Skies! - Water Woods and Stone

                                         Laramie to Lander 2 watermedia on paper 24x18

 I came out of my self imposed retirement from teaching to work with the Buffalo Grass group once again. They ask good questions, are very respectful and pay well. Instead of haranguing them about the importance of drawing again, I thought maybe a simple topic might be fun. As a landscape painter, I use the sky as a pivotal yet flexible element. It is usually the first thing I concentrate on because if it doesn`t set the right tone, there`s no use in proceeding. I like to think of the sky as the emotional architecture of a landscape. Everyone knows clouds come in an infinite variety and nearly every color known at some point appears in the sky. Often it seems like an after thought in many landscapes I see and it`s a lost opportunity. You can get away with putting all sorts things up there! I love how Ferdinand Hodler used clouds to frame and heighten the majesty of the Alps.

                                     The Lady of the Isenfluh 1902 - Ferdinand Hodler   

This guy is one of my favorite painters, well worth checking out. Thirty years ago I was a tourist in the Bay Area and wandered into the art museum at UC Berkeley and was bowled over by his huge symbolist paintings. Like this;

                                                       Ferdinand Hodler, Day (Truth)



 So that painting up at the top was a practice piece  I did the night before the class. It had been months since I had painted in watermedia and thought I should be prepared. My first demo was on Yupo:

                                                 North Slope watermedia on Yupo 26x20


The next was on Arches cold press 140lb;

                                                       Updraft watermedia on paper 24x18


 Speaking of Yupo, here is a tutorial on my Holy Grail of watercolor; mounting the Yupo on a cradled panel so there is no mat, frame or glass to come between the viewer and the art. Working on paper is such a joy but the whole traditional framing expense is just daunting. And what we usually pay for is glass that gives off an annoying glare! When oh when will museum glass become affordable?


Here is a little video featuring Richard Cartwright and his lyrical landscapes. They are like dreams;

                                           "Sailboat at Midnight" by Richard Cartwright


Look at Fabienne Verdier`s brush!

work for sale

Watercolors - Joseph Stella - Late Starts

                          Oregon Refuge 5 watercolor on paper 13x11

                          Over the Sea 28 watercolor on paper 5x7

                      Light in the Forest watermedia on Yupo 6x6

                  Winter Rainforest Study watermedia on paper 12x9

  Two new clouds, two older forests.
Unlike many artists, I don`t identify myself as an 'oil' painter or as a 'watercolorist'. I`ll paint with anything however watercolor was my first love. Maybe everyone`s, toddlers aren`t usually given oil paints and solvents.

  Because research is now instant rather than having to take a trip to the library or make phone calls, our curiosity has met its match in the internet.
Just this morning in bed, on my cell phone, I began some research into the under celebrated painter Joesph Stella. He`s long been a favorite but I remember being frustrated by a lack of information about him. Not any more. The Italian immigrant isn`t better known because he doggedly followed his muse into some very strange places. He`s best known for his early work as a Futurist and is justly famous for his magnificent paintings of the Brooklyn Bridge;

   Then he abandons the avant garde to delve inward and construct deeply personal and often complex images based on folk art from his homeland, his travels in the tropics, his interest in surrealism and experiments with collage. Most completely defy categorization;

Here is his masterpiece, 'The Tree of my Life';

  I could look at this indefinitely! I have such regard for the artist who wanders away from their fame to do something else. Something important.
This is in the National Gallery and is one more reason to visit D.C. There will be a tipping point!

  Since moving to Lake Oswego and beginning to teach, I`ve met many older adults who`ve taken up painting again after long hiatuses away. More often than not to have a family, or a more practical career. Sometimes there is a rueful quality in this decision as well as  a lack of confidence. Nearly all think the big issue is technique and the hours required to become skillful. It`s not. A long searching look within is required to figure out what you love visually. What fires you up with painting and why? This takes separating what we appreciate from what animates us emotionally. If we know what language to speak, that`s a huge advantage. Finding what we want to say will follow. If the technical ambitions correspond to the aesthetic goals, the process will have direction and focus.
  Those that persist through their feelings of foolishness and inadequacy deserve respect. They are honoring their younger selves and the ideals they`ve carried quietly with them ever since. There is a parallel in psychotherapy where the adult patient learns to recognize, then comfort and protect the child they once were. I sense with many of the adult painters I meet a yearning to retrieve something of great value. While they still can.
This is noble.

  Here is an article on some late starting artists.

 Artist Beatrice Wood. What an inspiration ! Her most productive years were from age 80 to 105. "I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men."  

