collage-Workshop-Randy for President!

                                                       Collage by Randall David Tipton

                                                          Collage by Randall David Tipton


 The second weekend of the Portland Open Studios is coming three days. The collages above were done during the first. Part of the 'mission' of the P.O.S. is educational, we are encouraged to show how we work. In previous years I painted and sometimes became so engrossed in what I was doing I ignored my guests. John would hiss at me that I was being rude. So collage seemed like a casual form of creativity that I could set aside easily. Some of the visitors joined me in my creating as if it were a big jigsaw puzzle.

 If you`re local, go out and talk to some artists this weekend. The weather will be gorgeous and we want some feedback! I`m at 5373 Lakeview Blvd, Lake Oswego OR, 97035. 10am to 5pm.
Also, another talented landscape painter, Lisa Wiser, is just down the street from me.

 I am asked periodically if I teach and the answer is usually no. However, I have been asked by the Seattle Art League to teach a workshop in February and I agreed. "Abstraction from Nature". Colleagues of mine insist I have much  to say about painting and I know I certainly have opinions. Now I`ll have a chance to organize my thoughts, examine and express my motives and methods. I do believe I have a visceral knowledge of painting. I`ll do my best to convey why and how I respond to the landscape. Feb. 2 and 3, 2019.

                                                             Tualatin River plein air



 It seems our hot smoky summer came with a consolation prize. October has been crystalline, warm and seductive. Day after day. The chilly night gives way to a cool morning that blooms into a clear, balmy, breezy afternoon. This sort of day will make you love your life. This is when life truly does feel like the gift that it is. Honestly, everyone acts blessed.
Now throw in a kitten!!
Oh my god, does it get any better??

                                                                          Carter!

No it doesn`t!
This is my second kitten in two years! Such a privilege!

                                                                   Carter and John

 The beginning and end of my political career.
Someone from my high school put this up on Facebook. I just read the text now and it didn`t mention my most controversial proposal. I wanted to transfer funds from the athletic budget to arts programs. PE coaches were campaigning against me!  I was serious and definitely delusional. The vote was close but I lost. Now it is hard to believe I did such a thing.

                                                                  by Betsy Chang


 The marvelous painter Betsy Chang is also taking part in the Portland Open Studios, #85. Go see her luminous work!

work for sale in my studio

Total Totality!

                                                                    watercolor 6x6


 It`s getting cosmic out there on the roads of Oregon, complete eclipse fever! Tiny central Oregon towns are overwhelmed with tourists. The coast is thronged. Lake Oswego, where I live, will only get 99% totality but that`s good enough for me. I`m going to sit in the backyard and watch what happens on the ground. I just don`t trust the $1.99 glasses for sale everywhere. Nonetheless it`s a festive atmosphere, I`m enjoying it.


Below are my last two plein air efforts;

                                              Riverbank Summer watercolor on Yupo 14x11

                                                              Pastel Orchard 12x9

                                                               Betsy Chang watercolor


 Betsy Chang was a guest artist painting with my plein air group on the banks of the quiet and grand Tualatin River.



 Finishing up the last details for my show at the White Bird and working on an ambitious big watercolor that hangs in the balance. Wish me luck.

 

River Thoughts

                                                     River Thought 2 oil on panel 26x24

                                                     River Thought 1 oil on panel 26x24


  In the days after the election, the best thing I did for myself was to paint on the bank of the Tualatin River with a friend. Only then did I begin to imagine a way forward.
 I have ten new 24x26 panels from Art Substrates and think I might concentrate on the river with these. In winter it sure fascinates me as it surges down from the coast range. Our most serious storms happen in November and December swelling this lazy water into a muddy juggernaut.
 Long before moving here I read the Barry Lopez prose poem River Notes. It was a seductive introduction to a deeper understanding of the Northwest. So the  tentative title of these paintings 'River Thoughts' is a reference and tribute to this sublime author.


WE were made for these Times

Thank you Clarissa, that was most helpful.

