True Autumn

                                              Jackson Bottom watercolor on paper 14x11 inches
 

 It`s here with the full entourage of radiant temporary color. Beauty so insistent, it stops the machine of my thinking. Interrupts my worry with a blinding golden light. Maybe things will be ok? For today, yes is the answer. Lucky Oregon! Autumn and Spring defy memory. Each time they arrive it seems it has never been so sublime. What did I do to deserve this again? My favorite part is still to come. When the transplanted trees from elsewhere flame out, the natives have their moment. Not as overwhelming as the others but so poignant, the yellows and pinks against the muddy rivers flowing fast again with the rain. It`s great and I suspect it`s good everywhere, right? We all love Fall.

Thank you to those who visited my studio this month during the Portland Open Studios! It was a very successful event by all accounts. Such a social and radical shift from the solitude of painting! I don`t think I will ever stop being amazed that a total stranger will talk knowingly about what I do. In my process, doubt is nearly always present, but not during open studios! Thank you to anyone who looks at my work thoughtfully. That`s exactly what I want yet so rarely see for myself.

                                               April Study watercolor on Yupo 12x9 inches

 This began on location a couple of years ago but I never liked the bottom half. With yupo you can just wipe it off with a damp paper towel. I added a fruit tree in bloom and now I like it.

                                           Cliffside Study watercolor on paper 11x11 inches

  I`m trying, with these landscapes, to integrate some of the insights I`ve gained by working abstractly. But I don`t see much difference yet. The painting below was intended to be a subtle yet lively composition of patterns and textures but it became more realistic, not less;

                                               Rainforest Winter watermedia on Yupo 26x20

 Last weekend I went to see Betsy Chang. She`s an acquaintance I met a few years ago through this blog. She was working in watercolor and we were both interested in Georgia O`keefe`s watercolor paper from the early 20th century. To me, those fresh abstract landscapes were the best work of O`keefe`s life.  I`ve been following Betsy`s work on Instagram ever since. Abruptly her course changed to pure abstraction in oils and acrylics and this made me curious. There is something special and unique to her touch, the way she moves a brush. I can see something original by her marks. I think it might have been apparent even in her childhood. Talent is often demoted to just one of many characteristics in an artists life, and I mostly agree. However we`ve all known people with very particular gifts. The abilities show up early and often overtake the lives of young people.

 So I asked if I could see what she had been working on. Since we had been in touch, she also had a baby, born during this frightening, confusing time. Her studio was absolutely crammed with work everywhere. Big stacks of watercolors on all level surfaces. I thought my god, she`s done all of this while caring for an infant, working a full time job and coping with a global pandemic! I could tell it was stressful to be sure, but I was impressed by the obsession. She had to make those paintings, that`s who she is. Without attention, sales or a gallery, she just made her paintings. I admire this so much. Even if choice isn`t a factor, whatever is moving through her, I think it`s holy.

                                                                         Betsy Chang

                                                                         Betsy Chang

                                                                        Betsy Chang

                                                                          Betsy Chang

So how does Betsy or anyone else get a gallery? Artnet tells you how, right here.

Nest weekend!

And the Sitka Invitational, for your art+nature needs

 I will have three of my new abstract watercolors in the show

If you haven`t thought about pandemics enough, here is an article about earlier ones and how they were eventually overcome.

Finished this morning;

