The bottom painting was my last demonstration painting for the Portland Open Studio Tour. So many demos have turned out well that I was beginning to think something supernatural was going on. This one too began on a promising note but then got bogged down in all that green grass. It was like quicksand in the movies, I was a goner! I gessoed over it after taking this photo, flipped the Yupo over and painted the top image on the other side. This is more of what I was after. Because the Willamette Valley is so wildly fertile it has a benevolent quality that`s palpable. The natives and settlers must have felt it too, they would never starve here. In early June, when I visited the Finley Wildlife Preserve outside of Corvallis, everything was bursting with new growth and health, the air was clean, and the place was empty. We walked all over that refuge amazed to be in such a generous beautiful landscape.
watermedia on Yupo 20x20
work in the studio
2 comments:
The 2nd one would have worked if you'd cropped your paper into a rectangle, removing all the grass below the right-side bush, don't you think?
These are lovely.I like your comments too about the "benevolent" quality of the landscape. It's interesting how you can imagine something like that and then feel it also. I really do think you can get a sense for things just by tuning in.
I have been lurking around for awhile now (about a year+ or so) and I am always amazed at the results you get on Yupo paper. I bought some to try out based on some of your comments. I haven't totally figured it out yet and think it will require some additional planning. I am using gouache for this and it lifts up quite a bit. Certainly wish that my location in CA was just a tad bit closer-watching your demos would have been very helpful!
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