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8″ x 8″ oil on linen panel
This painting is actually OF Rentanaar Rd, which is just a little gravel path back to the dike and the marshy lakes and cow pastures in the interior of the island. In the winter this area is closed to everyone except bird hunters. There are black tail deer on the island. I don’t know if they’re hunted or not.
This view is from the top of the dike looking back toward the Wilamette River.
In my last post, I wrote about a plein air painting session on Sauvie Island. I started a second painting, while I was there and have been playing with it in the studio since then. I tried to push it in the direction I’ve taken other paintings, lately by indulging in a similar kind of mark making. I think I took it a bit too far, to the point where the scene was lost to the marks.
9″ x 12″ oil on linen panel
So, I decided to walk it back a bit and ended up with this:
I like the composition and seem to be convinced that there’s a painting in here, somewhere but have not found it yet. I decided to leave it alone for a while but, taking up some gouache I found myself at it again.
Sometimes I have an idea of what I think a painting should look like and I have to let go of it and allow it to be what it is.
My last post was of a few watercolor studies I did at Rentenaar Rd on Sauvie Island, here in Portland Or.
Sauvie has been a favorite plein air painting spot for generations of local painters and is a common meeting place for local plein air workshops. It’s so great to have this very quiet and beautiful spot so near the city.
I returned to the same place the next day and did a couple of oil studies. I parked my car under an osprey nest and was able to watch as the parents hunted and returned to feed their chick.
You can see the chick’s head peaking out of the nest in the picture above.
Here is one of the parents returning with a snack. They seemed to travel together and the other one circled my suspiciously as I took this shot.
I also saw a few bald eagles both days I was there.
Here’s one of the studies I did.
6″ x 8″ oil on panel
These are paintings I’ve posted before but have since worked further on. I don’t think I’m quite done with the top one.
11″ x 14″ oil on panel
5″ x 5″ Oil on panel
The paint on this orange was so thick and is mostly slow drying Cad Red Light. It took about a month to dry to the touch.
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5″ x 5″ oil on paper
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5″ x 5″ oil on linen
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5″ x 5″ oil on linen
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8″ x 8″ oil on linen
One of the things that I hate most about exhibiting is writing an artist statement. Honestly, my statement is that I try to make something I enjoy looking at. I’m not really a very organized painter, as far as what I’m trying to accomplish. I might start out with a vague idea in my head, inspired by something I’ve seen or by another painting I’ve just finished and want to continue on. With the painting above, I started out thinking about Richard Diebenkorn’s early figurative paintings, which are sort of expressionistic……
Richard Diebenkorn “Interior with Flowers” Oil on Canvas
56 3/4 x 38 3/4 inches
1961
… and sort of ended up in pseudo-impressionism. I’ve always loved those early Diebenkorns and find it fascinating how they morphed into the Ocean Park type paintings he’s so famous for.
I tend to spend very little time setting up a still life and prefer to paint a scene I come across. Sometimes I try to put together a thoughtful still life setup but often get bored and just start painting and figure it out as I go. In this painting, I placed the pruning shears toward the end. I’ve painted this blue bowl several times before, in the same size and format and thought this might become part of that series. It’s painted somewhat differently and I’m not sure if it fits as a series yet. Thinking . . . . .
14″ x 11″ oil on linen
Dark paintings are so difficult to photograph. Sorry for the glare.
It’s always fun to paint heads, especially my own. These 2 studies were done a couple of days apart.
Both are oil on linen panel 8″ square
( I shaved off my beard between them. ) I’m a fan of Ann Gale’s work and I feel like the one on the right is derivative of her work. Having said that makes it ok, right?
I think worrying about being derivative is unproductive (to a point). You just have to keep painting, knowing that you’re going to make bad work and derivative work and trust that something true and honest will evolve.
