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

Iron Mt. Accordion Journal

Friday July 9, I went for a walk towards Cone Peak, Oregon with Rain and Farm Boss. In this painting I tried to tie areas together with line The landscape was a beginning point only for a look at the language of painting. I very interested now in line as a story telling element. Line like color is about emotion.

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.

Extreem pein air painting on Iron Mt.

Watercolor 140 pound paper or heavier cut into 7" x 30" papers that are folded are manageable held in my nondominent hand along with a small Winsor Newton travel palette with a detachable small water cup. When a color is drying, I can just open the book more and let it flap in the breeze while painting a new one. I don't need a paint rag because the brush and container wet with color can be used to paint the negative areas around the flowers. The bright colors can be introduced after all the paint and water has dried. The new water is clear ready for the brighter colors. Photo by Rain

Warning : although I had some mosquito repellent little flies landed on my left wrist and I couldn't easily swat them. During the night the bites made my wrist and some of the fingers swell. Benedryl is helping. Possibly repellent needs to be new not over 10 years old.

Iron Mt.walking and painting

Rain was lucky the mosquitoes and flyes didn't bother her. And Farm Boss attracted butterflies No matter what the inconvenience the trip was thrilling to see all of nature so beautiful as it is this time of year in the Western Cascades.

In my left hand is my accordion folded watercolor paper and a Winsor Newton travel palette.

This is the first time I have used a walking stick and held my paints at the same time. The stick was helpful to push on when getting up from a rock all the while holding my palette and paper.

Oregonian painter travels South America by Celebrity Infinity Cruise

Making an accordion art journal was an important part of documenting our South American cruise. This is one portion of the tour we took at Port Montt, Chile.

With travelling companions (another couple from Albany) we drove to Seattle January 1st and spent the night in a hotel in Kent. We left their car at the hotel while we were gone.

9/02 We started our journey south on an American Airline flight at 9 AM. In the Seatac airport the snow was falling in big flakes and the deicer sprayed chemicals over the exterior of the plane. We then flew over snow covered peaks until they gave way to a patchwork of cultivated ground. We changed planes in Dallas and Miami before an overnight flight to warm, balmy Buenos Aires, Argentina the next day. Over 7000 miles in the air.

9/03 We were in Buenos Aires over night and saw the Carlos Gardel Tango show. We had very good seats at a dinner table in the balcony overlooking the stage.
9/04 Sunday morning we took a private tour of Buenos Aires, a big city of 5 million people. It is an old city with ornate baroque French architecture and lots of poor areas with street people and gang graffiti. The old palaces are now foreign embassies. The temperature was in the 80's.
We boarded ship with the other 1,965 people starting the tour. Everyone is checked onto the ship just like an airplane. The ship was the Celebrity Cruises Infinity, length 965 ft., beam 106 feet. 91,000 tons. Over 1000 staterooms. Maximum speed 24 knots. Draft 26.3 ft. Nationality of officers: Greek. Nationalities of Hotel Staff was from over 50 nations. Ship Registry: Malta The captain was Greek. And the head of all food was from Istanbul.
That evening the ship started cruising towards Montevideo, Uruguay. We were a happy well fed, harmonious gathering of many peoples. If peace can happen on a ship, Diane thinks a world could be like the ship.

9/05 In Montevideo we did a self guided walking tour. The city was built helter skelter with some very grandiose exaggerated, contorted baroque style buildings. Diane went to the only art museum open on Mondays. The artist's work was very much influenced by Western Cubism. His paintings could have been done by Oregon painters during the 30's. Only the artist said he was inspired by native South American art instead of African Masks as was Picasso. The city was about a million people and not very safe. We saw a man on a motor bike steal a purse. A pedestrian tried to run the thief down but couldn't. The country appeared to be very poor.


9/06 We were at sea and had a formal dinner. Diane went to the group Spanish lesson and left early to take in the very crowded Tango lesson.

9/07 We arrived in Puerto Madryn, Argentia for the day. 60,000 people live in this town. Diane and I walked around the city and it was a lot nicer and prosperous than the previous two big cities. Diane bought dancing shoes. She met an Aluminum sculptor at the community gallery on the waterfront. They exchanged websites and he gave her a hug which is the custom in SA. The ship left at 7 PM. Our friends took a tour to an elephant seal and penguin colony. The ships tour was full so we didn't go.

9/08 We were at sea and saw quite a few small to medium size whales.

9/09 We arrived at Port Stanley, Falkland Island (British). On these islands the sheep out number the people 240 to 1. We took a taxi to a place called Gypsy Cove to look at the penguins. The penguin's habitat was very effectively protected by signs warning tourists that beyond the fence there was danger of hidden live mines left by the war between the England and Argentina. We had sunny calm weather which is highly unusual for the area. The British colony in contrast to the towns on the continent was as neat as could be. Lots of nice gardens with flowers, potato's etc.