                                                       watercolor on Yupo 14x11 inches

White Bird watermedia show

click HERE for work for sale in my studio

Late Summer

                                          oil on paper oil panel 12x12 inches, 30.5x30.5 cm

 After over a year of troubled solitude, I got busy. I delivered 21 large watercolors on yupo to the White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach OR. It opens in mid-Sept. and I will post all of the pieces here in my next blog post. This is my first exhibit of watermedia on the plastic paper from Japan called Yupo. I began using it in 2005 and it gradually became my favorite surface to paint on. It is such a brilliant white, light reflects through almost any paint layer. They have a kind of radiance that is unique. I`ve devoted much of my life to learning how to work with the slippery stuff. Paint is not absorbed like with true paper, it has to evaporate. This is where the big challenge happens. Even with a perfectly level painting table, the paint will move. Walk away to the bathroom and return to a different painting. It is so slick, I`ve developed lots of strategies to keep the paint stable. These include a constant use of a hairdryer, gum Arabic or acrylic medium added to the paint to make it more sticky, elaborate tilting of the painting board beneath the Yupo to direct a wash, applying watercolor in a dry stick form, and subtle blotting techniques to achieve the correct density. It`s a lesson in gravity every time.

So anyway, the show is a big bunch of them mostly unframed. They will be hung on the wall using clips. I had a few framed to show how they look properly presented and had one of them mounted on board and framed without glass. This was surprisingly affordable and looks great. I finished all of them with a matte varnish with UV protection. I`m hopeful a collector will understand the savings involved with rolling up a painting to take home in a tube, is substantial. Shipping work with glass can be done safely but the buyer pays for that extra caution. I`m grateful the gallery agreed to this unconventional manner of presenting the work. Framing everything would have a prohibitive cost. Here is one of them;

                                              Summer Cliffs watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

This one will be there too. It was used to promote a local festival;

                                            Coastal Nocturne watermedia on Yupo 26x20 inches

 I have used Yupo for so long in such focussed concentration, I think the company should acknowledge me somehow. Give it to me free maybe, although it isn`t too expensive. I have written them and sent photos of the work to no avail. A different corporate culture I suppose.

                                         Summer Pond watermedia on yupo collage 12x12 inches

 Those watercolors that don`t turn out well often have something nice in them somewhere. I can cut them up and reassemble them to my liking. In the one above, I was aiming for a high school biology experiment vibe.

Here are a couple more new paintings;

                                                         oil on canvas 20 inches diameter

Believe me, it was completely disorienting to paint a circle. Without a fixed point of reference, it was almost impossible to proceed. What is top or bottom? I imagine something true to life might have been easier. The palette here was inspired by the audacious colorist Morgan Russell.

                                             Overflow oil on canvas 30x24 inches, 76x61 cm

 I want these new abstract paintings to be honest in their reference to nature but not have a realistic quality. The way light animates the landscape is worth emulating but I don`t need the logic coming from representation.

                                                                       Linda and Todd

The newlyweds came to Oregon for their belated honeymoon! He is my closest buddy since 7th grade and she has a long time relationship with the Oregon coast. Thirty years ago on a business trip she stumbled upon the Inn at Otter Crest and has been coming out frequently from Nebraska ever since. We joined them there and had the best time. This resort was well built in the 1970`s and even with the dated architecture, it still felt intelligent and extremely comfortable. Not to mention gorgeous and surprisingly inexpensive. Because she knew the area so well, we ate at the most delicious places in Newport and Depoe Bay.

I saw this on a Portland subreddit. This is why I love this city. This is why the civil and friendly Portland will be evident again. There is a wild generosity here. I felt it and benefited from it immediately. I believe it comes from the land itself. Its outrageous fertility. This letter will brighten the mood of all;

Dear Portland, A letter from that teacher who asked you for rocks...

A little while ago I shared with you all that I was a teacher who was putting together a nine-month rock exhibit at my school. I teach at a program for kids who are working on behavior stuff and, to be honest, many of them aren't quite ready for field trips to quiet museums. I take that as a challenge-if the student can't go on the field trip, then the field trip must come to the student.

So, for much of the past year I have been taking my small but nice classroom rock collection and turning it into a nine month, changing exhibit so every month the kids at my school will see the magic that a simple rock can be. (LOL...simple as in-mined from the bowels of the earth, cleaned, cut, polished and shipped halfway around the world).

