Completion of Birthday Self Portrait project

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Self Portrait at age 23 – 1976

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I’ve explained this a couple of times before on the blog. When I was in college I was given an assignment to do a self portrait and was then given information on the aging process and told to do another self portrait projecting what I thought I would look like at the age of 60. I was 23 when I did the first two drawings. I forgot about them for several years but some time in my 30’s I decided it would be interesting to do a similar self portrait every year near my birthday to see how close my vision was. I had planned on doing it every year and to use the same pose and media, etc so that the drawings could be easily compared. Discipline is not my strongest characteristic and I missed some years and got bored and did other compositions some years but I did produce an interesting collection of images over the 37 years since the original drawings.

This being the year I turned 60 is the logical completion of the project and, although I may still do self portraits on my birthday, the original project ends now. My wife’s health began to collapse this  year, not long after my birthday and it’s taken me this much time to get back to thinking about it. Frankly, it’s been difficult to produce any artwork, since her death and this seemed like a fun and simple thing to do to keep my hand in and, of course, to feed the blog.

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So it appears that, at the age of 23, I had an exaggerated view of how old 60 is. Perhaps in 1976, 60 year old people did look older than they do today. They say 60 is the new 40, right?

You can find other entries in this progression in the archives of the blog. I posted them as I did them.

I apologize for the quality of the photos. The original two drawings were reproduced from old slides.

My Show at Brian Marki ends on Sept 4

There’s one more week to catch my show at Brian Marki Fine Art.

“Betsy Arntz Barge Under Construction” 30″ x 40″ oil on linen
SOLD

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and especially for those who will take home a painting next week.

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Remembering Good Times in Ireland

Leslie on Omey Island
gouache 7″ x 10″

Thinking back to our family trip to Ireland in 1996.  Good times.

August show of paintings

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BFF Anniversary

Yesterday, June 29, was the 34th anniversary of the day I met the best friend I’ve ever had, my wife, Leslie Robinson. We married 2 years later and drove across the country from Eastern Long Island, NY to Portland OR. Leslie was a singer/songwriter and I was a painter. She gave up her singing career when our first daughter, Emily was born, in the hospital we can see from the deck of our little house. I quit painting when Les bore our second daughter, Clair in the front bedroom of that house.

Leslie now lays dying, surrounded by that family in the living room of that house. Although my heart is breaking, I feel privileged to be able to help her complete her life and make a safe crossing to whatever is next.

Les hated posing so I don’t have a lot of paintings of her but, on our adventures, she usually wore a red coat that I loved painting.

Les was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. She chose to do an alternative therapy instead of chemotherapy and radiation. After treatment, Les remained symptom free for 9 years. When the cancer recurred, she did radiation and hormone therapy, which gave her 4 more years with relatively few symptoms. She tried chemotherapy a few months ago and just couldn’t stand the side effects, so she chose to stop treatment.

We have been very fortunate to have had so much time together. Les and I knew this was coming and are as prepared as anyone can be for such a thing.

I have found solace in the book “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” by Sogyal Rimpoche, over the years and have begun reading it again. …

“Men come and they go and they trot and they dance, and never a word about death. All well and good. Yet when death does come to them, their wives, their children, their friends – catching them unawares and unprepared, then what storms of passion overwhelm them, what cries what fury what despair!…

To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of it’s strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death … We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.”  ~ Michel de Montaigne, The Essayus of Michel de Montaigne

Plein Air in Ranier, OR

A friend and I drove out to Ranier, OR to paint at the defunct Trojan Nuclear Plant (now a park) but there was not much there we were interested in painting so we drove on into the nearby town of Ranier, which is right on the Columbia river. These 2 paintings were done from a parking lot in the town.

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“The Mary B”
9X12 oil on linen panel

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“Docks in Ranier”
9×12 oil on linen panel

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Head

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11″ x 14″ oil on linen

I try to do a self portrait every year around my birthday (My birthday is in March and you can look back through the archives to see other entries in the series). The project started around an assignment I was given in college to do a self portrait as I was then (20-ish years old) and then another predicting how I thought I’d look at age 60. I turned 60 this year so it’s sort of the completion of the project but I’ve been having a hard time producing the painting.

This painting was not intended to be the official yearly selfie but I offer it now until I get serious about completing the project.

The actual intention of this painting was to paint it over again pushing it as far as I could before I got bored with it. I repainted over the same canvas over the course of 6 days and this is where it ended up. Below are photos of the canvas at the end of each session

  …  …   …   …  …  Click on each thumbnail for a larger view

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Under shelter at Union Station

I went with a friend to paint at the Portland Train station – Union Station. It was supposed to rain so I proposed we meet there and paint from under the cover of the overpass across the street from the station. It worked out pretty well. It rained hard and I only got a little wet (from a drain in the overpass) This is the resulting painting.

