Saturday, June 25, 2016

Plein Air Black and White and other landscapes

                                             Beside Oswego Creek watercolor on Yupo 12x12


 To avoid the nightmare of parking for the Lake Oswego Arts Festival, I pulled off the road and parked illegally above the creek and walked in. This bright idea left me wet with sweat looking for a cool corner to compose myself once I arrived. Soon I was dry enough for polite society and saw the shows. When I returned to my car, I retrieved my outdoor painting gear determined to do something on location. It`s a paradox that a process that is such a hassle ever produces anything of merit. I walked and slipped down the embankment to a sweet little spot near the falls. Once in position with a board across my lap, brushes,watercolors, kleenex, sponge, q-tips and water all within reach, I think my focus sharpened. I wanted to make this count. Using a severely limited palette freed me up to pursue the mood of the place.
 Productive week! It`s truly amazing all that can be accomplished while procrastinating something really important. I also did these and two mediocre abstractions;


                                                            Creek Pool watercolor on Yupo 10x8


 From a walk in Tryon Creek Park the other day. The water is already slow and dreamy.


                                                        Sea Slot watercolor on Yupo 12x9


 A view in Oceanside I`ve tried to paint several times to no avail. This one I`ll keep.


                                                             Na Pali Stream watermedia on Yupo 10x8


 It`s been three years since I was in Hawaii so this one was a struggle. At one point I was even scrubbing it with sandpaper!


                                                       Iron Mt. Group watercolor on Yupo 5x5


 Such a beautiful clump of trees jutting from the overgrown side of the mountain.


 Portland has a new art supplier and it meets my approval! No more stupid Dick Blick. I`ve been to the Artists and Craftsman Supply off SE Powell twice now and it`s wonderful. Knowledgeable staff, good prices and a huge selection!






work for sale in my studio

"New Landscapes" Coos Art Museum July 9 - Oct.1

Columbia Gorge Getaways [excellent for residents and visitors]

Friday, June 17, 2016

A Day on the Coast - How are we now?

                                             A Day on the Coast watermedia on Yupo 26x20


 I`m having a fine time playing with abstraction and bold color and trying to determine if I can work this way with any dedication. Over time, to create a different body of work than the landscapes. Though some think I`m already an abstract painter, I find a non-objective intention quite uncomfortable. Here and there I can hit it by luck but in the past, I`ve eventually been drawn back to the natural world where I find the most meaning. As I paint and look for an opening, the work of my heroes encourages me. Emulating is a way to learn. I keep thinking of Anne Lamott`s advice to new writers, "write the books you want to read". Paint what I want to see. That`s enough to go on!
With a big show complete and ready for delivery, this is the right time for questions.


                                                Alders through a Clearing oil on canvas 12x9


 I came across this the other day from 2010. Since the studio flood and my decision to move in the fall, the disorder has become permanent until I have a new space. I`m never sure what I`ll find when I move a stack of paintings. This piece has always been a favorite for an odd redemptive quality I find in it.


