Crows in the rain Title" We Should Have Stayed Home"

Another cold wax piece.  I was definitely affected by our recent stormy weather.  We have had some very gloomy rainy days with along with some very strong winds.   I always see the poor birds out there in the elements which I guess gave me the inspiration to capture them and how they might feel about being in the rain.

Size 24"x24" on panel.

RAVEN, Phone Pictures ( Alert Bay, British Columbia)

I did this painting as a gift for two very special people in my life who took me on a sailing  journey of a life time through the wilderness of British Columbia this past August.  One of the trips we took was to a small village called Alert Bay. Through out the whole trip I was on the look out for Ravens to photograph.  Alert Bay has a marvelous museum that show cases the art of  Canada's First Nation People that I felt for me was one of the high lights of the trip. Alert bay was the only place I saw a Raven and was able to photograph the big fellow; so the painting represents my feelings for the area. The Raven, the buttons worn by the First Nation Peoples ceremonial clothes and the water in the bay.  I also incorporated the word "Gilakas'La, which means welcome or thank you in their native language.

 

AUDUBON WILD ARTS FESTIVAL

  "Now I Know my ABCs"

 

For the past five years I have done a small 6"x6" painting for the Portland Audubon Society's annual fund raiser.  They ask about 200 artist to paint on a 6"x6" canvas and then they are sold at $40 a piece, although I think they went up to $45. this year. This is my entry for this year. The event is Saturday and Sunday November 22nd and 23rd. More information can be had at www.wildartsfestival.org.  The show is wonderful with many outstanding artists, authors and craftsmen. The handlers always bring in fabulous birds that are being rehabbed and give a talk about why they have the bird in their care.

Cold WAX and Oil Painting of a Flicker

 "FLICKER"

 

This beautiful fellow comes to our bird feeders along with his mate from time to time. He is one of the larger woodpeckers that come to our feeders. The abstracted landscape part was done in oil and cold wax and the Flicker painted in oils.  The piece is 24"x24"

COLD WAX PAINTINGS

 Golden days of fall

 "Colors of Fall"

 

Once again I have been lax in posting.  The two pieces above were done over the spring but I never felt like posting them.  I guess my problem is I really am not too sure where I am heading with the cold wax and oil paintings. I have been incorporating either botanical or birds with the abstract element representing an abstracted landscape, question I ask myself is should I continue along those lines or give up and move on.  The first one is titled "Golden days of Fall" 12"x12" and the second one is "Colors of Fall" 12"x12".  Fall here in the Portland area has been glorious with all the beautiful colors of golds and reds.



Birds and Abstracts

  Marigold 24"x24"

  Seeing Beyond 24"x24"(SOLD)

 

I have been trying my hand at doing cold wax with my oils, working in a series.  In older posts I talked about doing the flowers along with an abstract landscape.  Several of the newer pieces I will be showing at the Tualatin Art Splash are from a series using birds along with an abstract element, ( see previous post) These are larger pieces 24"x24".  Looking forward to the show and hope to see you there.

New Birds for the Tualatin Art Splash

  (SOLD)

The birds and I will be at the Tualatin Art Splash Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 18th,19th 20th.  It's a wonderful event for the whole family, besides a great variety of artists there are events  planned for every hour including a concert Friday and Saturday nights by outstanding musician.
Check out the list of times for the various events.  All the art is under a huge tent by the lake.
http://www.tualatinoregon.gov/recreation/artsplash
 

For Susan....Chickadee Sold

Had to post this recently sold painting to my dear collage roommate from Moore College of Art located in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  Susan (Schildknecht) Mobley and I were "Advertising Art" students together and she and two other girls; (we were girls back then,)   Royanne (VanRiper) Oehlerking, and  Kibby (Doerrer) Pindell were suite mates.  Thanks to the Internet Susan was able to locate me after... dare I say after almost 50 years!  Saw the birds I had painted and bought the Chickadee painting.   I may complain about the Internet from time to time, but when a dear old friend finds me it's the best .It's been wonderful to catch up with everyone at various times to see where life has taken all of us.   We are miles apart;  me on the West Coast, Royanne in the middle of the country, Chicago and Susan on the East coast, Virginia. It really would be wonderful if we could all get together before we are to old to walk, see and hear. 

