Early Spring Slough

                                                  Early Spring Slough oil on canvas 20x20


 This is new but comes from a field trip I organized for my painting group in March 2013. Some thought Minto Brown was bleak that day but I continue to do work derived from that moody outing.

                                            Near the Confluence watermedia on Yupo 40x26


 A Sauvie Island painting from nearly ten years ago.

                                                     Near Acoma watercolor 22x15 [1982]


 Here`s another older watercolor from New Mexico. Don`t ask me what that pile is hovering above the mesa, I don`t know. But I liked it and did several paintings where this 'sky' floated above a landscape. For those who aren`t aware of it, Acoma Pueblo is one of the most magical places on earth. A Native American settlement is built on the top of a mesa much like this one. But this is Enchanted Mesa which rises directly across the plain from Acoma. I first visited in 1976 and was allowed to walk around the village freely. The views were spectacular as is the history of this place. An hour from Albuquerque but centuries away. It is the longest continually inhabited place in America.

                                                             Acoma, Sky City


 I`ve written about Romare Bearden a couple of times, I think he was a genius. I found a charming little video of him while looking through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art online archive.


Here is my last attempt at collage;

                                                               Night Pond 12x12


 The dumbfounding self portrait below is by the late Kent Bellows;

                                                              Kent Bellows

He was truly a visionary, this is not photo-realism. No grids were used. Imagine drawing with such precision and patience for untold hours! This kind of obsession has my deepest respect, I am in awe!


work for sale in my studio

Portland Open Studios Oct. 10 and 11, Oct. 17 and 18

New Watercolors-Spillovers-Cooper Mt.

                                                   Tualatin Flood Study 6x6

                                                         Blue Tree 7x5

                                           Stream to the Sea Study 5x5

 Lots of paintings have left my studio bound for galleries and the summer season. There`s a bit more to do but for the first time in quite a while, I`m not busy! This is what I strive for, a slow simple life. What a luxury not having a pressing daily agenda! I love it and this ease is conducive to painting. My best days have a puttering quality as I work on several things throughout the day.
 Just for the change,  I did a couple of watercolors after concentrating on oil painting for months.

 Browsing my archives, I found these 12x9 watermedia  'Spillover' studies of Sauvie Island as the winter floods were receding;

These were mostly more successful than the larger oil paintings they were preparations for, though #4 translated well;

                                                      oil on canvas 36x36

 An exhibition of Rick Bartow`s work opened last Friday at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon through Aug. 9.
 This terrific painter is Native American though I rarely think of it. His work is teeming with totemic animals but somehow it`s just the animal personalities that come through, not human involvement with them. He is very adept with color and is inventive in his painting methods. I can`t wait to see it. Look at this;

                                                           Rick Bartow


 Are you sad? Emotionally conflicted? Worried about our world? Listen to 'Lacrimosa' by film composer Zbigniew Preisner. It is a section of his 'Requiem for my Friend'. This piece was featured in Terrence Malick`s visually stunning but odd 'The Tree of Life' during the birth of the cosmos sequence. This is sung by Elzbieta Towarnicka and she`ll break your heart open if you give her some volume.

                                   After the Wet-Echo Island by Elizabeth Cummings

 Isn`t this a wonderful painting? She conveys the vast spaces, heat and aridity of her native Australia through dense, monochromatic, agitated marks. I couldn't find the dimensions but because it`s a diptych, I imagine it`s huge and easy to wander through. In nearly all her work she uses a very warm palette that seems inspired by India.

 Locals will remember the levy we passed a couple of years ago authorizing Metro to purchase open space for it`s preservation and our recreation. We visited a new one yesterday, Cooper Mountain Nature Park. Unlike other preserves, this one wasn't mostly forested but had lots of meadows, gravel [dry] trails, enough shade to survive the return uphill, and beautiful views. We thought with its southern exposure, this would be a great destination in winter. When a big blast of light would be especially welcome.

 The park is in southwest Beaverton and knowing that mysterious city is known for its great ethnic hole-in-the-wall restaurants, we went looking for one. Yelp showed us a five out of five stars Mexican-Italian place near my art supply store so off we went. We had maps and GPS and circled the suburban parking lot over and over without any luck. Then I seemed to see signs indicating a mall behind Powell`s Books. We set off on foot and found a completely hidden, tiny mall with Paradiso Encantador in the food court. Its name is more than ironic as it looks exactly like a fast food joint. It wasn`t quick but smelled so good it was an exciting wait. Now I`m always really relieved when I see an actual Hispanic person in the kitchen. If it`s a woman, even better. God knows this isn`t fool proof but seeing people who look like me making my tacos is very discouraging. As a native of California, I am bestowed with ultimate authority on the quality of Mexican food in Oregon. Need I recount the years of disappointment? This was fresh, delicious and served with kindness and charm. Also inexpensive. We had to have dessert! Switching countries, we ordered the Tiramisu and it was outrageous with a coffee intensity I`ve never experienced in other versions. We were so happy when we finished! Why oh why can`t Lake Oswego attract this kind of talent?