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8″ x 10″ oil on panel
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Again this is Kelly Point Park. There is a bridge that goes across the river bank to a barge which is tied to the dolphins I’ve been fascinated with. The study above and the one before are two sections of this same small bridge.
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18″ x 26″oil on linen
The second painting is larger than I’ve worked in quite a while. I’m still worrying it. – slowly.
I’ve found myself looking at the work of Ilya Repin and William Merrit Chase, as I work on this. They both commonly included figures in their landscapes. I think, for me, the dolphins fill that role.
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This is one of a few pieces I’ve been working on lately.
14″ x 11″ oil on linen panel
I’m trying to paint every day. Sometimes I get stuck on a painting so I pull out another small panel and do a study to keep the brush moving. This is a sketch of a small wooden figure by Portland artist Tom Cramer.
8″ x 6″ oil on panel
This figure is from the 1980′s. Tom’s work has evolved into really intricate painted relief carvings. You can see photos of some of his work on his website but you really have to see them in person to appreciate them fully. Tom and I were featured together on a Portland Cable access TV show, called “Where’s the Art? back around 1987. At the time, Tom was known for these figurines and also for the cars and especially the Vespa scooters he painted. One of the scooters was shown on the show.
After the show, Tom and I traded pieces and that’s how I acquired this little sculpture.
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8″ x 10″ oil on canvas
.I’m afraid this plant died while I dawdled over this painting.
My wife has always been an advocate of alternative medicine and we have lots of these brown medicine bottles around the house. They’ve come to have more meaning to me over the years.
I don’t know what the sweet potato is about.
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6″ x 8″ oil on panel
This is the view from Kelley Point Park, looking across the Columbia River toward Washington. It was a cold foggy morning and there was a layer of mist rising off the river that I was trying to capture, with, I think, limited success.
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11″ x 14″ oil on linen panel
I had a difficult time deciding how to do the shadow. Here are a few previous states. Each time I took a photo and changed the painting, I liked the previous state better. All the images can be enlarged by clicking on them.
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11″ x 14″ oil on panel
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I’ve had to move back out of the studio to allow the electrician, insulation installers and, next week, sheetrockers and painter, do their work. I did get a few more small studies done before moving out.
Here’s a little pumpkin for the Halloween season
6″ x 8″ oil on panel
Both of my daughters draw well. When they were in elementary school, they did some ceramics one summer. We still have many of the pieces they made. They are among my favorite things.
The little clay box in this still life was made by my older daughter.
8″ x 10″ oil on panel
It’s a little odd getting used to painting in natural light, having always done still life painting under lights. I’m painting these recent studies without lights and, although it’s been cloudy, I do notice shifts in light throughout the day. It may take a little while to find the ideal way to set these up.
As with plein air painting, I sometimes struggle to see my panel, in natural light. Maybe there’s something wrong with my eyes. Many painters frown on using photos but sometimes I find it helpful to photograph my still life setups. Often it’s easier for me to see values, I’m struggling with, in a photo than than by looking directly at the objects.
The electrician comes today to wire the studio and hopefully I’ll have sheetrock on Monday!
view of veg garden from studio door, looking east.
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I managed to get out to Sauvie Island once more before the rains started and joined Bev Kindley and Gretha Linwood for a few hours. The day started out very grey but cleared just as I got my first painting blocked in. I came home with 2 quick studies.
6″ x 8″ oil on panel
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8″ x 10″ oil on panel
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It’s been a long time since my last post and, in fact a long time since I touched a paint brush. I’m having my studio space expanded now and therefore have no where to paint for a few weeks but I hope to start back painting on a regular basis very soon.
In August I attended a week long workshop on Orcas Island with Jordan Wolfson and a small band of other painters. This workshop was different from others I’ve participated in. Although it was billed as a plein aire painting workshop and we did indeed paint plein aire, we didn’t focus just on capturing form and color as it appears in life. We did start out, as most workshops I’ve done, trying our best to paint what we saw but, as the week progressed, Jordan introduced exercises that encouraged us to be more interpretive of the landscape.