Been working on some much larger bird paintings along with the abstract cold wax which I hope to post soon; I always have good intentions to get the work online but my life seems to go in other directions, perhaps because writing is just not my thing. I really admire artists or any blogger for that matter who post consistently.

Zinnia and Agapanthus SOLD!

  SOLD

ZINNIA TANGO

 

  SOLD

AGAPANTHUS

It's always a very nice surprise that when a show ends and you go to pick up your paintings to find out that two have been sold.

More Crows and Birds

 Stellar Jay

 Gold Finch

  SOLD

  SOLD

 

Some more 8"x8" birdies done in oil or acrylic. The two crows paintings were in a recent show at the Side Street Gallery in Portland owned by Rita Larson and Michael Pratt, the owners of the beautiful tiles made by Pratt and Larson.

http://sidestreetgalleryportland.com/

CHICKADEES!

I have been itching to try my painting hand and brain out of the doldrums by painting some birds on a much larger panel; this is started on a 24"x24" cradled panel. I thought I should attempt to paint the birds before working on the bottom portion of the panel in the layers of wax and oils. Still trying to envision what the bottom landscape should look like.

Cold WAX, Landscape in Transition... No 8

This number eight of the twelve I hope to create, working with the concept of the landscape in transition.

Cold Wax, Landscape in Transition

I was hoping to be farther along in my landscape series.  My goal was to have 12 done by now, this is number 7; could be the winter doldrums that have me stuck in a painting rut.

The left side is painted with oil paint mixed with Cold Wax Medium applied in layers.  The right side is done with oils. Size 12"x12" on cradled boards.

Oregon Flower Gardens Landscape Transition #8, (Peony) Oil and Cold Wax

Sometimes no mater how hard I try I just can't seem to get the colors adjusted correctly in my photos of my art work.  I put my photos into Microsoft Digital Imaging, which has some color adjustment  ability but I still never get it quite right.  The red in the flower in this picture is way too intense. Seems like I am always complaining about something in my posts, so onto why I love flowers.

Several years ago a friend took me to the  Schreiner Iris Garden in Oregon. Nearby was a small Peony garden where I took several pictures of Peonies in there past glory.  To me the dying flowers were just as amazing as when they were in bloom.  It's almost as if they have turned themselves inside out to show the other side of the bloom.

In the spring the central valley of Oregon, the Willamette Valley is ablaze with what looks like stripes of colors side by side.  Glorious reds, yellows, oranges, purples, in the fall the blueberry bushes loose their leaves and the branches become another amazing color of red.  Artists paint these amazing fields of flowers and the paintings look so unreal, as if those solid vibrant colors couldn't really exist, but they do.  I am so grateful to live in such a beautiful state.

Landscape in Transition #7 Oil and Cold Wax Painting ( Rose Hips)

I have wrestling with what to name this new series of paintings.  I recently posed the question to several artist friends as to whither they thought I should just number them or give each a separate title. They all thought that numbering wasn't the best way to title a painting. 

All believed that in some cases a persons response to the piece was because of the title.  It resonated with them because the title gave the work something they could relate too in their lives, a memory or feeling of a place they had been to.  The more I thought about it I wondered also if I should include in the title the flower that I painted in each piece, since the flower is not in it's most beautiful state of being and may not be completely recognizable.

So, I would really welcome comments as to your thoughts on the subject.  How do you feel about the titling of art work?  Is it just the painting that appeals to you or does the title also give the art meaning to you?