work for sale in my studio

Demo-Sauvie Island + sketches + affordable frames

                                          Sauvie Island watermedia 18x18

 The last studio demonstration for a while was yesterday. I had floundered so at the last one, I needed to succeed. So I chose a 15 year old sketch to work from. It was so safe, my demo was about to conclude after just a half hour. And it was boring, which is unacceptable. Only when I was ready to fail did anything interesting happen.
 Chris and Tim Lally were there and she documented the process and my messy studio in a sweet tribute.
 I once was adamantly opposed to using photography in my process. I thought it was obvious when someone did. Young people can be so principled! I think it may be part of identity building. We often know who we`re not before we know who we are.
 When digital cameras became the norm, I learned a bit about Photoshop and saw that I could manipulate a photo any number of ways, including illuminating the shadows! The ease of cropping an image led me to slowly adopt this into my practice. Eventually, I realized this was a much more productive use of my time than sitting in a lawn chair sketching. Like many people, I don`t particularly like to draw even though I think it`s critically important. Working from a live model is the most fun I`ve had drawing and that may be because I had no agenda for those drawings. Or it may be because I was drawing naked people. With the tiny landscape sketches, they were for basic compositional purposes. I needed them! Now I`ve come to believe that drawing and memory are closely linked though I don`t have any data to support that. I think all the drawing I`ve done allows me to paint now with minimal references.
 Here are some of the minuscule landscape drawings that became the source of much larger paintings. The first was the one I used yesterday in my demo;

Marine Air oil on canvas 18x18

  This is a painting from that time [2000ish]

   

Jackie McIntyre told me about them a few years ago and she was right, they are affordable! The Canvas Place makes very attractive floater frames at a great price. There is one catch whether you want canvases or frames, they come in multiples. I recently bought some 12x12 black frames and they were a bundle of six for $62. I think if I had taken a painting that size into some of the frame shops around me, it would have cost a magnitude more than $10.50. I guess there are actually two caveats, the other being the buyer must attach the frame themselves. That meant a learning curve for me but I suspect most people could figure it out quickly. This company has even developed a floater frame for panels 1/4 inch or less. This was a response to the daily painter movement and the demand for something suitable for all those 6x6 squares! Great company, I`m even buying canvases from them now. Check it out.

Have you ever seen anything this beautiful? This marvel of geology is recent, accidental, growing rapidly and is on private property in a remote part of Nevada. It`s a 'fly geyser'. More pictures and the story here. Go to the end to see an astonishing aerial video.

 Robert Gamblin has been making high quality oil paints in Portland for years now. He is a gentleman. When their line of 'radiant' colors came out, I assumed [wrongly] they were like interference colors or opalescents. A gimmick in other words. Since they weren't too expensive I bought a tube of radiant turquoise. It was so opaque it radically altered anything I mixed it with. Even though transparency is a hallmark of my work, I`ve come to depend on it. I use it in small amounts and especially like to have it on my brush with some other color. The stroke is then two toned. The white is just dazzling and I use it whenever the brightest value is called for. I find it indispensable. 

Two days left to apply! $10! Going to be fun!

Four days left to apply for this opportunity of a lifetime!

no more studio demos for a while, I`ve revealed everything!

work for sale in my studio

MB Spring Tangle - Sitka Center - a daughter`s memories

                                                       oil on canvas 20x16

 When derailed, I find it helpful to paint a successful painting again. To feel competent and on track. It`s best to keep working and this ends the anxiety. I want a brush in my hand when the 'spirit' moves through.
 A painter needs to be in motion for anything worthy to arrive.

 We spent the weekend near or on Sauvie Island. Since moving south to Clackamas County, I don`t visit very often. First we had a houseboat experience that was a little underwhelming. It was almost perfectly stable and I expected/wanted much more movement. The home and the location was beautiful and cozy however. The next day we walked toward Warrior Point and after, paid a visit to Howell Territorial Park and the historic Bybee House. Years ago, I spent many sweet summer days here painting with friends. Always exactly how the season should be; warm with cool breezes, thick deep grasses, far away views, clean and healthy smelling with a sense of timelessness and plenty. Although Saturday was only April 4, it was all there in the orchard;

Here is a study of this orchard from 2001;

A larger [24x18] watercolor of the back of the orchard;

and a small watercolor study of the nearby Kruger Farm;

 The deadline to apply for an artist in residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon coast is fast approaching! [April 17] Apply for god sakes! This place is heaven! Big airy studios, a comfortable apartment, the most pristine piece of coastal real estate imaginable and the priceless gift of time! You deserve it, you know you do!

