Pandemic Landscapes + Portland Open Studios

                                                Marsh Forest watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches

 Please bear with me. In the interest of earning a living, I am going to promote my work here even more than normal. As an introvert, I assure you this is not what I want to do. But I do want to paint, the stuff deserves to be seen, and I like it when they are off on their own at last. So there are several ways to see my work in October besides on this blog. As I mentioned, again I will be part of the Portland Open Studios on the weekends of the 9th and 10th and the 16th and 17th. 10 am - 5 pm. 

5373 Lakeview Blvd, Lake Oswego OR 97035. Call if you get lost; 503 380 4731

The paintings here were created or finalized during these past 18 months of Covid 19. I returned to landscape occasionally to feel competent.  During most of this time, I`ve been trying to figure out what abstract painting is for me. I`m a true believer in the importance of modernism yet whenever I`ve tried to execute purely non-objective work I`ve gotten stuck rather quickly. I have viewed this as evidence that at heart, I`m a landscape painter. Well the fear and panic I felt in the early days of the pandemic as the death toll mounted, demanded I respond appropriately. For me, this meant taking on a challenge as difficult in a purely personal sense. Getting through that wall of confusion when painting abstractly became my goal. After all this time, I am only more familiar with the project. I intend to keep at it. Many of those paintings and the landscapes below will be on view during the Open Studios. I`d like to show them to you.

                                         Creek, Low Tide watermedia on Yupo 16x20 inches

                                                        Quiet Forest oil on canvas 12x9

                                            Oregon Refuge watermedia on paper 12x9 inches

                                     Copse of Winter Alder watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches

                                              Young Trees watermedia on paper 19x14 inches

                                               Cumulous watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches

                                       Cook`s Butte Study 1 watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches

                                       Cooks Butte Study 2 watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches

                                          Stafford Valley watermedia on Yupo 11x14 inches

                                          Wetlands Study watermedia on paper 14x12 inches

                                                   Hedgerow acrylic on paper 24x18 inches

                                               Sundown watermedia on paper 19x14 inches

 I will also be sending out an announcement soon about the studio tour. Some of you will get it as well as this blog newsletter. Forgive me, my mailing list resists every effort I make to streamline.

I have 10 big paintings in the West Linn Lutheran Church along with paintings by my pal Mitch Burrell;

Creative Spirits Gallery Re-Opens September 3rd, 2021         We have missed having new art on our walls, and neighbors and congregants visiting to enjoy it. West Linn Lutheran Church's building has been successfully open for a little while now, and we feel confident that our anti-Covid measures are allowing folks to spend a little in-person time safely in community. We are therefore very pleased to announce that we have two wonderful local artists in the Creative Spirits Gallery this fall.  Learn about our artists below, and come see their work yourself, on display whenever the building is open, from September 3rd through the beginning of November. Masks are required while inside WLLC so please wear your mask, to keep your neighbors safe.         Randall David Tipton has painted in Portland for more than 25 years. Here's a little about his practice, in his own words: "Landscape has been my primary interest from an early age. I am mostly self-taught, and have been deeply influenced by the American abstract expressionists, particularly by their belief in improvisation as path to something unique and meaningful. I was fortunate to study with Richard Diebenkorn in the first master class at the new Santa Fe Institute of Fine Art. Walking is an important part of my life and work. When I'm in the landscape, I often have a camera, notebook or sketchbook to help me remember my response. What I see and experience outdoors is the basis for most of my painting." You can follow Randall's painting online via his blog.         Mitch Burrell told us, "While out on walks with my dog, Greta, sometimes I will come upon a scene that is so profoundly moving that Greta and I will pause and sit silently, absorbing the wonder that is Nature.  Greta somehow seems to grasp the importance of these times, and she seems to appreciate them as much as I do — it is as if we bear lone witness to these brief marvels of the natural world.  I try to hold onto these feelings, and once I return home, I do what I can to capture the moment in paint.  Scenes with light reflecting on water, or the fleeting luminosity of changing weather can be especially inspiring. My hope is that with repeated effort to render these moments on the canvas, my skills and knowledge will improve to the point that I can faithfully render my intent.  It promises to be a lifelong challenge."         West Linn Lutheran Church 20390 Willamette Drive, West Linn, OR 97068  503-656-0110  www.wllc.org

 

And, the White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach has my first exhibition of all watermedia on paper, on view through the month of October.

I will return to my typical wandering in my next post.

White Bird Exhibition

click HERE for work for SALE  in my studio

Prints are HERE

Watercolors!

                                                      Toro watermedia on Yupo 12x12


 I needed to goof off, I`ve been working on large Important paintings for months. Ideally art making is always play. Ideally. I`ve known for years some of my best ideas come from puttering with paint. No serious intentions just whims. Among my urges this week was to explore pure abstraction some;

                                                                    Lift watercolor 10x8

                                                    May Abstraction watercolor 9x12


Also did a couple of landscapes from memory;

                                                    Marine Air watercolor on mineral paper 10x8

                                                             Colony acrylic on Yupo 14x11


 And I even got out into the landscape with my pal Mitch for some plein air work!

