Tryon Creek + alcohol inks!

                                                        oil on canvas 48x36

                                                             oil on paper 7x4

                                                           oil on panel 12x9

                                                        oil on linen panel 6x12

                                                      watercolor on Yupo 14x11

  These are all 'summer' creeks and that season has now ended. Adios summer!   Tryon Creek State Park is wonderful at any time of year but in the summer it`s a cool damp refuge from the heat. Where the vegetation meets the water is particularly interesting. It smells funky and fresh, it`s private because of the sound of the flowing creek, it`s shaded with stark sunny highlights and this is where you`ll see the wildlife. Everybody needs a drink sooner or later. I have walked this park dozens of times and I still find corners that are new to me.
 The rains have returned and life seems more 'real' now. This is the northwest I need, this is when I work best. The ridiculous short day is good for exercise and some shopping, then the long dark night is perfect for uninterrupted sessions in the studio. It`s exhilarating!

                                                alcohol ink and oil on Yupo 5.5x8.5

  On the last day of my Open Studio, Christine Lally and her husband Tim came by for a visit. Somehow we got to talking about alcohol inks. I`ve been hearing so much about them, especially when used on Yupo, the notorious plastic paper from Japan. I went to buy some recently but was put off by the names of the colors; Bellini Peach, Sunset Orange and Sail Boat Blue. I wondered if they could possibly be lightfast with such frivolous names. The Dick Blick employee could not help me with that question so I took a pass. When Chris and Tim heard I was curious about them, they disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with a box full of inks, yupo, tiles, frames for the tiles, gloves, solvents and tools. They then proceeded to demonstrate. I painted the landscape above on one of their tests. Without question the colors and the way they mix are completely seductive. There is a richness to them that is unseen in pigments. Yet they seem impossible to control, maybe because of the squirt bottles they come in. Unless chance is a major component of your work, it`s hard to think of how to incorporate them. A couple of days later, I found my bamboo pens and was all set to try to draw with them until I opened one and saw that squeeze tip. I could have dumped the ink into a small cup my pen could reach but getting it back into the bottle seemed daunting. Then, I tried them in combination with watercolor which was a non-starter. They wouldn`t mix at all. Next came oil paints and that was somewhat more successful.
  That box of 'everything I need to play with alcohol inks' was one of the coolest gifts I`ve ever received. Thank you C and T, my explorations have just begun!

I stumbled on this little interview with Duane Keiser, the founder of the Daily Painting movement. His work is truly remarkable not the least because he`s been doing those small exercises for so many years now! And they just keep getting more inventive and witty and gorgeous. It`s well worth the time to scroll back through his blog and get an understanding of his visual intelligence. He`s got young children and teaches at a college too!
How does he do it??

Carol Marine shows how! Check out her book on Daily Painting.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit my studio during the Portland Open Studios Tour! I had fun and you made me feel important!
For anyone interested in watching me paint. I`m having an open studio demonstration on the second Saturday of the month beginning this Nov. 8th at 10 am. I hope to get my teaching urges met without any accountability. Come by, I hope the conversation is lively.
5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR
97035
close to I-5
parking in my big driveway or next door at the clinic

work for sale in my studio

Out from the Forest

                                                    watermedia on Yupo 10x8

 I managed just two small paintings all week. The Open Studios event takes lots of planning, cleaning, schmoozing and demonstrating. When it`s over, there is a real vacuum. I filled it with puttering, walking, sleeping and cookies. Andrew Wyeth said he did more work when he wasn`t painting than when he was. I think he meant that he was so preoccupied with visual matters that painting was just the physical expression of this reality. I get it. People always say how prolific and disciplined I am. My view of myself is easy going and forgiving. For not being more ambitious and for avoiding the distasteful promotional efforts to be more successful. But I am always, without any conscious decision, thinking about how things look. I always take the 'temperature' of my visual surroundings. How I would paint what I`m seeing, how it would translate through me? Discipline isn`t a factor.
 The stream is the tiny, delicate, and rare Rio en Medio north of Santa Fe New Mexico.


work for sale in my studio

New Mexico Mountains

                                                          watercolor 14x11

 For the last demonstration of the studio tour I chose to paint a view I saw daily in New Mexico and painted repeatedly. Not too many watched me for this one which was lucky, I was lost for a long time.
 I mentioned it to some of my visitors and another time on this blog but I`ll announce it again. In lieu of teaching, I`m going to be having a demonstration/conversation in my studio on the second Saturday of the month at 10 am. I do have technical information I`d be happy to share and opinions aplenty. If you`d like to see how I do things, come on by. The first is Saturday Nov. 8.
5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR 97035

Here are more paintings of this view from different vantage points.

                                                       oil on canvas 48x70 1987

                                                      oil on canvas 20x20 1988

                                                 watercolor on paper 36x48 1989

And a hero of mine, George Bellows, painted it too nearly a hundred years ago. His visionary late landscapes are some of the most feverish and emotional I`ve ever seen. They give me chills!
All of his work can be seen here.

work for sale in my studio

October Rivulet

                                                   watermedia on Yupo 14x11

This was the demonstration painting I did during my Open Studio today. One more day, tomorrow, go visit an artist!

