Plumber’s Blue Glue – 60 minute oil study – year end assessment

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6″ x 6″ oil on canvas

Continuing with quick studies, this is a can of PVC glue and a pear. I was trying to think of something this could be a metaphor for but, the fact is, I only chose the objects for the colors.

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This may be the last post I make this year so some summing up is in order. I started this blog this year in March after stumbling across Russell Stutler’s website documenting his sketches of Tokyo. Over the year I’ve posted 85 paintings and sketches. I filled 4 sketchbooks including a travel journal. I did my first plein air oil paintings, joined a plein air painting group, attended 2 workshops, participated in 2 World Wide Sketchcrawls and began attending a life drawing group.

I’ve become acquainted with quite a few brilliant, generous and encouraging artist/bloggers and learned from and watched them grow as artists with great pleasure.

I began this blog, after a long hiatus from art making, thinking that I would use it to support myself in developing a habit of sketching. That mission has been accomplished. (I feel naked if I go out without a sketchbook now.) It’s gone far beyond that though, as I’ve started to include oil painting and other media and making art has again become a very large part of my life, as I had always intended it to be.

Looking over my work, it’s clear to me that I’ve grown substantially as an artist and, most importantly, since it’s the point of all this for me, I had a blast doing it all.

Thank you to all the artists and art lovers who’ve visited and taken the time to leave a comment or suggestion and to all the artists sharing their work and enthusiasm. I’m excited about what next year will bring.

Happy (and please, a more peaceful) New Year to all!

Centennial Mills from Broadway Bridge – Portland

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5″ x 8″ watercolor and ink

Centennial Mills began operation as a large grain milling and processing facility in 1910 when Portland was the milling capital of the northwest (from portlandonline.com).

It’s now scheduled for redevelopment.

Still life with purple carton and Focus

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6″ x 8″ oil on canvas

I know my blog lacks focus. One day I’m doing pen and ink landscapes the next oil portraits and now I’m back to still life. I’m easily influenced and want to paint whatever I’m turned on by at the time. This is one of the advantages of having a “hobby blog” as opposed to a “professional blog”. But it may make for a less interesting blog to follow and it may also limit my growth as a painter.

(I don’t consider myself a hobbiest but since I’m not putting any energy into selling, I suppose that’s what I would be considered.)

Anyway, lately I’ve discovered a couple of painters I like and they’ve gotten me thinking of still lives again.

I mentioned Kathryn Law’s self portrait project but she also has a lot of really freshly painted still lives on her blog. Another painter I’ve been admiring lately is Jason Waskey, I especially like his inclusion of patterns which I’ve tried without much success so far. I always admire Carol Marine’s still lives as well and have followed her blog for a long time.

I’m impressed by the commitment these painters show (Carol has now produced more than 400 paintings on her blog!) and their methodical way of exploring their subjects. In other words, their focus. It’s interesting to watch from day to day to see the evolution of what they’re interested in and what angle they choose to tackle it from each time.

One hour self portrait

10″ x 8″ oil on canvas

I have been admiring Kathryn Law’s one hour self portraits and that sounded like a pretty good exercise. I also recently watched a portrait painting demonstration video by Daniel Green. Daniel’s process is to premix several skin tones in 6 gradations. He uses a very different palette than I as well. So, I decided to combine two experiments and try out the palette and premixed skin tones while attempting to complete a portrait sketch in 60 minutes. It seemed like a great idea since having the paint premixed should make it go faster.

This was a disaster. After mixing all these piles of paint, I looked in the mirror and didn’t see any of the colors I’d mixed. Of course a masterful painter could still produce a good painting. Afterall, it’s more about the values than the colors. But this was not a masterful painter, it was me and I choked. Trying to paint quickly with unfamiliar colors was too much and I ended up wiping it down after about 30 minutes. And I didn’t enjoy it at all.

After a break, I did the painting above using my familiar palette and completed it in 60 minutes and had a lot more fun.

Update of Em and Osa

It’s been hard to find time to paint lately. This is the final stage of a painting I posted earlier.

10″ x 8″ oil on canvas (click for large view)

 

Twilight Garage

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7″ x 9″ watercolor and ink

Inspired by the nocturnes painted by Stephen Magsig, I wanted to try a twilight scene. I used a little gouache here and there and sometimes loaded a dip pen with watercolor for fine colored lines.

Dock at Newport

5″ x 7″ watercolor and ink

Sad day in Oregon

A ferocious wind storm has killed the oldest tree in Oregon and the oldest Sitka Spruce tree in the US. The tree was known as “The Klootchy Creek Giant”

* Height: 200 feet
* Diameter: 17 feet
* Circumference: 673 inches or 56 feet
* Crown spread: 93 feet
* Age: Estimated 500 to 750 years old. The tree started as a seedling shortly after the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215.
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This is not the Klootchy Creek Giant

__________ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ__________

Dry Dock revisited

5″ x 8″ watercolor and black and white ink

I posted a sketch of this scene a while back that I did on site. This was done from the earlier sketch and photo. Although the crane is interesting, what draws me back to this is the red plastic netting at the end of the platform.

5″ x 8″ sketchbook page watercolor and ink

I’m feeling the warmth of the sun on the warehouse wall as I listen to the blowing wind and rain outside my studio.