Pierce the Gloom!

                                          Winter Wetland watermedia on paper 14x19 inches

 Yes it`s cold and soggy not to mention DARK, but what can you do? I`ll tell you, put on some proper clothing and go outside!! It`s the only way through, just ask a Scandinavian! They have a whole outdoor winter culture and they are experts with the darkness. The bottle is not the solution, trust me, it`s light that matters. Lights answer the darkness, get lots of them. Twinkling little bulbs lift the spirits far higher than their cheap price would ever suggest. Give your body ten minutes of walking and you can start peeling off layers to wear around your waist. It is so exhilarating to be warm outside in the cold looking at beautiful things. Like the forest which you can now see into because the leaves have fallen. Some intentional kindness to somebody, anybody ratchets up the goodwill like nothing else. To those vulnerable to grief during the holidays, the New York Times suggests making some plans, even lame ones. Be proactive, do not let sadness catch you by surprise. You honor the departed by living the best life you can. Use what they taught you. Keep them alive. Everyone over 30 knows how fast time scoots by. In a mere few weeks now, we will notice the longer days, hear more birds, and see the tree buds everywhere get fat. Our lives are just as valuable in winter, find a way to get right with it. 

We`ve all been through a mass trauma, let`s be gentle with ourselves and others.

                                                  Tidal Surge watermedia on paper 19x14

Finally, an abstract painting that flowed! No anxiety just a great sense of exploration. Some early random pours of ink ignited the construction and then it was a matter of finding a composition using the means I like to see; variety in texture, transparent and opaque areas, clear assertive color playing off subtle neutrals and a balance of light to dark values. It was fun. 

                                                Enter oil on oil paper 12x16 inches

                                                   Fade then Fall oil on oil paper 16x12

                                                 Tree Circle oil on oil paper 16x12 inches

 Three new studies from my walks around Cook`s Butte. Beautiful place that I relied on after my knee infections. I can do a lap near the top with a significant uphill section. I used it to build up my lungs again after being inactive for so long. You get to know a place with repeat exposure.

He sure could see the future. Wonder what he would say about restoring a faith in science? Sometimes I think only a mass tragedy will ever unite our country again. It is so stupid, we share much more than we realize. Because Fox news and MSNBC seem like propaganda machines, I never listen to either. Most Democrats don`t trust Fox so might not realize how demonized we are by them. Every now and then I get a glimpse of the hatred they encourage and it is shocking. What conservatives don`t understand is there is a limit to our patience with Republican attempts to rule the world. If the Supreme Court invalidates Roe vs. Wade, they will awaken a sleeping giant.

  Amy Donaldson`s work has intrigued me for several years. The elements in her paintings are continually repeated yet offer a large variety of content. Emotional content. Just from the titles you can tell there is another intention in the work as well. She might say it is one in the same. Amy is a devout Christian and it is important to her to express that faith not only in the paintings but in texts regarding her or the work. This interests me as I generally have a high opinion of artists and their ability to critically think. The Japanese American Makoto Fujimura is another believer whose work I respect. Both are painting from a sincere impulse and both achieve a depth that I can feel. Maybe because I was also raised to worship Jesus Christ, there is an affinity. My intellect had me rejecting beliefs on closer examination while still a teenager. Not the appalling attitude toward homosexuality you might expect from me but the conflict between a loving God and the necessity of 'salvation'. Couldn`t hold both ideas together but clearly many others have. So in a way, the persuasion in the expression of their work is more credible to me than any argument. Here are some of Amy`s paintings;

 I could live happily with one of these.

                                                                         Tipton oil 30x24

 I`ve been known to annoy other painters by telling them they should stop once their glorious simple underpainting is complete. I really do mean it but a modern painter has set aside studio time as a precious appointment with themselves. If you have 4 hours to give to your practice, you don`t want to hear you`re finished in half an hour. But maybe you should be. Maybe the spirit in your idea is most pure, lovely and immediate in the beginning. Maybe the solution is to have lots of available substrates on hand at all times so as to move on to something else. I do believe more great art has died because of the work ethic than anything else. Maybe if I listened to my own advice the painting above would still exist.

                                                                Natalie K. Nelson

Happy Holidays! The war on Christmas is here!

click HERE for work in my studio for sale

HERE for prints of my work or the images on merchandise 

Someone in Portland just ordered a bunch of stuff. If it was you, thank you!

some winter landscapes

                                             Fanno Creek in Winter oil on canvas 40x30


 For many, this winter has been rough. The weather more extreme, our government more depressing. Everyone knew how the shutdown would end yet it was agony for 35 days.
Finally though there are signs of life! Quite tardy here however, it`s not unusual for things to start stirring in late January.
Now I take my responsibility as the local head cheerleader for winter very seriously but even I fatigued and wished it weren`t so damn cold.