                                                             Julie Oppermann


 Isn`t this ravishing? I want to eat it, roll in it, wear it and never stop looking at it.



work for sale in my studio

Autumn River - Anish Kapoor - Interview

                                                        Autumn River oil on canvas 58x44


 Another in an unorganized series of paintings focused on the Tualatin River in Fall. The water is high, a murky green and a perfect foil for the fiery colors of the season. Here are a couple of others;

                                                        December Runoff oil on panel 6x6

                                                      Tualatin Overflow oil on canvas 30x24


 So I was resting my feet and perusing Pinterest the other day and I get a notification of some activity. This happens all the time and I usually look but not always. I click the red icon and it says Anish Kapoor is following you. I kind of reeled and thought what the hell?? To put this in laymen`s terms, it`s as if Angelina Jolie asked to be your Facebook friend. Mr. Kapoor is a sculptor of such huge international importance, I`m sure it was a staff member. I`ve wanted to write about him for awhile but have been too daunted by his work. He`s one of a handful of artists whose work ignores convention and excites the imagination of almost everyone. Ai Weiwei and Ann Hamilton are another two.
 This is Kapoor`s most famous work;

                                                        Cloud Gate Anish Kapoor

Nicknamed the Bean, the real name is lyrical and suggestive.

                                                              Leviathan Anish Kapoor

 An enormous sculpture viewed from the inside too!

                                                           Ascension Anish Kapoor

 A sculpture made of smoke!

                                                    untitled sculpture Anish Kapoor

Extruded concrete

                                                              Orbit Anish Kapoor

Monumental sculpture for the London Olympics


 Addie Hirschten interviewed me on Skype in March for her podcast Alchemy of Art.  It`s a sweet, friendly conversation and I turn the tables on Addie and interview her a bit! Why is it we can`t stand our own recorded voices?! I had to steel myself to listen but after a bit I realized it was OK!

                                                    Forest - I pad

 Finally took my I-pad into the woods! I need more practice.


work for sale in my studio

Tualatin Riverbank - Last day of PDXOS 2015

                                                                 oil on canvas 30x24


 This is the demonstration painting I`ve worked on this week.
One more day to visit some artists on the Portland Open Studios Tour; Sunday Oct. 18 10am to 5pm

Randall David Tipton
5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR 97035
#8
[close to I-5]
503-380-4731
randalldavidt@gmail.com

work for sale in my studio

Riverlight[s] - Reflections

                                                           Riverlight 1 oil on canvas 20x20

                                                           Riverlight 2 oil on canvas 20x20


 These are new paintings of the Tualatin River near where it joins the Willamette southwest of West Linn. The bluff shades the river much of the time with bits of the shore in sunlight.


My show at the White Bird Gallery continues, please take a look if you`re on the north coast.
And opening next Saturday, Aug. 1 is a group show of work with the theme of 'Oregon City' at In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art. I was asked if I`d like to participate and agreed as a prompt to finally paint a view of the falls and the mills that I`ve had in mind for years. Definitely out of my comfort zone with all the straight lines and perspective;

                                                       Oregon City January 30x48 oil on canvas


 After seeing how Astoria has reinvented itself two weeks ago, I`m confident Oregon City has a similar future. The Willamette Falls Legacy Project is going to turn that town into something radiant. Investors take note!

Yesterday I moved some of my late brother Gary`s paintings to my studio for storage or possibly resale. He would have been 68 two days ago and started buying my work when he was in his twenties and I was still a teen. The quality of his collection is therefore quite mixed. Now seven years since his death, his wife Mary has decided to sell the house and move into something smaller and more practical with all the girls adult and on their own. It`s a poignant moment. Having these pieces around me has sure made me miss him. There was nothing equivocal about him and his instincts were good. Though not his taste. He also collected those porcelain plates with fairy tale illustrations on them and glass crystal balls which were everywhere in his bachelor condominium. His wife was first his employee at Hewlett Packard and she tells a funny story about a meeting his staff had in his home. Being completely unhomophobic, he had watercolors of naked men I had done on the walls, about a dozen of the obnoxious plates on the mantel and at least one colored crystal ball on every level surface. Everyone  respectfully kept on topic with nervous glances shooting all around the living room. He was so funny and such a leader, smart supervisors just let him be himself.
This was before Carly Fiorina trashed the company. Now she wants to be President!?
Here is one of the paintings;

                                                       watermedia on paper 48x36


work for sale in my studio

Tualatin Overflow 2 - sketches - foggy walking

                                        oil on canvas 18x36

  That`s all I could do for a week, not much!
I`m sometimes asked what I`ve been doing and I`m flummoxed how to answer. Everyone knows I paint as often as possible but what is hard to get across is how much minutia a painting career entails. Much of it is so tedious and boring, not good conversation at all! Mentioning any of it just sounds like whining. After all, being able to devote myself to painting is something of a privilege. I don`t take it for granted either and I`m especially grateful that I`ve never struggled with identity. I`ve seen that issue consume people.
  This week has been dominated by necessary tasks. I`ve spent a whole lot of time on photography preparing for my website update, assembling publicity materials for my show here in LO in March, rearranging my studio for teaching this weekend, framing and packing work for delivery to my new representative in Bend Oregon, the Paul Scott Gallery and to refresh myself I`ve taken some breathtaking walks in the cold wet fog, most recently along Oswego Creek and the Willamette River. The color has been outstanding!

