Abstract: "Winter Green"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 5" x 7" x 7/8", no frame required, $85. Thank you for visiting my blog. Comments are appreciated. To purchase please e-mail me.

'Winter Green is inspired today by the beautiful sunshine we have here in Oregon.

Expressionist Painting: "Wishing Tree"

Acrylic on cradled masonite, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $80. Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are very special to me. If you are interested in purchasing please e-mail me.

I am surprised that I painted a picture today because my husband is ill and required a trip to the ER. But it was nice to work a little on this tree inspired by our climbing tree.

Abstract Action Painting: "Flight of Red Bird"

Acrylic on masonite board, 16" X 20", $180 FRAMED. Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate comments.

Today I painted with my friend Diane Hoff Rome the workshop instructor for Artists Life Tours. She is fully connectee to her intuitive process. Diane and I and Gordon Dobbie are having an exhibition together in June at the La Selles Convention Center on the Oregon State University Campus. It is always very liberating painting with Diane as she is a wonderful graceful unhurried pastel artist.

Abstract Painting, "Fish Eyes"

Acrylic collage on cradled masonite board, 12" square, no frame required, $120. Thank you for visiting my blog: Your comments are appreciated. I will try to answer in the following stories about the next days' paintings. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Fish Eyes" has interference color and looks different as you move from one to the other side of the painting. I like interference colors when painting my abstracted interpretaions of fish. I also used a net to print net texture. The past few days I have enjoyed using net in my paintings.

Non-objective Abstract: About Red Oxide

Acrylic with collage on cradled Ampersand hardboard, 14" x 11" x 7/8", no frame required, $120. Thank you for visiting my blog, your comments are appreciated and I will try to answer each in my stories about my work. To purchase please e-mail me.

These non-objective abstracts may in part evolve from the series I am doing of our pasture. I would like my work to flow from one piece to the next, one series to the next in a linear fashion because it would be more cohesive. But my development is more complex. These abstracts also come from a collaboration with my mother four years ago during the last period of her life. We used metalic acrylics on Ampersand boards. At that point her participation was more watching than actively painting. I am sure she would be tickled that I am adding layers over what was started at her side.
One of these collaborations is "About Red Oxide." Three days ago I cut into the painting and applied more layers of paint, texturing it with a net. I used rubbing sticks fallen from our trees as well as brushes. Often I put it on the floor to help me feel like a child again. I like to let my child out to play with the paint but that isn't always easy. We all have this child in us but as adults we have learned to supress it. This painting went through difficult stages where my adult judge said there was too much going on and I want it to have a single statement. In this frame of mind I can destroy distractions but my touch of child's whimsy is threatened. Then it is good to leave the painting and work on another for awhile.

Non-objective Abstract: About Light Magenta

Acrylic on cradled Ampersand board, 10" x 8" x 7/8", no frame required, $100. Thank you for visiting my blog and your comments are appreciated. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today between working on storage of my daily painted blocks, I looked at "About Light Magenta" started yesterday at the same time as I was painting "About Red". Today I used a wood block cutting tool to make lines and added magenta mixed with acrylic medium.

Non-objective Abstract: About Red

Acrylic on cradled Ampersand board, 10" x 8"x 7/8", no frame required, $100. Thank you for looking at my blog, comments are welcome. To purchase please e-mail me.

Went for a drive to Newport and Lincoln City, Oregon. Did some sketches of the Yaquina Bridge and boat harbor abstracting the complexity into horizontal and vertical lines. Then a van parked in front of my view and all the fun began. Their window distorted the bridge and boats. Soon I may use these sketches in my non-objective paintings. At home after the drive my painting is unrelated to what I saw. I don't know why.

Non-objective Abstract: Party Time

Acrylic and paper clay on cradled Ampersand board, 11" x 14" x 7/8", $120. Thank you for visiting my blog and your comments are welcome. If interested in purchasing please e-mail me.

From time to time I have been posting abstract paintings but now I am starting a series.

Absract Non-Objective: About Golden Yellow

Acrylic on Ampersand cradled clayboard, 8" x 10" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. Thanks for visiting my blog and if you wish please leave comments. To purchase e-mail me.

The Granny Day Dream Series

Today I hung the series of granny paintings to see what they will look like in the museum. I could paint the text on canvases but the writing would subtract from the totality. Perhaps a book will be placed by the paintings. Or I could start the story with a canvas block of text and end the story with another while leaving the middle pictures to tell the story on their own.

