Sunday, February 19, 2023

new works

                                           Rio Grande Gorge watermedia on Yupo 19x13 inches


 Finally painting with some regularity again. That was the longest break I`ve ever taken other than through illness. First time in my life I`ve questioned my identity as well. I know I`ll always make art but their afterlife isn`t certain and my intentions have shifted. Since my economic survival isn`t bound up with it now, I`m hoping the experience of painting opens up in a new way. I want to be a better artist and that may take being a more deliberate person.

Here are some new pieces;


                                     [untitled-Cook`s Butte] watercolor on paper 19x14 inches



                                           Algodones Study watercolor on Yupo 12x9 inches



                                                     Winter Alders watercolor 12x9 inches



                                               Silver Creek watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches



                                                Cloud Forest acrylic on Yupo 10x30 inches



                                               Local Marsh watercolor on Yupo 19x14 inches



                                             Late Fall Canal watermedia on paper 19x14 inches



Public Service Announcement; Local artists take note, Lake Oswego will have its inaugural open studios tour next October 14 and 15. That is the first weekend of the Portland Open Studios as well. Since art lovers will be out and about our hope is that they will venture into our community too. I believe the city will support such an event and I know there are plenty of artists who live here. No doubt the first one will be sort of rough and homemade but no matter. It`s just fun when artists meet the public, we have such solitary lives. Save the dates!

Another Public Service Announcement; The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology is accepting applications for their artist in residency program. This is a unique opportunity to get serious work done in a pristine and magnificent environment. Two weeks up to three months perched on the side of Cascade Head with views of the sea and the adjacent rainforest. It really is wonderful. If you need to concentrate on your book, or score, or series, this place will nurture you.




                                                                Wellness Check


                                                            In any given moment,

                                                             on any given day

                                                              I can measure

                                                             my wellness

                                                              by this question:

                                                                is my attention on loving,

                                                               or is my attention on

                                                                              who isn`t loving me?

                                                                  __Andrea Gibson




                                                                         Cuno Amiet

This handsome Swiss gentleman painted over 4000 paintings in his career and 1000 of them are self portraits! He always had a willing subject close at hand. He was new to me a few years ago and it took me a long time to warm to his post modernist paintings. Then I became obsessed with all things Cuno Amiet. From what I`ve read, most of his work is still in Switzerland. You have to visit the homeland to see this national treasure up close.



                                                                           Cuno Amiet



                                                                            Cuno Amiet



                                                                            Cuno Amiet



                                                                              Cuno Amiet





                   


                                                    
 


ckick HERE for paintings for sale

6 comments:

ljeromevisualart said...

You have a unique vision that I always look forward to seeing. Just so you know, I remember I first saw your work on San Juan Island at the gallery downtown Friday Harbor there. I was awestruck at your freedom in painting, and the delight of the forms you found. I get a sense of another place, or many places, of beauty and harmony. Or even the depth of symbiosis in the natural world. It helped me see this world differently. I always look forward to going into Kaiser Westside to see your piece on the 3rd floor, around the righthand corner from the elevator. I wanted to post this because I know as an artist there are times wondering who sees this, and does it matter? It matters. Monetary fullness isn't a measure of who we are as artists. You're part of the beauty, and the light that keeps shining.

Libby Fife said...

Randall,

Local Marsh is my favorite! But honestly, they are all lovely. Your interpretation of your landscape is always what draws me in.

Glad that you are back in action, so to speak. I am interested in that connection between artistic results and making a living. I don't know if not depending on the income has helped me to do anything different or take more risks with my art. I never made my living that way so maybe I have a half perspective or something. Anyway, I hope that things open up for you in whatever way you wish.

Take care,
Libby

Unknown said...

Good to hear from you. Love the new paintings.

Becki Hesedahl

Mitch said...

Randall, I do hope you find a way to carry on in art-making, and that you find again the purpose that drives you to share your vision with the rest of us. Your work delights the viewer and offers possibilities we might not have considered, and your unique voice is important in the world.

Sharon Leahy said...

Namaste' Randall, smiles and peaceful greetings, and it is such a delight to see you finding comfort in nature again ... that was a turbulent, emotional winter for you, with many eddies of emotional processing ... it brings me deep happiness to see in your paintings that you have emerged into the Now and are consciously re-orienting your perspective and purpose, as the process has manifested through your paintings. You have put in some grievously hard emotional work, and you are rising, like Persephone, with the Spring. We did manifest, in human bodies, in this lifetime, on this planet, for a purpose. And with the vast majority of humanity anesthetized by staring at small screens, it seems so important to remind humanity of the comfort to be found in the simple act of being present in Nature, being present, for a quiet moment, in the Now, on this Earth, just a moment of peace. Your landscape paintings are exactly that, somehow you are able to infuse your paintings with the qualities of being in nature, being present with nature, and when those lovely, color-rich, exquisite moments of nature hang on a busy person's wall, that is such a gift, such a treasure, for them to just stop and look, and feel their soul refreshed by the feeling of deep connection to the natural world that comes through your paintings. Ultimately, like the Buddhists say, we only have "the work", the joy and satisfaction, and those singing moments of glory, that come when we have laid in those colors that touch our own hearts. Our purpose, our love, our energies, our joy in scratching the itch that is the need to make, to create, to let the creative energies flow through us, all that Joy and energy is also infused into the artwork. A bounty of appreciative, loving, yearning, satisfied energies... and the artworks carry all of our energies, all of the beauty of color and nature and thought and feelings, out into the screen-deadened world, like bits of the joy that the grey-minded screen deadened folks are yearning for, but don't have the time or energy or understanding how to find otherwise. You are a maker, a creater, a translater and manifester of creative energies on this planet, you are an empath, you know the treasure that is the earth and its beauty, and you see the emptiness of society and its consumer driven goals. What you create is healing balm for the souls of humanity. You are a channel for beauty and peace, and what you make heals souls. That is the incredible gift we are given, to love what we do, and then send it out into the world to bring some of the energies of joy and peace to those who see it. Namaste', beloved one, I wish you such deep and glorious contentment, and a profound comfort in the Now of making.

sister in law said...

Oh Randall, these people are saying the same thing as I did,"your unique voice is important in the world"!