work for sale in my studio 

watermedia demonstration Sat. Jan.10, 10 am-11:30


   

'Tualatin Overflow'-O`Keefe Watercolors-the Longest Night

                                       oil on canvas 30x24

  This new painting comes from a walk last week along the Tualatin River. I live close to its destination, the Willamette River. Here it`s at its widest and at this time of year flows with purpose. Yet even swollen with rain and silt, it`s maternal and graceful.

                                        oil on panel 12x12

 Another untitled abstraction, this makes five of these 12 inch squares. I think it`s out of my system now.

  A quest I`ve been on for decades is finding out what kind of paper Georgia O`Keefe used for her watercolors of the 19teens and then getting some for myself. This was in the beginning of her career and I don`t think she could afford hand made imports from Europe. The works are remarkable in their simplicity and eloquence. The colors sit on the surface and sometimes flow into each other. With extreme yet painterly minimalism she suggests vast spaces;

                                 Light Coming on the Plains

                                  Pink and  Green Mountains

                                          Starlight Night

  She`s best known for her giant flowers and New Mexico landscapes but it`s these modest watercolors that get to me. Here she is in a short video.
  I was in I`ve Been Framed recently and thought I might have hit pay dirt. Amid the reams of odd, sometimes unidentified, discontinued and surplus papers I found a legal size document paper that was 100% cotton. Nice texture to it and at 5 cents a sheet, a steal. I bought 20 and tried it as soon as I got home;

                                       Sky and Sea [Tipton]

  Not bad but not as hard a paper as I had hoped for. This took lots of pigment and the washes were absorbed in a less than sparkling manner. The search continues...

                The Longest Night watermedia on paper 12x9

  A few years ago when she was still driving, during a bright and rainless December, my Mom asked me why the sun was always in her eyes. It might have just been conversation, maybe a senior moment, but I didn`t know where to begin with an answer. I thought it was common knowledge how the seasons happen, the tilt of the earth etc. but maybe it isn`t?
  I`m not a pagan or Wicca or anything New Age, nonetheless I think the winter solstice is truly significant. The early Christian Church agreed and placed the birthday of Christ right at this juncture. In the northern hemisphere it meant the return of a growing season, warmth and the chance of continuing survival. Life and Death. The progressive return of the sun, our first god, represented hope itself.
This is the season for light, these are the longest nights.



work for sale in my studio

More Abstractions? + March show

  As yet untitled [Theodore, I need your help!], each 12x12,  oil on cradled panel. Randy was on a roll!
  It was a great week until the winds wreaked havoc last night! Yesterday`s wild weather pummeled the whole west coast. It was predicted but seemed impossible at noon. I went for a walk early to avoid it. We`ve had lots of rain and I knew the Tualatin River would be near flood stage.
  With the winter silt, the river turns a gorgeous murky greenish brown. That color is a splendid foil for any remaining fall color.

   I`ve wanted to work with this theme again since doing these small pieces a couple of years ago;

   During the drama last night, we like many others, lost power. As I laid on the bed reading my I-phone in the dark, a memory of a Mary Oliver poem featuring a wild night surfaced.  I found it today;

  She did it! My niece Mackenzie now owns a piece of my work on her skin! Design by RDT, execution by Ian of Hopeless Ink!

  Finally, I will be having a show with the renowned Tom Cramer in March, 2015! He is probably best known for his art cars;

  Since that notoriety, he`s gone on to create intricate and beautiful  bas-relief sculptures. Here is a current piece;

  Tom will also include some new paintings in this show.
  The exhibition is entitled 'Environments', and will be in the Museum 510, a space operated by the Arts Council of Lake Oswego.

 Tomorrow, Sat. Dec. 13, I`ll be demonstrating my oil painting technique in my studio 10-11:30 am. Come by if you`re curious!
5373 Lakeview Blvd.
Lake Oswego OR
97035

[503-380-4731]

work for sale in my studio