Wednesday, October 17, 2018

collage-Workshop-Randy for President!

                                                       Collage by Randall David Tipton

                                                          Collage by Randall David Tipton


 The second weekend of the Portland Open Studios is coming three days. The collages above were done during the first. Part of the 'mission' of the P.O.S. is educational, we are encouraged to show how we work. In previous years I painted and sometimes became so engrossed in what I was doing I ignored my guests. John would hiss at me that I was being rude. So collage seemed like a casual form of creativity that I could set aside easily. Some of the visitors joined me in my creating as if it were a big jigsaw puzzle.




 If you`re local, go out and talk to some artists this weekend. The weather will be gorgeous and we want some feedback! I`m at 5373 Lakeview Blvd, Lake Oswego OR, 97035. 10am to 5pm.
Also, another talented landscape painter, Lisa Wiser, is just down the street from me.




 I am asked periodically if I teach and the answer is usually no. However, I have been asked by the Seattle Art League to teach a workshop in February and I agreed. "Abstraction from Nature". Colleagues of mine insist I have much  to say about painting and I know I certainly have opinions. Now I`ll have a chance to organize my thoughts, examine and express my motives and methods. I do believe I have a visceral knowledge of painting. I`ll do my best to convey why and how I respond to the landscape. Feb. 2 and 3, 2019.


                                                             Tualatin River plein air



 It seems our hot smoky summer came with a consolation prize. October has been crystalline, warm and seductive. Day after day. The chilly night gives way to a cool morning that blooms into a clear, balmy, breezy afternoon. This sort of day will make you love your life. This is when life truly does feel like the gift that it is. Honestly, everyone acts blessed.
Now throw in a kitten!!
Oh my god, does it get any better??




                                                                          Carter!

No it doesn`t!
This is my second kitten in two years! Such a privilege!


                                                                   Carter and John







 The beginning and end of my political career.
Someone from my high school put this up on Facebook. I just read the text now and it didn`t mention my most controversial proposal. I wanted to transfer funds from the athletic budget to arts programs. PE coaches were campaigning against me!  I was serious and definitely delusional. The vote was close but I lost. Now it is hard to believe I did such a thing.




                                                                  by Betsy Chang


 The marvelous painter Betsy Chang is also taking part in the Portland Open Studios, #85. Go see her luminous work!







work for sale in my studio






Monday, October 8, 2018

Wild Plum and Portland Open Studios

                                                        Wild Plum oil on canvas 30x30


 Third attempt and this one I`ll keep. The subject is so simple, it had to be isolated at an exact moment of floral explosion. Two previous efforts were just banal. I walk by these trees every spring with morning light streaming behind them. In early March, one day it`s winter and the next, the season has turned.


                                                  Sunlight and Stone oil on canvas 40x30


 This is also new and the place is another landmark on a different walk. I lap Cook`s Butte for a cardio workout circling up and down. It the late summer, it`s dry and dusty in the sunny areas, then cool and green in the forest. I first painted this rock as a demo in a class I taught.



                                              Circle of Cypress oil on canvas 36x56

 And this got a makeover. I thought it was finished in the spring of 2016 but later knew it could be stronger. It`s a view from a picnic area on a bluff just north of the town of Mendocino Calif. My semester of 'art school' was here. I was 18 when I arrived, and so ready for beauty. I had escaped the smog, the heat and the car culture of inland Southern California. It is so much nicer now and a shining example of what can be when government is progressive.




 Maya Angelou said people always remember how you made them feel.
I remember exactly every bully that attacked me, where I was and how I reacted.
So did Christine Blasely Ford. But the trauma and objections of women don`t mater and another sexual predator now sits on the Supreme Court. His opinions about women and their rights are the ones that will prevail. For now.
 What an unhappy, unaware small man the new justice showed himself to be in the hearing. Our country deserves better.
This article from Howard Zinn written in 2005 gave me some perspective.



 I`ve been so immersed in preparations for the 2018 Portland Open Studios Tour, it`s hard to imagine anyone who hasn`t heard. But if your are, 100 artists in the Portland Metro area will open their studios to the public for two weekends; Oct. 13 and 14, then Oct. 20 and 21. The hours are 10am to 5pm. The website has addresses and maps. There is a Portland Open Studio insert in the Oct. issue of Portland Monthly, and you can purchase an app with all the information for $5. I haven`t been involved with it since 2015 so I have lots of work that is new. Work on paper as well as oil paintings. It`s a fun time and a total ego trip for me. Everyone who comes through the door has seen some of my work online and they`ve made a deliberate effort to visit. I live in an old suburb of Portland a bit out of the way. Come say hello!

5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR
97035
503 380 4731




 In other news... I have a new kitten!! Even though Lyndon is my dream cat, we could tell he was bored and sometimes even a little depressed. Well, no one can be down with a kitten about! Sure enough Lyndon is ecstatic and surprisingly nurturing. We don`t have a name yet. Maybe it`s time to end the presidential series and go with a regular name. Or does he look like a Kennedy?









 Here is a sweet essay on Five Things Artists Really Believe In. My favorite is "no one is coming to save you". I had that delusion when I was young.



                                                        Bayou Kaiku by Allsion Stewart


                                                               Into Spring by Allison Stewart


                                                   La Foret Etude #1 by Allison Stewart


 Have you heard of Allison Stewart? I`ve been loving her botanical, organic, ethereal abstractions for a couple of years. I think we speak alike but different. She is in New Orleans, close to the bayous with all that richness of life to inspire her. She is rarely literal but always lyrical.





work for sale in my studio [updated]