Making space for a winter oil painting studio

My husband is devoting several days to clearing the way for a 13' x 13' space in the corner of the shop. He hung a florescent light above. And made a trip to Habitat for Humanity, and the Salvation Army. Discarded stuff included corroded wire, a 40 year old propane stove, Jeep gas containers, a broken chain saw, and sheep medicine for sheep long gone in our past.
On the easel is a painting in progress. At first it was a Precious Vase of Self-worth. After talking about it with others and searching the meanings given to self-worth, I found the concept too ambiguous for what I mean. So I am making a grouping of vases expressing respect - self-respect, the expectation of receiving respect, respect for others and respect for the earth. Respect is not a value like a money value, it isn't something earned like a gold star you receive as a reward for something. It comes from within and is something that makes you want to be caring and do the right thing. Respect is most precious to me personally. I have asked others what is precious to them. My series of precious vases illustrate many wonderful answers. For me personally the most precious thing is respect.

Accordion folded watercolor painted on two boat trips one day apart

To see an enlargement please click on the image.

An example of an accordion folded watercolor

This was painted on a hike up on the Nature Conservancy Trail. It reminds me of all the wonderful inspirations on a day that was partly sunny between rain showers. To see an enlargement click on the image.

Accordion Folded Watercolor Journals about Hiking or Boating

Update of a post from November 1, 2007 also true for this years work shop, November 7, I will be teaching two workshops starting at 10:30 AM lasting an hour and a half each at the Oregon Hatchery Research Center. I will be presenting safety musts for artists and the environment. Participants will gain skills for painting memories while journeying through the wilderness either on foot or on a boat.

Backpacking and white water rafting in the wilderness was the nursery so to speak for my accordion journals. I wanted to keep my backpack less than 30 pounds. So I brought black lead just a stump of lead and no wood covering. The paper was simply an index card. On rivers at first I used index cards but later found I could just fold cotton rag watercolor paper and keep it in a zip lock bag. In recent years I have experimented with different folds. The equal sized pages folded as a box is suitable for wrap around views. Mostly the folded paper is for my own memory.

Full Sheets of watercolor paper 22" x 30" can be cut many ways to being 5" tall and then folded.

Sometimes the paintings are nice enough to give as a card. The box is a favorite of mine for gift cards. Sometimes I want to look at the paintings over a long period of time and I have put them under glass and framed them.





I use the accordion journals in numerous ways. They stand up rightwhile being used as reference for larger paintings. They are memories of places made stronger by focusing maybe on the criters or the color or the linear energy. In the workshop participants will think about the short comings of photographas and select what short hand notes they will place on their accordion journal. There is no reason to duplicate photogrphically nature while standing on at rail or moving along in a boat.

The accordion folded journals are easily and conveniently stored in a shoe box. They store neatly as compared to my sketch books of various sizes and thicknesses.

The Precious Vase : Marriage

Update ; October 21, my marriage vase was inspired by this Navajo wedding vase in Rain's collection. I made the painting when I did not have a photo available at the coast surrounded by cool colors. And I question why I didn't choose to depart from my surrounding cool colors. Also, I question the shape. Maybe I should straighten the necks and place a bridge across as this one has. On mine one neck was supportive and the other in a gesture of protection. This is an outmoded concept of marriage. More commendable is having both partners as equally strong. They have a bridge connecting them as they diverge from their heart roots. In this vase the liquid fluids within the vase are equally available no matter how it is tipped.

The body of the vase is like an egg and two necks are on top forming an intertwined relationship. The idea of the two necked vase is from a Navajo American ceramic piece that my blogger friend, Rain acquired from a trader. Rain's vase was made a few decades ago. The vase was spiritual for the Navajo with an ear of corn on one side symbolizing fertility.

