Forests, real and imagined

                             Selva Profunda 1 watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches 35.5x28 cm

                              Selva Profunda 2 watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches 35.5x28 cm

                           Summer Morning CB watercolor on Yupo 14x11 inches 35.5x28 cm


 Trees are why I am an Oregonian. Even though most of the original forests are long gone, the scrappy ones that rose in their place please me too. My fate was set during my family camping vacations in Northern Calif. and Oregon. I took a long detour through New Mexico but once I arrived at last, I knew I was home.
 The paintings above are recent, the third one done on location. It really doesn`t matter if I`m sitting there or not. I remember what they look like once I begin. What I especially enjoy when I do paint on site is the stillness and the intermittent sounds. Usually I`m walking through them getting some exercise. I`m taking it in but it`s a shower, not a soaking bath.
 At 19 on a farm I lived on near Mendocino Calif., I would walk into the woods and find a nice spot. I always had a piece of plastic in my back pocket that I sat on to avoid getting wet. I`d smoke some pot and then just study the forest in detail. It was an education.
 More;

 For those disheartened citizens shocked and appalled by the administrations environmental destructions, here is an article to give you some hope. The state of Maine once had a governor as hostile to nature as Trump but they are turning things around fast. Thank you Governor Janet Mills!

                                                              Wayne Thiebaud


 And here is a lovely little clip of Wayne Thiebaud talking about his career. What an example of kindness and humility and obsession. He`s nearly 100 but still creating. Here is a recent interview with him. Everyone loves Wayne Thiebaud!

                                                     Flood Waters by Wayne Thiebaud

                                                Ice Cream Cones by Wayne Thiebaud



click HERE for work for sale in my studio

Watermedia on Yupo Demonstration Sept.21, 2 pm, White Bird Gallery, Cannon beach OR

Big Day!

                                             Over the Sea 27 watercolor on paper 24x18


 Today is important, we will know what kind of country we really are.
Hillary Clinton is nowhere in sight to justify a return to a meaner and certainly less just America. I`m not even nervous this time. Reality never quite reassembles after being shattered. I know now much better what my responsibilities are and what I can do, either way.
I also turned 65 around 2:30 am last night. So many of my birthdays have been steeped in idealism and hope and also in crushing disappointment. Depending on the election. I feel prepared as best as I can be.
 This morning I was reminded that gratitude is where happiness can be found. I know this but it takes a willful concentration. Not like a child`s fast prayer at bedtime. If I unravel the threads and look closely, I can see my inherent advantage and also mountains of pain and trouble that never darkened my way. And the good stuff benefits by counting. If I can stay with it, the word becomes the feeling which becomes the realization of extraordinary grace. The bus missed me, my parents loved me, I`ve never been hungry, I lived when my peers died of AIDS, I can paint! ....Lucky from the get go!

                                                     Riverlight oil on canvas 40x30


This is what has darkened my way! This is a section of the Tualatin River that I`ve painted many times, on site and in my studio. On an afternoon visit in late summer, the water was almost inky, the shadows of the cliff deep and yet the luxurious grasses and bushes on the far shore were ablaze;

 Yet I can`t seem to get anything convincing. Beware the painting that is inspired and promising in the beginning! I was, maybe still am, intent on getting this right but I`m not sure of what to do next. If I use my hard earned maturity, I`ll set it aside and do something else. I`ll ignore its calls for rescue.

Thank you to those who visited my open studio last month! My work was competing with spectacular, dazzling sunlight yet you ventured down into my basement. I appreciate it.

                                                              Lyndon and Carter


 Though I think he could eviscerate him with a swipe, Lyndon continues to mentor our new family member with patience.

                                                           Fall River watercolor 10x8


This was painted exactly two years ago. Another stretch of the Tualatin River, purchased by an artist who lives very close to that spot. That was a nice validation.

