featured artist

I am honored to be the featured artist on the Northwest Pastel Society website.

One day it occurred to me that if I lived long enough and if I continued painting, I was destined to become an abstract painter. The thought startled me. Now it amuses me. I must be the least likely candidate to make such a change. At the moment, I view it as my creative evolution but there were times when I wondered what was happening to me...

If you have a few minutes, CLICK HERE to continue reading.

new interpretation

Another old painting reinvented. A 2005 painting called River Walk - wiped off, turned upside down and painted again as River Walk II in a more abstracted style. Next week I'm going on a photo shoot, looking for scenes to paint this fall and winter in the Studio. Maybe the new reference photos will lead me back to painting in a more realistic manner...or maybe not.

please, not me...

Paintings aren't safe here. I can almost hear them whispering,"Please, not me...leave me alone."




I'm in rework mode. Any painting that didn't make it through to framing (and some that did) are getting reworked. For pastels, that will mean a total wash-off with the garden hose. But today I'm playing with oil pastel on the 9x12 canvas panels I was painting early this year to acquaint myself with oil paint. "Celebrate" of 1/4/09 has become "Celebrate II" 9/4/09. Here's the little set of oil pastels I'm using. I want more colors.

cold start

My weed eater has a switch called "Cold Start" - I flip it when I haven't used the weed eater for some time. Tonight as I was cleaning my studio, preparing for fall painting after summer break, I came across a little set of oil pastels. What better way to test my own cold start button than with a medium I've never used? Simply "Marsh." Oil pastel on canvas panel, 9 x 12 inches.

blue

Stripped the wallpaper off and painted the downstairs bathroom - a beautiful muted blue-lavender color by Behr called Great Falls (UL-240-8). Then, on to this 20 x 20 inch acrylic in blue-green. Lots of blue paint in my life this August.

anita's garden with sun

And finally, the afternoon painting with sun added.

two tinies

Two tinies ( 5 x 7 inches each ) painted in pastel today at the Fourth Annual Artists' Retreat on Vashon Island. What fun! Forty six artists with easels and sketchbooks were tucked away in various parts of Anita Halstead's award-winning gardens or set up on the nearby beach. A cool, overcast morning didn't deter anyone but the sunny afternoon was welcome.

earthly ties

Busy with some of my earthly ties today, I almost forgot to post this. The oven timer is going off for an apple crisp made from zucchini not apples. Yum. Acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 20 inches.

aha! (maybe)

After "Heat Wave," I began a painting to be called "Cooling Trend" but it evolved into "ties that bind...family ties...earthly ties..." I'm almost done but after looking at it for awhile I finally had an aha! moment - I think it needs a value change in one area. To confirm my suspicion, I looked at it in grayscale. I'll make few changes and post again when I'm done. For this post, I included a color strip so you can see the color palette.

irritation

We have had record breaking, triple-digit high temperatures here in Washington State. If we ever build our retirement home, it will have air conditioning to deal with this rarity. I've been painting late at night when the Studio temperature is bearable. And so, the painting of "Heat Wave." This morning it is thirty five degrees cooler and I can look at this painting without my brain melting or sweat dripping into my eyes. Many things irritate me about this painting just as the relentless heat did. There are awkward junctions, too-bright colors and texture conflicts. I wonder if this painting will still irritate me in November? If so, it is successful.

A side-note: I have old journals written by my mother. Almost every entry has mention of the weather. Earlier this year I painted of our record-breaking wet spell with "Slow Slide into Pink." Am I becoming my mother?

art by the boys

Our grandsons, ages 9 and 7 went home today after a week with us. We had lots of fun and made some art.

"I See You" 18 x 18 inches, acrylic on wood panel by Noah. To see Noah's previous work, CLICK HERE

"Untitled" 18 x 18 inches, acrylic on wood panel by Elias. To see Elias' previous work, CLICK HERE

breaking point in gray

In my journal entry of about a month ago, I spoke of acknowledging passing thoughts while painting and of holding the thought, and of painting the thought.

The painting I'm posting today has been in the works for several days. Some parts were working, but some, not so much. When I was about to sand it off and start over, my friend, abstract artist Kristi Galindo Dyson, visited the Studio. She turned the painting upside down and on it's side and said "...that's not so bad." Well, since my husband can't find his belt sander anyway, I didn't sand it off. I painted on it sideways for most of today. A little progress but no real message. Then, I received a frustrating email, turned it "right side up" again and began to paint in earnest to express "Breaking Point."

A useful tool today was to take a photo of the painting-in-progress, turn it into a grayscale and study value and balance. When the painting was complete, I took another grayscale photo. Here they are, side by side, with the finished painting on the right. To see "Breaking Point" in color, CLICK HERE
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best of show

WOW! I can hardly believe this award. The opening reception was held tonight. Lots of beautiful art. You can see the show online at the American Art Company website. The exhibition was juried and judged by well-known Florida artist, Greg Biolchini.

praise for my gesso brush

I'm priming cradled wood panels for another series of acrylic abstractions and have to sing the praises of my new 3" Utrecht Gesso Brush. Before this brush, I spent a lot of time picking stray bristles out of gesso because I was using the least expensive brush I could find. Today's priming job was a pleasure.

to and fro

This painting took longer to resolve than usual. Over several days, I worked planes back and forth. Quit. Pondered. Worked some more. I had several white-washing attacks and the words "hither, thither and yon" kept surfacing. I'm done with (tired of) the to-and-fro process of this work and am satisfied with the push and pull of color and textures. "Hither and Yon"

the edge of the earth

Yesterday I painted all day. It is exhausting to stand and keep at it for so many hours. Early this morning, I adjusted a couple areas on this painting and am declaring it done (for now).

