http://www.harcourtbooks.com/WhistlingSeason/interview.asp

 It was a challenge for me to decide whether to focus my painting on the characters or the setting of rural Montana. There were so many wonderful characters in this book that I had a hard time choosing, and finally decided that the landscape was the one common factor to their experience.  Doig has a great gift and I must borrow words to help me explain how this book made me feel:

Before me lies the edge of the world. I am on my way there running. – from a Papago song

I rarely do landscape, so this was both a challenge and a joy. Montana is a place that I love to visit. I have family there, and my impressions of its vastness are filled with nostalgia as well as the simple, natural beauty that emptiness and space can inspire. I hope my interpretation holds some of that emotion, through my exaggeration of color and my choice to leave any trace of human touch on the landscape out of the painting. Let me know what you think!

Smooth Buttered Plain 12x12"

While I was working in the studio for the first time in a long while, I got a call from the RiverSea Gallery in Astoria. They want to do a solo show of my work in March! (Of this year!) Oh My! That is coming right up, and I will have to work my tail off to get enough quality work completed. Yikes. I guess I needed a deadline.

Finally, I wanted to share some more links of artwork for the 100 Artists show at Mary Lou Zeek. Mary Lou has posted some more on her blog, and here are some other blogs of artists! Check them out! 

http://www.thesteelfork.com/wordpress/100-artists-show-the-honeybee/

http://www.jenworden.com/2010/01/06/january-means/

http://idolatrieartist.xanga.com/719573915/beans/

Jessica  included a link in one post that is so funny…. the instant art critique. Put in any five numbers and it generates a phrase that will make you sound pithy, smart or at least over-educated when talking about an art piece.  My numbers generated this lucious bit of art-speak:

“It should be added that the optical suggestions of the sexual signifier makes resonant the essentially transitional quality.” 

It would be fun to look at a random painting and a random critique together and try to make sense of the two!

OK… enough procrastinating! Off to the studio

Michele, Jeanie and 'Walter' at Cascade Head

The edge of the earth

Scent of the fir trees

My outdoor experiences this month have been tempting me to become a landscape painter. I have been in a bit of a holding pattern with my artwork. Not doing anything in the studio has its frustrations, but it also gives one time for reflection about what really moves you. This month, I have been totally moved by the beauty of the landscapes I’ve been immersed in. They inspire feelings of peace, energy, curiosity, appreciation and so much more. Writing about these inspirations is frustrating… I’d so much rather try to paint them.

I am looking forward to experiments with some of these ideas when I can finally reclaim my studio. Only a week or two left of sharing with my college-aged daughter. I can hardly walk in there right now. Grr. And hopefully by next summer we will be settled in a place where we can each have plenty of room. Thinking about moving to acreage has also fed my hunger for the land. I grew up on a farm in the Willamette Valley, and I am so nostalgic and lonesome for views like this:

I enjoyed the coast trip so much…. had a chance to visit a great gallery in Pacific City where I saw inspiring work by Michael Schlicting, William Park, and Deborah DeWit-Marchant. Today I will get more inspiration… I’m heading to my critique group, Splash. Nothing new to show, but I’m always fed by communing with other artists.

Before the ‘kids’ came home, I finished the painting I’d been going back & forth with:

This is what it looked like before

This is the final version "Knowing" 22"x15" Original Watercolor

 I like the revised painting much better… the hair fits with the rest of the image now. Thanks to my friend Ted for the ‘virtual’ critique. I actually think I like the virtual critiques better than our meetings in person when I hear about half of what is said. To see the comments in written form helps me put aside my insecurities and objections and consider each suggestion thoughtfully.

The rest of my weekend was spent trying to restore my blog posts from April and May and setting up a new Etsy Shop! After chatting with my friend Linda Rothchild Ollis about her new shop and seeing friend’s shops like Blenda’s I decided it was time to take the plunge into the online market. For now I have a few small prints available, but I plan to add some smaller originals after the Salem Art Fair this summer. I want to have as many originals available as possible for my loyal collectors who attend that show. Looking forward to seeing you and your friends there!

