Winter River-re-do`s-Oregon City

                                                  Winter River  oil on canvas 24x24

 In January I happened to be walking in Brown`s Ferry Park along the Tualatin River on a gorgeous mild sunny day. The park has plenty of paved walkways but also a muddy path right along the water`s edge. In the low angled sunlight the bare branches had a golden glow that reflected in the flat glassy water.

 Almost ready for our show in downtown Lake Oswego! My pal Tom Cramer will be showing his relief wood carvings and pointillist paintings.
 In assembling my work, I could see a couple needed new attention;

                                          Rainforest Clearing  oil on cradled panel 20x20

 This was first painted last year at Sitka and looked like this. Not bad but I think I was too persuaded by my reference photo. In reworking it, I just relied on memory.

                                             Oswego Creek Spring oil on canvas 30x24

 This has been a favorite but something I couldn`t identify was off. Finally, I could see that the shoreline was too hard. Now it is softer.

 Last night Roxanne Colyer Clingman`s relocated gallery, In Bocca al Lupo, celebrated its new life in historic Oregon City. The place was mobbed and there was genuine excitement that a 'real' gallery was joining the community.
 I tell anyone who will listen that this town is almost ripe. With the huge redevelopment of the Blue Heron paper mill and access to the falls a certainty, this town is going to mega blossom! The Willamette Falls Legacy Project is doing this right. Lots of public input, sensitive to the native first inhabitants, the courageous early entrepreneurs, its industrial heritage and the unique natural beauty, the whole downtown area is poised to become something wonderful. Even better than it is now with it`s friendly funky atmosphere. Mark my words, in 10-20 years, OC will be renown as an arts center. The New York Times will have features on the best galleries and restaurants. Artists know these things, pardon my immodesty. I had a studio in the Pearl District of Portland before anyone ever called it that. The reason is simple, artists want and need affordable studios in interesting and/or beautiful places. Often these neighborhoods have been mostly abandoned. Artists come in because it`s cheap and eventually gentrification begins. This doesn`t have to be a negative development. With oversight and careful zoning, a diverse, dynamic community can evolve. That`s the plan in Oregon City. I`d love to live here if I could talk John into leaving Lake Oswego.
 When I lived in Portland, I was shamefully ignorant of Clackamas County. What was there to know? Who cared? Portland was so eccentric and fun and beautiful and it was even affordable. As long as you were renting. We were hesitant and skeptical new residents down here but it had everything we had prioritized at a price we could afford. I`m happy we came.
 Here are a couple of photos of the industrial core of OC;

Finally this joyful painting from the late Norbert Schwontkowski. Quiet and exuberant!

work for sale in my studio

Oregon Rainforest Morning-another paper-L K Price

                                                 watermedia on paper 14x11

 Because I`m surrounded by unfinished oil paintings intended for a show of oils opening in March, all I want to do is play with watercolor. It`s discouraging being human.
 I had a marvelous walk around Cook`s Butte the other morning in the fog. I can`t explain why it is so exciting to me but it really is. Everything looks better in the mist! I went down into the studio, looked at the unresolved, uncooperative canvases then over to some paper I haven`t had a minute to try. I found the time. I know from years of hiking that coming in from a rich experience in nature can turn to gold if I can just start painting. I used to think this was just ordinary inspiration but now I think it`s more complex, 'emotional' memory is involved. It can guide the painting without any reference. First I did the study below. The paper was simply called Multi media/Aquarelle. 100% cotton, heavy sizing, 140 lb. cold pressed and inexpensive! [New York Central Art Supply]

                                                watercolor on paper 7x5

 I felt so confident, I thought I`d document it;

 And these were my tools;

 

 Nothing too unusual. A natural sponge for pre-wetting and later lifting. Lots of Kleenex for blotting, Q-tips for drawing through wet paint making a soft fat line, a silicone spatula for drawing with a sharper line, a piece of mat board with a bevel edge for scraping like with a squeegee, cheap house painter brush for blending and then the watercolor brushes. Note those at the top have extra long soft bristles. I`ve come to prefer this type because you can really load them up yet they`ll also come to an edge or point. I`m using a bristle filbert that is extra long for oil painting too. Then there is the angle brush up above. I love these because the double as a wash brush but also can be used for line.