 So it`s been almost a week. I`m sorry to say my initial reaction was just a grim disgust and acceptance. If the murder of 20 elementary school kids didn`t galvanize our country to change, why would this? When I woke Sunday morning and read the headline on my phone, Donald Trump was already screaming about Muslims and terrorism. Without knowing any details I went back to sleep sure that this wasn`t a terrorist attack. Later in the week I`d rethink that. It was terrorism for sure but not toward our country, it was for homosexuals.
I think it`s time to resurrect that word, put the sex back into view. Unapologetically. Because that`s what this barbarism was about.
I`ll let John Sundholm and the Redneck Liberal express the rage that rose up in me. Having grown up in the church, I have a trigger reflex for fury at the historic and continuing Christian persecution of my kind. But I want to talk about sex.
 For far too long, religions all over the world have shown a profound disrespect for the power and importance of sex. In and of itself! Desire is the engine of evolution, the spark that eventually made an ape, human. The impulse is strongest in the young by biological imperative, yet they face ridiculous impediments in communities of faith. Unemployed young Arab men with zero prospects for arranged marriage [the only possibility for sexual expression] join Isis or fly planes into buildings. Teenagers leave Bible study early in a desperate attempt to find privacy and intimacy, and often produce a hope destroying pregnancy. Catholic men enter the celibate priesthood to bury their shameful urges and some become warped by the experience and do terrible psychosexual damage to children. Unstable young men inhibited by their culture`s ancient biases furtively explore their same sex attraction but enter into unhappy marriages then massacre dozens in their frustration. In 1994 the nominee for Surgeon General, Jocelyn Elders, was forced to withdraw simply because she said masturbation was healthy and normal and an excellent way to avoid risky sex. Let me tell you, that crazy prohibition is many a teenager`s first egregious encounter with the hypocrisy of their church and it often facilitates the slow dawning of reason.
 Now a nightclub is not a temple but it can be a sacred space nonetheless. Even in this era of gay marriage and surprising acceptance, the club is still an important part of queer culture. More for celebration now than for meeting places as it once was. To finally be surrounded by those just like you is a joyous experience. Kids, on their own at last, will dance and flirt and party and hookup. This is good! Learning about your young body and its desires is critical to mental health. Safe, consensual, respectful sexual relations when we are young can prevent a whole lot of unhappiness later when we are ready to settle. And in the past, the gay bar was often the only safe place in a homosexual`s life. That  aura of sanctuary remains and its violation early last Sunday morning [for hours] is most upsetting to me. This is the heart of terrorism.
 What can we do? We can explore and accept the scientific facts being discovered about human sexuality. We can take a long hard look at the taboos and fears surrounding sex and ask who do these serve? If we have them in our lives, we can insist the religious institutions talk about sexuality with humility and openness and toss out the horrific interpretations of scripture that vilify people because of their sexual identities. Or find new sources of spiritual communion. My Mom was a lifelong Southern Baptist but in her early 80`s she finally had enough. She left the church after defending me, my homosexuality, from cruel remarks she encountered in Bible study. Be like my Mom, confront homophobia wherever you find it. That act of courage does enormous good.
 Shared suffering is important in a society. My blogger friend Elizabeth Corsa has a son, a resident doctor who was on duty in the ER last Saturday. His were the bloody shoes in the photo that went viral this week. Listen to him now. It`s heartbreaking watching his face remember.
It was important to me to read all the names and look into the eyes of the murdered. Such a small thing helped me feel the loss, it was the least I could do.
The apology and expression of love from the white, Mormon, Republican Lt. Gov. of Utah made me weep. This is what gay people crave, an apology.
The orthodox Jews that went to the African American gay bar last Monday night to mourn and pray moved me as well. When all the passengers on a Jet Blue flight to Orlando paid their respect to the lone grandmother flying in for her grandson`s funeral, I felt hope. All week these symbolic gestures kept coming and they were healing indeed. Being gay it`s hard to tell, but I think I felt the country shift. There will finally be votes on modest gun reforms in the Senate on Monday. Lets encourage them to do the right thing.
Thank you for listening.





      There`s real courage for you, circa 1940. From the Bob Bragman collection


work for sale in my studio



Thursday, June 9, 2016

Winter Bog and more watercolors!

                                                        Winter Bog watercolor on Yupo 12x12


 This is often the case, I have a subject in mind and I begin painting. The mental image is how I orient the process but something usually goes wrong right away. I`ll labor to fix it which usually doesn`t work out either. This makes me irritated and willing to abandon my 'vision'. So on the painting above, when I reached that point, I poured a thin wash of color to the top and tilted the paper so it flowed down. Then I spritzed it with water and let that drip down too. The trees had now melted into a murk and mostly disappeared. The fractured shapes on the right emerged. I dried it and the thing was finally looking interesting! Now when I repainted the trees, the grasses and water it was into a field suggestive of the mood I was after initially. In due time, it began to feel exactly like the swampy pool I love in Bryant Woods. Doesn`t look too accurate but I pinned down the soggy decay which inspired my original impulse.


