Autumn won`t really arrive here for another 6 weeks but the record breaking heat ended abruptly. This is a golden moment in the Northwest. Desperately needed rain has returned, the fires are contained, and most days are clear and mild. Happy to be alive weather.
The top painting is of a section of Bryant Woods no more than an acre in total. Yet it`s so dense, I always get completely turned around even though I can hear the road 25 feet away. Must be a vortex. For five years I`ve marched into it determined to complete the trail loop and end up walking out the place I entered!
I began both paintings by staining the canvas with thin layers of paint. At least two so that when heavier paint was applied, I could scratch through and blot for texture. The primary trees were placed last.
Below is another of Bryant Woods from a couple of years ago;
I ran across the work of Scotty Mitchell this week and thought she was doing something quite original with the Southwestern landscape. That arid region has been set upon by earnest painters by the score for over a hundred years. Here`s a sweet essay about her work by Ann Weiler Walka. Below is one of her beautiful paintings;
Among the many offensive things said at the Republican debate the other night, was Carly Fiorina`s indignant claim to have seen a film of a kicking fetus being kept alive so that its brain could be harvested. This isn`t true. Listen to Elizabeth Warren`s impassioned defense of Planned Parenthood and then consider the government is about to be shut down again by radical Republicans aiming to destroy that honorable institution.
work for sale in my studio
Portland Open Studios-Oct. 10,11,17 and 18
4 comments:
I couldn't stomach watching the debate the other night. Just couldn't do it. I must say Randall, I haven't laughed this hard in a long time - I'm a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and have produced lots of pieces around that theme. So funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really enjoyed looking at Scotty's work and reading the interview. She has a different way of putting color together (and seeing it) that I really appreciate. And I enjoyed your images of Bryant Woods. The woods are both messy and beautiful-you seem to make sense of them somehow.
We have been enjoying some beautiful weather finally. We are right up against the fringe of the Butte fire by about 20 minutes. You can't imagine the way fire affects the atmosphere and weather.
I already told my husband that if any of those whack-a-doodle Republicans clinch things I will be emigrating to Canada. And I am taking the cats with me!
Great post-thanks!
Libby
I love these new paintings - you get oils to look like watercolors, somehow and maybe it's the scratching through and blotting that does that. Anyway you do it, it looks so misty and muted and yet hints and pops of color, everything drawing your eye around as if you are standing in that spot and looking - really looking. Now, don't get lost in that vortex, we NEED you here! And, yes, apparently anyone "debating" on stage can say whatever the hell they choose to say, even if there is not a smidgen of truth - for the shock and awe factor, don't you know?!?!
Love the Freud pic, too - just imagine Donald Trump on that couch!!! Ouch!!
Your explanation of how the images came together is helpful. When I look at the paintings I can never seem to get beyond the pure magic of them. Loving this weather too!
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