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

Art Activity in Riparian Workshop for science teachers grades 5 -8.

Today I assisted Joseph O'Neil at the Oregon Hatchery Research Center. Joseph O'Neil explained that the object of the entire workshop activities was to help students learn the skill of being scientifically inquisitive and solve problems by thinking outside of the box. The activities were designed for scientific enquiry outdoors. The art project, however, was inside and asked students to close their eyes and imagine being in a healthy riparian meadow with a stream live with flora and fauna.

Usually I work by painting something in general and then the colors and random shapes suggest an imaginary scene. But I thought I knew how to help students put the mind's eye image on paper. I asked them to count the elements in their riparian image and keep the total 5 or under. Pick the one that is most important to them first and decide if it should go on a landscape orientation or a portrait. Then decide if the paper needs to be wider or more narrow and crop as desired. Figure out where to place your most important image and maybe draw the cookie cutter outline of it. Keep it big so there is room for you to comfortably paint the general color upon which you will come back later with detail after it dries. When you have your favorite image planned, the others can be placed.

Some students had five images completed with white space around them. The white was a little stark. So after the paint dries they put very faint color in with a paper towel leaving some white of the paper. Some had nice atmospheric effects in the background but some hard edges where the back of the river met the misty grass. The edges were softened with a cleaned wet brush.

Even without my saying they needed to think about concepts that they had been learning in other exercises. Some did illustrate them in spite of my help. For example, trees bending over the river creating shade for fish spawns. Or the grass being greener closer to the river.

There was discussion on how the experience of painting an imaginary riparian zone could be utilized in their classrooms. Several made suggestions on how the experience could be more vital outdoors. There are watercolor infused papers and watercolor pencils that could be used with much less problems.

In retrospect, I think the paintings could be started outdoors. All the students need is one rock and one paper for each student; two containers to be shared, one with clean water and one with a dilute watercolor. Students could pour clean water on their paper. Then drop the dilute color into the water and watch it spread. Then leave it on slightly sloped ground with a rock weighting it down so it won't blow away. The rock will leave an image of a rock with water swirling around it. After several hours the painting should be dry enough to take inside. The faint image on the paper helps break the terrible feeling of facing a blank page. The image stimulates imagination. Further help could come from listening to Beethoven's Symphony Pastoral. The instructor could read poetry. Real poetry and maybe only parts of what the syllabus suggested.

I would say the text book reading was written by a scientist and would be better if by a poet. Someone suggested music and recorded sounds from a creek. I suggested bringing history into the assignment. That riparian environments have good clays. On river banks the potter's wheel was invented and then the idea of the invention was carried to far away continents by ship. Also the Scythian bronzes were made with bi-lateral symmetry of dragons around the 8th century B.C.. These dragons look like logs reflected in a river at low tide. Early inventions were made when man had leisure time. Inventive investigation and making art were one and the same activity.Inventions can be used in so many different ways that an artist perspective is necessary to insure the use of inventions really does improve the quality of life.

Joseph O'Neil says there is science in everything we do including art. And that in research there is a need for art skills that young researchers do not have. He says many of his research students come to him deficient in building and welding skills.

Children's experience oriented watercolor class with environmental values

Monday, January 3rd, 23 children accompanied by a parent were eager students at a free watercolor class at the Albany Public Library. The supplies were mostly from recycled artist quality cotton rag paper. Some papers went through a long hot bath and bleaching with an additional coat of absorbent ground for watercolor. Substituting for commercial pan watercolor sets were small chunks of watercolor crayons left over from years of use with my grand children and my mother who suffered from dementia. The pealed crayons were inserted into molded plastic packaging salvaged from thumb tacks. Small lids served as water containers. Brushes were my own. In addition, I purchased 10 Camelia student pan watercolor sets with brushes from India. These sets had four larger wells perfect to fill from squirting until filled using only a small water sprayer. The small amount of water available made for paintings with brighter more saturated color and no waste water. The students used up all the water and were given seconds and thirds of water.