Landscape in Transition #6

In my last post I wrote about where my flower inspirations came from.  The lovely Chinese Lantern
specimen came from my friend Wendy.  It's beautiful delicate flower.  On my first attempt at painting it I complained to my friend that I just couldn't capture  what I was seeing in the flower, something was wrong, what wasn't I getting right, she said and I quote; " you need more orange in the lanterns, " so that was my next attempt to get it right. Well, after much noodling with color I still haven't gotten it "right."

I think one of the problems is they appear too opaque; the lanterns have a wonderful translucency to them that I haven't been able to capture.  I still want to keep the landscape image on the right side of the painting   I didn't want to paint over the image and because I normally sand the images off by hand which is very labor intensive;  off I went to Home Depot and bought myself a small electric sander. Today will be the day the image goes away and I may rethink what flower goes with the landscape image. I need to get this painting out of my head and out of my hands.  What do you do when you get stuck with problematic a painting?

The Appeal of Dried Flowers

     I thought I would do a post about the flowers that inspire me for my Landscape in Transition series;  but first I have to rant about Google and their Google +.  I have spent a good part of my day trying to get these images first to download upright.  To download and publish  most of my photos I use Microsoft Digital Imaging. I tried any number of ways to get the photos to download upright, resizing, saving, turning off the computer and doing a restart...nothing WORKED!  So I went into Picasa where I knew there was a button to publish to a Blog.  Nope, said "service unavailable," so I went to the Internet to pose the question on Google.  Turns out it all depends on this new Google Plus and what account it uses.  Finally success, but what a HUGE WASTE OF MY TIME!!! Enough said, can you tell I am angry, why can't they leave something that always worked alone.

So, to get to the flower part of this post.  I often time pick flowers and let them dry to work from, or I will work from a photos I have taken  out in the field. The ones posted here are from friends who know and understand the appeal to me of flowers in this stage.  The colors do change but there is almost always still a hint of their beautiful color.  What fascinates me the most is the new form they have taken.  I can see the movement  that occurred as the petals and leaves dried in this new stage.   The flowers have taken on a more sculptural form that I find challenging to paint and hopefully the viewer of my work will be able to see and understand. So, I have to thank my friends, Wendy, Kathy and Roxanne for the beautiful specimens they gave me to work from. Hopefully you will keep watching my blog to see these flowers appear in a new painting. 

If I have time and luck tomorrow I will post a few more new Cold Wax pieces with flowers.

Cold Wax and Oil Painting....Landscape in Transistion Series

 

The painting on the top is a redo of the bottom painting.  I felt the abstraction on the right side didn't convey the landscape in transition enough and that's what the series is all about.  I also knew the photo of the bottom piece was too intense in color.  The top is  more accurate in the color of the flower. I removed the side strip of color near the flower and added another flower near the top.  Not only are the landscapes in transition, but so are my paintings! 

 

Gallery Show tonight at "In Bocca al Lupo" Milwaukie Oregon

My last post is about this evenings First Friday at "In Bocca al Lupo" Gallery in Milwaukie.
Roxanne Clingman has worked hard to promote my art and all the other artists she has in her gallery.
If your in the area please stop by and talk to the artists and Roxanne and to see the wonderful job she has done to create an intimate gallery of local artists.

http://inboccaallupofineart.com/

My piece at the gallery, acrylic, size 12"x36"

 

 

 

Audubon Wildlife Arts Festival (Portland Oregon)

It's that time of year again, the Audubon Wildlife Arts Festival another outstanding show of art.  The request for the small 6x6 inch paintings where for urban birds.  I thought I would do a painting of a pigeons because it doesn't get more urban then a pigeon!

 

http://wildartsfestival.org/6x6-wild-art-project

This is a link to the show, along with a video of many of the 6"x6" paintings for sale.

Along with the small works are many outstanding nature and wildlife artists and authors who have books and art for sale.

 

The show is held at Montgomery Park, NW Vaughn, Portland this years date is Saturday November 23rd from 10:00 to 6:00 and Sunday 24th from 11:00 to 5:00, the 6x6 painting sales starts on Saturday at 10:30.