“Outside Union Station”
9″ x 12″ oil on linen panel

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more painting outside – a little farther from home

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The hunting season is over on Sauvie Island, and I headed over to paint last weekend. Unfortunately, when I was half way there, I realized I had forgotten to pack any panels to paint on. This is the second time I’ve done this. I suppose age is catching up with me. Rather than turn back, I continued on knowing that I had my watercolor paintbox and sketchbooks along.

“Multnomah Channel” 7 x 10 watercolor

I went to a part of the island where I haven’t painted for several years and found a nice spot along the Multnomah Channel ( a narrow side channel of the Wilamette River, and started the piece above as several sailboats and fishing boats came and went. While I waited for the colors to dry on this one, I started the one below, of the same subject.

“Multnomah Channel sketch
5 x 8 watercolor and ink

I moved on down the road and did one more from a spot I painted a few years ago. It’s a view of the famous  volcano, Mt St Helens, across the cow patures.

Mt St Helens from Sauvie Island
gouache

I was hoping for some cows but they didn’t show up until later

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Painting outside

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“Deck Chair”
6″ x 8″ oil on panel

The weather has been especially wonderful in Oregon this spring. Although I’m tied to my home office during the work week, I’ve stolen enough time to do a few little studies outside. These two were painted from the deck of my office.

“Shrub”
6″ x 6″ oil on panel

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South Park Blocks

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“South Park Blocks” 18″ x 24″ oil on linen panel

This relatively new neighborhood sprung up seemingly overnight on the South West shore of the Wilamette River in Portland. The most prominent resident is the Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital. The main hospital is on a hill overlooking the river and the two campuses are connected by a tram (not pictured here).

I’ve done some sketching from the upper campus, looking down to this one. Here is one I did in 2010, when there were fewer buildings.

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New vs Old

The old building in the foreground seems to be one of the last in the quickly gentrifying Peal District of NW Portland.

Pearl District Nocturne
30″ x 30″ oil on linen

Feeling a pull to the dark side with this one.

Twelve Days in Kaua’i

I spent 12 days in Kauai with my family. It was great to get away and spend time together in beautiful Kaua’i. The cones of my eyes are now so used to bright sun and saturated colors that everything looks one color now that I’m home in the grey Pacific NW.

I slipped away to do a little bit of sketching but I really wasn’t prepared for the intensity of the sun when I wasn’t in the shade.

7″ x 10″ watercolor in sketchbook

This was done in Hanalei, near the north end of the island. It’s a surfer beach, I forget the name of this particular one.

7″ x 10″ watercolor

I never figured out the name of this mountain in Anahola on the east shore. I found a nice shady spot at the dead end of the road to do this one.

7″ x 10″ water color and ink

There was a large vacant spot, between resort condos, on the beach near Kapaa on the east shore. The beach was quiet and I was pretty much on my own here. If you didn’t look back to shore, it was easy to imagine being on a deserted island. This is the view in the opposite direction.

When I turned around toward the ocean, this is was the view:

Monkey Ward on a rainy night

Alex, if you’re reading, I tried to answer your email but my reply was returned. You may have mistyped your email address.

Montgomery Park in the rain – 6″ x 8″ watercolor and ink

This old Montgomery Ward store was converted, years ago, into Montgomery Park and is now used as office space and convention center. When it was built, in 1920, it was the largest building in Portland.

Barge

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“Betsy Arntz Barge Under Construction” 30″ x 40″ oil on linen

This is a painting of a barge while being built at the Vigor Industries Shipyard on Swan Island, Portland, OR. I believe the barge is a double hulled oil barge in service in the Seattle area.

I could hang out here and draw for years, if they’d let me. Unfortunately the only times I’ve been there were during the Industry and Art shows, which were held in one of their hangars the last two years.

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OIL, WATER and INK opening reception tonight

REMINDER. The opening reception for

OIL, WATER and INK: Artistic Interpretations of the Built Environment

with paintings by Shawn Demarest, prints by Beth Kerschen and paintings and sketchbooks by me is tonight,

Feb 7th from 5:30 til 8:30

at

AIA Center for Architecture. 403 NW 11th Ave Portland. (NW 11th and Flanders).