I hope you’ll visit my Etsy store and share it with your friends. I really appreciate your referrals. If you refer a friend and they buy an original, I will give you your choice of 8×10″ prints! Word of mouth is my most powerful marketing tool, I find. People who live with my art & love it, generally know others who have the same inclinations!

You paint the way you have to in order to give, that’s life itself, and someone will look and say it is the product of knowing, but it has nothing to do with knowing, it has to do with giving.

-Franz Kline

I love the above quote by Franz Kline… for me it is one way to explain the process I go through in painting. I am seeking to give something from myself to the paper, not putting down what I know. Each painting is a discovery.

I have quite a few new images to post tonight… took photos and finally took the time to crop & resize them, etc.  I’m trying to figure out which ones to take to critique tomorrow night (we usually only show 2 images). If you have thoughts on which ones might need further work, I’d love the suggestions. I’m feeling pretty good about most of these, but I’m always open to feedback.

Flower Market, 11x15" Original Watercolor

"Scent" Original Watercolor 15"x11"

"Song" Original Watercolor & Gouache 15"x11"

"Knowing" Original Watercolor & Gouache 22"x15"

I’m feeling the pressure to be in the studio every day for this final week that I have the room to myself. On Friday my daughter will be home from college and I will have to share the room with her There is something about having to navigate around her piles of clothes etc, that keeps me from being so productive.

An artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it.  ~Paul Valéry

I woke this morning to more snow! It wasn’t anything that could stop a person from getting out & about, just a light dusting, and so pretty!  We had our critique group meeting at Tangie’s, and lucky for me, the swans were still there! Such a delight…. and we also spotted an elegant white egret! It was hard to concentrate on the art with all the beautiful scenery out the windows.

Wild Swans

I was so unsure about bringing my newest painting today… I didn’t really feel like it was finished, but couldn’t put a finger on what to do to finish it. I didn’t want to fiddle it to death. The group was very complimentary, they thought it was definitely finished

Often times I need a period of time to elapse between the final stages of a painting, and pronouncing it complete. There is something about the passage of time that makes me less sensitive to hearing criticism, or more sure about the success or failure of a painting. Do other artists out there feel the same way? I’d love to hear others’ perspectives on this. Here is the ‘finished’ work (unless I change my mind and work on it some more!)

Mother & Child

After the big highs of the two opening receptions this past week, (Mary Lou Zeek’s 100 Artists and the Beaverton Arts Commission Showcase) I had to respond to a bit of an emergency with my mother. She fell last Wednesday night on her way home from a bridge game… fracturing her pelvis. She is so tough, though! She picked herself up off the ground in the parking lot, drove herself home and got up the steps into the house. She didn’t even call any of us kids. It must be hard to feel like you have to report to your children when you’re the mother.

The next morning I called her to check in… she told me the story and said she was still hurting quite a bit. Knowing her health history (osteoporosis) I advised her to get it checked out… and sure enough, it was fractured. Unfortunately there isn’t much they can do for this type of fracture. She will use a walker for several weeks. I went down & spent the night with her Thursday night, got things squared away so to speak…. made sure she could get in & out of the shower and do what she needed.  I also got her to set up a ‘visiting angel’ to come for a few hours a day to do things like take out the garbage, grocery shop, make meals, clean up etc… I just feel better knowing someone will be there each day. She has so many friends and relations calling her and visiting though, I probably didn’t need to worry.

It is odd, I had been considering doing this painting for about a week before the issue with my mom. I’ve done paintings of my father, grandmother, sister, kids…. but never my mother. I worked up about 12 value studies to prepare for the painting… and finally got to the good stuff today. I’m not sure it is finished. I think I may have too much value contrast going right now. I’d rather see a color emphasis… but we’ll give it some time and take it to critique tomorrow to see what they think.