Portland and the world in general stepped up. My gofundme brought in almost $700 which was incredible but it was the Portlanders who dropped things off at my house that makes my jaw drop. A whole bucket of PUMICE and a second bucket of PETRIFIED WOOD. (floating rocks and petrified wood...enough for every student in the WHOLE SCHOOL to have a piece!). One person was moving into a smaller place and left half of her cherished rock collection. A teacher from Florida sent me a baggie of million year old shark's teeth. Enough for every kid in my grade level, but then someone else bought a bigger bag of shark's teeth so every kid in school could have one. There is a company that makes mini museums that sent me a bug in amber, and a trilobite AND a piece of a space capsule that has been on the moon. A local geological club is going to let me come pick stuff out of their storage. A man sent us a diamond. A lady sent us little bags of polished rocks, one for each student while another one sent me a five pound bag of them.

You all, there have been so many acts of kindness that if I made a full list you would cry. Like I am right now because this list is so incredible and I'm so touched that in these hard times, so many people have stepped up for my kids, and my whole school of kids. (I'm talking to you person who sent me toothbrushes for every kid at school). My administration is so excited we are now planning a science night where our whole community will get to see everything at once!

So, with all that kindness going on, I had to share with you the good news. VOYA has named me one of their Unsung Heroes (the award) but it comes with something AMAZING (the reward)!!! The award comes with $2000 towards the rock and mineral project!! I'm just so overwhelmed that VOYA chose my school and this project and my students (and me :0) to invest in.

For all those who donated rocks or threw some money my way, to VOYA for valuing my kids-thank you so much for my kids, but also for letting me go into a covid school year feeling inspired and valued. Thank you, thank you, thank. you!!!

                                                                           Mitch

 That guy there is my friend Mitch. Five years ago when my knee implants were both infected, he brought us food and kept me company. I couldn`t even get down my front steps. We were new friends but he didn`t wait for reciprocal gestures. He saw my need and met it. As I started to slowly heal we began painting together on location. With other friends joining in, every Friday morning was devoted to plein air painting. So when I was asked if I wanted to show my work in a Lutheran Church, I didn`t say hell no! I asked if I could show with a friend? Mitch is a diligent painter but has never shown his work to the public. I had large older paintings just sitting in my studio and I thought they might pair nicely with his smaller landscapes. It was scheduled for April 2020........When the church reopened this summer, they asked 'are you possibly still interested?' We said yes and the show went up yesterday. If the covid situation allows, there will be some sort of reception in late Sept. or Oct. I`ll announce it here if it will happen. Meanwhile you can go by during the day and check it out;

                                                             West Linn Lutheran Church

                                                   20390 Willamette Dr. West Linn OR 97068

                                                                        503 656 0110

                                                                         www.wllc.org

       We20390 Willamette Drive, West Linn, OR 97068 

503-656-0110 

www.wllc.org

 

                                                                     Nancy  Diamond

 My latest love is for Nancy Diamond. I haven`t been able to find out very much about her as her website is under construction. However, I found her on Instagram and she is wonderful. Like me, she loves to paint skies. Unlike me, she seems to do it with minimal angst. Often her paintings are complex but executed with a carefree quality that is so lovely. Maybe she is as long suffering as most painters but the work looks thoughtfully like magic. 

                                                                        Fjaðrárgljúfur 

 I belong in Iceland

Portland Open Studios - Oct. 9&10 and  16&17 - plan to visit!

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Summer 21

                                                    Rainforest watercolor collage 26x20 inches

 I had a failed painting and after many heroic attempts to rescue it, I gave up. Since it once had promise I wondered if I could just patch over the problems with collage? I have a heap of fragments from previous debacles to choose from for my shapes. Instantly there was this new way forward with an interesting conclusion as well.