 On bigger paintings I`ll use a much larger assortment. Often I`ll stop in my process and look over the choices to choose the best one for the task at hand. I feel like a surgeon sometimes!

 I did this one today before returning to my 'real' project;

                                          watercolor on paper 8x8

 Studio envy. We all have it, it`s rude but no one has the perfect work space they so deserve. Even though mine is huge compared to the gross carpeted bedroom I used before moving here, I thought big windows would have been nice. Then I got a National Geographic quality view at Sitka when I was a resident last year. I was constantly fooling with the blinds, moving my work out of the sunlight and coping with the glare. I`d do it again in a heartbeat but I returned to my basement very grateful for the controlled full spectrum lighting I had installed. Now it`s running water I yearn for. Here`s a great feature from Hyperallergic on reader submitted art studios. There are lots of them, look for the links.

Finally. my newest Pinterest discovery, Leslie Kenneth Price of Arcata Calif. Although he`s an abstract painter, his immersion in the landscape is obvious. I`d love to go on a hike with him. Isn`t this stunning? So lyrical!

                                              Leslie Kenneth Price

work for sale in my studio

watercolor demonstration in my studio Sat. Feb. 14, 10 am

another demo March 26, 11 am at Museum 510 in Lake Oswego

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

             

 

Bryant Woods - Oswego Lagoon - NFL -Tom Uttech

                                           Within Bryant Woods oil on panel 12x12

 This little painting began as a short demo for a curious visiting painter. These woods are my 'go to' place for beauty, I can walk there.

                                             Oswego Lagoon Study oil on Yupo 14x11

 A study for an oil painting I`m working on now. The lagoon is formed when the tiny Oswego Creek joins the Willamette River. Somehow a large protected pool was formed at this confluence. A footbridge crosses it with a view upstream that is ghostly and serene in winter. Here is an earlier version from 2011;

                                                    Winter Creek oil on canvas 20x16

  This blog is called Painter`s Process because I mostly talk about the creation of art. The psychological struggles, aesthetic concerns, technical questions and career realities. Sometimes natural history and science too. But my other two loves are politics and food. I have passionate opinions with both, the former I share here rarely but the other I`m going to more often.

 As a young teenager thinking my way through the Christian orthodoxy I was raised with but still a believer in its compassionate and generous values, I took to politics as a real world expression of these beliefs. I remember staying up watching the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago late into the night. MLK and Robert Kennedy had been killed just months before. I was frightened and only 13 but I knew that this mattered. I knew that those student protesters threatened the order families depend on, but I also could tell they were right, that the war was tragically wrong. Though I`ve never been an activist I`ve always believed politics to be a critically important and moral part of citizenship.

 Mitch Burrell has been a regular attendee at my monthly demonstration. For the last one, he appeared carrying a disc wrapped in foil. I thought he said 'fritatta' so as I set it on a table I announced it to everyone and maybe they thought like me, a quiche-like thing, now cold. No one even peeked. This became my great good fortune! When I went up to the kitchen after everyone had left, I opened the parcel up to find a thin cake dusted with powdered sugar. I cut some wedges and took a bite. It was intensely almond then came a nice note of anise. It was perfect and simple. John and I tried to think of something, anything that would enhance it. We couldn`t, no fruit or sauce or even whipped cream. Great Italian food is often like that. So uncomplicated it`s hard to believe yet change one ingredient or ratio in the recipe and it will fail. Mitch sent it to me saying it was from a cookbook called 'Tuscany the Beautiful'. Here it is;
1 cup of ground almonds, 1 of flour, 1of sugar, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 TBS. of fennel seeds. Mix, Add 1 cup of milk. Bake 1 hour at 350 in a tart pan. [M. says it needs to be a spring form pan. There goes the Tuscan simplicity!] Dust with powdered sugar when cool.

