CROW PAINTINGS (RAIN BIRDS)

Title "Rain Rain Go Away $100.

Title "It's A sideways Rainy Day $100.

SOLD

         Title"Night Rain Bird"  $125.

We have had such a wet winter and spring that my thoughts are dull and dreary along with the birds who live outside in this weather all the time.  I like to work from photos I have taken of crows. They really are a very difficult bird to photograph because as I get just slightly close to them they fly away.  I guess I should invest in a better Canon camera with a better telephotographic lens.  I also need one that takes better" in motion " pictures;  between the motion of the birds and also me trying to capture my twin grandsons in motion I get really frustrated.  I did these on 3/4" cradled boards in oil along with collaged sides.  Think I might like to do more in the series.  Question is....should I continue to work on this series...suggestions would be helpful.  All comments are welcome.

FLOWER PAINTING - CHERRY BLOSSOMS

 I

I have a show being held at the Red Magnolia Salon here in Portland.  Maggie the owner has the most adorable location just a spit off Alberta St on 13th, in the Alberta Arts District here in Portland.   Please visit her website to see her hours and location....  http://www.redmagnoliasalon.com/

She will have a  "Last Thursday Art Walk" for the month of April from 5:00-8:00, wine is served! Please stop in any time to see the salon and Maggie and her staffs and the services of the salon. 

This latest painting is an oil done on a 16"x 20" panel.  I really had a difficult time getting the colors of the painting accurate in the photo.  I still think the pink in the flowers is too intense.

SONG BIRD COLLAGE (SOLD)

SOLD

Another collage, I seem to be working in geometric patterns with my collages lately.

STILL-LIFE (CUP AND SPOON )



 (SOLD)

I recently came across an old photo of a coffee cup and spoon. I had done a painting of it several years ago and thought it would be interesting to try another small painting of it.  The one on the top is the new painting, not sure if it's any better though.....hmmm, have I not grown as an artist? I have mentioned in previous posts how I always admire artists whose works are very loose, but I can never achieve that and realize I have to control  my brush strokes because I don't have the confidence in my ability to let go.

DOLL HOUSE

                                       

Where have I been?  Well, several weeks ago, my husband of 46 years complained of a stomachache, to make long story short, within a few hours he was in Septic Shock and wound up in the hospital for a week with not one but a combination of two bacterial infections that had entered his blood stream.  The doctors haven't been able to find a source for the infections, but he is finally better, but it was a huge scare for both of us.

Once he was on the mend I began helping my daughter get her house ready for sale.  We have spent countless hours painting and touching up wood work and walls, gardening, demossing,( the moss grows so green in the Northwest)  and packing up tons of stuff to get rid of any clutter, which are now housed in my garage  She lives in a very beautiful old neighborhood of Portland Oregon, called Eastmoreland with charming old homes.  If you are looking for a beauty of an older home check out the RMLS http://www.rmls.com/RC2/UI/Home.asp and in the MLS area type in  11174012

I always have trouble getting multiple pictures to post in a line on my blog, so I finally said this is taking too much time, just go with it!  One of my painting friends suggested I call the assemblage "The Doll House" at first I said ...no.. not what I intended, but the more I thought about it I guess that really is a good name for it. 

Dolls head assemblage

Another project I have been working on is this doll head. Several years ago, my son was visiting us in Portland and came across this doll head in an antique shop. He knows me so well and bought it for me thinking I could use her in an assemblage someday. Well, she has kicked around in my closet for several years and recently on a organizing expedition in my messy closet I came across her and felt it was time to tackle her. She originaly had quite a bit of very messy hair on her head, which I tore off. I have an assortment of old buttons and odd pieces of jewelry which I glued to her now bald dome. I also had a funky old wooden cheese box which I attached her head to, so now she is in limbo until I figure out what goes ni her box. Hopefully she will direct me and that will be my next post...until then, CREATE!

Pansy Painting (SOLD)

 

I believe I must be anxious for spring to arrive. While at my local grocery store I spotted these pansy's and was compelled to buy them to bring some spring into my studio. As they sat around looking so perky and springy I decided to attempt to do a painting of them.  At first I only had the three pots in the piece.  Then feeling the painting wasn't saying anything I thought to add the bird.  When I finished I felt like I had created a Hallmark greeting card.  So, I took the painting to my Thursday painting group for a critique and as I thought my fellow painters said 'take the bird out", but leave the flower lying on the bottom left.  I still feel I have to work on the flower pots.