 I`ve been thinking I should write something. This is not the summer I imagined coming up when I got my second vaccine shot March 31. I have to admit I was expecting more joy, god knows we need it. Yet there is an undeniable tension. Only a week after the summer solstice, still June, the now infamous heat dome literally scorched the Northwest killing hundreds of people. The further north you were the temperature was even hotter. Records were broken everywhere by multiple degrees. This set up a cautionary mood, what are we in for? The first major wildfire soon began in southern Oregon fouling the air with smoke all through the northern Rockies. Our country’s  vaccination rates began to stagnate just as the ferocious Delta variant began sweeping through the states. Supporters of the former president risked their lives in making the political protest of boycotting their one safe passage through this, the miracle vaccine. On the left, those that shunned the vaccine proved how insincere their belief in the common good really is. With so much death throughout the world from Covid 19, it is privilege indeed to refuse this easily available protection which is absolutely free. Shame on those confused foolish people. Soon after the 4th of July, historic floods raged through Europe and then China. Global warming is here. Those that continue to downplay the reality of it are lying. Everyone can see now things aren`t like they used to be not so very long ago. 

I am at the last part of my life and I want a full engagement with what is left. Life goes on no matter if the sun burns or the rivers rage. Somehow I`m determined to move through these calamities with a positive spirit. My later years will be full of events and conditions that result from overheating the planet. In the destruction, how to have an open heart as it is breaking? I intend to find out and suspect this can happen best if my focus shifts away from my own disappointment. We are each surrounded by the needs of others. Attending to some of them may be a way forward.

  

So when I could tell my old friend was overwhelmed from the weight of caring for her dying husband, I offered to help. She lives on the central coast of California and the situation was quite serious when I arrived. Sometimes it just takes a fresh pair of eyes to see what is happening. Having a bit of experience with hospice, I helped with that transition then came home. To be trusted by someone dying is a special humbling honor. 

                                                             John and Tiffany in the garden

My nephew and his wife from Southern California were in town this weekend. They didn`t bring their sons because one is still too young to be vaccinated. It has been such a unique pleasure to watch my nieces and nephews grow into themselves. To gradually understand their unfolding along with them. Last night we gathered in the garden of my sister in law Norma, talking and eating through the long summer twilight. It was perfect, the antidote for a year of solitude.

                                                                       by E M Corsa

 My dear unmet friend from the coast of North Carolina, Elizabeth Corsa,  has been featured in the magazine Artisan Joy. We both love and struggle with Yupo. She is as dedicated an artist as I`ve ever known. Check out the interview and the work on her website.

 

                                                 Laguna watermedia on Yupo 26x20 inches

 Like all these new abstract paintings, little is consciously intended when I begin. Soon though this had a coastal vibe yet it was too sunny for Oregon. Then I remembered all the holidays and summers I spent in Laguna Beach growing up. My best friend`s family always took me along on these vacations. Several families would rent this one big house overlooking the ocean but blocked by a bluff of a view of the beach. We had such fun swimming in the ocean. 

The town was in its last days of a bohemian art scene and I`m sure my imagination was enflamed by seeing so much art at its annual festival.  This was the 60s and galleries were not common where I grew up. I remember how exotic and exciting it was to know it was possible to have a life of painting. Just a little exposure to something new is all it takes for some kids to find out what they were meant to do.

 I was in an art supply store and saw a packet of 12x12 heavily textured watercolor paper claiming it was thoroughly sized. Sizing is like a glue that keeps the paper from being too absorbent. I knew better than to fall for it but I haven`t shopped in person much for a long time. Lesson learned, if it looks like a homemade paper towel, painting on it will be a similarly rustic experience; 

 

 Not much more than doodles but they let me think. Between more ambitious paintings, I often need an interlude of some sort. I want to be making something but with a small investment.

Randall makes a Poster!

                                                                       John Hoyland

                                                                       John Hoyland

                                                                         John Hoyland

To me they seem seeped in 1960`s psychedelia but they were painted later in his career. John Hoyland, the great British painter, wanted to make abstract art that vibrated with possibility. These examples of his later period I just love! They`re not just lyrical, they startle me into hearing a different language of color.

