Art Can Be About Sharing and Teaching

People often envision the somewhat crazy, wacky artist as a loner. Van Gogh with one ear chopped off alone in a field painting haystacks, or Jackson Pollack hanging on a swing in his barn splattering paint on a giant canvas.

That is not me, nor the typical artist that I know. We love to share our creative ideas and teach others. So last week I was delighted to have my good friend and excellent artist, Kathy Tiger, come up to my barn studio (where I rarely swing and splatter paint). She is a wonderful watercolor artist, but is now exploring collage and assemblage art.

I first set up my outside studio space with a plastic covered picnic table and the necessary equipment to do suminagashi marbling. (Thanks to fellow artist, Liz Walker, for sharing this fairly simple way to marble paper.) Kathy was like a kid in a candy shop!

First step drop in the ink. and gently swirl it around. 

Next lay the rice paper on the water.

Finally squeal with delight at what you just made!    

I was a bit chilly that day, so we moved into the studio for a gelli plate session. Again, Kathy's enthusiasm filled my studio as she experimented with various colors and stamps.

I can hardly wait to see how she begins using these new patterns and papers in her assemblage art.

She also gave me the gift of her critique of my recent painting, which had a few areas that were perplexing me. After she headed home, I went back out to my studio to create a collage material to add to the painting I'd been working on. The background color was muted some. I made some changes to the forehead and added a subtle collage material to create a better glow to the top of the head and hands. The yellow and white on deli paper just hints at a texture.

Before

After

My next workshop is now scheduled: May 23, 24, and 25 at the Newport Visual Art Center.

What If? 

Explore the possibilities in this 3-day mixed media workshop.

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           Class size limited to 13 participants.

                   Be one of the Lucky 13!

Register today msgodfreyart@msn.com 

"Margaret's wonderful humor and warm teaching style was a joy." Jan P.

A Fun, Friendly and Fulfilling Workshop

As I said in my last post, recovering from my knee surgery quickly enough to hold my workshop at Oregon Society of Artists was a driving force--and I did it! OSA is really great to work with. My assigned facilitator, Jan Premo, was helpful, energetic and full of good observations. Many thanks, Jan.

"Playing with Patterns" is a pretty broad topic when applied to paintings. I decided to focus on using hand decorated collage materials for my demonstrations. I began working from a photo that I took of my granddaughter while she was listening to music. I was drawn to the intensity of her expression and the back lighting.

Day 1 and 2 Demo

Before pulling my watercolor paper out to work on in Portland, I had drawn the figure. (I still use the old fashioned grid method to enlarge an image.) I also decided on a warm pallet, so I had painted the figure with yellow wash. What I wanted to demonstrate to my participants was not only how to use collage materials, but also how to create a background for the figure after the hard work of getting a good drawing of a person. Over the first day, I not only divided up and painted the background, but began the brainiac struggle to make the painting tell the story of a kid loving music. This is the "what if" method I use in my own work.

The collage pieces I used on the figure were made with my personally crafted stamps on gelli plate then printed on deli paper. (Deli paper is interesting because acrylic paint adheres to it, but the unpainted parts are nearly transparent.)

 This is the first time I've used collage on a relatively realistic face, and I like the interest it creates.



Next I painted musical notes on top of a collage material made with gessoed and stamped newspaper.  I felt lucky to have brought lots of prepared papers with me so I  was always able to find the right color for this painting.

The swallows were created with a hand crafted stamp I made prior to the workshop. I did share "how-to" make this sort of stamp and the materials to do so in this class.






Something the class participants were able to see was my own personal struggle finishing a piece. The bugaboo was the right third of the painting. It went through various colors and ideas before I settled on this striped wallpaper idea. And even as I left the workshop on the third day, I was not satisfied that it was finished.

Just yesterday I taped a few cut up collage notes to break up and perhaps connect the wall to the story a bit more.

Does this do a better job of completing the painting and the story in your eyes?