                                                            Luscher Field watercolor on paper 12x9

                                            Luscher View watercolor on mineral paper 11x7.5


 We were at the city owned beehive of activity known as Luscher Farm. This place is fascinating! It contains sprawling community gardens, barns and outbuildings, some with classes in progress, chicken coops, birthday parties, curious tourists wandering around, a humongous farm house and acres and acres of fields with sweeping views. Everyone is completely focused on their tasks and assumes you are too. I could jump up on a tractor and take it for a spin and I don`t think anyone would notice.
 When the humidity is low in western Oregon, it feels like a personal gift. Painting up on a hill, in shade, with this desert breeze traveling through was like a dream. We`ve already had a couple of periods of high heat, but if it`s dry, who cares? Every time it happens I`m transported back to New Mexico. It can even smell like the Southwest and that, of course, brings back the memories. I try to enjoy them realistically, I don`t trust nostalgia.


 Laura Foster`s comprehensive guide to the Columbia Gorge is here at last!
As with her other books, this is packed with helpful maps, drive times, insider tips on food and lodging, historical photos, anecdotes, hiking suggestions, fishing advice, water sports information, tons of cool little things to do you would never know about, lots of history and a cultural perspective on the native residents and through it all, Laura`s intelligence and humor make it a super fun read! Twelve weekend getaways are featured to give you delightful experiences without much decision. I`m all for that!

She will give a presentation in downtown Lake Oswego at the museum 510 in the evening of June 18. Contact janrimerman@gmail.com to reserve a seat.


Take a look at this short video on addiction, it`s quite provocative. I`m not sure what to think but it`s an issue I`m more than familiar with. Everyone finally is in agreement that the war on drugs was a disaster. Especially for African Americans.
Now there is widespread opioid addiction and skyrocketing deaths from overdose. This is a field ripe for some innovation.


work for sale in my studio

Riverlight[s] - Reflections

                                                           Riverlight 1 oil on canvas 20x20

                                                           Riverlight 2 oil on canvas 20x20


 These are new paintings of the Tualatin River near where it joins the Willamette southwest of West Linn. The bluff shades the river much of the time with bits of the shore in sunlight.


My show at the White Bird Gallery continues, please take a look if you`re on the north coast.
And opening next Saturday, Aug. 1 is a group show of work with the theme of 'Oregon City' at In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art. I was asked if I`d like to participate and agreed as a prompt to finally paint a view of the falls and the mills that I`ve had in mind for years. Definitely out of my comfort zone with all the straight lines and perspective;

                                                       Oregon City January 30x48 oil on canvas


 After seeing how Astoria has reinvented itself two weeks ago, I`m confident Oregon City has a similar future. The Willamette Falls Legacy Project is going to turn that town into something radiant. Investors take note!

Yesterday I moved some of my late brother Gary`s paintings to my studio for storage or possibly resale. He would have been 68 two days ago and started buying my work when he was in his twenties and I was still a teen. The quality of his collection is therefore quite mixed. Now seven years since his death, his wife Mary has decided to sell the house and move into something smaller and more practical with all the girls adult and on their own. It`s a poignant moment. Having these pieces around me has sure made me miss him. There was nothing equivocal about him and his instincts were good. Though not his taste. He also collected those porcelain plates with fairy tale illustrations on them and glass crystal balls which were everywhere in his bachelor condominium. His wife was first his employee at Hewlett Packard and she tells a funny story about a meeting his staff had in his home. Being completely unhomophobic, he had watercolors of naked men I had done on the walls, about a dozen of the obnoxious plates on the mantel and at least one colored crystal ball on every level surface. Everyone  respectfully kept on topic with nervous glances shooting all around the living room. He was so funny and such a leader, smart supervisors just let him be himself.
This was before Carly Fiorina trashed the company. Now she wants to be President!?
Here is one of the paintings;

                                                       watermedia on paper 48x36


work for sale in my studio

Oxbow Slough-demo-SLO

                                                 Oxbow Slough 20x16 oil on canvas

 It was a good week for wetlands! It really hasn`t rained much but the Tualatin River is in flood stage and Minto Brown Island is a swamp. This isn`t good at all, it can only be snowmelt. The weather has been so mild and the freezing level so high, the snowpack is 15% of normal. There will not be anything wet by summer. And the party of climate change deniers won even more seats in Congress. What a world.
 I had business in Salem this week. The gallerist Mary Lou Zeek invited me to be part of her pop-up show 'Blink'!

 I first heard of this temporary exhibit idea as the Great Recession took hold. It`s clever, resourceful and such a good use of vacant property!
After delivering work, I had to go see the Minto Brown wetlands nearby;

The next day I walked through the fog along a bit of Fanno Creek. It was ethereal and gorgeous;

 This walk became the basis of my monthly demonstration painting this morning;

                                           Tigard Wetlands 12x18 watermedia on paper

 Tomorrow we`re off to San Luis Obispo to see my long time friend and glass artist, George Zarolinski and her husband Steve. They relocated after 40 years in Chimayo New Mexico. I need to see their new lives!
 While we`re in the area, I`ll finally meet my internet friend Marcia Burtt. She paints large, bold landscapes on location using quick drying acrylics. We`re going to paint together out in the hills! I was going to do my usual, crude watercolor plein air routine which is basically a lawn chair with the paper in my lap but thought differently after thinking about her offer. She had extra French easels, plenty of paints and brushes so I decided to act like a Roman in Rome. I`m going to paint vertically while standing up! Like she does!
 Here is a vibrant painting of hers I just found on Pinterest;