                                                 Almost Snowing oil on canvas 20x20


 For days it became common to glance outside and see snowflakes drifting down. It is not welcomed in the cities of the Pacific Northwest, in fact it causes panic. There have been raids on the grocery stores by anxious citizens, many cancelled school days and weeks long power outages in the countryside. A mess, but the forecast for this weekend is 70 degrees! Yes!

                                                    Bryant Woods Walk oil on panel 12x12


 This one was more like a long doodle. It started with more realism but as I randomly amped up the color, my trees became more stylized. Yet it still has the spirit of my beloved park.

                                                     Songbird by Nicholas Wilton


 Isn`t that magic? If you don`t know Nicholas Wilton, it`s time you did. He is a mensch extraordinaire! His work is always interesting and he`s a tireless, generous educator and mentor.
He interviews the great painter Krista Harris in this video. It is a remarkable conversation full of insights into the painting process and completely absent of ego. Listening to the two of them talk about their [abstract] work, it made perfect sense why I find painting non representationally so incredibly difficult. If you paint, this is well worth your time.

                                           Everyone we have ever Loved by Krista Harris

 You`re looking at a game changer here. Among the many things I learned at my workshop was the revelation that some Q-tips come with points! They are used for makeup apparently and are overpriced but they do fine job of carving trees out of wet paint. So much of my technique involves removing paint creatively. Blotting is a current field of experimentation.


I was introduced to Howard Hodgkin 35 years ago and I didn`t take to him immediately. The work was so simple and the painted frames seemed gimmicky. Yet I wanted to keep looking and in time I  became deeply affectionate toward his work. He`s one of a handful of artists whose paintings suggests an entirely new and separate reality. For me. This other world is one of pure sensation. Because of the era he was born into, this gay man, like millions of others, married in order to have a socially legitimate life. Such a common tragedy for his generation. But look at his stuff!;

 Though I`m not directly influenced by him as an artist, as a human being I`m so grateful he lived and gave the world such intensely personal images. He made the heroes journey.

                                                              oil on canvas 20x16


 This did not succeed and I threw it out but I am returning to this island in my next painting. It lies close to shore but away from homes in a quiet stretch of the Willamette River. I`ve tried three times now to get something of the atmosphere of its dark oak forests. I will prevail eventually.

online exhibition at the Marcia Burtt Gallery



work for sale in my studio

I`ve been Painting

                                          Ice Fog at Fanno Creek watermedia on Yupo 20x13

                                    Ice Fog at Fanno Creek 2 watermedia on Yupo 20x26

                                     Ice Fog at Fanno Creek 3 oil on panel 26x24


All the news sites, including the Weather Channel, predicted it so I set my alarm for 7. By 8 I was at Fanno Creek at its confluence with the Tualatin River exulting in the ice fog. It did not disappoint!
Four paintings were born though one didn`t make it. Spectacular morning!

I bought some ink. First I did a little research and chose Higgins Fadeproof. Not many color choices but the ones they have are intense and mix nicely with watercolor and acrylic. I also purchased Daler Rowney Pro-White and it is a game changer. I`ve finally found a strongly opaque white that is water soluble. It can be used for delicate highlights that can only be obtained in watercolor through the use of a masking fluid which leaves stark unnatural edges.
I am not a happy shopper of anything so finding promising new materials is really exciting.

                                     South Pacific watermedia on paper 8x11


 My first experiment with the inks [above].

                                                Untitled watermedia on paper 6x8

                               A Day at the Coast watermedia on Yupo 26x20 [finally got it right]

                                                Untitled watermedia on Yupo 9x11

                                          Buried watermedia on watercolor board 16x12

                                                Untitled watermedia on Terraskin 13.5x8.5

                                                     Untitled watermedia on paper 8x6


 Since we were together, I`ve painted some abstractions too. I keep circling back to non-representational work to see if it`s a fit. I admire this kind of painting so much. But nope, not at all something I could sustain. I need a motif to propel me most of the time.

                                              Cliff Fissure watermedia on Yupo 26x20


 This is new and a complete mystery to me. I was trying for rock but I seem to have arrived at traumatized flesh. When I`m at the beach, it`s the cliffs and their merge with the sand that interests me. Sure I love the ocean but it keeps moving, it`s hard to hold in my mind. The Pacific Northwest is blessed with astounding headlands. The bluff that inspired this painting is at Hug Point which is rich in gorgeous rock formations. I will consider this a work in progress and resume at a later time.

                                              Camellia watermedia on paper 6x6


 To my delight and amazement, my sister in law Mary has taken up painting in her retirement! It began as a social thing but she seems to be hooked. She came by the other day to get some tips and she brought a self portrait drawing and it looked like her! I can`t do that! At my suggestion she had bought Betty Edwards` Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and apparently absorbed it! I`m not saying she`s a prodigy, not yet. Nonetheless, it is so cool to see her excited by this. The camellia was a little demo I did while she was here.

