curious what this next chapter will mean for my art. For the last 17 months I have been creating most of my art on my lap, or small table. And most of it has been fire related. 

Now in my studio I have a wonderful space to do big art again--full sheets of watercolor paper, 30" by 22" have always been my favored size. I know I still have lots of things to say about the fire that raged through the McKenzie Valley. I feel an urge to go more abstract, so I am starting to use paint rather than pen and ink. I'm interested to see how that's going to work out.

There is still much to do to organize my new space. There are piles of paintings that I have to sort through and decide what to save, what to rework, what to offer out to the world again. 

But moving in and organizing has been put aside long enough here and there to give a try and applying paint to paper again. I am still using black and white with limited color. Here you see my starts and two pieces I played with enough to call done. As always, a mat helps formalize the art.

Starts

Learning From Myself

One of the great things about Facebook is getting occasional memories. A photo will pop up which leads to going back to that moment one posted a picture and made a comment. Well the other day a painting popped up from 2014 with an invitation to read a blog. (My whole life since 2007 is on my blog.) So I did go back to that blog and it was so appropriate for this moment. 

https://margaretgodfreyart.blogspot.com/2014/01/painting-to-join-umpqua-community.html

And here is the connection. For the last year I have been sending in paintings to competitions with one rejection after another. Reading my blog from eight years ago, I can learn from myself! Here is one quote from that blog:

"So what is one to do? I love this Alice Walker quote, 'Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.' I should put this on every prospectus that comes my way. I should prepare my images, fill out my forms, send my entry fees, and as I hit send or mail my envelope say 'expect nothing.' I want to "live frugally on surprise."

I also did a bit of self-cheerleading. Another quote:

• Over 20 years of painting, I have learned to apply and manipulate paint in many different ways. I have a full tool belt!
• I have found a topic I can discuss in my artwork over and over--my (humans) relationship with nature and the timeline of our existence.
• My viewpoint is unique.
• I have a whimsical side that comes through in my artwork.
• I have a lot more fun creating a backdrop for my subjects rather than painting reality. (It's a bit like creating a setting in a stage production.)
• Painting allows me to experiment and explore and find my art language.
• My design and composition skills come more naturally.

So I have to chuckle. I am right where I was eight years ago in the world of competitions. Do I paint to get into shows? NO. Do I like to get into shows? YES. Am I still driven to create? Absolutely.

Here is the eye-candy. A painting I love that has gotten two rejections. Dare I put it out there for a third?

Under the Shadow of Calder
29" x 21"
Transparent Watercolor

What I Paint and Why

 As I work on revamping my webpage, I decided that it was important to include the history of the last 18 months since our home burned down. It has made such a tremendous impact on my art. Not that I have stopped painting, but I am painting an entirely different subject matter and in a different style. Mostly I focus on two things, our charred forest and flying birds.

Here is my essay on What I Paint and Why.

Holiday Farm Fire, Sept. 7, 2020

(The night my home burned down.)

At 8 PM on September 7, 2020, the power went out at our home. Soon 70 mph winds were pushing a wildfire down the McKenzie Valley toward our house and by midnight our home was engulfed by flames. Just like that, my life changed and so did my way of creating art.

On the first day we were allowed back to our property I was relieved to find that our barn, which housed my studio, was still standing. Without power or running water, I pulled out a piece of watercolor paper and painted my first post-fire painting. I used collage materials that had fallen from the sky and ash that surrounded me and painted “The Day His World Cracked.” But working there, an hour from the house we were renting, was not practical. So I gathered up paper, paints and  brushes and set up a workspace in the rental.

I had new topics to express, fires, ruins and loss. Since I was working in a smaller space, I used smaller papers. At first I continued to use a full color palette, but the more we visited our property, the more I saw the world in black and white. What is easier than drawing images in black and white then adding bright red expressing the burn! 

From that first small piece, I began looking at the patterns left in the burned remains and was drawn to the charred wood of the trees. I have since painted many black and white pieces, usually with a bit of color. For months it was just trees, then as life began to return I added birds and plants as they appeared in the McKenzie Valley. 

At some point, I began another topic, flight. I believe I envied the birds and their ability to escape an alarming situation with a few flaps of their wings. For us humans, it is not that easy. We have had continuing difficult decisions to be made since the fire. 

