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| Mike knows some quiet spots in the valley. |
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| Our lunch spot was on a spot less traveled. |
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| After lunch, a walk on the McKenzie River Trail. |
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| This moss was just too attractive! |
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| Mike took a rest in the moss, as I walked on. |
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| Sun, shade and the flowing river--what more could one ask for. |
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| The beautiful mix of green on red branches is worth a photo. |
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| An outstanding mix of colors! |
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| I asked Mike to hop on a log to give a reference of how |
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| We spotted one lonely lady slipper. |
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| But there were many trilliums. |
It has been quite some time since I went to a workshop to just learn from another artist, but I did just that to learn from Vera Dickerson. She is known for wonderful figures surrounded by patterns made with stencils and collage. She also uses primarily acrylic paints. All skills I am interested in improving in my own tool box.
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| Vera Dickerson Teaching in Bend, Oregon |
(We members of Watercolor Society of Oregon are fortunate to have internationally known artists come twice a year to teach here in Oregon. The workshops are considerably less expensive than taking a workshop elsewhere, and no flying is involved!)
So the first day, we spent time making collage papers. Although I often make my own collage papers, Vera showed a somewhat different way, preparing the deli paper first with a wash of white gesso mixed with gel medium. Knowing stencils would be involved, I made 3 of my own using a plastic and hot gun.
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| My personal stencils and collage papers. |
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| Reading in the Library |
It has been almost a year since we moved into our new home. Most everything was done at that time by Rainbow Valley Design and Construction, with a few small projects left for Mike and me to do. One of those projects had us thinking for all the next eleven months to come up with a good solution.
We borrowed a cement mixer from our local Blue River Tool Library (thank you, Antony). Mixing one bag after another, we dumped 900 pounds of dyed cement into the perfectly sized forms.
As one side settled, the second plank was poured.
Mike smoothed the cement and I started placing and pushing in the decorative smooth black rocks.
Then there was the wait period, letting the cement strengthen for almost 4 weeks. Just before moving the 2 planks into place, they were sealed with a product designed to protect and add gloss to the cement.
But how in the heck do you move 900 pounds of cement the distance of a football field? No where was there room for a vehicle, so . . .
Remember that the Pyramids and the Great Wall were built by human labor!
The second miracle was that they fit like a glove.
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We celebrated with a chili feed!
We are now approaching an entire year in our new house, and we are feeling more and more "at home" here. "At home" means that it has things unique to Mike and me, particularly things we've created or built. Some of the examples of those unusual things at our old abode were bathroom walls I painted creating a bamboo garden or the bedroom painted in Egyptian tomb colors. Mike built a privacy fence using a Japanese design and so much more that made our home ours.
So this week was the start of really personalizing this new home and here's what happened:
My good friend Ruth Armitage arrived and . . .
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| We drew on the wall. |
And began applying paint.
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| At the end of the 2nd day, this beautiful mural was complete. |
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| World's Skinniest Mural |
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| Ruth Armitage with her creation! |
In the past few months I've been doing what I think of as my "serious work." My serious work is concentrating on a body of work-- creating paintings that are all related to one another based on a central idea. Often the series will go on for several years.
Idea #1
As I was looking through my photos, one that I've thought of painting came to the forefront. In 2020, just before Covid shut down the world, Mike and I were on vacation in Costa Rica where I took this picture. This photo has stuck in my brain for the last 3 years as having the potential for an interesting painting.
What I love about this is the large bovine sitting next to a cement water catcher. But what could I do with all that grassy hill? That is just not my sort of pleasurable painting.
Idea #2
Two artists I've admired over the years came to mind. These two women, one now dead and the other in her late 80's, found ways to make landscapes much more exciting than just a green hill. Their work is powerful enough to stay in one's brain for years.
Mary Carlton's landscape
And so a three day break from "serious work" began and the meshing of ideas #1 and #2.
Because I enjoy working with collage materials, my first step was opening up my collage containers. I sorted through these papers, searching for matching colors. My hope was to find enough golds, grays and olive greens to create the long stretch of ground I envisioned.
Breaking up the big space in interesting, somewhat geographical ways was a challenge. I used watercolor along with collage pieces to quilt together the landscape.
The final step was to paint the building and the cow. Once that was done, I used dark line work for 2 reasons. I felt that joining the pieces together with lines, helped create a fields and farming feel to the painting. Also the dark lines help connect the darks used in the top of the painting to the rest of the piece.
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| Beneath the Cow Mixed Media 22 x 15 |
Workshop coming up! I will be teaching a watercolor class, "Adding Texture" on May 5,6,7 in McMinnville, OR at the Currents Gallery. The space is limited, so signup early by calling 503-435-1316.
Way back when--August 2020--I was very near launching a new website. This new one would have a "buy button" making it so easy for art lovers to click and buy a piece of my art. Then I said to my web designer that we'd wrap it up once I got back from my Rogue River raft trip. Woo-hoo!
Then, as my followers know, our house burned down on September 7, 2020. And, of course, in the house was my computer. That was the end of focusing on a new website, since I had a whole new segment of my life to put back together. But guess what . . .
Recently I have been working mostly in black and white. It started with my pen and ink pieces. For those small pieces, a bit of orange or red behind the trees or creature was enough. The ink work told the story.
Now I am painting humans using black and white gouache. With these paintings, I am finding creating a background color quite challenging. It sets the mood for the portrait. Is the face excited, or sad, or anxious, or happy, or . . . there is such a wide range of human emotions. I now look at a wide range of colors for the backgrounds trying to capture the emotion of the human.
Take these two reds for example. They are both reds, but one conveys many thoughts to me: excitement, high energy, fear, happiness. The darker one speaks of seriousness, intellect, age, sophistication.
Mixing colors can be a challenge. Some darker colors are harder to adjust to "just right," as the night blue I was looking for recently.
Colors are taking on a whole new meaning and importance for this new series. Now as I mix up colors, I am keeping them in old face cream jars and labeling them--they may be needed again.
I am not ready to put out my completed work right now. It seems like a wintery thing to just hole up in my studio and paint. I am not marketing much these days, but I am close to having a spruced up website so stay tuned for that announcement.
Although I will not put an entire painting here, I have a couple of teasers (not my favorite word) for you to see.
