"Heron" from the Poem Series

Inspiration from Sorley Maclean's "Heron"
"She Folded her wings close in to her sides and took stock of all around her."

Lens Eye Views

I like the camera as a tool for interpretation of the landscape. I like to paint what the camera can not reveal. I find my feelings flow also with small oil paintings. While I am painting though sometimes I get to looking mostly at my picture trying to fix a moments impression and then more views want to enter than the picture can hold. So then it is nice to get the camera out.

Leaning Towards the Abstract

Painting over yesterday's painting, a new beginning about interpreting rather than reproducing. I was feeling the breeze turn to gusts of wind as the storm approached. The bird house painting was from a particular place focusing on bird houses. The painting on top of the post was a general impression while being outside in the storm as the rain started blowing at me.

Will continue oil series in December?

The time has come to have quality family time with grandchildren for the Thanksgiving holiday. After Thanksgiving I'll decide if I should do more oil paintings. I have been enjoying painting very much the past few weeks. I have learned that I can develop a flow by making myself conclude paintings while the initial intention is still strongly felt. In contrast to painting one a day outdoors, working in the studio I attempt to make the paintings look as though they are done all at once. I am forcing them. The nice thing about oil is that it stays wet longer than acrylic facilitating working all over the surface keeping it a unit. I was happiest when I had two of each primary color, white and a few earth colors. I was painting smoothly until I ran out of most of my max watersoluble oil colors. Yesterday I squeezed on to my palette what remained. I only have some burnt sienna, burnt umber and white left in tubes. Should do for some winter landscape or deer. In addition to running out of paint, on Friday we will sign over to the new owner the lot. This will not be as final an ending as I thought:I may yet be able to paint there through December. Building will probably start in January. I have thought that this series might well include the drama of a house being built.

Bird Houses

To attract birds we have surrounded our place with bird houses. The fields about our place are great for the swallows to glide and swoop up insects. Our large patches of freshly turned dirt has many tasty insects. The blue birds see their meal from several high perches. While I was painting today I saw many more subjects like the four point buck following a reluctant doe. I put in and took out of my painting a squirrel. The squirrel came down from the climbing tree and stood just three feet away watching me while covering herself with a large fuzzy tail as though she thought she was hidden.

The Fence by the Climbing Tree

Years and years ago our lamb put her head through the fence to reach a tender leaf but she was trapped unable to get her haed out by herself. I notice the fence was never replaced and it is stretched out of shape. Soon the field will be sold. The fence will be pulled out to make way for a new home. So I continue to paint for a couple of more days. Some times for pure feeling without words and other days for memories. Everyday I see the field as though I never really noticed it before. How could I have missed such a wonderful inspiration? Well I did try to paint in the field with animals like sheep, cows, horses and once a goat. Only the animals wanted to get into the paint. But still there were many times like now when the field could have been my place to paint. I was busy with life and now I am so fortunate that I do have time to paint.

Feeling The Rain Drops

The rain showers contributed to the mood and even to making my painting. The wetness of the rain mixed with the water soluble oils. Paint was everywhere on my easel and on my gloves. The messiness of painting was exciting though. The rain damp landscape was rich with color. The thunder clouds were sweeping through the air. When the sun pierced through the clouds, the fields started to steam especially under the trees. I began to think about the lane that makes two right angle bends around the end of our field. These bends are the old path going past a barn long gone.

The Tree House of Olden Times

The family who lived here before us had a little boy who drives by every now and then to view his best childhood climbing tree. One blackened board still hangs in among the perfectly trimed branches. He says that at Christmas time they use to hang a star on the tree. Now in a few months a new family will build there home by this tree and the tree will again hear the laughter of children.

Underneith High Ground "TG", Our Pet Sheep Rests

Our back wall of the shop was a favorite place for our pet "TG." This morning before the storm I could not find a subject to paint at first. I walked around the field as though lost. I had to paint a quick one before the storm and I settled with the buildings because they are so angular that I could bite into the moody part of painting almost from the start. The black box, bat house never seemed more ominous. "TG" lay down here and could not get up about four years ago this month. One of her lambs is enjoying her golden years on my friend Rain's farm.

Yesterday's Lighting Remembered

After rain drops fell on my painting of the day, I picked up my stuff and returned to the patio covered area. Then I worked on the sentimental painting I spoke of yesterday. I feel good about it now. I am enjoying painting on 8" x 10" x 1" Ambersand Blocks. These are the blocks my mother and I painted on just before her passing away in 2003. At the end she only collaborated on a few of the blocks. I kept my favorites and pealed off the acrylic revealing a perfectly clean surface to begin again. I put aside the pealings for collage.