My husband came into the studio, looked at the painting and said, "Didn't I tell you to stay away from the edge of the earth?" The composition does suggest an abrupt change of terrain. A view of under earth/undersea, roots and bubbles. But, the trees are fall colors. Hence, the title, "Free Fall" for this experiment in acrylic.

new day dawning

I love the soft edges, smooth passages of color, and the texture of one color dragged over another when working with pastel. But, I no longer love cutting mats and framing under glass. So, the goal is to paint in a medium that can be framed without glazing (glass or plexi) but manipulated to look like my pastel work.

I'm trying to do this with acrylic and what a mess! I started with a cradled wood painting panel. Two coats of white gesso then an ochre gesso underpainting. By the end of the day I had only three small areas I was satisfied with. I painted ochre acrylic over all the bad areas (which was most of the painting) then wondered why I did that and scraped it all off with a razor blade - right now to the white gesso in some spots - resulting in some nice texture.

In all, I washed out my brushes, scraped my palette and began again four times. I found myself applying color with a brush and immediately dragging it with my gloved fingers. Finger-painting with acrylic? I finally got this painting to a point that pleases me. I hope this is a new day dawning and that I become more skilled in making acrylic do what I want it to do. 18 x 18 inches

lost and found

Another old painting revisited. When I unframed it, I found I had painted on La Carte paper, not my usual Wallis so I couldn't just hose it off. I brushed away as much pastel as I could and began again to create another abstracted landscape. Got lost a couple times but found my way back to my message for "Summer Song in Blue."

Last week I judged awards for the Olympia Art League's 2009 Juried Show. If you get a chance, see the show today through July 20, 2009 at Olympics West, 929 Trosper Road SW, Tumwater, Washington. A varied show with some nice surprises.

Happy Summer!

hold that thought

Recently, Cathy Woo asked me to tell her about this new direction of my art. Writing an email response was an interesting exercise that gave me some insight into these mysterious abstracted landscapes.

I start each painting thinking about my feeling of the day. The work becomes about relating color to my feeling or state of mind. Ever tried to meditate? They say one should acknowledge the random thoughts that come floating by and then let them go. In these abstracted landscapes, I try to capture those thoughts to form an overlay of the primary emotion. That results in a visual expression of an in-and-out, back-and-forth exchange of emotions represented by colors, shapes, lines and textures in a sort of window-pane effect. When I think I've said what I wanted to say and I feel I've made the relationships interesting, I stop painting.

Cathy, so good with words as well as with paint, called my explanation "...structure to 'hang' the process on."

Today, I got interrupted when I was close to finishing this painting. All I could think of was "hold that thought!" I took a quick photograph of the piece to review on my computer display - a sort of distancing that works for me when I think I’m almost done.

Later, I went back to work without the review. I quickly lost sight of where I was going and then felt I had totally lost the message. After hours of additional work on it (with a Bob Dylan song in my head), I photographed it again. When I compared the two photos I was surprised to see the same message but now with more punch and spunk. This painting is called "From the West unto the East."

amused

I've heard artists speak of following their muse. (definition: muse - the source of inspiration for a creative artist.) Today, I know the feeling. I have to paint what I have to paint. And for now, that means these abstracted landscapes. Having this feeling aMUSES me. Today's painting is titled "Foreseeable Future."

EAFA 2009 Members' Exhibit

The Eastside Association of Fine Arts 2009 Member Show will open tomorrow. To see "A Far Country" and information about the show, CLICK HERE

slow slide into pink

I've been looking at this painting for 3 days and am declaring it done. The subject and title might be about having had the fourth wettest May on record in the Pacific Northwest. But for the past few days we have been enjoying sunny, warm days with more of the same in the forecast. 13 x 14 inches, pastel on paper

surprising myself

Yesterday I spent the day at the Women Painters of Washington Gallery in Seattle with artist, Kristi Galindo Dyson. She recently received a Best of Show award and, as we discussed abstract and field painting, I was surprised to find myself relating more fully than in past conversations. It made me realize how much my method of painting and my thinking has changed.

And so, today when I came across my posting dated January 28, 2008 on this blog, it made it smile because I have forgotten that feeling of only a year ago when I wrote, "I’m a big admirer of artists who start with an idea and paint it without reference photos or standing before the actual scene as they paint. However, that process doesn’t work for me."

out of the blue

After finishing "Dream Catcher" last week, I expected my next painting to be similar - quiet, reflective and understated. So, when I read the Spring/Summer 2009 Pastel Society of the West Coast newsletter article by Margot Schulzke, "It's All a Matter of Focus" and her words of wisdom, "Much is said by not saying too much." it confirmed my recent art endeavors.

However, add a couple days of beautiful Washington weather, a grandson's soccer game, hours of weed eating, garden and yard work and something very different happened to the next painting. While the active busy days of summer begin, another part of my life is on hold. It's an exciting but sometimes confusing time.

hold on tight to your dreams

This Mother's Day painting is another in my Sense of Place series: "Dream Catcher"