5373 Lakeview Blvd.
Lake Oswego OR
97035
[close to I-5]

work for sale in the studio

Carol Marine + Vintage Tiptons!

                                           Carol and Randall in Hood River 9-2-14
                                                      [photo by Sarah Peroutka]

This is a very interesting Do It Yourself era. Along with the 'Sharing Economy', commerce is being remade in a decentralized, less regulated, more individualistic model. Uber, Air BnB, Kickstarter, Angie`s List, Yelp and TaskRabbit are all internet based, innovative businesses meant to empower the consumer with custom fitted choices at friendly prices. I find this a really exciting new order. The arts too are involved and turning traditional venues on their head. A homebound Mormon mother in Arizona self publishes a book about Vampires in the Northwest, and we all know about 'Twilight'! Well, painters got proactive too. Several years ago, Duane Keiser challenged himself to complete a painting every day. He posted photos of these small paintings on his new blog. People noticed, they sold and soon Ebay auctions were needed because of the demand. Carol Marine saw the fun in this early on and stepped up to this daunting challenge too. She had graduated with a Fine Arts degree but was having dismal experiences with galleries and meager sales. Many other artists, including me, followed suit and we rapidly improved our game and soon a movement was born. Carol is a thoughtful, analytical painter with a dead perfect sense of color and value. Her work was soon popular as well and the disillusioned young painter was now self supporting without any assistance from an established gallery. The comprehensive reach of the internet made this all possible. By taking control of their careers themselves, many artists began to flourish. Next Carol had the inspired idea to bring her friends and fellow daily painters together into a website dedicated to the premise. Her husband David designed a site of beautiful ease and elegance.
When fires burnt out of control in the hill country of Texas in 2011, the Marines lost their home and studio to the flames. They moved to the wet part of Oregon and we became friends.
 There is a generosity to Carol that is spontaneous and genuine. Take a look at her new book all about the daily painting movement! She included one of mine!

                                               Sauvie Island Road watercolor 18x24

                                             Sauvie Island Fields watercolor 24x18

                                      Sauvie Island-Circle of Stones watermedia 24x18

                                             Sauvie Island Dike watermedia 24x18

                                                 Foothills Storm oil on paper 24x18

                                                   Early Fall oil on paper 24x18

                                            Reed Canyon Fall oil on paper 18x24

                                                 April Hillside oil on Yupo 20x26

                                                   Creekside oil on Yupo 12x30


For this last weekend of the Open Studio Tour, I`ve pulled these older paintings out of retirement and am offering them with nice discounts.
Come visit!
Randall David Tipton
5373 Lakeview Blvd.
Lake Oswego OR
97035  [near I-5]
503]380-4731

available work in the studio

Open Studio Demo Paintings

                                         A New Season watermedia on Yupo 26x20

                                     November Rain 2 watermedia on Yupo 20x26

                                     Tualatin Riverbank watermedia on Yupo 14x11

 "When bankers get together they talk about art, when artists get together they talk about money". I read this quote years ago and think it`s still somewhat true, at least the part about artists. Livelihood is a concern for most people yet I think artists fetishize the idea of being self supporting. I sure did when I was younger. My restaurant work felt like it was thwarting my artistic destiny. I was envious of other young painters that were successful and they were numerous in Santa Fe in the 1980s. Eventually I came to see that my waiter`s income actually allowed for more freedom and stability. My work could evolve and though it sold, it was never 'hot'. In Portland, I found a nice job and after that a nice man and it was good.
 Economic success for a painter can turn the practice into a manufacturing process through repetition. I`ve seen it and it hasn`t looked happy. Should anyone ask, I would always advise someone to find some independent income. Get a job. Live simply. Focus on your work.
 The visitors to my Open Studio last weekend were quite interesting. It`s a true believer that gets into a car and drives down the freeway to watch an artist work on one of the last golden days before the rain. Everyone has such intricate stories, most were creative in some way and all had relevant questions.
I sold some paintings, I had splendid conversations and I received a lot of praise and respect. Good weekend! One more to go, come see me!

5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR 97035
[I have some free maps to the other studios]


work for sale in the studio

Night Pollinator + [clean] Open Studio!

                                                   watermedia on paper 9x9"

I`m ready for my close up.
I even had time for this drawing and being born a painter, I could not just let it be dry graphite. No, soon I had watercolors involved. Then ink. Which brings me to something I discovered years ago in life drawing groups. If I used a pencil which erased, I made many corrections. If I drew with a brush dipped in ink, I did not need to. There`s a life lesson there but don`t ask me what it is.

                                                                      Before

                                                                         After


Not really!! The top photo is of the late Francis Bacon`s famously chaotic workspace. An artist friend of mine once rudely commented that mine looked similar! Not any more!
I read that a museum has preserved Mr. Bacon`s studio just as it was when the painter was alive!