 

click HERE to see work for sale in my studio

Here for small prints from Saatchi

Oneonta 21

                                     Oneonta 21 watermedia on Yupo 26x40 inches, 66x101.5 cm

 Every time I paint this canyon I wonder if I hurt it. Not that hordes of people are reading Painter`s Process, still, am I contributing to its overwhelming popularity? Pictures like these are not uncommon;

                                                        photo from Oregon Hikers.org

                                                                  photo by Kate Bailey

 Like our National Parks, most beautiful places are being overrun. We are all starved for beauty, what is to be done? I wish I knew. Not even the massive log jam at the start of this little hike discourages ardent nature lovers. And when the trail becomes the stream itself and one is chest deep in the freezing water, you are not alone.

It is a special place with the misfortune of being close to a million individuals and a major interstate highway.

If you get in there, make it count. A slot canyon in one of the few temperate rainforests in the world is beyond unique.

 Just before the pandemic and my change of focus toward abstraction, I painted a large version of Oneonta in oils. The White Bird Gallery used the image in an ad and the painting sold before the magazine published. Someone called the gallery after seeing the ad and was disappointed to hear the painting was already gone. He said to please inform him if I did any other works with this subject. I was told this while between projects with abstraction. Something representational sounded like fun after the confusion of painting abstractions. So I did. The gallery sent him a photo and they have not heard from him. So this Oneonta is for sale.

                                                 Gullfoss watermedia on paper 18x 14 inches

 Another painting of a popular destination, Gullfoss, Icelands mighty waterfall. One of the attractions on the 'Golden Circle', it is without question grand and enormous. The glacial water crashes into a fissure which is mostly out of view. When I saw it in 2016 it was in the evening and the crowds were not thick. The weather was foggy with rain and we had to get close to the edge to understand the geology. Waterfalls abound in that country but this one is different, the scale dwarfs anything in Oregon. 

                                          Morning Music watermedia on Yupo 26x20 inches

 

 I can`t remember the impetus for this one. Often it`s something simple like a color combination. As much as I love the gestural painting in abstract expressionism, I need forms, shapes, patterns and texture in mine. What I`m searching for is an organizing principle or structure to hold my exploration.

 This is a technical piece of advice for those using watercolor. If you dilute a color to get a lighter value, which is the traditional method, sometimes it won`t have enough 'body' to stay put. Especially on Yupo, it will slide right off. I`ve begun to add gum arabic to my washes. This is the binder holding watercolor paint together. You can buy it in its pure state and include some whenever you need the paint to be a bit more sticky. When used like this, it also allows for better, but still delicate, over painting on Yupo. Wish I would have thought of this decades ago.

 Nearly a month back I was in Nebraska for my long time buddy Todd`s wedding. It was a love fest that even a wall of hot humidity couldn`t wilt. His family was of course there, and I hadn`t seen them in 45 years. I used to live next door to his mother and she was there! At 93! His sisters were not the teenagers I remembered but grandmothers now. As banal as the passage of time is, it`s also completely amazing. The wedding took place on a farm outside of Omaha, on a hill overlooking miles of rolling fields. It was spectacular!

                                                                     Linda and Todd

                                                                         Todd and Randall

                                                    Cottonwoods worthy of New Mexico!

 There`s a little less of me than there was a couple of weeks ago, I had a toe amputated! 

My toes have revolted against the natural order of things and are trying to change places with each other. I`m told this is not uncommon as we age. One of mine was so distorted it had to go if I expected to wear shoes. The convalescence has been tricky. I`m trying to stay off my feet which has meant little painting and more Netflix than I ever would choose ordinarily. As I get older my priorities get simpler. I just want to keep walking.

Here are some paintings that have captured my attention;

                                                a winter nocturne by Matthew Wong

                                                                   by Robert Baribeau

                                                                         by Tu Hongtao

                                                                   by Joanna Logue

 I hope the new subscription service is working out, thanks for your patience!