Abstraction from Nature workshop
Feb. 2 and 3
Seattle Artists League


work for sale in my studio

Wild Plum and Portland Open Studios

                                                        Wild Plum oil on canvas 30x30


 Third attempt and this one I`ll keep. The subject is so simple, it had to be isolated at an exact moment of floral explosion. Two previous efforts were just banal. I walk by these trees every spring with morning light streaming behind them. In early March, one day it`s winter and the next, the season has turned.

                                                  Sunlight and Stone oil on canvas 40x30


 This is also new and the place is another landmark on a different walk. I lap Cook`s Butte for a cardio workout circling up and down. It the late summer, it`s dry and dusty in the sunny areas, then cool and green in the forest. I first painted this rock as a demo in a class I taught.

                                              Circle of Cypress oil on canvas 36x56

 And this got a makeover. I thought it was finished in the spring of 2016 but later knew it could be stronger. It`s a view from a picnic area on a bluff just north of the town of Mendocino Calif. My semester of 'art school' was here. I was 18 when I arrived, and so ready for beauty. I had escaped the smog, the heat and the car culture of inland Southern California. It is so much nicer now and a shining example of what can be when government is progressive.

 Maya Angelou said people always remember how you made them feel.
I remember exactly every bully that attacked me, where I was and how I reacted.
So did Christine Blasely Ford. But the trauma and objections of women don`t mater and another sexual predator now sits on the Supreme Court. His opinions about women and their rights are the ones that will prevail. For now.
 What an unhappy, unaware small man the new justice showed himself to be in the hearing. Our country deserves better.
This article from Howard Zinn written in 2005 gave me some perspective.



 I`ve been so immersed in preparations for the 2018 Portland Open Studios Tour, it`s hard to imagine anyone who hasn`t heard. But if your are, 100 artists in the Portland Metro area will open their studios to the public for two weekends; Oct. 13 and 14, then Oct. 20 and 21. The hours are 10am to 5pm. The website has addresses and maps. There is a Portland Open Studio insert in the Oct. issue of Portland Monthly, and you can purchase an app with all the information for $5. I haven`t been involved with it since 2015 so I have lots of work that is new. Work on paper as well as oil paintings. It`s a fun time and a total ego trip for me. Everyone who comes through the door has seen some of my work online and they`ve made a deliberate effort to visit. I live in an old suburb of Portland a bit out of the way. Come say hello!

5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR
97035
503 380 4731

 In other news... I have a new kitten!! Even though Lyndon is my dream cat, we could tell he was bored and sometimes even a little depressed. Well, no one can be down with a kitten about! Sure enough Lyndon is ecstatic and surprisingly nurturing. We don`t have a name yet. Maybe it`s time to end the presidential series and go with a regular name. Or does he look like a Kennedy?

 Here is a sweet essay on Five Things Artists Really Believe In. My favorite is "no one is coming to save you". I had that delusion when I was young.

                                                        Bayou Kaiku by Allsion Stewart

                                                               Into Spring by Allison Stewart

                                                   La Foret Etude #1 by Allison Stewart


 Have you heard of Allison Stewart? I`ve been loving her botanical, organic, ethereal abstractions for a couple of years. I think we speak alike but different. She is in New Orleans, close to the bayous with all that richness of life to inspire her. She is rarely literal but always lyrical.

work for sale in my studio [updated]

Easter!

                                          Wetlands Somewhere oil on canvas 30x24 [2011]


 Once this holiday was celebrated. Now it`s a quaint relic, or so it seems. I`m no longer a church goer so I may be wrong. It sure was a big deal when I was a kid. Mom was a Southern Baptist who had to agree at the outset that any children would be raised Catholic, like Dad. Since neither were particularly religious given their young age, this may have seemed minor. Yet as the brothers were born, the Reformation was reenacted within our family. For Lent, Dad strongly 'encouraged' us to give up candy to better understand the suffering of Christ. It worked, we were miserable. Especially during Holy Week when we also attended long services in Latin almost every night of that week. But come Sunday, that secular rabbit came through! Our Easter baskets were heavy with chocolate! No doubt the experience of delayed gratification was a helpful prelude to real life. As I got older, the mysteries of the Church had their way with me and I was a true believer! So as not to leave my Mom feeling isolated, I also memorized Bible verses through the BMA. I was one thoroughly Christian little kid! But it unraveled rather quickly as a teen, just through the idea of a loving God. No salvation necessary, just do your best. My outrage would come later as I fully understood the persecution of homosexuals.
 Easter was holy and I still think so. A celebration of rebirth, spring planting, warmer and longer days and for new starts, new hope! It`s worth a party!

