Happy Holidays

.

. I have no new work to post. We’ve been in the snow/ice storm of the century here in Portland and I’ve hardly been able to get out except to get to the grocery store. A house guest, who’s been stranded with us, occupied my studio as his bedroom.

.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s visited my blog over the past year. Especially those of you who’ve left comments and criticisms. I feel that I’ve grown a lot as a painter this year and your visits have contributed greatly.

Here’s to a Happy Holiday and a much more peaceful New Year.

Broadway Bridge – palette changes

.

10″ x 8″ oil on canvas

.

I was thinking a lot about using color or temperature changes to depict plane change rather than using white, in this painting.

I’ve added a few colors to my palette lately, partly out of boredom and partly because it seems wasteful to buy more paint before I used up what I have.

The bridge was painted with a color called perylene red. It’s described as a transparent, cool red with yellow undertones. I’m not sure how a red with yellow undertones can be considered cool but temperature is relative. I’ve also added cad orange for mixing greys. I’m using cobalt blue some, in addition to ultramarine and pthalo.  Mixing the cobalt blue with perylene red made some interesting shadow colors for the bridge. I’ve added indian yellow to my normal cad lemon and cad yellow medium for a change as well.

My current palette is Tit white, Cad Lemon, Cad Yellow Med, Indian Yellow, Cad Orange, Cad Red Med, Aliz Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, Ult Blue, Pthalo Blue, Sap Green and Ivory Black. I’ve been switching back and forth from titanium white to flake white replacement. The flake has more body and makes the paint stickier. I’d say that I used primarily perylene red, ult, pthalo and cobalt blues, cad lemon, and titanium white on this one. Adding colors to my palette doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll use them but I’m lazy and once  color runs out on the palette, I tend to grab another color that’s already out rather than squeeze fresh paint from the tube. Sometimes laziness pays off.

NW 1st and Everett

.

6″ x 8″ oil on canvas

The thing that drew me to this scene was the circular hole formed by the traffic ramps, and, of course the power lines. I like the patterns created in the sky by power lines.

I was also reminded of this painting by Laine Bennion on his blog Studies in Oil. I like how Laine simplifies a scene and, although I’m satisfied with this painting, I think it could stand more simplification.

I often think, as I finish a painting, that, for the next one, I’m just going to slam it out and not fuss with it at all. That’s how I started on this one, in fact, I taped a larger piece of canvas to a board and started into it. When I felt myself starting to bog down in the details, I started it again in another corner of the same piece of canvas. This is the result of the restart, but it’s still a lot more fussy than I wanted it to be. Of course the subject is kind of busy but all the more reason to simplify it further.

.

Foggy Sunday Morning Sketchcrawl and Tagged

.

The Steel Bridge

5″ x 8″ ink and watercolor in Sketchbook

Click here to visit this site on Google Maps

I went on another solo sketchcrawl today in foggy Old Town Portland. This is the top of the Steel Bridge, (the same bridge I painted from below, a couple of posts ago).

I started the morning with breakfast at one of my favorite spots, the Bijou Cafe, where I did the sketch below.

Inside the Bijou Cafe

3 1/2″ x 10″ ink and watercolor

Click here to see this site on Google Maps

I usually get down there pretty early in the morning and sketch as the vendors setup for Saturday Market for a while then head across the river to SE Main near Water Ave for one more sketch from my truck (it’s a little cold sitting outside).

I5, the Hawthorne Bridge and KOIN Tower

5″ x 8″ ink and watercolor

Click here to visit this site on Google maps

******************************************************

Tagged

I was tagged recently by Celeste Bergin, check out her blog at Celeste Paints. Celeste is a founder and one of the primary organizers of the Portland Plein Air & Studio Painters. Unfortunately for me, their paint outs are on weekdays when I’m working.

*****************************************************

The rules are:

1. Link to person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules
3. List 6 or 7 unusual things about yourself or quirky but boring, unspectacular details about yourself
4. Tag 6 or 7 other bloggers at the end of your post and comment on their blogs to let them know they’ve been tagged

******************************************************

The 7 unusual things I’ll list here are jobs I’ve had over the years:

1. For 2 summers, while in college, I worked as a drawbridge tender on 2 railroad bridges. It was pretty spooky leaving there at 11 PM at the end of my shift.

2. I completed the first year of a 2 year Machinist Apprenticeship.

3. I worked for several years as a cook in restaurants in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Eastern Long Island, NY

4. I apprenticed as a Handmade Papermaker with Douglass Morse Howell, who made paper for lots of famous artists.

5. I worked for oil paint manufacturer Robert Gamblin of Gamblin Artist Colors.

6. I had a landscape contracting business for 16 years.

7. I once worked for a day tuning waterfalls at a convent in the Columbia River Gorge.

OK, at Frank Gardner’s urging, I lied about one of the jobs I had. See if you can catch my lie.

I really don’t think anyone is left untagged at this point so I’ll just list 7 artist blogs that I find especially enjoyable and inspiring.

Juilan Merrow Smith

Steven Goodman

Frank Edwards

Eric Jacobsen

Donald Yatomi

Lli Wliburn

Nico Muhly (composer)

Scott Conary

OK, that’s eight, I can’t help myself. Here’re some more artists whose work I love:

Timothy Horn

Alex Kanevsky

Jennifer Balkan

Heather Horton

Marc Bohne

Kate Lehman

David Shelvino

Christine Lefuente

Connie Hayes