New Watercolors-Spillovers-Cooper Mt.

                                                   Tualatin Flood Study 6x6

                                                         Blue Tree 7x5

                                           Stream to the Sea Study 5x5

 Lots of paintings have left my studio bound for galleries and the summer season. There`s a bit more to do but for the first time in quite a while, I`m not busy! This is what I strive for, a slow simple life. What a luxury not having a pressing daily agenda! I love it and this ease is conducive to painting. My best days have a puttering quality as I work on several things throughout the day.
 Just for the change,  I did a couple of watercolors after concentrating on oil painting for months.

 Browsing my archives, I found these 12x9 watermedia  'Spillover' studies of Sauvie Island as the winter floods were receding;

These were mostly more successful than the larger oil paintings they were preparations for, though #4 translated well;

                                                      oil on canvas 36x36

 An exhibition of Rick Bartow`s work opened last Friday at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon through Aug. 9.
 This terrific painter is Native American though I rarely think of it. His work is teeming with totemic animals but somehow it`s just the animal personalities that come through, not human involvement with them. He is very adept with color and is inventive in his painting methods. I can`t wait to see it. Look at this;

                                                           Rick Bartow


 Are you sad? Emotionally conflicted? Worried about our world? Listen to 'Lacrimosa' by film composer Zbigniew Preisner. It is a section of his 'Requiem for my Friend'. This piece was featured in Terrence Malick`s visually stunning but odd 'The Tree of Life' during the birth of the cosmos sequence. This is sung by Elzbieta Towarnicka and she`ll break your heart open if you give her some volume.

                                   After the Wet-Echo Island by Elizabeth Cummings

 Isn`t this a wonderful painting? She conveys the vast spaces, heat and aridity of her native Australia through dense, monochromatic, agitated marks. I couldn't find the dimensions but because it`s a diptych, I imagine it`s huge and easy to wander through. In nearly all her work she uses a very warm palette that seems inspired by India.

 Locals will remember the levy we passed a couple of years ago authorizing Metro to purchase open space for it`s preservation and our recreation. We visited a new one yesterday, Cooper Mountain Nature Park. Unlike other preserves, this one wasn't mostly forested but had lots of meadows, gravel [dry] trails, enough shade to survive the return uphill, and beautiful views. We thought with its southern exposure, this would be a great destination in winter. When a big blast of light would be especially welcome.

 The park is in southwest Beaverton and knowing that mysterious city is known for its great ethnic hole-in-the-wall restaurants, we went looking for one. Yelp showed us a five out of five stars Mexican-Italian place near my art supply store so off we went. We had maps and GPS and circled the suburban parking lot over and over without any luck. Then I seemed to see signs indicating a mall behind Powell`s Books. We set off on foot and found a completely hidden, tiny mall with Paradiso Encantador in the food court. Its name is more than ironic as it looks exactly like a fast food joint. It wasn`t quick but smelled so good it was an exciting wait. Now I`m always really relieved when I see an actual Hispanic person in the kitchen. If it`s a woman, even better. God knows this isn`t fool proof but seeing people who look like me making my tacos is very discouraging. As a native of California, I am bestowed with ultimate authority on the quality of Mexican food in Oregon. Need I recount the years of disappointment? This was fresh, delicious and served with kindness and charm. Also inexpensive. We had to have dessert! Switching countries, we ordered the Tiramisu and it was outrageous with a coffee intensity I`ve never experienced in other versions. We were so happy when we finished! Why oh why can`t Lake Oswego attract this kind of talent?

work for sale in my studio

Papers! Watercolors! Northwest Skies!

                                                            watercolor 17x14

 This is a plein air watercolor done on Second Beach on the Olympic Coast in 1986. I`m posting it because the paper was one I had used, literally for decades.
Meridian 100% Rag Drawing Paper by Pentalic was thin, tough, heavily sized and took watercolor beautifully. Until it didn`t. The formula was changed and it became more like blotting paper. This tragedy sent me on a long lonely search looking for something comparable. I discovered Yupo in my wanderings. Daniel Smith sent me lots of samples to try but none were right. I was like Odysseus just trying to get home.
 Last month I posted some of Georgia O`Keefe`s watercolors and mentioned my interest in the paper she used. Local artist Betsy Chang wrote to say she had been curious too and had asked the Museum of Modern Art for information. She got a boat load and passed it on the me. Mystery solved! It was cartridge paper, whatever that was?! Sarah Fincham of the UK stumbles on my blog, reads my question and writes to say;

 "Cartridge paper is what we use for drawing here in the UK, it comes in various weights and is usually sized for wet media, these days at least. And yes it does take watercolour pretty well, depending how heavy it is. You get a lot of granulation and it is good for wet in wet I find. Also good to draw on over the colour.

Often it is named for counties - for example I use Norfolk cartridge 210gsm - and it's named like this because originally it was used to wrap gunpowder for muskets, and would have presumably been made locally.

As for what it's made of - well these days I don't know if it can be made of linen fibres but I doubt it, it's usually made of rag and wood pulp, and is inexpensive for that reason.Texture wise it's almost the same as what is described as vellum in the USA."

Then she sends me some!! And a couple of others as well! What a love!

First I do a test;

 Seems very promising! Then I do a 'real' painting;

                                             watercolor 11x7.5 [Norfolk Cartridge Paper #3]

  I like this paper! Yet I can see it is not going to take a lot of reworking. Best used in simple compositions in a very straight forward manner. Like O`Keefe`s beautiful Evening Star series. Then I try Sarah`s other gifts;

                                                   watercolor 8x6 [Khachi Smooth Rag]

 This one is so sumptuous, I barely do anything and I`m seduced by color and watercolor magic and just stop. Going to get some more of this! 

Next I try a rough handmade little sheet;

                                       watercolor and oil pastel 8.5x6 [Hahnemuhle Bamboo]

 All these papers trigger my fetish so then I go online to see what I can find. A paper with the weight, durability and texture of American currency has been an obsession for quite some time. In the New York Central Art Supply paper pdf catalog I think I may have found it. Ruscombe Mills began in Britain 25 years ago and have since relocated to France. They specialize in handmade [and expensive] papers made from cotton and flax like those from earlier centuries. Creamy colored crisp sheets like Turner would have used.

          watercolor 7x5 [Ruscombe 'Machine Age' Compatible Cold Cream Wove]

 This little piece below, from last year, I include because it`s painted on a new American paper called 'Fluid'. It`s acid free and neutral ph but not rag. It`s cheap, loves watercolor but has a limit as to how long you can work it. Much like cartridge paper but USA made!

                                                                watercolor 6x6

This is blooming in my yard and it smells like heaven, anyone know what it is?

work for sale in my studio

             

 

Flood Studies + Klaus Fussmann

These recent small watercolors were based on walks along the Tualatin River last December. Some colorful autumn leaves were still hanging on in thickets along the inundated shoreline. Those bright colors and tangled branches were a compelling contrast to the surging muddy water. I did them on a Fluid watercolor block 6x6 inches. I like this surface much better than more expensive papers such as Lanaquarelle.

                                                                 Klaus Fussmann

Speaking of watercolor, this artist makes magic with it. Though he uses a variety of mediums, it`s the work on paper that I get excited about. His style is direct, confident, awkward and completely winning. He gets the essence of a landscape down perfectly with a true economy of means. Take a look;

available work in my studio

Sketches

Wyoming and New Mexico. These tiny things I paint in the interim between more ambitious work. Doodles really.
Arroyo watermedia on paper 5"x6.75"
Geyser watermedia on paper 6"x6"
New Mexico Sky watercolor on paper 5"x5"


available work in my studio