This is a redo. I thought it was finished but it couldn`t stand the test of time. I didn`t want to look at it after only a month. Not good. When I like something, I linger over it, look at it in different lights, sometimes take a picture on my phone so I can see it in bed in the morning, there`s a minor obsession involved. So I had to try again and this time I got it.
The plein air festival in Lake Oswego ended last week, I painted four of the seven days. I really enjoyed it too thanks to engaging friends, sublime weather and Oregon`s embarrassment of riches, its natural beauty.
Here I am with Ruth Armitage submerged in the tall grasses and trying to paint the creek just a few feet away;
Burt Jarvis took the photo and that`s his set up in the foreground. Although we were trespassing, his family had once owned this property at the mouth of Tryon Creek and he had great stories of his young life, right there!
I was painting with watercolors when it began to rain. That`s not a happy combination and it`s disastrous if working on Yupo. My piece was ruined but the experience was fun.
A couple of days earlier I did this painting of Oswego Creek;
A long time hero, Rick Bartow, has been given a retrospective at the Jordon Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon. I don`t get out much but I wasn`t going to miss this. I asked Eugene friend Carol Marine to join me;
The show was huge and emotional. This artist is such an interesting man, he gives it all to the project he`s working on. Having spent much of my life in New Mexico among lots of sentimental 'Native American' art that seemed made for tourists, Rick`s work is refreshingly dark. It`s in his sculptures that his inventive mind really shines;
And he`s a fine painter as well. I saw florals I wasn`t aware of;
and the more familiar animal/human metamorphosis;
Then Carol and I did some painting on location at the Clearwater Park in Springfield. Not in love with my effort though I did seem to suggest sunlight and shade;
Here`s a better plein air painting from a couple of years ago;
Wayne Thiebaud is probably the most beloved of living American painters. For good reason too, his paintings are imbued with joy;
Here is a wonderful, in depth profile.
In conclusion, I have a product endorsement.
If you`re a sweathog like me, or married to sweathog, take note of this sunscreen which [so far] does not melt and leak into one`s eyes! Stinging blindness while out in the summer bliss is the leading cause of sunscreen non-compliance. This stuff stays put! The texture is sort of challenging, it`s super sticky and you need soap to get it off your hands. Available at Costco;
work for sale in my studio