Day 3 Demo

For the last day I pulled out a painting from years past. I had never tossed it or torn it up. There was something that kept it from destruction. When I saw a painting of a church by Van Gogh in Paris last year, I thought of my poor old painting tucked in a flat file.

Continuing my "what if" thinking, I worked over this painting of an old church in Bellfountain, Oregon. Below is a photo of the church--it is still standing.

Bellfountain Church photo

This is a photo of my inspiration by Van Gogh above the painting I am about to revive.

Beginning the revival

After some time with the paint brush, I was able to add color and brush strokes with acryilic that the painting never had as a pure watercolor. Not that I can compare myself with Van Gogh, but I can say this painting is much livelier.

Sharing My Papers

On the last 2 days I spread out all my collaged papers for the participants to use in their work. I have oodles of papers I've made over the years, and I now have motivation to make more! It was great to see how everyone began to utilize the "zing" of collage and/or patterns in their work.

I get great joy out of teaching and sharing the entire creative environment that builds in a workshop. I never tire of the excitement when inventive ideas are pooled.

I am currently scheduling some future workshops, so if you are interested in adding "what if" in creating art, stay tuned.

New Year--New Knees

New Knees

If you are one of my blog followers, you may wonder why I've not posted anything for 3 months. My answer is simple--new knees. Two days after Christmas, I checked into the hospital to have double knee replacement. Both of my knees were at the bone-on-bone stage.

If you are not interested in the knee experience, feel free to skip down to my Art Life portion.

Did I know what I was in for? Not really, but I knew the recovery from knee surgery took at least 6 weeks until becoming very active, and more to be fully recovered. So I made the choice to have both done and only wipe out a couple of months rather than four to six months. I've also heard of people chickening out on the second knee. Yikes!!

Anyway, I did learn quite a bit the first 3 days in the hospital. You know how medical folks ask you about your pain level 1 to 10? Well, I really never knew what pain was until they forced me up on my legs after surgery! Definitely that was a 10 plus!! Also I was relieved to spend a third night in the hospital. Why you ask? I was so thankful for a bedpan in the middle of the night because getting up on my legs was soooo difficult and painful. TMI? The day you are happy to have a bedpan is one of life's lower points, LOL.

I am not sorry that I chose to do both knees at once. After a week, I was able to begin more exercise and slowly gain muscle strength. What is essential in this process is someone to be an ultimate caregiver, which my husband was. He really stepped up his nursing skills to help me through the hardest parts, then feed and entertain me. Now that I am two and a half months post surgery, I am fully independent and beginning to return to my "real" life. In late February I even drove myself to Portland and taught a three day workshop, which had been the huge goal pushing my recovery.

Art Life

So as I sat in a recliner icing my knees by the hour and day, I began to worry that my art life was slipping away. Yes, I had a workshop to teach (fingers crossed my recovery would allow), but I was not in my studio creating new pieces.

Three great things happened over this time--My piece "Her Future?" piece accepted into the Expressions West Exhibition in Coos Bay by juror Geoff McCormack,

"Teach Me: Niger" was juried into the Watercolor Society of Oregon's Spring show by juror Jean Pederson,

And one of my favorite paintings, "Heron's Winter Dreams" was purchased by a couple who had been attracted to it for a year or more and finally gave it its forever home.

So you really can take a couple of months break and an art life can continue!

Up next: my workshop at Oregon Society of Artists. 

The Evolution of an Idea--How I Create Art

I recently spent two weeks in Oxnard, California attending Katherine Chang Liu's workshop.  It is more of an art retreat than a workshop, as Katherine does not demonstrate any art techniques and rarely shows her own work. She works with 20+ artists as we all grow and strengthen our artwork under her tutelage.

What happens for me each time I go to these retreats is that an idea evolves and blossoms. A round shape turns into a salmon egg, which turns into a series of the life cycle of the salmon. A painting of myself under a night sky turns into a series about the decades of a woman's life looking into a night sky--what she sees in the stars and clouds above her.

This time I went in with an idea of painting about the difficulty of girls receiving an education around the world.  I had been focusing on women's issues for some time. I had a folder of photos with me that I'd taken of my 7-year-old granddaughter's hands and upper body this summer. The idea of girls reaching for books was my original idea. So my first painting done in the workshop began there.