Sunshine Between Showers

Today I woke up in time to see a rainbow above my field but when I returned with a camera the rainbow was faint. After the shower I painted our plum tree with the fir trees in the background. Next year there will be a house between the plum tree and the fir trees. The impending sale causes my paintings to look exceedingly sentimental - an emotion I used to try to avoid. I am still working on yesterday's painting which is too pretty falling in the category of sentimental. Maybe I should go ahead with what I feel. This project after all is a sentimental exercise of enjoying my property while I still own it. After Thanksgiving maybe a house will rise on our field and I will not make any more discovery walks.

Dark Down Pour

From Under a Fir Tree

Under the fir tree my painting was out of the rain. The worst of the storm came in after I finished. I am really still excited about going out and painting in the morning. But the dampness is not good for my Andersen's easel. The metal bracket that holds the canvas has become floppy. The Andersen mechanism always did look a little weak. I am running out of Max cadmium yellow and orange. My blues are also low and I am mixing real oil colors with the water soluble ones. I like the richness of basic colors and will not order the mixed ones made by holbien called DUO. I am still debating about getting more MAX made by Grumbacker. I am not sure I will continue to do little oils like this 8" x 10".

The Field, the Creek and a Tree on a Rainy Day

The Rain and I Painted

Today it rained at near record amounts. I was still eager to go out and see what emotions could be stimulated by the mood of the day. I painted with Max, an oil paint so refined that it mixes with water. So I tried painting during a light shower. The rain made the thick oils run a little. Painting this way I needed to put down the idea and then react to the changes made by the soggy day. I feel that the pressure was on to express the feeling I had right away without getting bogged down by detail.

Our Back Field and Pump House

Our pump house has seldom been a subject in my painting since we lived here the past 22 years but now that we are selling our field, I am eager to enjoy our property by using it as a beginning for some works. As I work I become closer to the beauty in what was so common place to me. I am not reproducing the landscape. I am making interpretations. At first the paintings will be impressionistic. Future paintings will become more abstract and emotional.

Our Apple Trees

'Our Apple Trees' is oil on cradled wood board 14" x 11" x 1", for sale $175
I am really enjoying my early morning painting adventures, but the time has come to make up my mind if I will do more. Tomorrow the temperature will be 20 degrees colder - below freezing and the wind chill factor in addition may be more than I am willing to endure.

Rainy Day Painting of the Woods

"Rainy Day Painting of the Woods" is oil on linen, 3' x 5" for sale $86.
From our patio cover I painted what I call the nursery woods where does have their fawns and foxes have cubs.

I Hate Fixed Paintings

I hate the superficial fix. But I keep feeling that I can save the painting when I could do better by doing another painting.
Solution of questionable value: Obliterate and paint a new. That works sometimes. But on other paintings it is obliterate day after day until the canvas is a highly textured, dried fruit cake. Luckily most of mine work most of the time.

Is this toll or oil painting?

A lady walking her dog approached me and asked if I had seen the squirrel. Are you painting the squirrel? Can I see? I said I had not noticed the squirrel. Then she was disappointed and asked, "Is this toll or oil painting?" A very good question!! Much more deep than the lady thought!!! She only wanted to express some hostility in the pretense of being ignorant.
My answer is that some painting is more craft than art. To some extent I want to make a pleasing painting of my impressions of the landscape. In doing so I have used the brush in learned toll painting fashion as opposed to being honest about the moment. I also found that I still want to make changes after returning home today. Only I think these changes are superficial. Most of the them were not about living in the moment and my first impression.
The superficial brushing is of the distant trees on the upper right. I put them in because there was some perpendicular linear raised texture from the underneith painting covered with gesso. The painting that I did today is of the field in back of our place and it is done on a 10" x 8" canvas stretched over plywood. I am eager to try again tomorrow with honesty. I am encoraged to learn that my secondary fixes are apt to be superficial. I may be able to make paintings of the moment and leave tham as finished.

Painting in My Own Backyard Field

This is the second morning I have tried working smaller only this time I painted one twice as large. This 8 x 10 painting was more comfortable for me to paint than the 5 x 7. Sold I was delighted by the sunrise this morning and what a good subject my own yard can be. Then my husband noticed the sun streaming through the oak tree. I painted it.

Extending Myself

Today I tried a new way of painting. With oil paints I painted from start to finish in just a little over an hour. The big change for me was to paint a very small canvas of 5" x 7". for sale $86. But can I be satisfied painting small canvases? The set up was swift and I had a fist full of small brushes so I did not clean between colors. The small brushes cleaned up easily at home afterwards. Maybe this is the way I will be painting in the future when I am traveling about the country. But I am not sure I can get all my personality into such a small area. I was pleased on this first one because I was not all tight as I anticipated. Standing up while painting had much to do with my freeling of freedom. Another bonus is the promise of a flow of work. I can think about my next painting and not go back into my first impression. On small canvases I can break the habit of making little changes for months and even years after starting a painting.