Cookie cutters of all subjects from mittens to animals and trees provided ideas for subjects and kept the shapes, cartoon-like, big and open. The children were creative in filling them. All selected painting the inside first. When these were ready to dry before doing the background, we gathered around the mystery table where I provided the solution to what things I carried with me on a watercolor plein-air trip. The kids checked to see if the letters they wrote down corresponded with the palette, pens, painters, and clothes I had. The use of pens and pencils were helpful in making creative decisions on how they wanted to finish their work.
Not all of the children followed my directions and for the most part that worked out fine. The small cakes of the Camelia set are perfect for small fingers and delighted one of the youngest boys who wanted to know if he could make thumb prints. Of course the set worked perfectly and he was absorbed in his painting for more than half an hour. When it was time to end class he was still making prints and he said he just loved finger printing. I was rewarded by having several examples of creative inventers of the materials that I could share with the others instead of always being the one governing what the children make. For the most part all had a good time, but there was one child who would not accept any suggestions, could not focus and became very upset when the too big watercolor brush did not provide a good enough point to paint the stripes on an American flag. The tantrum that followed was to wrinkle up the paper and throw it in the garbage. If I had taken steps to redirect this easily frustrated student, I may not have any different outcome. There are some who come to class bent on proving they are not good at art. It is curious to me that I have had an adult a few years back who painted the flag and was equally demonstrative. After class I retrieved the drawing. I am keeping it for a collage. Or save it as is: it is very good on its own merit.

Painting from Accordion Folded Photo, Watercolor Study

There are many ways to use accordion folded watercolor paper books. They make great greeting cards. They store well in a shoe box along with photos for keeping memories. Here I will talk about how in the studio they stand up like a card next to my paints and pallet as an inspiration. I walked to a North Albany field a half of a mile from my house. I was traveling light with a camera and paper and field painting supplies. The stubble grass and distant shapes were similar to the free images Martha Marshal shared on her blog, Artist's Journal. She offered images as a starting point for others to use as inspiration. With just my camera and my Koi Watercolors Pocket Field Sketch Box I worked around Martha's photos pasted to my accordion folded watercolor paper. The object was to compare the photos to what I was seeing. Then I worked at matching the colors and textures and linear qualities employing the Koi set of colors and a brush containing a reservoir of water. Later I added photos taken on location to the collage. Finally I painted lines around the parts of the study that appealed to me. I wanted to find emotional content for a painting in progress of dream clouds. I will in a few days publish the dream cloud painting.My experience with going lightly in the field and more will be the content of my hands on workshop. All supplies are furnished free. The watercolor workshop at the Fall Creek Festival is just a week away. There is still time to register leaving your choice of work shops and vegetarian preference for lunch at 541-487-5512 or e-mail oregonhatchery.researchcenter@state.or.us

November 7, 10:00 AM to 4 PM. This year the family friendly workshops also has special children's activities in addition to workshops in leather working, fish printing, card making, wire wrap Jewelry, and basket Making in addition to my watercolor exploration.

Window on Nature, Watercolor Workshop 2008

An example of an 8 page accordion folded watercolor paper (click on pictures to enlarge)

One Method for studying and remembering an experience in nature

Paint large color areas in a random arrangement upon which you arrange your focuses flowing through time from page to page. The purpose here of open color is to have a direction in your observations of nature. The two illustrations below are 6 continuous pages of an accordion watercolor book. On some later trip I will decide if this accordion sketch is complete or if I can arrange what interests me to tell a picture story.

Yesterday in the morning 26 folks of all levels of experience gathered to hear me and start their watercolors in nature. In the afternoon I had 4 or 5 women who continued on from the morning and mostly families with three to five children each. All ages working together helping each other making art a family event. This was made possible because I had two volunteers who helped me set up and conduct the logistics. I very much enjoyed the stimulation and the gratitude of everyone. We made accordion watercolor sketch books and small watercolor paintings looking out the windows at the rainy forest and rushing creek at the Fall Creek Fish Hatchery Research Center.