 My niece Elizabeth posted this 'selfie' clip on Facebook of a Seattle Seahawks fan at the NFL playoff the other night. It`s mostly just his face but you can literally read what is happening in his expressions. I`m not a sports fan but I`m moved by human emotion and this young man`s joy is a sight to behold!

                                                        Tom Uttech 1983

 E M Corsa told me my work reminded her of Tom Uttech`s. She couldn`t have praised me more as Tom has long been a hero of mine. I see actual similarities in the older piece of his I`ve posted above but his current work is different. No particular stories are being told in his paintings yet they read to me like spiritual narratives, the Big Story found in the details. I`ve never seen one in person so I was surprised in this video to learn how important biological accuracy is to him. His landscapes of the upper Great Lakes are rich and intimate views of another kind of reality.

My website is updated and now includes work from 2014. Thanks Jeremy and Anneliese!

 I will be demonstrating my watermedia technique near the close of my show 'Environments' with Tom Cramer, at the site, Museum 510 on First St. downtown Lake Oswego, Thurs. March 26 at 11 am. All are welcome. Tom and I will also be giving a gallery talk Thurs. March 19 at 6:30 pm.


[updated] work for sale in my studio

Winter Morning-Fanno Creek Wetlands + other marshes

                                        watercolor and oil on yupo 26x20

 This was my demonstration painting from last Saturday. The day before I had walked around the Fanno Creek wetlands in Cook`s Park taking mental notes. So as I began the demo with watercolors, I was confident about my intention. The subject was the dormant grasses in the foreground water with bleak bare trees and brambles behind. Illuminating it all was to be a cloudy sky in Easter egg colors. Things went south quickly as my sky refused to take shape and I re-emulsified it repeatedly. With 20 eyes watching me, I just wanted to set the mood in the hour and a half I had with them. Nope, even alone that night not much went right. Getting desperate, I went nuclear. I sealed it all up with a spray acrylic and took it to the oil painting side of my studio. I`m always telling frustrated watercolorists to work in oils. Much easier to control! Usually so. This was a defeat and I`m posting it because I told my guests I would. We all want to see how the story ends.
Below are some earlier, more successful marshes.

                                                  oil on paper 12x9

                                                 oil on canvas 10x30

                                         watermedia on Yupo 12x12

 When I posted a Mary Oliver poem recently, others wrote me who loved her work as well. I`ve never heard or read any dismissive comment about her from anyone. I tried to think of other artists so unanimously admired. My list was short. One was Johnny Cash. Has there ever been a more convincing voice of moral authority? Another was Andy Goldsworthy, that magician who uses the earth itself for his art. I actually have an little issue with him though he is innocent. All of the projects, stunts and happenings that exist only to be photographed or videoed, then posted on the internet, I think derive from his marvelous, temporary works of art. I had had enough when I saw a clip of balls rolling down through a forest hitting bamboo planks with the sound recreating a Bach concerto. Why?
 Here`s an interesting video of the man himself talking about what he does. Here is one of his simple elegant works;

 Now for a recipe, yes, a recipe. This is good, easy and my own little accidental invention.
 one package of Trader Joe`s Belgian Endive [3 small heads]
 one ripe avocado
 one large red grapefruit
  Slice the endive into 1/4 rounds and place in a large bowl. Dice the avocado and add. Peel the grapefruit by scoring it into quarters first, then use a paring knife to remove any pith. Slice into small pieces like in the photo below. Be careful to remove any seeds. Sprinkle with good salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Toss.

See this cat? See that rug?

 That`s Jackson, my cat with 'issues'.
In a classic example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions, we found him a companion, a playmate 13 years ago. He does indeed play with Lincoln yet also nurses a bitter resentment. The new member of our household has never been welcome by Jackson and he reminds us by vomiting. Oh the remedies, foods, medications, and therapies we`ve tried!
 We`ve sorely needed new furniture for a long time now but have held off as we`ve searched for the holy grail that would solve this matter. After finally casting out a particularly hideous coffee table that I literally found on the side of the road, we were left with a giant void of a bare floor. Now, we really needed at least a rug. So off I went to IKEA with a mission. This floor covering had to be densely woven, with a complicated pattern, short easy to clean fibers and Big. I had budgeted a whopping $700, this was how urgent our situation was!
But this marvelous rug was only $65! Thank you IKEA!!
 'Problem' pets can teach us how to do the impossible, love unconditionally. That`s no small thing.

