Showing posts with label watercolor. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

The New Era

Rainforest Walk watercolor collage 12x20 inches

This painting could have gone several ways; further development in watercolor, introduction of acrylics or use what`s there as a basis for collage. I chose collage because the representative from Art2life, Marji Thompson, was intrigued by them. She asked me in the fall if I was willing to be interviewed or videoed for their program. I have nothing but respect for what their doing. They are in the encouragement-inspiration business. Many people are not able to choose a life of art making, usually because of kids or other work. That unexplored impulse becomes a yearning that does not leave. Art2life tries to lift these early artists into excitement and productivity. The founder, Nick Wilton, still does near daily little lessons on Instagram focusing on one visual concern at a time. He`s patient and generous. And he still does them even after creating a large, self supporting educational institution. For free. Art2life has a Youtube channel filled with interviews, podcasts and lessons. Also for free. Now if one wants to accelerate their learning, there is also instruction that can be purchased. I know several artists who have and their new work had a distinctive confidence. All this is to say when they asked me to make a video with them, I was flattered. When the editing is finally finished, I will post it here. The content is a demonstration of my watermedia techniques on the plastic 'paper' called Yupo as well as some conversation regarding the collages I`ve been making in recent years.

Below are some watercolors I did for practice both on and off camera;

Eastern Washington Landscape watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

Arroyo watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

Moonlight Over the Ocean watermedia on Yupo 23x35 inches

Corner of Summer watercolor on Yupo 8x8 inches

Rainier 2 watercolor on Yupo 20x14 inches

this last one is the actual demo painting;

January Wetland watermedia on Yupo 20x14 inches

You may be pleased to read that I have no remarks of a political nature right now. Just tell me where and when to man the barricade, I`ll be there.

GUTAI!

Gutai is the embodiment of the interaction between spirit and matter, a respectful 'dance' so to speak. This movement began in mid-50s Japan and shares a spontaneity with American abstract expressionist 'action painting'. Two of its painters interest me in particular.

Kazuo Shiraga is best known for using his whole body as a tool of expression. Most of the work has an explosive rhythm.

Kazuo Shiraga

Shiraga painting

The other is Sadamasa Motonaga

Sadamasa Motonaga

Amanda Gorman

The young poet Amanda Gorman, a resident of Pacific Palisades, recites her poem about the recent fires in this newscast. [she speaks after the news people introduce her] There is something remarkable about being comforted by such a young person. She is a natural leader.

I haven`t lived in California in over 50 years yet those fires felt oddly personal. Like something integral to who I am was being attacked. My younger brother, also living in the Northwest, felt the same way.

This is the 24 Solar Terms poster by Bright Woo and is one of the most beautiful pieces of graphic art I`ve ever seen. All that I want, dream about and love of color is here. Without really knowing what it was, it just got richer; Each rectangle is based on a Chinese character that describes a specific agricultural-meteorlogical moment of the year. Those 24 important milestones are described here.

And a couple more recent collages;

Northwest Canyon collage 17x12 inches

'An Introduction' watercolor collage 12x9 inches

the child David Lynch in Montana

David Lynch

The painter and film maker David Lynch, died at the best possible moment. Just as America took a discouraging hard right turn and inaugurated a con man for the 2nd[!!!] time, we were gifted with one lovely tribute to David Lynch after another. The counterpoint was so sweet and they just kept coming. He matters to me because Twin Peaks was the most astonishing TV I had ever experienced. Anyone enraptured with it like I was would agree, the music was a huge part of its power.

Here is the composer Angelo Badalamenti describing how he worked with Lynch.

Not tomorrow[2-13-2025] during the predicted ice storm, but soon! Drive into the magnificent Columbia River Gorge and drive to Stevenson WA and onto the grand Columbia Gorge Museum. Inside among a great many fascinating artifacts of local history, you will come upon the transcendent paintings of Genevieve Scholl. This body of work is a loving look at the Hoh Rainforest. I watched her paintings progress on Instagram but I was still surprised by their luminosity, precise color and unique composition.

Trust me, it is always a good idea to visit the gorge, it never disappoints. And this exhibit is a jewel.

Up until March 30;

Jane Goodall [91] and David Attenborough [98]

They live! This is such a hopeful photo

Don`t let #47 steal your joy. To hell with him and his idiot followers

Let Leonard Cohen soothe you in this song sung by the Lumineers

Click HERE for work for sale in my studio

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

watercolor, collage, pride

Algodones 2 watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

Spring Leaves, Iron Mountain watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

North Coast watermedia on Yupo 35x23 inches

June 26 and 71 degrees at 4 pm? Thank you!

Our day will come. By this date three years ago, a 'heat dome' had parked over the Pacific Northwest killing hundreds. I`m grateful for todays cool beauty.

