I am teaching Watercolor Accordion Books Saturday, Nov. 2, at Oregon Fall Creek Festival

Picture is of accordion watercolor book class participants

One morning and one afternoon the workshops include my watercolor painting accordion books for the eighth year. Each year brings new exciting ideas about a family oriented crafts that include nature study. Other classes include fish printing, wire wrap Jewelry making, recycled grocery bag printing, and bird house making. Classes begin at 10:30 AM and 2 PM. At the Oregon Hatchery Research Center at Fall Creek Road 13 miles West of Alsea on Highway 34 the third annual Fall Creek Festival. This family event welcomes families with members of all generations. The event takes place in the classrooms of the Research Center overlooking spawning salmon in Fall Creek. A morning and afternoon workshop is free with all supplies and a free lunch included. Also given is a vegetarian option. Don't miss the tour of the hatchery after lunch. The public is invited but reservations are necessary as space is limited. This year will include found supplies, and demonstration of commercial papers, paper folding and ideas on seeing nature and keeping memories. To make reservations call 541-487-5512 or e-mail oregonhatchery.researchcenter@state.or.us

Snow Canyon, Utah State Park

Zion National Park, Lower Emerald Pool

Watercolor painting at Cascade Head

Approaching Oslo

Oslo Fortress and Museum of the Resistance

August 2, painted from the Eurodam Silk Lounge on the 11th deck.

My shoe box card/books

Here are a few of the card /books that my grandfather sent us.

When I was a young child I was impressed by my grandfather's shoe box that he filled with his small watercolor paintings on paper folded as greeting cards. He painted a band on the left side to symbolize the gold or silver gilt on precious bound books. He had a printer make inserts with the greeting.

For about 15 years I have been making accordion watercolor books and storing them in shoe boxes. Sometimes they become greeting cards that I make for family and friends.
Below are a series I made on a cruise to South America. Most of these small painted books are painted outdoors.

Below is one I did this week when a grandmother came with three of her grandchildren.

We painted out on our patio.

Accordion Folded watercolor of Rocky Creek Wayside

This 9 1/2" x 4" painted on location has some information that a photograph did not. My eye saw more color and textures. I tend to exaggerate them and the camera made the whole more smooth.

November 6, 2010 watercolor workshop

"Drift Creek Falls" (7 1/2" x 4 ")

In September I painted on a hike to a newly reopened trail. The falls was greatly changed from last year because the face of the cliff fell covering the pool below. The cliff is clean basalt columns and gone are the mossy sides with water seeping through.

the painting was made from under the suspension bridge. These falls are to be found off of Hwy 18 after the Van Duzer Forest Corridor, turn left onto Bear Creek Road part paved, part gravel for 8 miles to a newly paved parking lot. The picture is from my accordion folded watercolor journal, painted on location. This is a sample for my workshop next month at the Oregon Fall Creek Fish Hatchery and Research Center.

For specific information of the workshop not at the waterfalls but in a class room with a window looking out at a bubbling stream. See the next post below for more details.

Workshop at Fall Creek Fish Hatchery and Research Center

This will be the fourth year that I have taught watercolor at Fall Creek Fish Hatchery and Research Center. It is free but pre regestration is necessary. It is the first Saturday, November 6. To secure a place call Joseph O'neil at 1-541-487-5512. Below is a student's work from last year.

In the afternoon it was dark and rainy outdoors. I tried to find an activity that did not involve going outside to paint.


Here is one result " Fort Hood" rendered by a gentleman who took up my idea of expressing your emotions and the perception of all your senses. Looking through my collection of photographs he selected one as a starting point. It was a sunset over water with grass in the foreground. For his "Fort Hood Flag at Half Mast" he preferred to paint on pure white paper slightly sullied by the folded grid for a book. The paper had been folded into 16 square pages but not cut. I don't know if the gentleman was aware of the symbolic significance of his heart felt memorial painting. I see this as an expressive work.
As a teacher I don't feel I had much success in convincing my students that they really have so much art inside them.
For the most part I had some very appreciative students learning some basic possibilities for carrying watercolors outdoors. I heard some wonderful questions on techniques. In hind sight I have additional things I want to share at the Fall Creek Fish and Art Festival, 2010.






I received this question. What specifically can I do to improve my style in watercolor?

This was a great question and the class was almost over. I had spent so much time talking about how to be prepared for sun, and rain and hunger and thirst. I showed how to manage drying your work without a hairdryer. I fear especially for the beginning students, there is a need to know much more about getting the paint from the palette to the paper. What different possibilities does a round pointed brush have in contrast to a flat one? Where do you begin first with the forms or the spaces around?
The beginning point doesn't matter. Then proceed on the path of least resistance making what you do as simple as possible. To improve your sense of color and how you form and place your images there is nothing better than trial. Select what you like best. Keep painting and drawing into your paintings. I really like to tint the paper before I paint and then just a few lines on location makes for painting that tends to be tied together.
I wish all my students more exciting, memorable painting experiences.