work for sale in my studio

next open demonstration, Sat. Feb. 14, 10 am

Tualatin Overflow 2 - sketches - foggy walking

                                        oil on canvas 18x36

  That`s all I could do for a week, not much!
I`m sometimes asked what I`ve been doing and I`m flummoxed how to answer. Everyone knows I paint as often as possible but what is hard to get across is how much minutia a painting career entails. Much of it is so tedious and boring, not good conversation at all! Mentioning any of it just sounds like whining. After all, being able to devote myself to painting is something of a privilege. I don`t take it for granted either and I`m especially grateful that I`ve never struggled with identity. I`ve seen that issue consume people.
  This week has been dominated by necessary tasks. I`ve spent a whole lot of time on photography preparing for my website update, assembling publicity materials for my show here in LO in March, rearranging my studio for teaching this weekend, framing and packing work for delivery to my new representative in Bend Oregon, the Paul Scott Gallery and to refresh myself I`ve taken some breathtaking walks in the cold wet fog, most recently along Oswego Creek and the Willamette River. The color has been outstanding!

work for sale in my studio 

watermedia demonstration Sat. Jan.10, 10 am-11:30


   

Lacamas New Season - Papers - Perseverance

                                      oil on canvas 30x24

  I was trying to suggest the tipping point where winter begins to move toward Spring. Here, that`s usually late January.
  I hike frequently in the hills above Lacamas Creek WA with my sister in law Mary. I always think it`s visually interesting though I remember taking some friends from Nebraska there during a bitterly cold moment a few years ago. They were not impressed with the wilted frozen ferns, the biting wind and treacherous footing. Normally it`s just wet, usually green with moss and there are stands of dramatically gnarled oak trees. Walking uphill among the rocky outcroppings you can see the branches rising behind the boulders. I love this and have painted it several times.

                                     oil on canvas 24x24

                                watermedia on yupo 12x12

                                     oil on canvas 20x20

  In the Spring of 2010 I had the most unusual visitor. She had decided  she deserved good art to live with even though she was near the end of her life. I can`t remember the wording of her google search but somehow she found my work and asked if she could come visit my studio. So between kidney dialysis appointments, this elderly woman drove non-stop from Boise Idaho to Portland, checked into a motel then called and came over. She bought three of my best paintings and returned home the next day.
  I have never felt so flattered and validated  in all my life.
  Yesterday one of her sons called to say she had passed and would I like to buy the paintings back? I have never been asked this question. These are the paintings;

                          Reed Canyon Spring oil on canvas 48x36

                             Mt. Talbert Fog oil on canvas 30x24

                          Stones by the Trail oil on canvas 18x24

  When I posted a few watercolors of Georgia O`Keefe`s recently I learned I wasn`t the only one curious about the paper she used. Betsy Chang had written a librarian at the Museum of Modern Art in New York inquiring as well. She received a pdf file with several O`Keefe reproductions and an exhaustive analysis of her materials and methods. I thought it was fascinating but suspect only artists would care. If anyone would like to see it, I`ll be happy to forward it.
  The answer I was looking for is this - watercolor cartridge paper!
  Now, if someone would please tell me what that is?
  I have to be careful, I can get really obsessed with papers. Any paper and way past rational. What I would kill for is some of the exact paper our money is printed on. I know it has a high linen content and is obviously tough as hell. I bet watercolor would be sensational on it!

  For those older artists I mentioned in my last post, those returning to their creative natures again, here is a video by Ira Glass, the man behind the wonderful radio show 'This American Life'. He has some comforting words about the disconnect between taste and execution. He is talking about writing but it could just as well be painting.

Happy New Year!


Work for sale in my studio

watercolor on Yupo demonstration in my studio Sat. Jan 10, 10-11:30 am. Guests brought stools with them the last time and used them.
5373 Lakeview Blvd
Lake Oswego OR
97035