Boondoggling through a Painting

Are we there yet?

   How many times have you heard your kids ask that question?  Road trips and art-  they both provide the perfect opportunity to display impatience.  We have followed this image through three stages of its evolution from photograph to painting.  That's my current goal, to begin to see photographs as information for possible paintings, not paintings themselves.   I carry hundreds of images on my phone that I took because something caught my eye.  Was it the composition, the light, or the subject itself?  The danger ( and my oft repeated mistake) is to just reproduce the photo.  I jumped into painting this street scene without asking myself some critical questions about composition.  Our brains will accept and try to make sense of bad information in a photo, but not in a painting.  The branches of foreground trees looked like snakes in the painting, the street light coming from the left cut the painting in half, the street in the foreground was weak and didn't provide the depth of color to "ground" all those tall buildings.  Making all those changes has vastly improved this painting but it took twice as long as if I had recognized these compositional issues in the first place.

  I feel like I should know these things by now.  And I know my teacher is constantly amazed at how many ways I avoid immediate success.  Why must I always take the longest road possible to finally arrive at my destination?  Because boondoggling, or wandering around mindlessly, is characteristic of me in general.  I go to the store to get a gallon of milk and come back 45 minutes later with three bags of groceries and an old chair I bought at the second garage sale I stopped at!  

  The moral of this very long story?

 1.    Using the same brain you use in your every day life can be hazardous to your art!  

 2.    The shortest road to success in any painting is to follow the road map of good composition              before picking up a brush!

Who am I, anyway?

 This has been a busy summer!  I've had lots of opportunities to share and show my art.  

Good, but keeps me out of my studio more than I like.  It's always a delicate balance between producing art and promoting it.

   I'm finally beginning a new series of paintings that will depict urban street scenes.  This is the first painting and as you can see it's not done.  How do you know if a painting is done?  A good friend told me if you can identify problems in a painting, and you know how to fix them, you are not done.  I'm pretty good at fixing problems by now cuz I've made lots of mistakes!  It's identifying them in the first place that's tricky.  You can stare at a painting you are working on for hours and simply miss what's wrong.  That's where belonging to a good critique group comes in.  After seeking good counsel, these are the problems I've identified.

  This painting had some branches that were distracting because of the angle they were hanging, so I removed them.  The dark values were too strong, I muted them. There was a street light beam that cut thru the middle of the painting from the left in the trees.  That had to go!  Now I'm down to some issues with the cars and how dense the traffic is, and the way the street looks like it's falling straight down from the cross walk.  This creates an unsettling precipice effect.  A little stronger color in the foreground might be the pop this painting needs as well.  Much left to do.

   How does this relate to my identity as an artist?  I've worked on such varied subject matter- portraits of people and animals, still lifes, florals, botanicals, neon signs, landscapes, and now buildings...will there ever emerge something that defines my work?  I don't have the answer to that.  My watercolor teacher says- in the full bloom of an illustrious art career- that she doesn't think anyone can truly know that.  She says she doesn't even know that herself.   Maybe we will just discover what we love to paint!  And maybe knowing that will set us free to indulge ourselves in just painting what we love.  What would galleries look like if they were filled only with artist's most passionate subjects?

    I was recently challenged with this question,  "What makes you different than all the artists you know?  What makes your work stand out?"  Then I am supposed to make a list of qualities that make me different.  I'm still working on that list but it's a question we all need to ask ourselves.  Then, once you know some of the answers to that, how are you showing that uniqueness to people who view your web or blog site.  Deep, huh?  And you thought all I had in my head was colors :-)

4th of July at Pacific Rim

        Collaboration- July show at Pacific Rim Gallery

        Featuring Dan Chen, Sandi Grubbs and myself

All three of us painted this picture, taking turns to add our own touch.  It is amazing to see the three different styles blend into one painting.  Sandi does Chinese Brush, I do watercolor and Dan does a fusion of Chinese inks, watercolor, metallic powder and pastel that is truly dazzling.  There are three canvases like this, a triptych with one painting done by each of us individually but designed to be hung together, and one painting done by each one of us on our own.