Munson Creek Falls on accordion folded watercolor paper

The most pleasing thing about this watercolor is immediacy and spontaneously. I didn't go back afterwards and make changes.the Munson Creek Falls are a true gem. a few years ago trees obscured the view. Now they are completely revealed.

Patricia Villalobos at the Ortiz Gurdian Art Gallery in Leon, Nicaragua

In February I first saw Patricia Villalobos' "Glucosa" at the Ortiz Gurdian Art Gallery in Leon Nigaragua. I was thrilled to see Patricia's and other women artists' work represented in a prestigious museum setting.
I was amazed because in March 1994 at the Rallie Museum in Caesaria, Israel, I viewed South American artists' work. There was only one woman represented. South American women must have much to express in visual arts. Maria Luisa Manassero's "El Prorietario" of 1980 depicted an older, unfeeling, well-to-do male holding a cigar in the face of a baby face girl.

Patricia Villalobos' "Convergencia", Artist Accordion Folded Book dated 2008.

In 2008 hurricane Mitch caused a volcanic mud slide in Nicaragua.

Patricia Villalobos grew up in Managua, Nicaragua surrounded by 27 volcanic cone shaped mountains. Nicaragua is often shook by earthquakes. I relate to Patricia's expression of the instability of our existence and feeling powerless. I have felt mildly traumatized by earthquakes and cyclones that I experienced growing up in Berkeley, California.

Patricia says of her own work: "My work is a hybrid practice of prints, photos, videos, multiples and installations. I am primarily interested in how reproducible forms of representation can alter our notions of singularity. My installations play with the tension between the three-dimensional physicality of sculpture/architecture and the ephemeral nature of video and sound. In this way my work questions our sense of stability; I am intrigued by how time can seem to be suspended as we enter and exit spaces in a state of flux – some geographical, others virtual, pointing to a concurrent state of dissolution (dissociation) and hyper-embodiment."

Patricia's web site has emotional images in picture form, videos and her installations.http://www.patriciavillalobos.com/

No waste water, no paint rags, watercolor painting on the Rotterdam cruise ship

For thirty days I roamed about the ship and shore excursions with folded accordion watercolor paper in my purse or pocket. The paper had been cut folded and tinted. Each separate accordion folded paper was labeled with a day's location.
I love the immediacy of the experience I derive in making this type of journal. Drawing and painting this way makes me feel the power of moving my finger along the contour of distant rocks as if I were touching them. I am very enthusiastic about seeing through the end of my pencil or brush or pen. I stay longer in one place experiencing the changing light and color of the sparkling waters and the graceful movement of marine life.
With paper in hand a few pens or pencils I started my small paintings to be finished in our state room or other locations on ship. Sometimes I carried my Sakura Koi Water Colors pocket field sketch box and spray bottle on some shore excursions but on this trip I needed to watch my steps on uneven streets so I did not paint off ship.
Before the trip I tried my watercolor sketch box and found the blues were all cool and the red and yellow not as intense as I would like. I supplemented the limited color palette with dabs of Winsor red, ultramarine gouache and titanium white. For a pure yellow, the Caran d'Ache crayons were not useful. I could have used perhaps a yellow fine point Sharpie poster paint pen.
The synthetic water well brushes were difficult to fill and the water ran our too quickly. I used the brushes without water stored in them. I didn't need an open container of water because of the properties of the synthetics. To make the paint wet enough I used a small spray bottle to mist my palette and paper. The synthetic fiber of the brush cleaned off on the Koi synthetic sponge. The paint clogged sponge made good grays on my paper. If there was too much sprayed water when I was finished the sponge soaked it all up so I could safely close the box.
At last I was free of dirty rags and spilling waste water. I feel satisfaction because have a personalized memory journal and my painting did not add any pollution to the ship or ocean.

Harbor rocks at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Dancers of Puerto Chiapas, Mexico

Sierra Madre tourist tree

Brahma cattle on the way to Antigua, Guatemala

Talented tour guide of Leon Nicaragua

please click on picture to see details

More of Monkey Island, Panama

Accordion Folded Watercolor Journal of Inca cruise

February 6 - March 8 my husband and I went on a 30 day cruise on the Holland America Rotterdam. We started in San Diego and went as far south as Lima Peru. The next few days I will continue to post more of my trip paintings. Please click on picture for seeing the detail.

In Panama February 15, 2010, my husband and friends went on a Monkey Island boat ride. We saw Cappuccino monkeys, Howler Monkeys, Broad Winged Hawks, an iguana, crocodile, and also some black headed vultures. We thought the monkeys were the most amazing.

On the actual boat ride, I sketched. I had a prepared watercolor paper folded accordion style. I had splattered watercolors I thought that I would see and was surprised at how yellow the water was. I also cut and folded my paper at home before our trip to Panama. After the boat ride I painted over the drawing.