                                               Metolius Riverbank 2 watermedia on Yupo 12x12


 Because I had been enjoying the bright clear colors in the abstractions I`ve been doing, my aim here was to take a composition I already knew and paint it in the wildly inventive colors Bonnard would use. That didn`t go far! Maybe my familiarity with this subject was too imprinted. Or maybe they`re not in me? After all, I live by choice in the Pacific Northwest and not in the south of France. Every time I try to be a carefree Mediterranean, my cold Anglo Saxon heart says not so fast buddy.


                                                       Over the Sea 32 watercolor on Yupo 6x11


 Muted, quiet, neurotic and introverted....but not always!;


                                                               Carnival! watercolor on Yupo 8x24


Finally, after four years of intermittent work, I finished my large Yellowstone hot spring;


                                                     Yellowstone Geothermal oil on canvas 30x48


 A young man from Oregon fell into one of these last weekend. Only a few personal items were found, there was no body to recover. This danger, which is everywhere in the park, is thrilling. You walk on a trail and see lots of bear poop and realize the Grizzlies use these same paths! The jewel like pools beg for your touch but are more rapacious than a school of piranha! The whole place sits inside a churning caldera of a volcano. Smell the sulfur, feel the heat through your sneakers! It is a fierce and awesome place.


Heard Redneck Liberal yet? Listen to his thoughts about the Republican nominee for president.



                                                             John Beerman


Here`s a sweet little video of the British artist John Beerman painting on location in New Mexico. No dialog, just some music. Watch to the end and see the unique and lonely end of day in the desert. Just beautiful.


 And should you be feeling sad, go here for comfort. It always works for me.


work for sale in my studio [updated]



Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Watercolors!

                                                      Toro watermedia on Yupo 12x12


 I needed to goof off, I`ve been working on large Important paintings for months. Ideally art making is always play. Ideally. I`ve known for years some of my best ideas come from puttering with paint. No serious intentions just whims. Among my urges this week was to explore pure abstraction some;


                                                                    Lift watercolor 10x8


                                                    May Abstraction watercolor 9x12


Also did a couple of landscapes from memory;


                                                    Marine Air watercolor on mineral paper 10x8


                                                             Colony acrylic on Yupo 14x11


 And I even got out into the landscape with my pal Mitch for some plein air work!


                                                            Luscher Field watercolor on paper 12x9


                                            Luscher View watercolor on mineral paper 11x7.5


 We were at the city owned beehive of activity known as Luscher Farm. This place is fascinating! It contains sprawling community gardens, barns and outbuildings, some with classes in progress, chicken coops, birthday parties, curious tourists wandering around, a humongous farm house and acres and acres of fields with sweeping views. Everyone is completely focused on their tasks and assumes you are too. I could jump up on a tractor and take it for a spin and I don`t think anyone would notice.
 When the humidity is low in western Oregon, it feels like a personal gift. Painting up on a hill, in shade, with this desert breeze traveling through was like a dream. We`ve already had a couple of periods of high heat, but if it`s dry, who cares? Every time it happens I`m transported back to New Mexico. It can even smell like the Southwest and that, of course, brings back the memories. I try to enjoy them realistically, I don`t trust nostalgia.


 Laura Foster`s comprehensive guide to the Columbia Gorge is here at last!
As with her other books, this is packed with helpful maps, drive times, insider tips on food and lodging, historical photos, anecdotes, hiking suggestions, fishing advice, water sports information, tons of cool little things to do you would never know about, lots of history and a cultural perspective on the native residents and through it all, Laura`s intelligence and humor make it a super fun read! Twelve weekend getaways are featured to give you delightful experiences without much decision. I`m all for that!





She will give a presentation in downtown Lake Oswego at the museum 510 in the evening of June 18. Contact janrimerman@gmail.com to reserve a seat.


Take a look at this short video on addiction, it`s quite provocative. I`m not sure what to think but it`s an issue I`m more than familiar with. Everyone finally is in agreement that the war on drugs was a disaster. Especially for African Americans.
Now there is widespread opioid addiction and skyrocketing deaths from overdose. This is a field ripe for some innovation.


work for sale in my studio