Preparing for this show has been a rich experience for me.  Artists spend so much time alone.  It's refreshing to be with people who want to share their experience, their habits and disciplines -their lives. Thank you Sandi and Dan for the joy of creating together.

 If you are in the Eugene area and want to see the show, come to Pacific Rim Art Gallery,  on July 4th, 160 E. Broadway (in the basement of the old Quackenbush building.) The Art Walk begins at 5:30 and we are the next to the last stop.

Bloom- Inn at the 5th

A new gallery wall at the beautiful Inn at the 5th in Eugene is currently featuring my floral paintings!  

After the show at the Jacobs Gallery I was invited to display my work in this lovely space.  

This was originally a 20 piece show that helped kick off the annual Bloom celebration at the 5th Street Public Market.  Many of these paintings were done and ready for framing, but I had less than two weeks to pull this show together.  In the end I painted six new works and matted and framed sixteen paintings myself!  Needless to say I worked through the night many times that week.  Seeing all those paintings framed and hanging on the wall gave me a real sense of relief.  Hard work is necessary even in art, and I felt like this opportunity was a test to see if I would step up to the challenge of creating a show in this short time frame.  Thanks to Vistra framing gallery and my friend, Sandi who helped me hang all this work, it's up!

If you want to see this show, and you live in Eugene, go to the Inn at the 5th and ask at the front desk if they will open the Maple Room so you can see the art.  Their staff is some of the most gracious people I have worked with and they will walk you back there.

Rhythm- Jacobs Gallery show opens

This was such an amazing night.  The show was so beautifully done by Beverly Soasy, who is the gallery director.   The other two artists featured had really fabulous work on display and spoke so eloquently about what inspires their art.  Many friends and family came to congratulate me, including my watercolor teacher, Lavonne Tarbox Crone.  Without her none of this work would exist.  Everyone applauded when I introduced her.  She has truly enriched my life and I will be forever thankful to her.  Thanks to all of you who have encouraged me along the way.  I feel so blessed.

This show will be up till May 3.  Another reception will be held on the First Friday of April where we will be a stop on the Art Walk.  The gallery will be open 5:00-8:00 that evening.  Regular Jacobs Gallery hours: Tues- Friday 12-4,  Saturday 11-3

Out of My Hands

The neons have been delivered!  Finally, I took these paintings that I have worked on for almost two years and delivered them to the Jacobs Gallery.  The show is called Rhythm, and will feature my neon sign paintings in watercolor, as well as beautiful stone sculptures and some very impressive prints.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them all hanging in the gallery, framed and matted!   The show opens this Friday evening at 5:30.

 

There is more than one way to slay a dragon!  

The bottom picture is the original image.  When it was almost finished, I took it to be critiqued and we all felt the background was too strong in color.  After stripping out the intensity, the blue looks fresher, as though the dragon can finally breathe free.  Note the changes in the fire at the head of the dragon.  It is much clearer and we have strengthened the lines as well by changing some of the values.  Taking the bold chance of making such big changes so late in the painting is not for the faint of heart.  Yes you will solve the obvious problem, but what others will this change create?  I had decided that if I hated it I could always start over.  In the end, I was happy and called it DONE.  

Dog Portraits at the Creative Duck

 Today was so much fun doing a demo at the Duck Store on the U of O campus.  Lots of friends and family came as well as many new friends made as we shared our watercolor struggles and triumphs.  People from the audience even shared pictures of recent portrait projects they had on their phone.  It reminds me how powerful collaboration can be.  Courage is found  when we learn together.  I felt encouraged to try new things and learn new disciplines and I hope they did as well.  A big highlight was meeting the Riff family who came all the way from Sheridan to watch me finish the portrait behind me of their dog Mushu.  Thank you so much for coming and for letting me paint your precious dogs!  A big thank you to the Duck Store and Christopher for inviting me to come and helping me set up and tear down.  You made me feel so at home.