# 2 of the "I see a Poem" series

F
One small release for a man: One giant leap for all life. an adaptation of Neil Armstrong's words ( acrylic on 36" x 24" canvases )






For more spiritual paintings click on the link here. http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2006/10/i-see-poem-series.html#links

I See a Poem Series

Keep a green tree in your heart and maybe a singing bird will come. Chinese proverb Kiribati women of Christmas Island are waiting for the island bus but also they wait for the return of the singing birds killed by our automic bomb test off shore from the island in 1962. The heart of their life is the palm tree and their own family. They are very brave.
For more spiritual paintings click here. http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2007/01/day-dream-painting-grannys-wind-dance.html#links

Returning to Mother Whale

Painted on location at Rocky Creek, Oregon, I applied acrylic paint directly from squeeze bottles and mixed colors with sticks and paper towels. 24" x 36" Finally I am painting without using clean up water.

Discovering Painting Tools From Nature

Sorry at this time my pictures are not publishing to this post and I hope the problem straightens out soon. During my twelve gorgeous days near Lincoln City, Oregon I luxuriated in the fine fall weather painting at least one acrylic painting a day. Most of my paintings were of the Great Blue Heron. The series was inspired by the Scottish poet Sorley Maclean's poem, "Heron". "She folded her wings close to her sides and took stock of all around her." I observed herons on the docks and along the banks of the Siletz River. Truly they land and stock. Their movements are deliberate and sometimes they hold for minutes their spring neck ready to pounce. The long neck and long hand-like claws have many expressions. The painting pictured here is of a heron unfolding exotic full feathered wings like a show girl moving in Chinese calligraphic gestures.
All the paintings were made with sticks and beach grass dipped in acrylic paint. A dorsal fin from a Chinook Salmon made fine shading. The fin was rubbed dry with a paper towel and then dipped in the acrylics. The feel of the fin on wet canvas was like the slippery, sensual feeling of oil paints. I was enchanted and the fresh fish did not smell too much. I did not even notice the smell after the paint dried. The physical feeling of applying the paint is different with each fin type. The pectoral and dorsal are fan-like making wonderful water like swirls and the adipose is rubbery like a paint shaper. I never anticipated the fun of using natural things instead of brushes. The original reason for using discardable found objects is to save the environment from dumping paint tainted water. In the past I tried to evaporate the waste water until it was useable as paint. this is not a so much fun guarding the waste water from occasional spills and smelling the paint getting moldy. But as I worked almost waterless painting using these objects I became attached to these new tools. Sticks did not completely dry over night and I could draw with them on water sprayed canvas. Paper towels were useful in removing the excess created by mixing paint on the canvas. The rags stayed wet over night in Oregon rainforest dew. So small adjustments in the painting could be made with no need to mix more to match. When I wanted to add more in the gray distance I just used the whale spout was added the next day. First I rubbed the towel with the still damp gray on the canvas and then I could more smoothly bend in the water spout.

Art Builds Happy Memories

A big thrill for me is seeing my grandchildren painting. I let them, once in awhile, use my art materials with the expectation that we will enjoy the fruits of our shared time for years. Art builds happy memories of shared interests. Our latest project is painting the climax of a little league championship game - the Royals versus Giants. The Royals have three on bases and then they hit a ball out of the park. The children have made a story painting and record of every part of the game they like to play. I am sure that other painters have experienced similar rewards painting with their children or grandchildren. But I am feeling stretched thin between blogging and living with family and being an artist this month!!! I need time for grandchildren and time to make and carry out plans with other artists. So this is my last blog for awhile. I plan to start adding to my blog again the third week in October.

Cerulean Water Dragon

"Holding the Water Urn the Cerulean Dragon is Thinking about Giving" acrylic on canvas 40" x 30"
Nothing like a sale of my two golden yellow dragons to make me feel good about making more. This one is only the first of four more dragons expressing feelings about keeping and giving. The dragon is greenish blue to symbolize spirituality, and the healthyness of giving.

Dragons in other Forms

"Releasing Sturgeon Fish" 12" x 36" acrylic on canvas Sometimes dragons take the form of sturgeon but that was not my intention to illustrate this notion. My motive for painting this picture was not to expand upon dragons. I was going to expand on previous paintings of fishermen releasing their catch. After completing the painting I see a relationship between my fishing paintings and my dragon paintings.

