Local travel, anniversary, Portland Open Studios

                                                   Deluge watermedia on Yupo 26x20 inches

 An abstraction of natural phenomena. This intrigues me. The juxtaposition of different textures and colors gets me going. My fate as a painter has always involved the landscape.

 

                                                                     Todd and Randall

                                                                                  Beach

                                                                       Blue Morning

                                                                        Cliff Reflections

                                                                      Sea Lion Cave !!

 Even in beautiful Oregon, it`s great to get away and see some other gorgeous corner of my adopted home. We met my childhood friend and his new wife who had traveled to the coast for this rendezvous.

Many years ago she was on a business trip in the Northwest and somehow stumbled into the Inn at Otter Crest. That is not easy to do. It is difficult to find even when you know it 'has to be here somewhere'. She kept coming back for good reason. It is a spectacular location with stunning views everywhere you turn. There isn`t anything lavish about it but it is super comfortable. A perfect place to hang out and be with old friends. Though I can`t find the motivation to paint them very often, I do love seascapes! Here are three of my favorite painters of the sea;

                                                                     George Bellows

                                                                        Emil Carlsen

                                                                   Frederick Judd Waugh

 Once again this summer, I spent Friday mornings painting with my pal Mitch.

                                                                             Mitch

The conversation was good but the paintings were not. Here are the best. I keep trying to do it different and nothing engages in a meaningful way. The weather was always fine.

                                                                   Community Garden

                                                                             Solstice

                                                                     Phantom Bluff

                                                                         Sun and Shade

                                                                             River Turn

                                                                              Clouds

         

 Twentythree years! 

Almost missed him! We were at two different Starbucks 50 yards apart but out of view of each other. It was a crystalline September afternoon, much like today. 

My husband John is a kind and generous man that I waited a long time to find. 

When my cat Louie vomited in the kitchen and he sprang up from the couch where we were watching a movie to clean it up, I knew. Yes, it was his training as a nurse but still, it was my cat. 

I also noticed I liked who I was with him and that seemed significant.

                                                              apologies to AngelaFV

OCT  8 and 9. OCT 15 and 16.  10am to 5pm

Please come visit!

5373 Lakeview Blvd

Lake Oswego OR

97035

503 380 4731

I`m ready for some feedback and I`m sure the others are too. Portland Open Studios happens on two consecutive weekends. Enough time to get immersed!

My friend in New Mexico, Judith Shaw Beatty, posted this on Facebook. She is passionate about vaccinations as she had polio as a child. It`s so heartfelt and extravagant, I thought my visitors would enjoy her version of gratitude on that day;

Good morning. Grateful today for my health; my friends; my little loving dog; beauty everywhere; cool nights and warm days; my big and growing family; my Facebook friends, most of whom I will never meet; art; my writing; the food in my fridge; Social Security checks; a good book; my spiritual world; being able to laugh, even when I'm alone; my trusty car; Zoom; this beautiful little condo and the people who rent it to me; hummingbirds; equanimity; my job and the dozens of helpful, kind, loving people I work with; my leg brace that supports me; a dishwasher; cobalt-blue skies and fat black clouds that pour down delicious rain; and always, always having enough.

please click HERE to see work for sale in my studio

 

The Coast, vaccine and Easter

                                       Dune and Sky watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches, 66x51 cm

 It was just a proposal, nothing definite and certainly not a commission. Would I like to paint a coastal image for a commemorative poster? That`s my third attempt above and it`s from a 20 year old sketch. Below are the other two;

                                                       watercolor on Yupo 28x20 inches

                                                North Coast watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

 I`m not sure they are poster-grade images but I do know that I am finished with trying. If the impulse to paint an image doesn`t originate with me first, it`s hard to get at, to find an emotional core to guide me. This painting below I actually think would make a good poster and it was done last year;

                                           Coastal Nocturne watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

 My second shot of the vaccine was last week and I was elated the whole day. Freedom from fear! Yet it didn`t last, a celebration involves others. Until the country moves past this pandemic, the joy will still be  measured, hopeful and anticipatory. 

