Blogger Don't Fail Me!

You May have noticed a lot of blogs did not have new posts for a couple days.  If you aren't a 'Blogger' then you wouldn't know the site was to close for an hour for maintenance.  It was a bit longer than that but everything seems ok now, only lost a couple comments in the process so onward and upward.  This is the final painting from the other day at Crystal Springs Gardens.  I bet next week the rhodies will have come out in full force after the last couple warm days.  Last night I attended a roof  party on top of the Eco Trust building and it was perfectly delightful. I think we are finally taking the right steps toward the warm seasons.  I'm off to the frame shop this morning to find something nice to put around this.  Have a good weekend.

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

 

Four of us showed up bright and early to paint water, reflections, and Rhodies at Crystal Springs in East Moreland.  It was a great day. As it warmed up, we saw several more members of the Portland Plein Air group come by to sketch and take photos

 

Spotted these shade loving blooms across the way, can't get enough of that spring pink!

My first little on location painting starts out with light values while I get all the elements in position. You'll have to come back tomorrow to see the final. the camera battery is charging!  As an aside, as we were packing up we spotted a big  camera crew setting up for some mysterious extravagant event. Found out later it was Vanna White doing background shots for 'Wheel of Fortune'.  I hope they got pictures of all the birds too!

Primroses

  Small watercolor yesterday afternoon of primroses, one of my favorite spring annuals.  When the weather warms and if you keep them in the shade of taller plants they will continue to bloom.  I used to tuck them in between the tomato plants.

Carolyn's Daffodils Update

Spent an hor or so at Carolyn's after breakfast on Tuesday Painting her Daffodils in a cobalt blue vase. Ater I got home I added the dark background.  You can see the first version here and let me know what you think of the difference. I like it better.

Last Saturday was a little drawing workshop put on by the Portland Urban Sketchers and instructor of Architectural drawing at Idaho State University, Mathew Behm.  We had a great morning lecture and slide presentation and after lunch we landed out in the rain at Pioneer square. One of the great thngs about the day was reconnection with friend Dee Doyle who was in town visiting and signed up while she was away from her own group up on Whidby Island.  We met last year in Myna Wacknov's workshop so it was nice to reconnect.  On the other hand I got very little done in the way of buildings bud did like my little quick drawing of the Rain Man in Pioneer Square seen below.  I'm ready for some sun I tell ya!



A New Idea



Painting Demo - Artist/Author Catherine Gill

There will be a Demo of mixed water media tomorrow, March 18th - Friday at the Beaverton Art Media - Starting at 2pm.  Catherine will be showing a plein air style of painting she has perfected and teaches in the Ballard area (studio) of Seattle. She paints watercolor combined with soft pastel in a different way than you commonly see.  In her painting style, she incorporates the pastel into wet watercolor so as to disperse the pastel pigment within a watercolor wash.  This can be added to enhance complementary and analogous colors and effect transparent and opaque properties along with heightened intensity.  There are lots of examples in her newly released book - Powerful Watercolor Landscapes.  I hope people in the area can attend.  Catherine will be signing copies of her book available for purchase at Art Media.  I think it is a great book and I really urge you to attend this Painting demo Tomorrow afternoon.
PS:  It was a great demo and big turnout.  Catherine makes her technique look effortless.

Catherine's Book info

Stocking The Trout Pond

( Maybe I should have photo-shopped in some green in these bottles for St Patrick's Day!? ) A few weeks ago our Tuesday morning breakfast meeting had a great discussion about "Stocking the Trout Pond" You may or may not be familiar with the term or heard it said in a different way.   The  artist must develop a reservoir of ideas from which to glean  to produce works of art. We talked about how each of us go about filling our individual puddles;  reading or borrowing art books & magazines - visiting galleries and museums - taking art classes and attending lectures.  All very good ideas but you know, not anyone brought up the probably easiest and most obtainable, with just a pencil and paper, just Doodle! Do it every day.  I just remembered seeing John Salminen's sketchbook with pages and pages of little thumbnail drawings.  there were probably 30 to the page, no bigger than an oversize postage stamp, two or three values, and just shapes.  He said he did these while other stuff was going on, his pencil and hand just kept moving across the page.  Later, he may find one to develop into an abstract painting but it will most likely go through a few more incarnations in the final work.

(Bottle Doodle -  4 x 6 - pen &  ink)

Onions Tagged with Red.

  This painting has been signed framed and hung for the first time at O'Connors for the 'Eight+ group that shows there every other quarter.  It was painted a while back but I wasn't ready or didn't think it was finished till I saw it under glass.  I remembered from the Salminen workshop; he suggested it isn't enough to see a work only matted but to also look at it under plexi too to know if it really is finished...... well you also need to sign it!
  I'm taking down my old website in a couple days. It is linked to my first ISP and I'm going to discontinue that relationship in a couple days - I don't plan on having a router to keep things simple so if you have it book marked you can delete it and plan on seeing more content and pages added here.  It was nice of Earthlink to offer free web space and hosting for their old customers.

Madalain's Portrait

I saw Mimi wearing this adorable little blue vintage hat on her blog.  We've never met in person; We only know each other from Face book and the Wet Canvas Forum so I asked for permission to use the reference and paint her with a twist. I took a liberty with the shape of her mouth to go with her attire. This was very fun to do! Mimi  gave me her stamp of approval so here she is.  I did another twisted portrait last year if you want a reminder, look here.