As usual on the day after completing of a series, I have doubts. I feel the story I wrote is too young for all but one of my grandchildren. I could easily reduce the wording to just the first and last page like in the museum presentation. Then I would add a letter about my process.
I showed a group of artists two of the painings that needed more development. The one of company sitting around the dinner table and the other one was the family tree. They felt that I might be surprised because my family will want the books I make because they are mine and it doesn't matter what age level I have written to.

Day Dream Painting, "Granny's Family Tree"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18",This one is not for sale although as of February 2008 the other paintings in this series are available.
"Granny's Family Tree" is about my own children and grandchildren. This is important part of my future. Doing the family history is an on going commitement of mine. I have make story books of it for the grandchildren. This painting is done in memory of my father. My father is near the middle of the groupings because all he wanted was to see a family tree that I made.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Correspondence"

Acrylic on stretched canvas museum wrap painted around the edges, 12" square, 1 1/2" deep, $150. Ready for delivery after May 31st. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Granny's Correspondence" is my dream of keeping in touch with my children and grandchildren from places near and far as my husband and I travel. I will use both traditional letters and new tech CD's.
I like this series enough to self publish it as a book for my grandchildren. It is done in memory of my grandfather Emile Widler who said "The last years of life can be the best years." And I am going to make it so.

Day Dream Painting, "Pass the Salt, Please"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18", $175. Available for delivery after May 31st. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Please Pass the Salt" is painted over "Toast to Life" because I didn't relate to the people in yesterday's painting. I wanted more of a feeling of interaction between my guests. I will do another "Toast to Life" painting with the people interacting more with one another. They will be standing and not have a table and arms between them.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Good Times"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18", $185. Will be available for delivery after May31st. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today I continue to paint what I want from life and my marriage. As of late my husband and I have been too busy to enjoy meals with friends. I want to continue our entertaining soon and for many years to come. "Granny's Good Times" is my fantasy. I do not recognize these people in the painting. Maybe I am in the foreground and my husband to my left as we age continuing to celebrate my husband's catch of the day by sharing a meal with people we care about. We are making a toast to life and ask that the good times roll.

Day Dream Painting, "Our Memories"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 12" x 12" x 1 1/2", no frame required, $100. Will be available May 31st for delivery after the exhibition. To Purchase please e-mail me.

"Our Memories" is a painting I did indoors because I am not going to work outside when the temperature is in the teens. I used some photos of some of our pets from the past. We do not own any now but we enjoy the birds in our suet feeder. It is my dream that we will continue as we advance in years to enjoy memories of all the animals we had and enjoyed.

Dream Painting, " My Hubby and Me in the Snow"

Acrylic on stretched canvas with extra deep stretcher bars, 12" x 12" x 1 1/2", no frame required, $200. Will be held until after exhibition May 31. To purchase please e-mail me.

"My Hubby and Me in the Snow" is painted from this snowy day after taking a walk. I did myself from memory and I painted him in the livingroom while he checked his e-mail quickly. This is a painting of hope for our retirement years.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Painting"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18", $180. To purchase please e-mail me. Will be available for delivery May 31st after the "Four Women Seven Years Later" exhibition.

"Granny's Painting" is about me painting in rain snow or what ever will come. In the process of painting on this square, I had an "Ah, ha," realization. Seven years ago when I was working on the first Benton County Museum, "Seasons of Life" exhibiation I painted to inspire my mother. I painted on square canvases portraits of her bravery and of her painting. And then she did pick up the brush painting collaboratively which added to the quality of her life through the decline of dementia. Now I am the matriarch of the family and I am making dream paintings for myself on square canvases. The square to me symbolizes a patch on the quilt of life.

Ceramic tile of Wind Dancer

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Tree Planting"

Acrylic on masonite board supported in back by wood framing making a box, 12" x 12" x 7/8", ready to hang, $200. Available for sale but will be retained by artist until May 31st. To purchase please e-mail artist.

"Granny's Tree Planting" went through a long process of transitions today. First I painted a sunset sky upon which I put myself planting a tree. In the sky I did look like a ghostly dream. The horizon kept climbing, though, farther and farther up into the sunset. My face kept reminding me of my grandchildren or my grandmother Agnes who was happiest gardening. Then the dream became more real. I am going to plant a tree to help make up for the downed trees this winter. I wonder what kind of tree would be sturdy, stand straight and grow in wet, windy, winters as well as provide me some beauty.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Wind Dance"

Acrylic on stretched cotton canvas, 18" x 18", no stapples on the sides, For sale$800.