                                        The Storm is Passing acrylic and ink on Vellum 10.5x8

                                               Split in the Cliff watercolor on Yupo 14x11

                                         Fallen Tree watermedia on mineral paper 9.75x9.25

                                             Untitled in Gray watermedia on Yupo 14x11

                                                  Untitled BW oil on cradled panel 14x11


 Some recent small paintings.
For the first time in memory, I have a lot of unfinished work around. Usually I`m too obsessed to walk away from something. But as I mentioned, it`s been difficult to concentrate. There is a limit to how long I can stand. In this period of waiting for my surgery [April 23], I had hoped to complete some of these disappointing paintings. Luckily I had the good sense to contact someone wiser than me. She told me no, just do new things. Chores right now aren`t good for my head.


 My part of the 'Nature Perceived' show, now goes from the museum to the Hanson Howard Gallery in Ashland Oregon. Four other paintings are also included. The local paper has published a preview saying I am a disciple of Richard Diebenkorn. While I think he was a terrific painter, I`ve never thought of me as a follower. Too distractable!


 Earlier this month, I was the juror of acceptance for the California Watercolor Association`s regional show. I said who`s in and who`s out. It`s true, the power was intoxicating!


Anybody know anything about the Myers-Briggs personality tests? Is there anything to it? Years ago I took the test and wrote down what I was, INFJ. Never thought much about it until recently when I`ve learned of others of my 'type'. I have no time whatsoever for astrology, so if this has any validity, it would be great to be more predictable.


Some art I`ve enjoyed;

                                                              by Adrian Ghenie

 Look close, it`s everyone`s favorite painter! The red on his cheek is brilliant, raw and exposed. That`s exactly how I think of him, defenseless against reality. The good dying young.

                                                                 by Adrian Ghenie

 Another. Vulture in a dead tree, atomic explosion in the distance. Hope this isn`t a prediction.

                                                                   by Fred Cumings


 I love every scrap this man produces. In this truly awesome seascape, all is poised for the crash of the wave. The waters are gathered back, the dark cloud hovers, sunlight breaks on the cresting wave, the waxing moon will witness, the receding film of foam rushes toward the monster..... It`s so dramatic! Fred Cumings paints everything with such sensitivity!

                                           The Descent from the Cross by Anthony Caro


 This sculpture takes a little time. We`ve all seen paintings of this desolate moment. I found this very tender.

                                                                  by Fiona Strickland

Botanical illustration is an old love of mine. Might have been the career that blended my interest in art and science. Fiona Strickland brings a breathtaking intensity to the genre.

                                                                by Joan Mitchell


Here`s a simple, early Joan Mitchell! Everything threatens to fly off the canvas but doesn`t. All is contained though whirling.

OMG, what if he`s right?!



work for sale in my studio

Portland Open Studios Tour - Unposted New Work

 By now, anyone at all who visits this blog knows that I`m taking part in the Portland Open Studios Tour this weekend and next. Please come by if you can. Maps with the locations of all the artists are being sold at New Seasons Markets and I have some too. The organization asks that we not post our address publicly because the sale of those maps and calendars finances the tour. If you`d only like to visit me, which would be missing out on some wonderful work, email me for the location of my studio. I will be demonstrating a mixed watermedia technique on Yupo at noon each day and may have a chance to continue painting as the day progresses. Here are some recent paintings that I never blogged about but they`ll be in the studio too, as well as large and small canvases and many works on paper.

other available work