But my art gives me hope. It helps me see the color in our world again. and it gives me valuable time where my focus is entirely on the relationship between my thoughts, my feelings and my art.

What Ifs and It's Only Paper

As so often happens, words spoken by art instructors come to mind as I begin a new painting. Frank Webb's quote, "It's only paper," comes up at the beginning and often throughout my painting process. With that in mind, and Fran Larsen's "What if? Try it," I forged ahead on this new "egrets in flight" painting. This time I am using a different mix of colors and learning more about controlling the spray of a mouth atomizer.  

I put on my blue film to protect the sun and the birds, then sprayed away with a cobalt blue/burnt sienna at the top, and pyrrol orange mixture on the bottom of the long piece of paper. This was a "what if" sort of moment because I was using two color mixes that I'd not before applied in this way. As I sprayed, I questioned how the combination would look as they met. Stepping back, I decided it worked. What do you think?

In my previous egrets in flight I painted the birds next and finished with a landscape for the bottom portion of the piece. This time I decided to create the bottom using more abstract ideas and pen and ink. In this way I am inviting my newer graphic art tendencies into my watercolors.

Then on to the birds--to outline or not to outline, that is the question. Following Fran's "What if," I went with the outlining. The use of the pen and ink on the birds, helps create unity in the painting.

So now the stage was set for how to treat the next large egret. Onward with dipping the pen!

Finally came the work on the small birds--those egrets left a little earlier and led the morning flight. 

I really liked the white images, but decided to make them misty. I applied a gray made with cobalt and burnt sienna, then lightly lifted the center of each bird, creating a softened sort of outlining. 

My final "what if" was what if the sun hits the small bird's bellies? So you will notice each small bird has an added a bit of color to their lower portion. I am satisfied that the tiny bit of color helps tie the top to the bottom of the painting.

Sunrise Flight
30"x15"
Mixed Media

"It's only paper" and "What if" keep me from being paralyzed in making decisions.

 

Painting with a Delicate Touch

I was introduced to use of a mouth atomizer years ago, but in the last few months I have used it more and more to create an interesting textured background to paint on. I also have found it a great way to paint a sky for birds to fly into.

It has been a while since I've done a step by step post, so read on if you are interested in just how I created this latest egret painting. ** The lighting/color is inaccurate until the last photo of the finished piece.

Because I wanted to protect the birds and moon as I applied paint with the atomizer, I covered the shapes with an adhesive film.  I sprayed 4 different times, letting the paint dry between each spray. The first mix was a gray using cobalt blue, ultra-marine blue and burnt sienna. The upper area of the piece was my focus, as I wanted to create a feel of the evening moving in. The next color was made with pure cobalt blue.  I concentrated spraying the blue on the lower portion of the paper. After it dried I felt it was just too light and too blue, so the third round of spraying was using a bluer gray mostly on the lower area. The last spray was a unification of all the colors with another round of blue gray in a circular pattern.

I am learning more and more about controlling the spray of color using the atomizer. I can leave an area light and create darker areas, just by moving my head and hand holding the tool as I blow on the atomizer.

  

(I've talked about this in other posts, but here's a reminder of what the mouth atomizer is.)

After peeling off the protective film, the first thing I painted was the moon. 

Then came the most distant birds painted with a gray. I wet the area with water first before adding the pigment. I also used a very small brush to control the edges. 

I've included this photo showing a towel protecting the lower portion because even one drop of water can  make an unwanted break to the beauty of the misting. I've learned this the hard way!

I love the delicacy of the white egrets and worked at keeping my marks delicate also. This was aided by wetting areas before dropping in the colors creating soft edges and diluted colors.

After painting the birds, I was unhappy with the cool yellow of the moon which I'd painted with Aureolin yellow. I warmed it up with a wash of yellow ochre.

My plan was to create a marsh grass under the birds. In this photo you can see that I threw down some paper scraps to check out the color and potential size.  By messing around with the paper pieces I could also try out  the frequency of blooms I might apply with paint.

Eventually the rain slowed down and there was enough light outdoors to take a good photo of the finished painting. 

Leaving the Marsh
22" x 15"
Transparent Watercolor

Wrapping Up 2021

 As I sit here (still in a rental home) near a burning wood stove, the snow falling yet another day,  I am reflecting on my year's art making.  It has been a prolific year for me. I have created many fire inspired pieces from charred wood to charred wood with birds to charred wood with plants. Owls kept flying through and seemed to be among the most favored of my work. 