Once again it is Pride month. My community of Lake Oswego celebrated its first Pride Event. We went early having no idea what to expect and wanting to be visible bodies if the crowd was small. It wasn`t.

It is a unique honor and privilege to have lived in this era. Within my lifetime, within my culture, homosexuality has gone from unspeakably disgusting to widely accepted. And for one month, actually elevated. It is still disorienting but when I remember that my Christian mother was there at my wedding, I just feel blessed.

New collages;

Furtive Movement watercolor on yupo collage 14x11 inches

Floating Gate watercolor on yupo collage 12x9 inches

Each Flower Tracks the Moon watercolor on yupo collage 14x11 inches

Bikram Dilemma watercolor on yupo collage 26x20 inches

I`m trying to figure out why making collages is such a different experience from painting. The collages are completely engrossing with time awareness lost almost immediately. When I paint, I`m often waiting for something to 'set up', thinking intently about early 'layers', examining my ultimate visual 'reason' for painting a particular subject and then trying many different techniques to find the one best for this part of this project. Lots of thought! Until, if I`m fortunate, something better takes over. I think most painters paint for this sublime occurrence. When all the processes become harmonized, the angst has vanished and there is an understanding that something special is happening. Each choice makes perfect sense and looks wildly fresh. What a validation and yet totally independent of everything! You can never make it happen only be there when it does with a brush in your hand. Most of the time for me, painting is a complex mental moral entanglement that must be solved. This is why when I try to bring new insights into my process and it still ends up looking like other RDTs, I`m exasperated. It`s like no matter what exciting things are happening in the brain, the hand only knows one way of acting.

These are from last winter, watercolor on Yupo 12 inch diameter. The fabulous Ginny Zanger told me yupo was now being made into circles, so I wanted to try them. Honestly, it wasn`t a great experience. There was a vertigo quality in making them, like they wouldn`t hold still. I even did some abstractions but they seemed unmoored altogether. I like the way they look but getting there was weird.

A neighbors irises. They stopped me on my walk and the more I looked at them I felt certain that their beauty was by design. Someone had thought about those colors and their placement. What a gorgeous carefree patch of life. For me anyway.

I have been and known many lonely hearts. This woman found the biggest love of all. From the NYTimes, Modern Love

Finally Finding “The Magic”

Since childhood, I yearned for love. Once, I came within weeks of marriage before it abruptly fell apart. He said we were missing “the magic,” and, admittedly, he was right. A few men came and went. I’m now 59 with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. I still don’t have a partner, but I’ve fallen desperately in love with life. Exquisite beauty emerges everywhere: my cat on my lap, a cashier extending an unexpected smile, sunlight skipping across a lake. I use each day to soak up the world’s splendor. “Not yet,” I whisper to the heavens. “I love it here.” — Clare Cory

It was time for a new one. Some of you longtime readers might remember when that upper palette was new 12 years ago. It looks so awful because I couldn`t keep acrylic paint away from it. My painting process often required watercolor and acrylic applications at the same time. No regrets though now being older, I`m going to try to keep them separated. I`ve rearranged my studio setup to allow enough space for both. If I can actually pull that off, there is hope.

This is a photo of the delta of the Sacramento River I took from a plane a couple of weeks ago. I`ve been curious about it as it was the subject of the last body of work by the late Wayne Thiebaud. Often confused with pop artists, his wonderful work was representational and broadly appealing. The paintings that made him famous long ago were of desserts and deli counters.

Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud lived to be 100 and these later paintings were based on the rich agricultural fields of the delta. The productive lands are not a tourist attraction so I`ve never seen them. I`m looking out the window and suddenly there it is! It`s so cool what you can see if the weather is cooperative. Flying down to see my family, we saw a moody Crater Lake and on the return, saw Morrow Rock and then the Salinas Valley before the delta appeared. Twice before I`ve been able to pick out the landmarks of Yosemite as we flew by. Anyway, Thiebaud was a remarkable painter and by every account a splendid human being. He seems to have had a foundational curiosity and humility that took him far.

Wayne Thiebaud

I don`t know how or why. Facebook is now sending me the best stuff my heart could desire. Essays by James Baldwin and Susan Sontag, poems by the familiar and unfamiliar, anecdotes about Joni Mitchell and Patti Smith and remembrances of W H Auden and Joseph Campbell. I love it. Facebook gets me at last.