Reaching for an Education
15 " x 22"
Mixed Media

As I looked at the many arm and hand photos I brought with me, I was inspired to paint many girls reaching toward a book. As I talked to Katherine about the idea, the book became an aged paper. But what would go on it? As I worked diligently reproducing the photos into drawings on my blank paper, I got the idea of taking fabrics from the top 10 countries where girls are least likely to get an education. Thanks to the internet, I was able to search for these fabrics. As I labored over painting the fabrics, the blank sheet of paper remained a mystery. I didn't want to put words or made up language-looking symbols on it. Finally Katherine made a fabulous suggestion--math symbols! Math is so universal. The final dilemma was figuring out what to do with the arms and hands. I really liked the white against the patterned fabric, but the shapes did not show up well throughout the piece. I did not want this to be about race, so I chose to paint two of the hands dark blue. So this painting, the beginning of my next series titled "Teach Me," came into being.

Teach Me
22" x 30"
Mixed Media

Now that I'm home, the holidays have gotten in the way of my studio time, but I have completed the second piece of this series. This has involved some experimenting. As you can see, this child has braided hair, which is actually braided paper that I collaged onto the child's head. I also ended up cutting through the paper to make the braids more realistic. (This would only work with 300 lb. paper.) This piece has been narrowed down to the fabric of one country, Niger, one hand and one symbol. Can you guess how this series will progress?

Teach Me: Niger
30" x 11"
mixed media

The Taming of "River Dandy"

For many summers Mike and I have rafted on Northwest's wild and scenic rivers. While Mike watches the white water rapids, rocks and white water holes--rowing to avoid catastrophes; I am sitting like the queen of the fleet watching my realm of birds, vegetation and canyons and sky. I always come home with photos I hope to paint. With luck I can produce something personal incorporating a hint of the joy and thrill I feel while on the river.

There are many beautiful and graceful big birds on the Rogue River: great blue herons, bald eagles, kingfishers, egrets. But a cormorant is not one of the more exciting birds. They are fish-eating water birds, mostly brownish black with toes joined by webbing. They often sit on rocks and spread their wings to dry out or warm up, making them easy to photograph.

Five years ago I came home with a number of digitally captured cormorants and chose to paint the bird with his wings spread. I interpreted the fellow in his pose as something of a show-off. In my anthropomorphized version of the bird, he became the "River Dandy."

I had more fun creating collage materials, stamps and other ways to incorporate into the cormorant's closet of fancy attire.


In the end I knew it was too much. The viewer's eye would just go crazy trying to find that "quiet spot" to rest and enjoy the painting. Yet I couldn't let go of every beautiful spot. I was not ready to "tame the River Dandy." Like so many paintings, it went into a drawer, but the image never left my mind.

About three months ago I was looking for a painting to work on my editing skills. I pulled out "River Dandy" and started to add black gesso (an opaque paint) and applied it to areas I considered too wild. I spent very little time at it before I was almost in tears. It was like killing a pet. I almost tossed it in the trash, but reconsidered. Back it went into a drawer. I thought maybe I could reuse parts in a collage or something.

Then a couple of weeks age I pulled the poor "River Dandy" out again. I told myself to put on my big girl pants and act like a real artist.  I began to ask myself how I could tame, but not kill this fellow I'd lived with for so long. I mixed up a gray mixture that I felt complimented all the colors originally used. I retrieved some of the stamps and vivid colors off my shelves and got to work. Even I am surprised sometimes at the attachment that forms between the art and the artist. I am happy I let "River Dandy" hang around for so long. I think he has (and I have) found a spot where he can show off and the viewer can find that "quiet spot" to rest and enjoy the painting.

Let me know what you think.

River Dandy
mixed media
22" x 30"

Curiosity Lures the Artist

Last night, as I walked from my studio back to the house (about 300 ft.) I took a leap back and squealed. This has been my reaction to snakes in the last 15 years. Prior to that, my reaction was running and screaming. My fear was so great that as a teenager I once lept on my dad, practically landing us both flat on a rocky lakeshore. I was sure I had seen a rattler--my interpretation of all snakes.

