Two More Small Paintings

Today was the last workshop session. No more security blanket of a set time, no more comfort of a room full of other artists painting away... waaa!

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Two Small Paintings

I really, really meant to paint in my studio last week, but it just didn't happen. Life is pretty chaotic right now, so it was a relief to wake up Tuesday morning knowing that there were three hours set aside for painting! The bottom painting is NOT a pumpkin, although it looks like it. It is actually an heirloom "pineapple" tomato that my friend Blayney brought to the workshop. The top was painted from a plate and spoon provided by the instructor, Cathleen Rehfeld. I've never painted reflective metal before, so it was both a challenge and a lot of fun, and I think more successful than my pumpkiny-pineapple-tomato! :-)

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Four Small Paintings

It's been almost four months since my beautiful daughter-in-law, Rosario, was killed in a car crash which nearly took the life of my son, Westun, as well. I give God all the praise for saving my son's life; he is nearing 100% recovery. I still have a lot of daily sadness, though, and it's been hard to get back to painting. I decided to take a workshop class from artist Cathleen Rehfeld (see her blog Cathleen Rehfeld's Painting A Day) to give myself a kick-start. It was really, really nice to paint with other artists and to hear Cathleen's thoughts on her daily paintings. Here are my four little paintings from the first session. Hopefully, this will kick-start my blog, too! Thank you all for your support.

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New Artists Show-- Portland Art Museum

20x24
oil on canvas

I'm proud to be one of the new artists recently juried into the Rental Sales Gallery at the Portland Art Museum. The painting above, "Passing Judgement," will be one of five of my paintings included in the show. The opening reception is being held at the gallery, 1237 SW 10th & Jefferson, from 5-8pm, Friday, June 18th. Everyone is welcome!

Funky Solution #2

The primary difference in my painting since the number of children in my household doubled is going from an alla prima (painting all at once, or wet-into-wet) method to a layering method. This has not been by choice: it simply is a result of being unable to continue focusing on expressing myself on canvas while the baby is expressing himself through the monitor. This creates a problem in that I often don't get the canvas completely covered in the first attack. A dried or even tacky canvas, often means re-mixing colors to match what's already on the canvas(since the paint on the palette has usually dried, also), which is hard to do. If I get a color on there that is nowhere to be found in the rest of the piece, it stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. So....

Funky Solution #2: Baby wipes. Yes! If the paint is still even slightly tacky (pretty likely, with oils), take a baby wipe and gently pull the paint over the adjoining bare canvas. As long as the areas are fairly small, there is no noticeable damage to the previous brushstrokes, and the bare areas are no longer glaring at you.

~~Baby wipes are a universal solution (a fact well-known by mothers everywhere)~~

Funky Solution #1

Ever since the birth of my second child (now 9 months), I have had to adjust how I paint, when I paint, what I paint with, etc. I've always been naturally scatter-brained, with a tendency to fly by the seat of my pants, but the advent of Evan has caused an intensification of these characteristics. In consequence, necessity being the mother of invention, I've discovered some interesting solutions to problems arising from the afore-mentioned brain drain, and have decided to share them. Here's the first:

Funky Solution #1: When you've packed up kids and husband (to watch the kids, sweet man), along with plein air gear (easel, paints, solvent, canvas, paper towels, etc), and driven a fair distance from home (1/2 hour or so) in order to catch the evening light from a certain location, only to get there, get set up, paints laid out, reach for a brush.... and realize you forgot the brushes! they're still lying right by the washing sink where you left them... don't panic-- reach for a paper towel instead. Wrap the paper towel around your finger, dip in the pigment, and paint! For small areas, roll towel into a screw and dab. So...

~~A paper towel will substitute for a brush~~

If you look back through my posts, you will find the painting I did under these circumstances...

Evening Tide

9x12
oil on canvas

I adore the hills of the eastern Gorge. It's a challenge to portray their immensity in a painting, since there aren't pine trees, etc., to give them scale. The day was overcast, with just enough sun coming through to turn the hillsides pink, and with the shaded foreground, it gives an idea of their grandeur.

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