I didn’t really do anything close to a finished piece but several starts of an hour or two.
Most of the paintings are 8″ x 10″ and all are oil on linen panels. Click on them for a larger view.
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On the third day of the workshop, we did an exercise in which we did a sort of wire frame of the scene.
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Next we did a sort of combination of the first two days work by painting from observation but introducing lines and marks that searched out how the scene was constructed. I found myself thinking about painting, not just the objects in front of me but the air between me and them as well.
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On the last day, Jordan encouraged us to be really expressive and experiment with any kind of mark making we could think of.
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I’ve admired Jordan’s work for a long time and I was interested in working with him because of his ability to work across a spectrum of realistic to fairly abstract imagery without leaving representation completely. I’ve been trying to move myself in that direction and I enjoyed spending a week with Jordan and other serious painters who were also interested in exploring similar ideas.
This work is very different from what I’ve done in recent years and I enjoyed stepping beyond my comfort zone. I’m looking forward to getting my studio in order and seeing where this leads me.
For more pictures of the workshop and information about Jordan, check out Jordan Wolfson Workshops on Facebook.
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I returned to Kelley Point Park last week for some Plein Air painting but could not get near the vantage point I drew from before because the River is running so high. In fact, there was hardly any beach area at all.
8″ x 10″ oil on panel
The painting above was done mostly plein air at the park. Even though it’s almost July, we’ve had very few sunny days here and this was no exception. This park is a bit depressing anyway and the lack of sun had me feeling pretty low, as I painted this.
9″ x 20″ oil on mounted linen
The second and third paintings were done from studies I’ve been working from, some done on site a couple of years ago.
9″ x 15″ oil on mounted linen
I still feel like I’m struggling to decide on a direction style-wise, torn between pushing the work farther toward or away from my observations.
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10″ x 12″ oil on linen panel
This painting above is the same one from my last post, but taken a bit further.
6″ x 6″ oil on linen panel
These others are efforts to leave the reference behind a bit and lose myself in what it is I’m drawn to in the scene. They seem a bit self conscious to me, like I’m pushing them for no good reason. Like I’m faking it. Of course, I am faking it, at this point.
6″ x 5.5″ watercolor, ink and water soluble crayon on paper
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5″ x 10″ oil on linen panel
10″ x 12″ oil on linen panel
I’ve always liked the sketches I did at this park back in 2009 and posted HERE and HERE and have intended to get back here to paint more.
According Wikipedia, the site of this park, at the confluence of the Wilamette River and Columbia Slough, was named for New Englander Hall Jackson Kelley, who tried, unsuccessfully, to establish a city at the site in 1834. The surrounding area is pretty industrial, with a Port of Portland Marine Terminal right next door.
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8″ x 12″ oil on panel
This juicer was, at one time, a big part of our lives. My wife, who has been battling cancer for over 10 years now, has followed the recommendations of Dr Nicholas Gonzalez, which includes the daily intake of massive amounts of freshly juiced carrots. We used to buy big bags of carrots to keep in the garage and one of my jobs was to wash bunches of carrots everyday and prepare them for the 3 daily juicing sessions. Leslie turned a beautiful shade of orange and stayed that way for many years.
As Les developed a reaction to part of the therapy, the juicing fell away. I love fresh vegetable juice but it’s a lot of work to make it three times a day.
I like the the old timey look of the machine. It was sitting out on the counter in the sun and, since Les was away for a week, I set up my pochade in the kitchen and made this painting.
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10″ x 8″ oil on panel
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Noun: A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.
I’ve been thinking about dogma, lately. Probably as a result of 12 years of Catholic education, I have a low tolerance for it, and it’s a pet peeve of mine when it creeps into discussions regarding art. I usually try to steer clear of discussions that make my dogma alarm go off but sometimes I don’t catch myself and I’m usually sorry.