My tips for viewing nature through watercolor painting were: 1) The sketches were for ourselves and need not be a framed piece of art. I enjoy preserving my memories of nature experiences in a cardboard box. 2) There are many ways to go about starting. One can do an outline with pencil or pen or make a random quilt of color patches. The colors can come from what we see outdoors or from memory. Memories can be assisted by found treasurers we have collected. Then we absorb what we see outside, count and rearrange them to fit in the free colors. 3) The accordion folded sketch book is an excellent way to interpret the landscape as time passes by. The sketchbook becomes like a scroll picture story.

In retrospective I could improve on some of my responses to my talk. For example a father tried to help his youngest child find inspiration by taking him around the room to look at the pictures on the wall. The son chose to copy a poster right after I said that there were no rules on how you go about working from nature. Well, that is not completely true. Right at the start when the boy began to copy a poster, I should have stopped him and his father. The boy must have been four or five. I could have said it was wrong to copy but we can look at the art work and ask what it is he liked about it and sincerely show appreciation for the strength of work done by others his age also on display in the room. Or I could have said we all get ideas from others but when we are older some of us naturally develop to a point where our copies can be so close to the original that it is wrong for us to copy without permission from the artist.

I am very happy to have been invited back next year to teach a similar workshop.

Plan for Fall Festival Watercolor Workshop

An example of a watercolor spontaneously painted on the river focused on linear energy 6" x 9"

Saturday, November 8, the Fall Creek Art Festival will offer free workshops as a family activity. I expect some families will come with 3 or 4 generations from grandparents to babies in arms. The workshop I will be leading will be looking at nature through the window of watercolor painting.
My credentials include painting with children outdoors and for 43 years painting on outings with a fisherman husband ever since my completion of a bachelors of arts degree in drawing and painting from Portland State University. I have taken my accordion folded watercolor paper on boats like in Milford Sound, New Zealand, on a small boat at the foot of glaciers in Alaska and often on the South Santiam River here in Oregon. I've painted in the rain on mountain tops in the State of Washington and in the snow in Stavanger, Norway and on a white water rafting trip on the Owyhee River, Oregon.
The purpose of my painting is seeing and interpreting with the most immediate and direct response. These notes are for myself not for framing and hanging on a wall. I keep my memories in a box for later reference. Sometimes I use them as greeting cards. The idea is that it is worth doing the painting for the sake of seeing and experiencing the moment so I can store my favorite memories.
The essentials of equipment will be on display. The equipment will be for my own safety and chosen with respect for the environment. Also I will give a few tips on how to get started looking and recording our feelings about the great outdoors here at Fall Creek.
There are many approaches to getting started. One is to do a line drawing on location with a plan later to color the picture. Some examples are started with black ink lines. Others are colored pencil. Some linear responses are color linear energy. The second approach is making quilts of colors we see or remember in open color. the colors can be hard edged shapes or soft wet into wet. Later going back and counting objects or life for focused detail. The third approach is using the accordion folds to symbolize the changes you see in the passage of time and make a journal and adding writing. writing maybe your own words or quotes from literature.

The web has some excellent instruction on making accordion watercolor sketchbooks. One that is very much in the book tradition with 16 rectangle pages foldied into an accordion is on a Swedish art teacher. http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com Amazon has a wonderful children's book on making books by Gwen Diehn, Making books that Fly, Fold Wrap, Hide, Pop up, Twist, and Turn

Golden Acorns from My Grandchildren

This painting is not for sale.
When two of my grand daughters painted on this picture with me, one wanted to take acorns home with her. "Me too" I thought. A reason that I love to paint is so I can take a treasure from nature home with me. We keep cherished memories.(Click on the picture for a larger image)