"Owls represent wisdom, knowledge, change, transformation, intuitive development, and trusting the mystery. They are tied to the spiritual symbolism of “death” which brings about new beginnings with a higher understanding and evolved perspective. Owls can show up when you are being asked to listen to your intuition."

Loss

Believe what you like, but I do feel that owls' mysterious traveling through the night, their ability to hide and camouflage, and their haunting hoots have created a connection we humans feel towards the species. And so, one of my more meaningful Christmas gifts I made was an owl painting for my granddaughter, Angelica. With her permission, I share this piece which is about loss/death of a best friend. It brought tears, the good kind.

Trying to keep up on my watercolor and gouache skills, I painted a couple of new pieces in the last month of the year. They both fit in with my thoughts of how small we are in an immense environment. I've enjoyed looking through photos I've taken that reflect that thought. "What Was" says so much about our experience of the loss of our home which was snuggled into a grove of old protective trees. 

What Was
22 x 15 inches
Transparent Watercolor

The very last painting of the year is "Sharing Secrets." I chose to paint this because there is nothing more poignant than the connection between a young person and an animal they trust and love. 

This was painted on a gold gessoed piece of watercolor paper. (Gesso is a layer of paint you prime your watercolor paper with. In this case it is a metallic gold gesso.) I cut out the human and horse form with an adhesive film to protect that part of the painting while I created the background.

I am always attracted to the use of strata (horizontal layers) in a landscape. The painting above shows the first skin of gouache I used. (Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint.)

Gouache needs more layers when put on the gessoed paper. So the landscape gets developed with more layers and detail.

The final part to this piece is peeling off the film and settling the figures into the painting to complete the story. I love the way the horse and human connect and seem to be communicating with each other. I remember our kids sitting/lying on their horses just feeling safe and heard in a way neither parents or friends could understand. A horse can hear the tales of woes and continue to graze--the horse's way of saying it doesn't really matter so much. And maybe as I paint this picture I am saying to myself, " It doesn't really matter so much." New times coming!

Sharing Secrets
15 x 22 inches
Gouache on Gessoed Paper

Black, White & Red All Over

I love to share my art skills and teach others, so I was definitely in my element last week in Portland. The one-day class I taught (titled Black, White & Red All Over) was great fun filled with 11 enthusiastic participants. We were all there to spend the day drawing and making patterns to create art. I was delighted to see how everyone in the class took to this method of making art so easily. But why not? In our early years we all start drawing and doodling, although I do not choose to use the word "doodling" in my creations.

Class Work

Starting Shapes to Fill with Patterns

Making Patterns

Patterning on Subject Matter

Some Finished work

King of the Couch

                 A Different Subject Matter

I began this newer method of making art after the Holiday Farm Fire burned down our home over a year ago. I was drawing trees and inking in burned bark. As life began to return, I started adding plants and birds to my burned woods. 

But before my workshop, I thought I should try a different subject matter to encourage my class to look beyond what I do, and so I used our cat for the subject matter. I was happy to show how the same technique could be used in a variety of subject matters.

My Demonstration Piece

For my demo I returned to my burned forest theme with an owl as the center of interest. During the day, I worked on the piece between times of giving each participant some individual time to talk about their work and answer questions.

By the end of the day I had finished a painting featuring a lovely owl flying through the burned trees.

Suzy's Owl

One of the class members decided to purchase this guy in flight. I signed it and christened it "Suzy's Owl." He will find his way to Sun River!

Why Owls? 

I have been thinking about this lately. I have heard owls hooting through the night, but have rarely spotted one with my eyes. Yet they seem so lovely in my fire inspired art. 

"Owls represent wisdom, knowledge, change, transformation, intuitive development, and trusting the mystery. They are tied to the spiritual symbolism of “death” which brings about new beginnings with a higher understanding and evolved perspective. Owls can show up when you are being asked to listen to your intuition." Gleaned from the internet.

"Change, Death and New Beginnings" seem to apply to my life of the past 15 months. The Holiday Farm Fire brought a forced change, death to our home, landscape and plant-life, and New Beginnings as we forge ahead with a new home and regrowth of our beloved McKenzie Valley. 

Happy Holidays to one and all!

The Star of Hope