"Granny's Wind Dance" began this morning when I saw a touch of blue behind the clouds and low whispy darker clouds moving swiftly. Then I thought I would just do sky, but after chatting with my friend "Rain", I decided to do as she suggested and make a picture of myself against the sky. My first impulse was to do myself dancing. I'll be doing some more larger paintings from time to time.

For more spiritual paintings click here. http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2005/11/shared-treasure.html#links

Poetic Painting: "Second Day: Wind Dance"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 8" x 6" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Second Day: Wind Dance" is an over paint of yesterday's painting. I painted over some of the intriguing lines I made with the rubber tipped shapper which is a dental tool to stimulate the gums. The quality of the lines distracted from the way the trees evolved. Although the lines were beautiful I care more about the posture of the trees and want to highlight them. I'll be able to repeat intriguing lines when they are the subject of the painting.

Dream Painting, "Self-Portrait Wearing Pearls"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7"x 5" x 7/8", $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

I dreamt a pleasant dream. I wore many strands of pearls symbolizing the state of my painting journey where there is diversity or rocks I cover them with luminous paint. This is a relatively passive dream of just wearing pearls of wisdom. The dream I had a few nights ago was an action dream. I was welding my painting together even though I was frustrated with the luminosity I was getting out of my acrylic paints. Today I experimented with using another tool but tomorrow I can get more luminosity than I did on "Wind Dance".

Poetic Painting: "Wind Dance"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 8"x 6" x 1", no frame required, $100. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Wind Dance," is poetic expression painted after taking a quick look outdoors and then allowed myself to wonder from a photographic representation. I wanted to bring to it linear movement like one I did a few months ago. I am not looking for techniques in general but scratching with the handle of my brushes is not as wonderfully fluid as using my dental tool. The tool was given to me by my dentist and can be purchased at drug stores everywhere. It is a metal handle with a soft rubber end pointed to clean the hard to get to gum line.

Expressionist Landscape: "Fir Trees, Wet and Shining"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x5" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

The "Fir Trees, Wet and Shining," has ultramarine blue mixed with matte medium to make a transparent blue in the sky. The use of matte medium takes away some of the pleasures of painting all at once because it is hard to know what the value of darkness will be in the colors mixed with medium - the medium looks milky until it dries. I continue to enjoy the painting on a lavendar ground because the retreating character of lavendar is suitable for this time of year when the bright hues are there but hardly noticeable. This was the second day I used the dental, rubber tipped stimulator but it was not as useful as a small pointed brush to make little points of light. I like the shapper when the paint is thicker.

Expressionist Landscape:"Climbing Tree: New Beginning"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $125. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today fighting a head cold and rain, I skipped painiting outdoors. Instead I went for a couple of walks around our property. With a charcoal pencil I sketched on my masonite board. Then I painted indoors. Previously I had been painting directly outdoors without a sketch so this is one of my new departures. The sketch was very general and I did not keep with it preferring to go with the flow of my energy in defining the tree. The other departure was to use my dental gum stimulator as a paint shapper. The shapper is a promising new way to take advantage of underlying color to achieve the luminosity I desire.

Dream Painting: Epiphany of New Beginnings

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $100. To purchase please e-mail me.

I had a dream of power and creativity in answer to my feelings of frustration with not getting my whites to be as luminating as I would like. I want more of my inner meaning in my work. I took satisfying strong action. I switched tools from a brush to a welder to make my acrylics as bright and as luminous as watercolors. A welded painting works in dreams. My welding became brighter and brighter and then suddenly went pitch black. I heard my husband ask if we blew out a fuse as I woke up. This dream is an epiphany to me. I'll be using some new tools and materials in my series of fir trees and sky to shed light on the essence of my feelings. Most importantly I want to really put myself into these paintings.
Was it Heinrich Heine who said, " The closest we can get to Godliness is creating."?

Expressionist Landscape: "Before Sprinkles: Fir Trees"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Before Sprinkles: Fir Trees" was painted over a lavendar tinted ground. The color intensity was punched up to maximize the expression of my feelings. I felt the ozone and the excitement before a rain.