Read this astonishing poem;

Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity. ~Louise Erdrich

My last plein air effort. Not great but better than my average. Probably because I was sitting next to Jean Gale. Good things happen when she comes around.

god I love Roz Chast

work for sale in my studio - click Here

Monday, May 13, 2024

Randall restoration-new watercolors

Spring Lagoon watercolor on Yupo 26x20

Streambank watercolor on Yupo 38x30 inches

Coastal Stream watercolor on Yupo 30x30 inches

Big Weather watermedia on Yupo 30x30 inches

Oceanside watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

Since I last posted, I now have a fully functioning new right knee, do not have an abdominal hernia and have two eyes missing their cataracts. I feel fresh. Until a couple of days ago, the typical and spectacular Spring was unfurling all around me complete with its typical unfortunate chill. Now we have some warm. Was that too much to want? Adding to the embarrassment of riches, the northern lights have been visible everywhere this weekend but not my front yard. I would have driven to somewhere dark but I can`t see at night to save my life. That`s why my 20 year old cataracts had to go despite not being 'ready' to remove. With my upcoming new glasses my hope is to be able to drive after dark. After so many years of depending on others, this would be phenomenal.

For the painting up above "Streamside", the Theobot Vision A I had this to say;

The artwork presented is a vibrant and expressive landscape that is bursting with life and movement. The palette is rich with greens, blues, reds, and earthy tones that suggest a natural setting, possibly suggestive of a lush canyon or a verdant cliff-side. The use of color is both bold and nuanced, creating a vivid atmosphere while also allowing for a sense of depth and dimension.

The technique displays a dynamic interplay between detail and abstraction. There is a loose, almost impressionistic approach to the vegetation, which gives the work a dreamlike quality, as though capturing a fleeting moment in nature. The sky, with its broad sweep of blue, provides a pleasing contrast to the textured greens and the stark reds of the geological forms. The marks are confident and gestural, which conveys a strong sense of the artist's hand and their emotional engagement with the subject.

Delving into the emotional resonance of this piece, the artwork conveys a sense of both tranquility and wildness. There is a palpable energy that is inherent in the subject matter and the method of application, providing the viewer with a sense of nature's unpredictability and grandeur.

Not bad and certainly an easy ego boost. I can imagine this being useful. Can`t think of a title? just submit the image. No more maddening multiple 'Winter Wetlands" spanning decades and keeping an accurate inventory impossible. The amount of fumbling I do to make an online sale can be ridiculous.

I`ve been trying to do things differently. Instead of referring to photos and drawings for compositions, I`ve painted by memory. Believe me, it`s not that my memory is accurate, it`s not. But the technique I`m using of watercolor on the slick plastic paper Yupo, makes this possible. I`ll imagine the landscape I want to paint and then beginning with all over color washes, set the emotional tone of what`s to come. I walk a lot outside and remember the basic shapes of things. Not hard. I just start putting everything in and then the revisions begin. Because I can continually manipulate the watercolor, including removing it altogether, I`ll throw a number of techniques and marks at the paper and then start moving stuff around. It`s the way I`ve used oil paint for years but only recently found a way [attitude] to use watercolor in this manner. Before now I`d make corrections in acrylic, which of course dry permanently. That`s a way to keep the image going forward but this new idea returns me to the classic watercolor technique. Light values first, progressively getting darker, no white paint allowed. I rebelled against that tradition 50 years ago. It`s odd to now accept and work within those requirements.

Cook`s Butte, where I walk

Better days are coming to Portland. Houselessness and opioid addiction are huge national problems that require radical new thinking. The political culture where I live is trying to solve this humanely and practically. There is a kindness here that is pervasive and powerful and gives me hope we will succeed.

A trainee for our municipal bus system posted this on Reddit;

Yall, I am so impressed by your manners on the road. I just started training to drive for Trimet, and I'm rolling around the city in a 40 foot bus that I have zero experience driving. You all have gone out of the way to let me merge, give me space to turn, and not ride my tail when I'm too scared to get to speed. Thanks for making this easier on me.

Waiting for the Train watermedia

This a public service announcement. On my birthday this past autumn, my sister in law brought me some of this yogurt along with her famous apple pie. Both were sensational! This is by far the best yogurt I`ve ever eaten. Full fat [4%] and consequently creamy and sweetened the perfect amount. Made in Washington. If you`re in the East, look for it and get one with fruit and cream. My god!

Whitney Wood Bailey

Here is an artist I check on from time to time. I love Whitney Wood Bailey`s interest in pattern, modulated color and organic shapes. Read her thoughtful artist`s statement and marvel at these pulsating 'landscapes'. She creates an exuberant world of her own.

Above Hanalei watermedia on Yupo 16x12

A friend is going to Kauai soon and just hearing that name makes me want to paint those mountains. I`ve been there once in 2013, not likely to return, but it has a grip on my imagination. This chunky painting is all acrylic, the grace of watercolor was lost long before this limped to conclusion. Again, no reference just 11 year old memories.

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