More Dragons

One dragon I have always thought of as being a sharing dragon but it holds the water jar up high just behind its head. The eyes are wide and looking down like it is mischievously exposing a secret. The other dragon holding a wind blown scarf in its mouth is pouring drops of rain from the water jar. The nose twiches. The left eye is almost winking. Now that these two dragons are spoken for, can I do a dragon that is truly giving from the heart?
Two Dragons, 48" x 30" each and Two Blue Birds "1" x 16" acrylic on canvas, for sale $300

Self-Portrait Projecting 20 Years into the future

This notebook sketch is not for sale.
Rain of the rainydaythought blog has posted an intriguing self-portrait of herself as she thinks she will be at age 80. I was moved to see what kinds of insight I would have as I painted my own future visage. I see myself as being not a beauty but simply determined. The physical changes are not as important as the spirit.

River Tree Fantasy

This painting has undergone many transformations and as of February 2008 it is not finished.

"Fantasy Dragon Tree" is a work in progress done with acrylics on location. Canvas is 24" x 36"
Near Chinook Bend on the Siletz River, Oregon there is a tree that refuses to give into gravity although it fell almost all the way into the river. The trunk suggests to me a proud animal.

The Clothesline Sale is another Alternative Gallery

Alternative galleries have spoiled the public giving out free and cheaply priced art. This is the opinion of the majority of artists in Corvallis, Oregon. I have a slightly different take on what causes the low number of sales and low prices the artists fetch for their paintings here. The problem is the small art center. Art Centric spotlights exhibits brought in from other locations at the expense of the growing number of local talents. The small side shows in the center's gift shop and staff office are presented as products for sale. In July in our topsy turby community Pegasus Art Gallery and Frame Shop featured the creative works of the Oregon State University retired Art Department Head and his family of three generations. The exhibit is not featured as a selling exhibit and reaches out to the community of numerous other families with several generations making art. The out reach is unpresedented here because the University Professors do not show with just anyone here. This show could never have been in our small art center. It is proof that there is more to art than just selling products. The Clothesline Sale will probably again have all the sales that should be going to support our Pegasus Art Gallery / real functioning community art center.

August is Marketing Month?

This acrylic painting is for sale. $700Only a little marketing will happen because I am expecting to do more painting near Lincoln City. This painting is Phoenix Tree (the estuary of the Siletz river near Lincoln City) acrylic 24" x 36"
Saturday August 8 my husband and I will be showing paintings at the Corvallis Art Guild Clothes Line Sale on the Courthouse Lawn. We will be in the Corvallis Art Guild tent in the middle of the lawn area.

Painting at Ona Beach, Oregon

Both of these paintings have undergone great change. especially the tree. This tree has become the base for painting my own family tree portraits sitting on the branches. This very personal painting was exhibited june 2007 at the Benton County Museum group show, "Seven Years Later"

Outdoors I enjoyed mixing a water and dilute mat medium with pan wtercolors working transparency over transparency. "View Approaching Foot Bridge to Beach", "Tree Standing on the Bank of Beaver Creek" 18" x 18" ( Update: The tree painting became the base for a painting of my family tree and an illustration in the book, "When I Get to be Older")

Grandma's Dance

This painting is not for sale as it is so personal. I have given a reproduction of it to a lady that showed interest. I make reproductions by request but do not market them.
People ask how long it takes me to paint a picture. This painting has taken me years to complete. I hope it is complete and these are all my grandchildren. I hope to keep the memory of their early years and how easily they could be entertained. I used to think that having two children would replace us and not add to the population explosion. That does not seem to be the case because we live longer and population can be increased by having the generations too close together. The green line stretching between me and my grandchildren represents transferring the joy of living.

Garden Sculpture

Our eight feet tall lilies create a little secret outdoor room at our front door. I really enjoy the visual effect but not the strong scent. The smell irritates my allergies. We are going to dig out a third of these lilies and plant new varieties. I want to select plants that suggest the whimsy of water and life.

Cardwell Hill Vineyard Thank You

Today I painted a thank you card for a favor done by Don and Nancy of Cardwell Vineyard. In this folded format I could tell the story of their vineyard - their Chateau home, Mary's Peak, and their winery.

Owyhee Flight

This painting is sold.

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.

Painting Journal of a White Water Drift Trip

We just got back from a five day white water rafting trip camping five nights on the river down the Owyhee Canyon. We were 13 adventurers in seven rubber boats and an inflatable kayak. Though we were expecting fair weather, nature had other plans and we did encounter difficulties like in the times of Homer. There was some unpredicted stormy weather. We had no contact with the outside world and did not know there was a tornado and hail in Burns, the closest town.
Tuesday June 13th I saw some very threatening clouds like the clouds in twisters. I did not see a funnel cloud. I saw the rain coming so I went to the boat and pulled out and put on my rain gear. I was the first to put it on and on top of my cheap rain coat I put on my life jacket with a red whistle. Then I returned to the other rafters who were finishing there lunch as the first big drops of rain fell. And we all laughed at me, I was prepared for everything. