Thursday, August 30, 2012

Above the Canal - Plein Air Watercolor

I got out yesterday with my buddy Ruth and we painted on the bank above the canal which supplies Lake Oswego with its water. When faced with so much complexity at an actual site, one has to think about the essence of it. How in the world can I reduce this experience to a small piece of paper? This is always so much fun I vow to do it more often. It was a perfect late summer day.
watermedia on paper 12"x9"



Available Work

Monday, August 27, 2012

Geothermal Study 5

Another from my visit to Yellowstone last May.
watermedia on paper 8"x10"



Available Work

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Summer Hill and Sky

I`m standing again and I`ve started a really big canvas. Just before beginning the oil painting, I attempted this transparent watercolor which did not work at all. I turned it upside down, squeezed matte medium over it and squeegeed it all around. The paint was still wet so some interesting things began to appear. Enough to keep going.
Watermedia on paper 12"x9"




Tuesday, August 21, 2012

North Umpqua Study 5

In Oregon`s temperate rainforests, the base of a waterfall is usually dark and moody with plants clinging to anything possible.
watermedia on Yupo 12"x9"



Available Work

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Understory Study

My back is much better but I`m still sitting to paint.
watermedia on Yupo 4"x12"

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Headland Sea Sky

watermedia on panel 6"x6"
Little paintings I can do sitting down, that`s my near future. I didn`t know I could really do it. Every time in the past, whenever I tried to sit, within minutes I was on my feet. I think because the visual distance is better and I can reach things faster. I`m learning new ways of working.



Available Work

Monday, August 13, 2012

Seascape

I`m back on my feet a little but this is from last summer.
If any Oregonians know of a place on the coast that I could rent and paint in for a week, please let me know. I really want to paint some seascapes! The dates I`m thinking of are Sept. 20-27. Thanks!
watermedia on paper 8"x8"

Friday, August 10, 2012

Laurelhurst Drawings




Somehow I screwed up my hip and back so bad at the gym I haven`t been able to stand without a lot of pain. I stand to paint. So, I`ve had some free time. I was looking through old sketchbooks and remembering the paintings that came from those drawings. That was usually their purpose. I`m competent at it, I love looking at them, but I don`t much like doing them. I would carry around the smallest little sketchbooks I could find, then do tiny little compositions with enough information to build a painting with. On principle I would not use a photograph.
That was then. Now I find it far more useful to enjoy an environment while taking photos. I pay much more attention to my own reactions. What stimulates pleasure? Why? How could I translate that into paint? I`ll still have a sketchbook but it`s used now more for notes and for minimal drawings meant to be scaffolds of sorts for later paintings. When I download the camera, I`ll look all through the image and spot sections that have potential as a reference. The cameras are so good now, just mere fragments of an image will have a whole lot of content.
These drawings were done in Laurelhurst Park in SE Portland, near where I lived in the mid 90s. It was nature I could walk to and I spent a lot of time there.



Available Work [updated 8/12]

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Coastal Joy

Lots of angst in this one. I kept returning to it whenever I could for several days. I was about to drop it in the trash when I made the straight line in the center. The atmosphere and the organic shapes made more sense once that anchored it. Such a small painting to produce so much confusion!
oil on panel 8"x8"


Available Work

Monday, August 6, 2012

Water Wetland Field

From a couple of years ago.
Life keeps intruding on my painting.
oil on panel 12"x12"

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

ZB

I took a break from the landscapes.
My friend, Hali Felt`s book "Soundings" has just been published. It`s a biography of the little known  scientist, Marie Tharp. She mapped the entire ocean floor and radically expanded the field of plate tectonics. Here is Hali`s article on girls, science and destiny from the Huffington Post.
oil on panel 6"x6"