 At first I thought it was ridiculously indulgent but John didn`t ask for my approval. Paying to have someone read stories to you?! He said try one! I did and it was a revelation. It was not like how I would read to a child, stumbling over words and yawning. The books were read by the most gifted, sensitive, inventive actors I`ve ever heard! Paul Hecht reading Annie Proulx`s 'The Shipping News', was truly astonishing. Every character had it`s own voice and none of them seemed forced or off. What a rich experience! Cleaning the bathroom? Invite Bernadette Dunne to join you as she reads 'Wild'. You will feel lucky to be scrubbing the bathtub instead of lugging a giant backpack over the mountains! I guess I never fully understood the art of acting. These amazing voices bring the books to life. I am a complete convert and feel justified because we are supporting the literary arts!
 But, 'Moby Dick' is also unlistenable.
Many are available through libraries or at Audible.


 Once again, my champion Maureen Doallas, takes to cyberspace words of praise for my work in her 'New Artist Watch' feature at Escape Into Life.
Also, scroll through her blog and read her powerful poems. Many of them just make me stop.

And here is a charming account of growing up as Richard Diebenkorn`s daughter. The video is an hour long and well worth it if his work moves you. I feel he is as influential a painter as any. The raw honesty behind the color and searching brushwork is humbling. Gretchen Grant shows the master to be human.

work for sale in my studio


And the last demo in my studio for a while is this coming Saturday at 10 am.
5373 Lakeview Blvd. Lake Oswego OR 97035

Carol Marine + Vintage Tiptons!

                                           Carol and Randall in Hood River 9-2-14
                                                      [photo by Sarah Peroutka]

This is a very interesting Do It Yourself era. Along with the 'Sharing Economy', commerce is being remade in a decentralized, less regulated, more individualistic model. Uber, Air BnB, Kickstarter, Angie`s List, Yelp and TaskRabbit are all internet based, innovative businesses meant to empower the consumer with custom fitted choices at friendly prices. I find this a really exciting new order. The arts too are involved and turning traditional venues on their head. A homebound Mormon mother in Arizona self publishes a book about Vampires in the Northwest, and we all know about 'Twilight'! Well, painters got proactive too. Several years ago, Duane Keiser challenged himself to complete a painting every day. He posted photos of these small paintings on his new blog. People noticed, they sold and soon Ebay auctions were needed because of the demand. Carol Marine saw the fun in this early on and stepped up to this daunting challenge too. She had graduated with a Fine Arts degree but was having dismal experiences with galleries and meager sales. Many other artists, including me, followed suit and we rapidly improved our game and soon a movement was born. Carol is a thoughtful, analytical painter with a dead perfect sense of color and value. Her work was soon popular as well and the disillusioned young painter was now self supporting without any assistance from an established gallery. The comprehensive reach of the internet made this all possible. By taking control of their careers themselves, many artists began to flourish. Next Carol had the inspired idea to bring her friends and fellow daily painters together into a website dedicated to the premise. Her husband David designed a site of beautiful ease and elegance.
When fires burnt out of control in the hill country of Texas in 2011, the Marines lost their home and studio to the flames. They moved to the wet part of Oregon and we became friends.
 There is a generosity to Carol that is spontaneous and genuine. Take a look at her new book all about the daily painting movement! She included one of mine!

                                               Sauvie Island Road watercolor 18x24

                                             Sauvie Island Fields watercolor 24x18

                                      Sauvie Island-Circle of Stones watermedia 24x18

                                             Sauvie Island Dike watermedia 24x18

                                                 Foothills Storm oil on paper 24x18

                                                   Early Fall oil on paper 24x18

                                            Reed Canyon Fall oil on paper 18x24

                                                 April Hillside oil on Yupo 20x26

                                                   Creekside oil on Yupo 12x30


For this last weekend of the Open Studio Tour, I`ve pulled these older paintings out of retirement and am offering them with nice discounts.
Come visit!
Randall David Tipton
5373 Lakeview Blvd.
Lake Oswego OR
97035  [near I-5]
503]380-4731

available work in the studio

Poppies!

                                                          watercolor on Yupo 26x20

On the way to Cistus Nursery last month, my sister in law said "I wish you would paint some flowers". As luck would have it, there was a magnificent stand of poppies right by the parking lot. I drew them and took pictures. Here you go Norma, it looks like summer! It was deeply satisfying to paint those flowers, this landscape painter hungers for all things not green, especially red.


work for sale in my studio

December Forest 3 + Cistus

                                                                oil on canvas 20x16

Nice week! John`s coworkers from the hospital gave us an unfortunately delayed but worth waiting for  party celebrating our wedding last Nov. So sweet of them to see it through!

The next day I spent with my lovely sister in law Norma at  Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island. I`ve written about the island often, it`s plein air paradise. Quiet and gorgeous with half dedicated to farming and the other set aside as a wildlife refuge. The nursery specializes in exotics, may of them hardy enough for western Oregon. I kept trying to do some large drawings but then the rain would start up. I managed a couple of smaller ones in my sketchbook.

My Pinterest find of the week is Carolyn Case. Her work is complex and colorful and her use of pattern and negative space is inspired!


work for sale in my studio

watermedia on Yupo workshop, July 19 and 20, Lincoln City OR