People I love, on the right and left politically, are refusing to be vaccinated. This is utterly shocking. Are they reading what Covid-19 can do to a person?? After what the world has endured the past year, it`s clear that this decision is political.  Also tragically misguided. Without mass vaccinations, the virus continues to mutate and elude its elimination. Who wants this to continue? Not a future for me. These holdouts will have to arrive at a different attitude in their own time. Persuasion isn`t possible yet. I hardly know how to handle my disappointment and anger. 

                                                           Peaches by Donna Thibodeau

The Brush and Palette group of Michigan painters asked me to speak to them in a Zoom presentation. I agreed though I wanted them to ask me questions. I have no agenda and am such a reluctant teacher because the role itself feels inappropriate. So I sent them links to interviews and my website and when the meeting commenced, they were prepared. Almost every educational situation I`ve led has focused on technical issues. Those are not unimportant but they are far less relevant to what an artist is 'saying'. I don`t know how to guide anybody through that question and yet it is the most important part of being a painter. Why do you want to do it? What compels you? Annie Lamott`s advice to writers is to write the books they want to read. What paintings do I want to see? It`s a simple but profound question. I do believe we all have a birthright to creativity. Yet even the most casual hobbyist is going to paint something. What will it be?

 The group asked me to judge a show of their work and the first prize winner was Donna Thibodeau`s Peaches [above]. I chose it for its clarity. From idea through execution, she succeeded in a forthright simple composition using clear, gorgeous color.

                                                          watermedia on Yupo 26x20 inches

                                                Reliquary 2 watermedia on Yupo 26x20 inches

                                            Untitled yellow watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

 My abstract efforts are still all over the map but I am making progress. They aren`t taking so long, just a couple of days. I haven`t found a language of my own yet but I`m closer. Concentrating my efforts to watermedia on the plastic paper Yupo has also helped along the evolution.

My buddy Jo Reimer sent out a notice about a new line of super opaque acrylics made by Golden. I`ve wanted a white as dense as oil paint. A holy grail of sorts. As I move away from oil painting the one thing I haven`t been able to replicate in acrylic is a spontaneous gestural mark that dries as it is painted, as it is wanted. A gesture is impossible to repeat if it dries looking transparent or equivocal. This drove me to oils in the first place back in 1984. I need my brushstrokes to be stable. In oil painting this is not a problem.

So anyway, I went to the Golden website and saw that they will do custom orders. I asked them for the densest white possible and it just arrived in the mail!

                                                  cartoon by Harry Bliss and Steve Martin

Easter Sunday again. Though it doesn`t seem to be the big deal of my childhood, I think it is a shared, welcomed holiday. Our country is more tolerant now in large part due to the decline of the church in our lives. This is a more secular country than ever. For better and worse. I left traditional Christianity as a teenager because the concept of a loving God punishing people in hell throughout eternity was a contradiction too huge to ignore. Upon inspection, other parts of the story didn`t hold up either. It looked pretty obvious that man created god in his own image. Yet the great philosophical-spiritual questions remain. It takes a lifetime to create a new understanding of the divine.

Then there is Pastor Adam Ericksen;

As a bird flies, the Clackamas United Church of Christ is may be five miles away from me. I saved this photo from a Reddit post. In the comments I read Adam walks his talk. That the church is actively helping the poor and desperate here in Oregon. The spirit of Christianity is as radical as you can get; love your enemy. Who can do that? Who will even consider it?

He`s on to something. A better world. 

                                           The Empire State building from New Jersey 1930`s

 Isn`t this photo phenomenal? Just imagine!

Somewhat similarly, I was running in a park in Queens once and saw only trees with the two towers of the World Trade Center above them. Then, I found a $50 bill on the grass!