 

work for sale in my studio

watermedia demonstration in the studio Jan.10, 10 am
  

Across the Field[s]

                                          Mt. Hood from the East oil on Yupo 26x20

 From my plein air foray in the Columbia River Gorge in early September.
 It was so refreshing to be in the golden East once again. The transition is swift, within 15 miles the landscape changes from rainforest to arid grasslands. From one side of the Cascades to the other.
 It`s not the mountain, it`s not the trees, it`s the space between them and me. That third dimension expressed with just two. The classic artist`s dilemma from the caves to the present. How do you do it? How, is pretty much the history of art in Western civilization. Probably the most direct method is through scale. Things in the distance are smaller. Learning how to mimic visual reality was one of the great achievements of the Renaissance painters. In time though, exposure to other cultures caused artists to question this. Why not make everything sort of equal?  My hero, Pierre Bonnard, did just that giving the same importance to his wife, her friend, the cat, the bowl of fruit, the floor tiles and the orchard through the window, all in a single painting! Wove it all together through color and pattern. His work ravishes the eyes.
 My own approach is somewhat similar, I usually flatten the space out yet suggest atmosphere through gradations in the paint. Though I can`t say it`s a constant theme in my work, I`ve done quite a few paintings of trees from across a field. Again, the subject is really that distance between. There is just something so healthy to the human spirit to see just 'space', emptiness. A house with a view is often no more than a building without anything close to it. Just that unoccupied air. It makes us feel good, expansive and safe. Worth the higher price!

                                     Across the Meadow watermedia on Yupo 20x20

From last summer, my beloved Bryant Woods.

                                       Deep Summer Field watermedia on paper 10x7

This one was about the smell of damp grass, shadow and dusk.

                                                    Oregon Refuge oil 14x11

The Finley Wildlife Preserve near Corvallis. Created from former farm land and slowly being restored to an original native landscape. The sense of a promise fulfilled for the early settlers is palpable. The place is bursting with life.

                                            Steigerwald Study 4 oil on paper 10x8

                                            Steigerwald Study 5 oil on paper 12x9

                                         Across Steigerwald watermedia on paper 16x12

Until it caught fire a couple of years ago, I spent considerable time at Steigerwald Wildlife Refuge. The burnt fields are coming back. The views from here into the mouth of the Columbia Gorge have a yearning quality. Like you really ought to go there. Now.

                                       Across the Field oil on canvas 36x36

This one from 2006 was painted from memory of a stand of trees at the Storm King Sculpture Park a bit north of NYC.

Come visit me and some other worthy artists this weekend and next during the Portland Open Studios. I have maps.
Randall David Tipton
5373 Lakeview blvd
Lake Oswego OR
97035  [close to I-5]

available work for sale in my studio

Wetlands Somewhere Redux

Two years ago, as a demonstration painting, I did a huge cloud as an illustration of using the sky as a 'framing' tool. I`ve been painting so many trees lately, I need to get out of the forest for awhile. Space is the great gift of winter here. You can finally, easily see distances. The leaves are down and everything opens up.
oil on Yupo 26x20


available work in the studio

Desolate Landscape

When I began this painting of the Finley Wildlife Refuge last month, it was to be a green marsh like I saw there in June. Then, I had a visitor from Canada who wanted to watch me paint. Since this was what I was working on, I resumed painting. Maybe because I was explaining my process and not paying attention to my original idea, in short order I had this apocalyptic landscape.
watermedia on paper 12x16


available work

In Steven`s Meadow

I saw a very interesting painting on Pinterest the other day that was done on Mylar. Then I remembered I had bought some years ago but hadn`t really played with it much. I found it and did this. It has many qualities like Yupo, the plastic paper from Japan. However, paint seemed to adhere more firmly and did not lift as easily when over painted. Being completely transparent, it required a white surface underneath to see what was happening accurately. I liked it and will explore it further. The subject is one of Lake Oswego`s many parks, a huge meadow that spills down the side of Cook`s Butte. There are a few tiny new trees planted randomly within the grasses.
watermedia on Mylar 9x12


work in my studio

Fertility

So I had a  red cloud. I liked it. First there was a seascape underneath but that wasn`t working, too cold. A couple of years pass and I figure it out, it needed green. Something growing.
This isn`t a recommended way to paint but sometimes it takes time to understand what to do.
oil on canvas 10x8


available work in my studio

Oregon Refuge

From my visit to the Finley Wildlife Refuge a couple of weeks ago.  This early summer has been so sweet.
oil on canvas 14x11


available work

Distant Peak

Once again, the demonstration painting from today`s class. By restricting the color to only one, value [the degree of light, dark and in between] becomes all important. I read on someone`s blog, that color gets the credit but value does the work. Without the concern for color and therefore realism, a painter is free to emphasize something else. I think with less choice, something more pure in one`s intention results. Some simple, atmospheric work was done this morning.
watercolor on paper 17"x14"


available work

Wetlands Somewhere [again]

Look familiar?
Occasionally someone comes over to work with me.
This began as a demonstration the other day to show a mixed watermedia technique. Just as I did with the first version in oil last December, I chose a cloud as the subject because the sky is the most flexible, forgiving element in a landscape. I don`t usually repeat a painting this closely, but when I`m teaching, I want to paint things I`m fluent with to make my point.
watermedia on paper 12"x9"



Available Work