                                               Winter Bog oil on panel 26x24


 My beloved Bryant Woods in its bleak soggy glory. This will be in the show Nature Perceived at the Grant`s Pass Art Museum Feb. 23-March 30. Joining me will be Ruth Armitage and Don Gray. Both are terrific painters and beautiful souls.

                                              Untitled landscape watermedia on paper 8x6

 See the razor blade on my work table? Me neither. This is how a day of working with watermedia begins, searching for the razor to clean off the palette. During the Portland Open Studios I do a good cleaning and even organize some. It is remarkable just how fast I can trash my work space. Not deliberately of course but through concentrating on my project. I`m beyond shame.


News;
  I didn`t win but I was a finalist to be the artist in residence at Halekala National Park! I will apply again and again until they let me stay in that crater.
  Thanks to Jeremy McWilliams, my website has been updated.
  My mini-interview on the Savvy Painter is now available. My ten minutes is near the end. It took me a week until I had enough courage to listen to my voice. What is with that? Nearly everyone has a mortal dread of hearing themselves recorded!
  I`ve been asked to teach a workshop at the Seattle Artist League this summer. This would be fun and I`ve said yes. If I can. Since this blog is all about me, let me explain.
One of the reasons I wanted a break from blogging was to grapple emotionally with my disability. By November I could see I wouldn`t even be close to my predicted Christmas full recovery. It dawned on me that my situation was as good as it would get. But then it got worse so I had MRIs of both knees. They showed that the infection had deteriorated the 'good' parts of the knees which explained the sharp new pain. So I`m scheduled to see a new surgeon and probably will need total replacements, one at a time, in both. Bring it on. Although this isn`t life threatening like cancer, it has really messed with my mental health.

                                                       

 Ever wonder how Willem de Kooning began a painting? This audacious young man from the Museum of Modern Art will show you how.

                                                           by Carola Schapals


 My new hero, Carola Schapals. She has powers of observation that are incredible and a deep understanding of both nature and architecture.


new additions to my blog of available work;
Work for Sale

New Work Summer 2017

                                                  My Marsh in Winter oil on panel 26x24


 Mine because I go there, the wetlands of Bryant Woods. I get in with the mud to see what`s happening. Last January I was able to walk into places I hadn`t seen because the ground was frozen. The previous summer`s vegetation was dead and  new grasses and cattails were sprouting. The Northwest winter often looks festive in its decay and regeneration.

                                              In the Bishop`s Garden watercolor on Yupo 12x9


 Las LOPAS convened at the beautiful Bishop`s Close last week to paint the gardens from life. A fine time it was! We have decided to return this coming Friday but with an earlier start. Please join us if you can. No one chased us off the lawn.

                                                                  Las LOPAS

                                                      January Moon oil on panel 26x24


 Every so often I like to create an 'all over' painting. The subject is usually a dense winter forest with the incredible complexity of the bare trees. With hints of foreground and back to anchor the frenzy of marks. The coastal stands of alders with their luminescent branches always excite me.

                                         Flooding Fanno Creek oil and oil pastel on Yupo 12x9


 More exciting branches, OK?

                                                       Path to the Sea 2 oil on canvas 30x30


 Sometimes if I`m lost in my studio I`ll paint again a favorite from the past. Not exactly the Warrior Way but I just want to be working, to have a brush in my hand should the spirit arrive.
 As my legs slowly heal, I`ve questioned the career aspects of being an artist, wondering how to proceed? What do I really want from my efforts? The answer is always good paintings but not how to disperse them into the world.

                                                               Immature Honeycrisp


 Six years ago I was going broke eating so many Honeycrisp apples. They are not cheap! I thought, how hard could it be to grow them? This is Oregon after all. So we planted a dwarf variety along with a small Japanese Akane to pollinate them and boom!, the first year the tree nearly broke from the weight of the fruit!
 I wasn`t able to prune it this winter and with all the rain, this crop will be huge. That bucket is filled with at least a hundred apples I thinned from the tree the other day. Here`s the problem though, bugs also like them. Do any of you know of any remedies that aren`t pure poison? My neighbor suggested copper sulfate. Any other ideas? Thanks.


 I`ve loved the work of Lynn Boggess for years and he just gets better. Though not a fan of thick impasto paint, when he uses the technique, it`s poetry. Take a look;

                                                            Lynn Boggess

                                                               Lynn Boggess

                                                             Lynn Boggess


 He goes out into the local forests where he lives in West Virginia, chooses a humble scene then brings it glory. In this video you`ll see his astonishing set up as he paints a canvas 68x80 on location!
Oh my, Las LOPAS has a lot to learn! He looks like the guy in the hardware store but this man speaks to God!


 I will be having a show at the White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach OR Sept.1 through Oct.16. I`ve shown with this gallery for 32 years! First with the founder Evelyn Georges, now with the new owner Allyn Cantor.
I won`t be at the opening but I`ll be giving a demonstration of watermedia on Yupo Sept. 23rd. 2pm. Stop by if you`re on the coast.

some available work in my studio