                                                      by the wonderful John Felsing

click HERE for work for sale in my studio

 

Treading Water

                                        Untitled in Gray oil on Yupo 23x19 inches, 58.5x48 cm

                                Untitled in Yellow oil on canvas 15x30 inches, 38x76 cm

                                       Untitled-dusk oil on canvas 12x9 inches, 30.5x23 cm


  Hello again! Above are the best of what I`ve done in the 7 weeks or so since I posted. I thought by moving into oils my progress would be quicker. Oil paints are so much easier to handle than watermedia. But that ease might have played into a lot of indecision. Who knows?
 The pandemic seemed like a perfect time to paint abstractly. Develop a body of work, become comfortable in my process. I use the common advice I first heard of through Anne Lamott 'write the books you want to read'. Painting what I want to see is another matter it seems. I have such a strong interest and affinity for abstraction, I`ve thought with time a path would open up. A motif or kind of composition would present itself as a vehicle for what I want to do with color and texture. Prior to this current effort, I did them recreationally. A break from realism. This most unusual time has confounded many artists I know. My judgement seems off and my confidence elsewhere. But I`ll keep at it of course, this is the one part of my life I can control.

 165,000 now.
Obama sure got it right today; Trump is more interested in suppressing the vote than the virus. His attack on the postal service and bogus claims of voter fraud are the latest outrage. We`ve been voting by mail for 20 years in Oregon, we were the first state to do so. There have been no problems as any Republican Oregonian will tell you. As if dodging a serious illness weren`t hard enough, now we must protect the integrity of our elections. Ourselves. The president and his party are going down in a historic defeat and they know it. They are scared. Beware of insecure people, they are the most dangerous.

                                                             by David Shrigley

                                                       John by Lorrie McClanahan


 My virtual pal in Dallas, Lorrie, has spent her pandemic time quite productively honing her drawing skills on Procreate. She is part of a group of artists that have been doing a portrait a day using photos posted on Reddit for this purpose. She offered to draw my husband so I sent her a photo from when he was 40. I`ve always loved his contented expression in it and she nailed it.

                                                                   by Dorothy Hood

                                                                    by Dorothy Hood

                                                               by Dorothy Hood


 Another Texan, Dorothy Hood, just came to my attention 20 years after her death. She is in some important collections but never became known much outside of Houston. Her work is so dazzling, so deep with emotion, I swear I would have trekked through the desert to meet her.

                               Above the Cold Ocean watercolor on Yupo 20x26, 51x66 cm


 I painted this a couple of days ago while waiting for oil paint to dry. I enjoyed feeling competent. The composition originates from a photo I took on Cascade Head. As I worked, I was flooded with memories of camping trips on the northern Calif. and Oregon coasts as a kid. I will always be grateful for my parents doing this. Neither were outdoorsmen and getting four boys fed and safe in such rough situations couldn`t have been much fun. Gwen and Joe, may their names always be a blessing.



 Seen around town;

 From under the Highway 43 bridge, the only place grafiti would be tolerated longer than an hour in my community.       Tick Tock, your running outta time!   Noted!        I think they are by the same artist, do you?

 Hand painted calls for justice. Breonna`s killers are still free. Just ask yourself what would have happened had she been white? A trial would be scheduled by now. Black lives matter.

 What could go wrong?
The Cliff House actually survived the San Francisco Earthquake only to burn a few years later.

Click HERE for work in my studio for sale

prints from Fine Art America

Dreamy Summer

                                Minto Brown Marsh oil on canvas 18x36 inches 46x91.5 cm


 I haven`t loved a summer so much since living in New Mexico. This benign, soft, fresh summer is a surprise and a luxurious gift. One sweet day after another. No smoke, cool oceanic mornings followed by clean sunny skies into evening. How did we deserve this? Paris reached 108 degrees! No one knows why we`re so lucky.
 Yet the overwhelmingly green landscape doesn`t inspire working in series. So as in previous summers, I use the season to get to the paintings that have been waiting in the back of my mind. There`s usually a photo to anchor the memory and the emotion. Once I begin, it`s not hard to imagine.
 The wildlife refuge-municipal park-farm which constitutes Minto Brown Island in Salem OR always provokes me. The wetlands in particular in late fall and winter. The painting above is probably still a work in progress, I don`t understand it yet. The color took off in a direction of its own with the composition trailing along. Feeling like a bystander when painting isn`t bad but it takes longer to evaluate the conclusion.