I am having a conversation with this painting as I work on it and am listening to what it says about the marriage relationship. I hear that the body egg shape of the vase holds the liquid oil or water. Eggs are a fertility symbol and also are symbol of a fragile relationship. Like walking on egg shells. The way the necks are configured here, the liquid inside would be conserved when the vessel is tipped. I thought it would look like the necks are embracing unlike the Navajo one. This painting idea is on hold until I visit Rain and examine hers.

This painting is acrylic and the first of the season. The weather is getting colder and my oils are drying slowly. What took three to four days during the heat spell now takes weeks. When I am painting on location I do not want to use any more chemicals then neccessary and minimize clean up. I haven't had to clean a brush in three weeks. Painting in acrylic after being spoiled by oil is difficult.

Monday at sunrise, accordion folded watercolor journal

I painted in the boat on Monday but on Wednesday I made a few last touches.

CHANGE of goal for my blog

Photos: Gleneden Beach and Proposal Rock taken in September during our month stay at Coyote Rock RV Resort and Marina near Lincoln City, Oregon

I have taken photos on my painting vacation. And they are complete in themselves and I will not copy them into paintings but just add them into my experience and draw from how they make me feel helping me to symbolize the emotions I will be painting. This is my process and my blog that has been an outlet for expressing my process will Change.

And it is time for CHANGE. My new goal is to make slide shows of my work to be published here every few months. I will post announcements of events such as where I am exhibiting and teaching every Saturday evening

Detail showing lines made with Chinook Salmon fish bone

Above are my paint scraper combs. From our freshly caught Chinook, I kept the head bones for oil and watercolor painting tools. These tools could be seen as a gimmick but I like how they feel and look. Plus I am avoiding cleaning brushes and dumping noxious solvents in the wilderness. Can you find the mark of my natural fish bone tool in my paintings?

I found it very difficult to use only fish bones with watercolor. The interesting line quality worked on very small details added as a last touch. I used fish bones through out the building of an image in acrylic and oil paint more successfully.

Fish Bone painting tool and Wet into Wet Acrylics

Fish bone as a watercolor tool

This is one of two of the same subject - Precious Vase of a Hundred Leaves of a Full Good Life symbolizing what the High Lama of China Tibet wanted for himself and his monks. I met him in 2002 when our tour guide who was formerly a monk and the Lama's student took us for an unhurried talk with the Lama in his quarters. The other one was an oil.

This painting was started with the fish head bones but they didn't fit well into my pan watercolors and the marks were not always predictable. The bones that worked well for oil and acrylics became a labor. Needless labor. I can clean my brushes in a very small amount of water that then becomes a tint wash and is never dumped into the environment. The painting 16" x 20" is the largest surface that I have worked in my recent work with fish bones. Since it is so easy to work with brush with watercolors, and there is no big difference in final statement, I declare that in watercolors, the fish bones are a gimmick.

Playing with cold water sponges

I noticed some sponges washed up on the beach. They were firm to my touch but when I tried to paint with them these once live organisms showed that they were already decomposing. These sponges were just smelly and worthless as a tool.

These are some of my photos that might spark a painting.Walking through a fog dream may work for a pillow shaped vase of my dreams. On one side the beach and the other the night sky.

day of play that didn't meet all my expectations

Friday morning began with a walk at Gleneden Park near Depoe Bay, Oregon. I liked the textures and the softness of foliage and structures partly concealed by fog. Then in the afternoon I went on a boat ride up from Coyote Rock to Skunk Creek on the Siletz River. When we started the weather was sunny and warm but soon after we anchored up to fish and paint the weather did a number on our plans. A large cloud turned angry and black. The change of weather was something I could not adjust into my painting of a vase of a hundred, good, leaf years. I wondered if a small black cloud was appropriate to such an upbeat view of aging and decided a little challenge was OK. However no sooner than I put a little dark cloud into my painting, we decided we needed to race back home before the storm. I quickly started another less precise painting but it didn't turn out either. I was left wondering if I can pull off putting river landscapes in the back and foreground of my painting because they are so complex and compete with the vase. Maybe I need to think out how I can suggest a river of life in an economy of images.