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‘Red Dumpster in NW PDX’ 10″ x 12″ oil on linen panel

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Twenty Third Ave Market

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‘Twenty Third Ave Market’ 9″ x 13″ – ink, watercolor and gouache

This neighborhood market, at the corner of NW 23rd and Thurman, is one of the last buildings, in this neighborhood, that has not been gentrified. It was kind of a seedy area, when I first moved to Portland, about 30 years ago. Most of the street is now lined with boutiques and restaurants and in my landscaping days, I worked on some of the properties here. There’s a great breakfast place across the street called Besaws, which is in a building that goes back to 1903. The market building looks to be of the same vintage.

I’ll be showing some paintings and sketches in February

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be exhibiting work as part of a three person show at the AIA Center for Architecture next month. The show opens on Feb 7 with a First Thursday reception from 5PM – 9PM and continues through March 5th.

I’ll be showing with fellow Portland artists, Shawn Demarest and Beth Kerschen.

I’m particularly happy that I’ll be able to show my sketchbooks as well as paintings. I hope you’ll come by and see the show.

Empty Glass

“Empty Glass” 9″ x 12″ oil on linen panel

Quick still life study. It felt good to paint a still life. Haven’t done it in a while.

Shipyard At Sunset

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“Shipyard” 33″ x 44″ oil on linen

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This is a scene at the Vigor Industrial Shipyard on Swan Island in Portland. I’ve had fun experimenting with different ways of applying paint. I used a brayer, strings soaked in paint, spatula, various knives, a whisk broom, etc. I did not use brushes very much on this piece.

I’ve been painting larger pieces on linen tacked to my wall. I leave a 4″ border around it for attaching it to stretcher bars.  Once I get to this point, the border becomes distracting and I need to take it down and stretch it to really see what it looks like and to make sure the image fits the stretcher properly. I may change it after it’s stretched.

Twelve West Building

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“Twelve West Building” 33″ x 24″ oil on canvas

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I’ve had this one on the easel for quite a while but I think I’m done with it now. What caught my eye was the interlocking shapes of the upper part of the building with the shapes caused by reflections in the lower part. It was a lot of fun to paint and I’m kind of sorry I’m done with it.

green water scape

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10″ x 14″ watercolor, gouache, water soluble crayon

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Continuing with studies for a large oil painting. It’s raining hard outside and I’m very happy to have this to do in the studio.

Mixed Media

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“One Dolphin” 14″ x 10″ watercolor, gouache, ink and water soluble crayon

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I’ve been doing studies for some larger oil paintings. I always seem to work more freely with watercolor and I’d like to learn ways to incorporate some of that into the oils.

Mooring Dolphins with Green Sky

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“Mooring Dolphins with Green Sky” 7″ x 10″ watercolor

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Under the Fremont Bridge

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‘Under the Bridge’ 18″ x 24″ oil on linen panel

This is a view of the under side of the Fremont Bridge, looking across the Wilamette River from the west bank to the east. This is a studio painting although I’ve painted this same view plein air and posted some studies, for this painting, a couple of weeks ago.

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Studio corner

This past weekend was the first weekend of the 2012 Portland Open Studios tour. I worked on this study of the studio corner while a slow but steady stream of folks perused my recent oil paintings and sketchbooks.

‘Studio Corner” 9″ x 12″ oil on linen

Thanks everyone who came by or checked my website. I’m looking forward to the second weekend of the tour.

Mt St Helens from Kelley Point Park

Mt St Helens from Kelley Point Park 36″ x 72″ oil on linen

I’ve been working on this painting for the last several months. I’m declaring it finished, even though I could probably go on tweaking it for another couple of months. It will be in the studio during the Portland Open Studios, over the next two weekends.

2012 Portland Open Studios

My studio will be open on October 13, 14 and 20, 21 from 10AM to 5PM, as part of the 2012 Portland Open Studios . Full color guides with map to artist’s studios ($15) or maps alone ($5) are availble at the link above or at New Seasons Markets all over town.

I’ll have work displayed and in progress in the studio. I hope you’ll stop by and see what I’m up to.

New bridge construction sketch

I visited the construction site of the new Portland Milwaukie bridge, which will be for light rail, cyclists and pedestrians.

9″ x 11″ watercolor with black and white ink

Here’s a link to details about the bridge  http://trimet.org/pm/construction/bridge.htm

They have very cool time lapse videos of the entire construction process at this link  http://trimet.org/pm/construction/bridgecams.htm#

Hoyt Arboretum

I went for a walk in Hoyt Arboretum today and took some time to do this sketch. I haven’t been doing much drawing lately.

8 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ watercolor and ink in sketchbook