9/11 The ship slowed down and let us take picture of Cape Horn, Chile. Afterwards Diane went to the starboard side 4th deck. Almost alone she sat down cross legged on the deck, out of the wind she painted the rocky coast line as we left the Cape behind. The clouds and sun shining through were dramatic.

9/12 We awoke at 4:30 in the morning to a setting full moon and early dawn. The sunrise and the post card perfect picture of a small town at the foot of dramatic mountains rewarded the early wake up. The ship stopped for the day at Ushuaia, Argentina called the end of the world and the beginning of everything. Ushuaia is the most southern town in Argentina with 40,000 people. We took a taxi to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. An exotic forested area but there was too many people when ships are in town. The best bird watching was at the local dump. Even saw a red fox.

9/13 We stopped at Punta Arenas, Chile - the most southern city in Chile with 80,000 people. We took a van out into the country and saw a large flock of birds called rio. We saw some of the glaciers as we left Punta Arenas onwards through the Strait of Magellan

9/14 We cruised through the Strait of Magellan looking at glaciers and fjords. Very rocky and glacier formed area. Very little wild life and people.

9/15 We cruised past the Chilean Fjords. We couldn't see anything because of the rainy weather. Very windy 65 mile an hour brought up high waves that rocked the boat. We went lurching as we tried to walk a straight line in vain. About 17 ft sea's. We did not get sea sick thankfully.

9/16 We visited Puerto Montt, Chile with a large German population. We took a tour in to the lake country, Petrohue Falls, Osorno Volcano ski area and tried to look at a volcano in heavy rain. This area has lots of spendy fishing trips. Brown, Rainbow, Chinook, and Silvers. The biggest surprise to Diane was the native redwood trees, now protected to prevent extinction.

9/18 We arrived at Valparaiso, Chile, where we took a tour to Santiago(temp. 90 F), and got on the airplane for the long flights home at 9:30 PM.
The trip was over 14,000 air miles and 4,000 sea miles. Over 18,000 miles total.Food consumed on a 14 day cruise. 24,000 lb beef, 5,000 lb lamb, 7,000 lb pork, 4,600 lb veal, 10,000 lb chicken, 3,000 lb turkey, 13,000 lb fish, 2,500 lb fish & lobster, 26,000 lb fresh vegetables, 15,000 lbs potatoes, 20,000 fresh fruit, 3,000 gal. milk, 600 gal. ice cream, 9,000 dz eggs, 6,000 lbs sugar, 4,000 lbs rice, 1,800 lbs ceral, 2,400 tea bags, 2,500 lbs coffee, 2,000 lbs of cookies, 3,400 bottles of wine, 1,800 bottles of other alcohol, 10,000 can of beer. We enjoyed the tour of one galley. The ship has seven galleys and saw sone of the 200 cooks work.

Ship fuel. About $1,000,000 for 14 days. I am not sure but this is total extravagance for a planet in peril. I did see a National Geographic cruise ship but it was much smaller. For those of you who have not been looking at my travel pictures. I have made a few observations on the meaning of luxury service and about the use of tools like photography and painting as a way to educate and form memories.

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

Playfull Basketball is Practice Teamwork

Obama practiced teamwork in high school basketball. The same basic obstacles encountered in the game parallel adult entanglements.
As I wait for the results of the Manifest Hope Gallery competition, the pressure is off and I feel free in my painting.

It is also time to prepare for a hands on demonstration of my travel accordion books at the Albany Air and Art Festival next Sunday.

Watercolors from Lubbers Quarters, Bahamas

Here are the painting highlights of my stay at the big Sea Level Cottage. Watercolor painting with a small Cottman pallette helped me see and experience this paradise. There were lightning storms like I never experienced before. An imaginative vacationer at the Garden Cottage thought the tropical bushes and trees looked like bull elephants tromping right towards her. I think the thunder that continually rumbled on and on sounded like a heard of elephants breaking down the forest. When the storm passed on by I carried accordian style folded 6" x 24" papers right out into the water and painted behind some coral rocks that were removed to make a boat harbor. The coarl offered shelter from the wind and attracted small reef fish. To get a larger image please click on the pictures.

The First Day and a Half of our White Water Trip

This is not for sale.
June 11th we had some sunshine on the Owyhee and 80 degree weather before the wind blew. The morning of June 12th we went for a walk towards the sandstone caves. We could not agree on the geologic history of the area. Was it all volcanic or was it a mixture of uplift from prehistoric seas? In the afternoon as we continued down river, we saw dramatic weather changes.

Folded Watercolor Paper is my Journal

This is not for sale.


On the Owyhee River there are many hot springs which are much appreciated when the weather is less than fair.