                                                       oil on canvas 24x24 inches 61x61 cm


 Another new painting that is a mystery to me. The inspiration was the maroon leaves decomposing on the forest floor in winter. I was remembering a muddy little woodland I love on Fanno Creek. Somehow it quickly became more about the juxtaposition of Mars violet against teal. Once I figure it out, I`ll probably paint over it.

 I happened upon an ad for Kroma Acrylics on Instagram, I went to the highly educational website and soon realized these might possibly be what I`ve wanted. The problem with acrylics is that they are not oil paints. When I read they had the maximum pigment load the vehicle could accept, I was ready to gamble. I bought the 'classic' set pictured above. All traditional; cadmiums, cobalt, and titanium. All primaries with none of the modern pigments based on dyes in this set. They are a pleasure to work with, very creamy yet dense. In my practice, acrylics come into play to extend or correct watercolor. I rarely use them alone. If they had an equivalent of Gamblin`s Radiant White, I would be tempted to replace my oils. As good as these are, the white is just not opaque enough, and I really don`t like trying to re-paint spontaneous brush strokes. The texture is soft enough though, I don`t think I would need both a tube and fluid version of my colors like I do now. They`re local too and I love that!

                            Into the Shallows oil on prepared paper 24x18 inches 61x46 cm


 I`ve been super busy being famous lately. A Chinese-American website called Our Narratives asked me for an interview and I said of course. Many nice questions and emails later, "Through the Mist-Interview with Oregon Artist Mr. Randall David Tipton" was published. Thanks Adelina!

 Then a French magazine, Practique Arts, asked me.

 Having just done the one, I was less than enthused. I asked what they would want from me? The list was long. I said no, there were several interviews already in existence, my story stayed the same and I just didn`t have the time to give it. She could write something on her own if she wanted to. She did. Thanks Steph!

 I translated some of it through Google Translate with disappointing results.
My bilingual buddy Mitch gave me a much more poetic version. Nice how well the paintings reproduced!



 Have you ever had something you knew intimately become really popular?
As a kid I went to Laguna Beach often as a guest of my close friend Jim. His parents brought me along to keep him entertained. We had so much fun. The same giant house was rented with three or four families occupying it. The adults played cards from morning until bedtime while the kids swam, fished, and hiked. Our favorite place to fish has become a plein air hot spot; the Keyhole. We never called it that but we thought it was cool to walk through. Right beside it was a huge slanting rock we sat on to cast our lines. On the bluff above was a trailer park. Now it is an upscale resort called Montage. Here are some of my painting colleagues views of the Keyhole.

                                                                       David Solomon

                                                                 September McGee

                                                                 Robert Kuester

                                                                   Robert Lemler

   
   Lessons from her father. Anyone who has ever had a job could benefit from these clear principles.

                                                     The Wedding by Zoey Frank


 I was aware of her but not fully. Then I looked closer at Zoey Frank`s astonishing work. Oh my God, just take a look. Such luscious, sensuous realism! Yet completely contemporary. This rarely happens to me but after a half hour or so scanning carefully, I became intimidated. I thought why bother? Let her do it. Stupid, but I was flabbergasted!

                                                      Peter Reading by Zoey Frank

                                                     Bathing Suit by Zoey Frank

I`ve been working on a show to coincide with the new Earth and Ocean Festival in Cannon Beach in September. The industrious artists and merchants on the coast are always thinking of fun ways to attract visitors and celebrate something worthy. Well the dates of the festival were changed and my show became more of a group affair. This is fine though I did feel like a balloon that had popped. I will still have lots of new work on display and I will be giving a watermedia on Yupo demostration on Saturday September 21 at 2 pm at the White Bird Gallery on the north end of town. This is my 34th year with the gallery!

                                                                    by Daniel Collins



work for sale in my studio