So back to a slight leap and squeal of last night--that came right before hoping I had my phone in my pocket so I could take a picture. Being an artist has changed how I see and how I react. When I first started painting seriously, I remember driving along thinking about how I could mix colors to represent what I was seeing. What could I add to cobalt blue to make that special dark green that sits on the bottom of a fir branch? On our raft trips, my eyes would always be alert for motion or a shape that didn't quite belong to the landscape. I would walk an extra mile, or go off a trail for a special view that might be turned into a painting.

So a few years back, as I was weeding my garden, I had my initial leap and squeal, but then went into the house to get my camera. Luckily, Mr. Snake stayed around long enough for me to come back, calmly this time, and take a wonderful shot of him winding around my flowering echinacea. I posted the photograph on Facebook at the time, but never painted the friendly garter snake until this past week, when the photo showed up as a Facebook memory. This is not my usual subject matter, but I had so much fun painting him!

Surprise!
10" x 14"
Transparent Watercolor

Other news for the week, "Because Women Marched" has found its home in Klamath Falls. Many thanks to the new owner who appreciated the historical story of this work.

Because Women Marched
18" x 22"
Mixed Media

Also I matted and framed "Women's Work" which will be part of the Watercolor Society of Oregon's Fall Show at Elsinore Gallery in Salem Oregon.

Women's Work
21 x 21
Transparent Watercolor

Traditional End of Summer--a Rogue River Wild and Scenic Raft Trip

For nearly 20 years Mike and I have rafted down the Rogue River with a group of rafting friends.  The group grows and shrinks depending on friends' schedules, new people invited, and young people getting tied down with jobs and families. Going down the first week of September has been the time frame for the last few years. This year was a group of seven adults on three rafts.

Family--Cathy Page, Dave Johnson and first timer, Becky Garner

Friends--Dawn Pozzani and Norm Michaels

My honey and best rower ever--Mike Godfrey

Before leaving we were concerned about fires and smoke, which had led to us cancelling last year's trip. But as you can see, our launch morning was clear and beautiful. Of course, with white water rafting, there is always a little hard work, minutes of worry, and a hitch or two. As rafters say, just keep the messy side up.

On the first day, there is a short but tricky side channel to maneuver down called Fish Ladder. The options are going over a huge and dangerous drop, or walking through slippery rocks and hard brush while holding on to the rope of your raft. We had three good runs while staying in the rafts. 

However, there was a nasty rock at the bottom that caught two of our rafts. Hmmm . . . what to do when you get stuck.

Mike made me move to the back of the raft to get my weight off the front where we were stuck.

Dave broke Rule 1: Never get out of the raft and Rule 2: Never get out of the raft. Luckily there were no bad repercussions from his actions.

Most of this blog will be photos from the trip. I was so ready for Mother Nature to inspire my art that I took many photos of water, birds and other wild life. You will notice that some of these photos have been manipulated to enhance their drama and readability. Enjoy!

Water

Animals

Thirsty and hungry doe with two fawns

Eagle waiting 

A community of waterfowl

Heron posing

Egret posing

Three Lucky Shots

The Last Day

I always look for the lone tree that sits atop an obelisk-like rock. We have given it the names "bonsai tree" or "haiku tree." Year after year it sits with its roots miraculously finding nutrition and water by reaching down the outside of the rock to its livelihood.

I have painted it  twice and the last painting sold just before this trip. It will probably inspire yet another painting.

Although we had experienced some smoke, the last day of our five-day trip, we were heading right toward the rampaging fire very near our take out.

Nearing our takeout point, Foster Bar, the skies were full of smoke.

This helicopter has a snorkle which sucks in the water to be dumped on the fire. It made several trips as we floated past.

A few minutes after this shot was taken, we were pulling out of the river, safe and sound. And for five wonderful days we had kept our messy sides up!