Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Creeklight


While every place in the country was sweltering this summer, the northwest was blissfully cool. We just broke 90 degrees a bit over a week ago. In early August I talked with someone from Seattle who said at that point, the city had reached 80 for about an hour and a half. The weather has been gentle and sweet and yet I still managed to grow ripe tomatoes!
This was lucky.

A daily painting I did after my weekend of collage.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

New Day


An idea I`ve had for a long time, is to use my reject Yupo watercolors for collage. Yesterday I did it with this simple first effort. Although it`s tiny, I was cutting and moving shapes around for a good three hours before I reached for the glue. The process was awkward and used a part of brain that isn`t active much, it felt really unfamiliar. The work of Romare Bearden has excited me for a long time. It`s inventive and hopeful and rich. He was the ultimate collage artist.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Shorewash [1999]


David asked to see another from that earlier period I mentioned in my last post. I`m happy to oblige.
Day after day this week, I worked on a canvas that always seemed close to having the sensibility I was after. At the end of last night`s session, I realized it was hopeless. That is such a strange feeling. Was I delusional all along? Many times during the process I congratulated myself for being tenacious, that it would be worth it. But it wasn`t.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Genesis


From my last abstract period, 12 years ago. I was trying to meld aspects of geology, atmosphere, weather, botany... into a nonverbal narrative. It was overwhelming and mostly unsuccessful. I turned to painting the creeks and forests near my home.
I`ve been asked to participate in an exhibition inspired by the late Irish poet, John O`Donohue; "The Inner Landscape of Beauty". He saw the attraction to beauty as a spiritual impulse and found parallels between our experience and feeling and the wilder landscape outside. A moving interview with him, shortly before his unexpected death at 53, can be found here. The venue is a new one for me; the Narthex Gallery of St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Wilsonville OR. I`ve been persuaded that my work is appropriate for this intersection of faith with art.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Watercolor Creek


Since I was already working on Yupo with the commission I just finished, my tolerance for frustration was higher than usual. I decided to try for a watermedia version of this. It took three days!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Light in the Forest


This was a commission from a hotel that wanted a large version of this tiny 5"x5" painting. I don`t generally accept them but this seemed like an interesting project.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Path through the Winter Grasses


This just came back from the Seattle Art Museum`s Sales/Rental Gallery, it`s been on loan the last several years. I gave it a bit of a makeover.
The subject is a marsh in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge near Olympia WA.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Winter Fog in the Forest


This is an improvisation melding two different landscapes, one local and one of a coastal forest. I`m not yet convinced it`s right. Those two trees remind me of opera singers, which I`m not sure I like.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Tillamook Head


And another daily.
A view of the mountain from the beach at Seaside.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Split in the Cliff


From a walk along the Old Salmon River on a flank of Mt. Hood. It looked like a chunk of the basalt just fell out.