We are due for more SNOW in the forecast tomorrow… and I hope it doesn’t interfere with our critique group meeting! It is supposed to be at my friend Tangie Belmore’s home… she lives in a beautiful home set right next to a wetland. The last time I visited there were about 40 wild swans feeding there… They were so beautiful. I wish I were a better photographer. My little point & shoot just didn’t do them justice, and it is such a rare sighting here in Oregon. I only remember once seeing them growing up on our wetlands. If the weather cooperates, I will try to get photos up of the new painting after critique tomorrow. And if the swans are still there, I will try again to get photos. I’d better bundle up!

Several years ago I painted this image from a sketch I did of Satsuko at a Critique group meeting.  I loved her gesture… the strength & confidence packed into such a small package. It is now in the Lake Oswego Foundation of the Arts permanent collection. I just wanted to post it here so those who knew Satsuko would remember her as I do.

“To Sadness” by Pablo Neruda

Sadness, I need

your black wing,

so much sun, so much honey in the topaz,

each ray smiles

 in the meadow

and everything is round light on all sides of me,

everything is an electric bee in the heights.

And so

give me

your black wing,

sister sadness:

I need the sapphire to be

extinguished sometimes and the oblique

mesh of the rain to fall,

the weeping of the earth:

I want

that shattered beam in the estuary,

the vast house in darkness,

and my mother

searching

for paraffin

and filling the lamp

until it gave not light but a sigh.

The night wasn’t born.

The day was sliding

toward its provincial graveyard,

and between the bread and the shadow

I remember

myself

in the window

looking out at what didn’t exist,

what wasn’t happening,

and a black wing of water that came

over that heart which there perhaps

I forgot forever, in the window.

Now I miss

the black light.

Give me your slow blood,

cold

rain,

give me your astonished flight!

Give me back

the key

of the door that was shut

destroyed.

For a moment, for

a short lifetime,

take the light from me and let me

feel myself

lost and miserable,

trembling among the threads

of twilight,

receiving into my soul

the trembling

hands

of

the

rain.

translated by Stephen Mitchell

The day after Thanksgiving, we started right in…. cut the Christmas tree & decorated with the kids, visited with college friends at the “Civil War”

What a beautiful day for a Football Game! November in Oregon?

(such a sad turn of events for the Beavers) and got ready for the big event of the year at my house: the Book Club Christmas party!

This is the first time I’ve hosted the Christmas dinner for this group, so the pressure was on! We don’t discuss a book in December, instead we choose a different charity each year to donate to… this year we chose the Susan Love/Avon Army of Women since my mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. After making a big dinner for 16 women, we enjoyed visiting, singing a carol and donating to this great cause. I had lots of compliments on my decorations and the food as a bonus! And I had a chance to show off my Father Christmas creations from last year and the year before…

Table Decorations

Father Christmas, handmade in '08 out of Sculpey Clay & found objects

Book Club friends from the past 15 years!

The other end of the table

Thursday my neighbor, Annette, invited a few women to her house for dinner and then off to see a play by Rick Tillman at Rolling Hills Community Church. It was my turn to be the guest!

Last night I got a spur of the moment invitation to dinner with friends, which was excellent since Marc was at the coast…. I just have to include one more shot of the beautiful weather we’ve been having here… this was Thanksgiving week… I had to go down to testify in the case of Goldylocks (see previous post Here)

November 26, Newport Oregon!

But that’s not all! I have 2 parties for my critique groups this weekend… both gift exchanges to look forward to. Also, my friend Donna is coming down from the Seattle area to visit & shop. It will be a full week… after which I intend to hole up in my studio for a few days to recuperate! Then it will be time for the kids to come home from college and life will really get interesting! It was great to have them home for Thanksgiving…. but so busy. It seemed so quiet when they left. Kind of in a good way! Also I’m looking forward to a visit from my cousin Lucy & her husband Drew from Salt Lake City!

I’m off to enjoy one more morning of glorious sunshine!