Go visit an artist this weekend. It`s so lonely in the studio, we need to talk!
Portland Open Studios Oct. 11, 12 and 18, 19 10 to 5 pm. Demonstration each day at noon in my studio.

Randall David Tipton
5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR 97035

work for sale

Across the Field[s]

                                          Mt. Hood from the East oil on Yupo 26x20

 From my plein air foray in the Columbia River Gorge in early September.
 It was so refreshing to be in the golden East once again. The transition is swift, within 15 miles the landscape changes from rainforest to arid grasslands. From one side of the Cascades to the other.
 It`s not the mountain, it`s not the trees, it`s the space between them and me. That third dimension expressed with just two. The classic artist`s dilemma from the caves to the present. How do you do it? How, is pretty much the history of art in Western civilization. Probably the most direct method is through scale. Things in the distance are smaller. Learning how to mimic visual reality was one of the great achievements of the Renaissance painters. In time though, exposure to other cultures caused artists to question this. Why not make everything sort of equal?  My hero, Pierre Bonnard, did just that giving the same importance to his wife, her friend, the cat, the bowl of fruit, the floor tiles and the orchard through the window, all in a single painting! Wove it all together through color and pattern. His work ravishes the eyes.
 My own approach is somewhat similar, I usually flatten the space out yet suggest atmosphere through gradations in the paint. Though I can`t say it`s a constant theme in my work, I`ve done quite a few paintings of trees from across a field. Again, the subject is really that distance between. There is just something so healthy to the human spirit to see just 'space', emptiness. A house with a view is often no more than a building without anything close to it. Just that unoccupied air. It makes us feel good, expansive and safe. Worth the higher price!

                                     Across the Meadow watermedia on Yupo 20x20

From last summer, my beloved Bryant Woods.

                                       Deep Summer Field watermedia on paper 10x7

This one was about the smell of damp grass, shadow and dusk.

                                                    Oregon Refuge oil 14x11

The Finley Wildlife Preserve near Corvallis. Created from former farm land and slowly being restored to an original native landscape. The sense of a promise fulfilled for the early settlers is palpable. The place is bursting with life.

                                            Steigerwald Study 4 oil on paper 10x8

                                            Steigerwald Study 5 oil on paper 12x9

                                         Across Steigerwald watermedia on paper 16x12

Until it caught fire a couple of years ago, I spent considerable time at Steigerwald Wildlife Refuge. The burnt fields are coming back. The views from here into the mouth of the Columbia Gorge have a yearning quality. Like you really ought to go there. Now.

                                       Across the Field oil on canvas 36x36

This one from 2006 was painted from memory of a stand of trees at the Storm King Sculpture Park a bit north of NYC.

Come visit me and some other worthy artists this weekend and next during the Portland Open Studios. I have maps.
Randall David Tipton
5373 Lakeview blvd
Lake Oswego OR
97035  [close to I-5]

available work for sale in my studio

Metolius 2 and Others

                                                          oil on canvas 36x18"

My studio is a disaster area as I try to make it presentable for my guests next weekend while still trying to paint. And of course, as a perverse human being, I`m being flooded with new ideas I`m dying to work on. This is the opposite of having ample time but the well being dry which is also common. Somebody please slap me.
Below are some paintings that had 'issues' that the deadline compelled me to resolve. See them in person during the Portland Open Studio Tour next weekend and the following.
#83 Randall David Tipton
5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR
97035

                                           Fanno Creek Morning oil on panel 9x12"

                                   Brush Creek Wyoming watermedia on paper 12x9"

                                      December Slough watermedia on Yupo 12x9"

                                       Dusk on Brandy Creek oil on panel 12x12"

work or sale in my studio

Dark Forest Creekbank + Re-do`s

                                                         oil on canvas 58x40"

I blew it up.
I liked the watercolor, it soon sold and I`ve wanted to see it again. So I made a big one. The scene is just a creekbank illuminated at just such a moment, deep in the July rainforest of the North Umpqua River. The air was hot and cool depending where in the canyon you stepped. With such dense growth, it was also very quiet. Our day had not begun well and we entered that forest dutifully because we were there. Within minutes our foul moods were dismantled by beauty. The creeks formed 'rooms' whenever the ground leveled and through that dim filtered light everything seemed to move, sort of flicker. I remember walking much slower than usual, literally stunned by the ethereal landscape.

Here are some paintings I`ve re-visited. They will be on view during the Portland Open Studio Tour, Oct. 11,12,18 and 19, 10 to 4pm. Come say hello.
5373 Lakeview Blvd.
Lake Oswego OR
97035

                                            Neahkanie Cliff acrylic on panel 24x18

                                       Late Autumn Tangle watermedia on Yupo 12x12"

                                            Rio en Medio 6 Study oil on panel 16x12"

Her work didn`t do much for me but I sure loved her! Listen to Agnes Martin tell it like it is. That woman walked her talk! She wanted to be alone. So she up and leaves NYC and her brilliant career behind and moves to the barren, art colony-free, windy west of New Mexico. Built her a house, then she lived in it.


work for sale in my studio