Naples Museum of Art

http://www.thephil.org/museum/museum.html

My last posts was about attending the Blossom Exhibition in Naples Florida which was held at the Naples Museum and Philharmonic center.  If any of you ever get to Florida and want to see a first class museum this is a beauty.  I felt so honored to have my art being shown at this Museum.  I didn't have time to find out the history of the museum while in Florida, but on my trip home to Portland I had bought the magazine "Art News"to read on the plane..  There on page 48 under "news, spotlight" was an article on Myra Daniels, a former advertising executive, who was determined to bring culture to Naples Florida.  What I found very interesting in the article was the information about her husband; Draper Daniels, also a famous advertising executive and who was model for the character Don Draper on the TV series "Mad Men", one of my favorite television shows.  One of the most amazing pieces of art  in the museum is the last large piece of sculpture done by Louise Nevelson; http://www.louisenevelsonfoundation.org/, who is one of my all time favorite artists, It was a wonderful experience to get to see the piece in person and not just online or in a book. Myra Daniels according to the article has raised $400 million dollars for the center, so if you get to Naples Fl, it's a must see.

I attended the "Blossom Art of the Flower" show in Naples Florida.  The show was held at the Naples Art Museum and while I didn't win a prize, I surely felt like a winner having my painting hanging in such a gorgeous museum.  We weren't really allowed to take pictures in the museum but I did manage to snap a couple although they all came out very yellow.  There were over 2300 paintings from 35 countries entered in the competition, but only 100 chosen by 9 jurors.  Stephen Doherty, one of the 9 judges and the past editor of the American Artist magazine and the current editor of the new reissued Plein Air magazine announced the prizes.  A lovely artist with an English sounding accent ( she did not attend) was called by phone to let her know she had won the grand prize of $25,000. .The judges were artists, directors of botanical gardens and art museum directors.  All the artist were given two beautiful catalogs with their painting shown along with the artists description of their work and a photo of the artist.
      

The museum put on a spectacular wine and appetizer spread prior to the show opening that evening and it was packed with people coming to see the show. After the show all the artists and their guests went to an Italian restaurant where we were served dinner this time put on by the Susan K Black Foundation and the Blossom Competition.  I really am happy that I was able to attend.  I would never have traveled from Oregon to Florida to see the show had not my Sister-in- law who lives in Bradenton Florida allowed me to stay with her and to also attend and drive me the 100 miles to see the show.  Although weather wise, I could have stayed in Oregon, Florida 's weather while there was not much better then at home.  Somewhat chilly, very little sun, very windy and some rain.

In my next post I will give some history of the museum and its' founder, along with the winning entry.

Crow Collage

Another Collage, I have over the years picked up I guess most people would call these items junk, I call them little treasures. I have several drawers full of them and in the past did make some assemblages using them. ( see post from August 19th ) I am hoping to incorporate more of these little odds and ends into my collage work. For this collage I painted the crows and used the street photo I had taken in downtown Portland and did some manipulation on the computer to render the image in black and white. All the colored areas were taken from magazines. Plus the addition of my found objects.

Bee Collage (SOLD)

 SOLD


I have started the new year with a goal to do more collages this year. Since I have been working on a number of bird pieces I thought I would attempt to do a series of paintings and collages called the Birds and the Bees Series. The bee and the flower in the collage were done using Derwent Intense Colored Pencils. I bought a small set to experiment with and found them to be fun to play around with. After sketching with them you can go over them with a wet brush to get different effects. The rest of the collage was done with painted rice papers and assorted painted colored papers and colors ripped from magazine.

Crow Painting ( Is It Mine?) (SOLD)

Another Crow....what can I say, they have so much personality.  This fellow is 8" X 8" and the feather he is wondering about is a real feather. He will be for sale also this weekend.  Hope to see you there

Crow Painting ( I'm Out'a Here ) (SOLD)

Another crow, this fellow will also be for sale at the Jantzen Beach Mall and the Milwaukie First Friday.  It's a small painting also, framed in a black frame and only 5"x 7".  Several other artists and myself are doing small pieces so that we have some more affordable art for the holidays.

Curious Bird (SOLD)

This is just a little fellow.  I have a bird feeder hanging in a Weeping Cherry tree that I can see outside my studio window and one day this past spring I saw this little fellow peering back at me. It's a tiny painting, only 6" x 6" I did a few small paintings for a this weekend.  I will be at the Milwaukie (SP is correct, it's in Oregon) First Friday event with some fellow artists from the North Clackamas Arts Guild.  Saturday and Sunday I will be at the Jantzen Beach Mall in Portland Oregon doing a show with several other artists.
 http://jantzenbeachpdx.com/info/directions.html



6" x 6" ART by Phyllis Meyer

This is the final post about the Audubon Show.  Artists donate small 6" x 6" gallery wrapped canvas that they have painted on with a bird motif and these small works are each sold for $40.00. My husband came to the show with me and was willing to stand in line for close to an hour to grab this little gem for me by artist Phyllis Meyer, http://www.villagegalleryarts.org/galleries/meyer.html.  I am thrilled to have this piece by this very talented lady!  Love the style and colors.