I was thinking about this study as a kind of personification of dogma but I can’t decide what to put on the end of that scepter-like thing.
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11″ x 14″ oil on panel
In the comments section, the owner of Crack Press, Pete McCracken, left a nice message and let me know that he’s still in business at a new location. Check his comment, below, for a link to his site.
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8" x 10" Oil on Panel
This tree stands alone in a parking lot in NW Portland and looks somewhat surreal in the artificial light from surrounding signs. The old Montgomery Ward building, now Montgomery Park, behind the tree is a NW Portland landmark.
This was painted on a masonite panel prepared with Gamblin Oil ground that I sanded lightly before beginning the painting. It’s a very slippery surface to paint on and the sanding only helped a little.
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6″ x 4″ oil on paper
I painted this little study as a birthday gift for a friend. (I won’t mention her name because she doesn’t like having her name associated with an image on the internet.)
Rescue Remedy is a Bach Flower Remedy . It’s “aimed at treating stress, anxiety, and panic attacks, especially in emergencies” (Wikipedia). It’s not clear to me whether it really works or not but I like the concept.
The rose hip in the bottle is also something that has historically been used for healing and preventative medicine. This one is from a Rugosa rose in our garden, which produces magnificent, cherry sized hips.
Happy Birthday, Friend.
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8″ x 8″ oil on panel
Another grouping of similar objects as the last piece. I was thinking of a compositional device I’ve seen in Renaissance era paintings where a figure is looking directly at the viewer leading the viewers eye into the picture. In this case it is the bottle lying on it’s side with the opening pointed directly at the viewer.
Here’s an example in Sandro Botticelli’s ‘Adoration of the Magi’. He paints a self portrait into the composition, at bottom right, looking directly at the viewer. (detail below)
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8″ x 8″ oil on panel
We’re having a very wet November so I’ve been painting comfortably in the studio.
I’m struggling again with the support I paint on. I tried a new ground. It’s the first time I’ve actually prepared a lot of panels but the ground really sucks up the paint leaving dull spots and it even seems like some of the ground mixes with the first layer of paint. I’ve been trying to add other stuff on top of it to seal it with mixed success.
I’ve tried Gamblin’s oil ground, which I find unpleasant to work with and it dries out in the can. I find that I’m moving away from Gamblin products in general. I used to use Galkyd lite but I’ve never finished a bottle before it dried out in the container. I mostly use Utrecht paint now and mix my own medium.
I’ve also tried putting a layer of lead white over this ground I’ve been using and that makes it much nicer to paint on but I left brush strokes in the lead paint layer and they seem to making it almost impossible to get a good photo of the finished piece because of glare from the brush strokes.
I may end up going back to straight acrylic gesso.
The painting above was done on the ground I don’t like and you can see that the background is weird with parts of it sunk in. I even oiled it in with medium before taking the photo and it’s still sunken.
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8″ x 14″ oil on panel
6″ x 10″ oil on canvas panel
Two new oil paintings. I’ve been posting more work on my sketching blog recently, you can see that work here.
These two paintings started out as sketches. The top one is from a favorite sketching area of mine, North Portland near the Widmer Brewery, looking toward the Union Pacific Rail yard.
The lower painting is the view from the new OHSU campus on the South Waterfront. At the time of the sketch, Cirque du Soleil was encamped along the river for their summer show. Downtown Portland is in the background. I was interested in this scene because the bright tents of the circus stood out from the mostly grey scene.
After a mostly beautiful October, the rains have returned here in Portland so I should have a lot more opportunity to paint clouds over the coming months.
This is a lengthy but brilliant talk by Rose Frantzen at her show at the National Portrait Gallery about how she conceived and executed the project of painting portraits of the people who live in her town. Great insights into her process and painting. She talks about everything from how the ideas came together for the project to grant writing, technique and the personal experience of carrying out the project.
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Sketchbook Meditations