Click HERE for works for sale in my studio

 

On the Move Again and subscription changes

                                            Beltane watermedia on Yupo 26x20 inches, 66x51 cm

                                       Reliquary 3 watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches, 66x51 cm

 Both of those paintings please me and the second was painted in a day. That is extremely rare and I`m taking it as a good sign that this long project of painting abstractly is going somewhere. I sure hope so. I painted on location recently and that didn`t feel right. Beautiful place on Oswego Creek too. I will return to the field this summer, it`s so nice to just be outside. Yet I wish my desire for the landscape were stronger.

 Unbeknownst to me, I was told 'Feedburner' , a service or subcontractor or something with Google, will no longer send out this blog to you as an email beginning in July. John installed it on the upper right on the blog where many of you subscribed by adding your email address. I`m going to put a new one up there run by follow.it Seems quite a few of you never sent back through email a required confirmation of your subscription. You may not receive future posts. If you write me at randalldavidt@gmail.com I`ll add you to the new service. The people at follow.it are saints, let me tell you. They hoped to sell me all kinds of analytics for my business but even when I explained I only wanted to preserve the readers I had, they still helped me transfer the addresses which were confirmed. This was a grueling experience because I`m old. It required days of correspondence. I wore out one employee and ground down another. These bright young IT types must dread interacting with a dinosaur. I couldn`t figure out where the correct CVS file was. Day after day they coached me. John got involved after long days at the hospital and we couldn`t find it. Until we did. They deserve a lot of credit for their patience. I wish they had something I could buy that I could understand.

 Took the first road trip in years recently. My brother Mike and I went to see our cousin in Port Angeles WA. She is dying of pancreatic cancer. That`s the same one that took out my brother Gary and at the same age. I haven`t seen her much since we were kids but I wanted to go. My brother`s death was one of integrity with very little pain, so I hoped to reassure her. We expected her to be in bed but she was up and around though extremely thin. We had the best damn time! Conversation and laughs just flowed. Having the same grandmother alone was a source of delight. Our low expectations were overwhelmed and driving along the Hood Canal was as lovely as I remembered.

 Soon we are flying to Omaha for the wedding of one of my closest, oldest friends. I met Todd in 7th grade and now he is getting married again at 68! New starts of any kind that happen in retirement just please me so much and marriage is an ultimate gesture of hope. For the second time, he asked me to be the best man. The first was in 1976 and I had just moved to New Mexico and I was broke. I said no because I was so determined to pay my own way and be responsible for myself. Later I wished I had borrowed the money and been there. Now I have a second chance. 

I have to say I`m nervous to fly. Regardless of new CDC guidelines, I think masks will be required. I hope so. Until the violence with Israel and Hamas knocked it out of the news, the pandemic situation in India had my full attention. The suffering has been unspeakable. I love that country.

 These subtle mysteries were painted by the Australian, Clarice Beckett. Though appreciated and collected now, she died at 48, was ignored for decades and a huge amount of work was lost to the weather due to lousy storage. For most of history, women artists didn`t matter. What a loss for humanity.

I saw this on Facebook. Not elegant but sure to the point. Why would we ever think it could be easy? Every time I begin a painting, I fervently wish for the rare experience when decisions flow organically and the process is elevated. The joy in painting then is indescribable! At last, I have reached my apex! But like everything, it passes. What is surprising in comparison is that a lot of worthy work is completed through sheer struggle.

 The entire Western United States in is drought. Even the rainforest I live in. Yet we`ve had the gentlest spring, so full of sunshine and fragrance it`s like heaven itself. But many fear a reckoning to come. The fires now are on a scale never seen before. Take it from me, they are truly terrifying. With the entire region so dry there is no safety assured anywhere. Wish us well. Every summer now will be fraught with tension. At least we have a president now and the party in charge that recognizes Global Warming. We cannot address this soon enough.

 Hope you all have your vaccine! Covid 19 is nasty, protect yourself! Protect your neighbor!

Click HERE for work for sale in my studio