Audubon Show

This weekend was the Audubon Wildlife Festival.  It's always a wonderful show to attend.  There are really great artists works to see and the Audubon Society always brings birds that live at the bird sanctuary.  I took dozens of pictures of these remarkable creatures.  I am having problems with my google blogger today and it's not allowing me to download more then one photo.  I will try another post and hopefully share few more photos that I hope will be great inspiration for new collages.

Sun Flower ( End of Summer ) OMG!

I am in shock! I submitted this painting to the international "Blossom Competition" being held at the Naples Florida Art Museum.  The competition is put on by the Susan Black Foundation and is solely for works about flower. I was notified that I my "End of Summer" painting was juried into the show.  The last show was held in 2007 with more then about 1,700 entires from 14 countries and about 100 paintings are chosen for the exhibition.  I feel so lucky to be including in this very outstanding show.  In addition to a beautiful catalog of the show certain works are chosen for the traveling exhibition which will go on until 2013

You can see the past show and works at the website:

http://www.blossomartcompetition.com/

ASSEMBLAGES

 

Thought I'd try something new with my posts. I have over the years done a number of assemblages but have never posted them. I tried to down load 6 of them from Picasa but didn't have any luck. I also downloaded something new from Blogger called Zemanta , which can add additional information to a post, so here we go, lets see what it brings up...

Well, there are a ton of assemblage artists out there online, but Zemanta didn't give me anything I want to post and Picasa only downloaded 4 pictures.  Guess I'll try again.

Festival Weekend

This past weekend was the Arts Festival in the Forest put on by the City of West Linn Oregon.  They really do an amazing job all weekend providing tons of entertainment all week, everything from lively music to magicians to the main event the tree dancers.  The weekend was brutally hot, about 98 on Saturday and Sunday.  Sally and I were very lucky in that our location was in the forested area, so we stayed relatively cool.   The first picture is of part of my painting displays, the next is our daughter and her family, the twins and TT, (Tim her very wonderful boyfriend) dancing to the Louisiana Zydeco Musicians.  Next is some of the many people who came to the show and the final pictures is the tree dancers.  I did very well and sold 2 large framed pieces and two of the unframed ones and have been asked to do a commission of one of my crow collages, so I was very happy how the weekend turned out...heat and all!

I recently completed a Plein Aire workshop with Richard McKinley http://www.mckinleystudio.com/,

in Laconner Washington.  Richard is the featured artists on the cover of the July/Aug. issue of "The Artist" magazine.  The posted picture is of him giving one of his demos while out painting near the bay.  The other is of him showing us how he does his under painting when he works from a Plein Aire sketch and does a painting back in the studio.  As an instructor, all I can do is rave about him.  He gives so much information and explains and shows what he means every step of the way, so that even if you a relative beginner to painting you understand.  He explained the importance of using a " Notan" prior to starting the painting.  A Notan being a value sketch in no more than 3-4 grey values.  He really stressed understanding values and using  a value under painting with burnt sienna on our canvas.  He showed us how to make in oils a full range of greys from dark warm and cools, mid range and light range of those values to use on our palette.  I took the workshop through Dakota Art,  in Laconner,  http://www.dakotapastels.com/pages/index.aspx. Robyn who owns Dakota is extremely helpful getting supplies if you need them or just doing her darnest to get you into the class, which she did in my case. I stayed at the Queen of the Valley Bed and Breakfast, with  my dear friend Wendy Dehart,  http://www.queenofthevalleyinn.com/ and we had the most wonderful breakfasts  made by Shelly, the owner and her assistant Jackie.  I told her she needs to write a breakfast cookbook!

The town of Laconner is delightful and the area is so picturesque, with beautiful farms in the valley, Mt Baker always in view, and the bay right there.  

For me all of it was an incredible learning experience along with a fabulous time.  Richard also does a blog for the Artists Network, where again, even if you aren't a pastel artists he really gives so much more then just the basic information, check it out.  http://pastelpointersblog.artistsnetwork.com/?p_PageAlias=pastelpointers

I did three painting while at the workshop, none worth posting, but that was really stressed by Richard, we weren't there to make a master piece, we were there to learn and to see.  I really thought on the last day I was getting the values correctly.  I used my umbrella so I wasn't painting in the bright sun, which I really had a difficult time doing.  When I brought the painting indoors I was so surprised that I hadn't gotten enough value differences in the piece.  I have to learn to exaggerate them a little more.  I am hoping that I can use what I learned not just for Plein Aire, but also for my studio work.

I am now working on getting my paintings ready for a show in West Linn Oregon, called "Art Festival in the Forest."  http://www.artsfestivalintheforest.com/ 

 I am doing the show with a fellow artists; Sally Hingley.  http://www.petragallery.com/  The show is Aug 14th and 15th. , so if you are in the area please stop by and say hello

Willamette Park (SOLD)

It's been awhile since I have had time to paint  or post.  Our Grandchildren were visiting us from Los Angeles, along with their Dad, our son; who is president of a company he started called mOcean. 

http://www.mocean.tv/

 The company does movie trailers along with creating TV promos for television shows and channels, also video game ads and TV and movie posters.  Their latest trailer is for the new movie "Inception" with Leonardo Dicaprio.

I did get out once last week to paint with friends in a beautiful park in West Linn, just past the little downtown part of Willamette.   I have so much to learn about this Plein Air painting thing.  So much so, that I am leaving on Thursday for a workshop in LaConner WA with a wonderful pastel artist and friend Wendy Dehart.    http://wendydehart.com/

We are taking a plein air workshop with Richard McKinley,  http://www.mckinleystudio.com/ which I am really looking forward to and hope to get a better grasp on Plein Air painting!

Hope to post when I get back with pictures and descriptions of the workshop.  Till then happy painting to everyone.  The more you paint the more you learn.

Crow Paintings again ( BOTH SOLD)

            More crows with attitudes.  They are such funny birds.  I see them everywhere strutting around, giving each other a hard time.  They are so easy to personify.  The guy on the left is titled " what's it to you?" and the guy or gal on the right is titled "Don't mess with me!"

Small Daily Paintings ( NINE SOLD )

These paintings are all small from size 5"x 7" to 8"x10" for a show I am doing in August called "Art Festival in the Forest".  I don't have cards of my work to sell; so I thought I would try doing a daily small painting and rather then frame them I would mat them and put them in a plastic sleeve.  My hope being that the smaller unframed paintings could be priced very reasonably and appeal to those people not being able to afford my larger framed works.  The single pear on the right hand board is matted as an example of what I have been trying to get done.

The Group of Seven

I realized it has been quite awhile since my last blog post.  Once again I found myself kind of in an art block.  I decided to do some studying, a friend recommended I check out a Canadian group of artists from the early part of this century called the Group of Seven.  I was thrilled to have discovered their artwork, especially Tom Thomson.  I wound up ordering a number of books from Amazon about the group.  If you have time check them out online at:
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_work_e.jsp?iartistid=5427 or

http://www.tomthomson.org/profile_gallery.php?pageNum_rscollection=0&totalRows_rscollection=69&ArtistID=1
 I have done some small paintings for a show I am doing in August called Festival of Art in the Forest.  I will take a few pictures and if they look alright will post them next.

I live in an incredibly beautiful state and feel I should learn to do more Plein Air painting, but just can't seem to get a handle on it when outdoors.  So, along with a dear friend Wendy Dehart, http://wendydehart.com/, I have signed up for an oil painting Plein Air workshop in July with Richard McKinley :  http://www.mckinleystudio.com/ in LaConner Washington.  Hopefully I can sort out my hangups and learn to edit what I see outdoors.  I feel so overwhelmed with the landscape and can't seem to narrow down what I should focus on when out there.  Any suggestions would help!

New Flower Painting ( First Bloom )

The photo on the top is the finished piece and the more   accurate one for the color in the painting.

Thought I would take a picture of what I am working on right now.  I find it really helps to see the painting from this perspective.  It shows me where the painting still needs work or if the composition is working.  It's a rainy day here in Portland...surprise...rain in Portland!  I couldn't get the right light to take a good picture and was having trouble getting the color in the white flower to photograph more purple.  Some of the greens are really off also.  When I get the piece done I will try and set it up with better light.  The flower center isn't done and the bottom right needs more work. I really tried to get more texture and paint in my brush strokes.  I tried working with  Gamblins Galkyd Lite as a medioum and really liked that I could get the paint on thicker with a lot of brush marks showing.  Not really very visible in the photo.

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Bird Collages ( BOTH SOLD)

Two new Bird Collages.  I tried to get both pieces side by side on the post but wasn't successful. I really am having mixed feelings about continueing this series.  I suppose I feel they are too stylized and that's not the direction I want to take.  I have been at odds with my artwork for awhile now and have really been trying to figure out the direction I want to take.  I miss painting the flowers and have started a new flower painting to see if I should continue doing those.  I have a dear friend who paints landscapes and does plein air painting who has helped me in that direction, but I don't feel those attempts are worthy of a post yet.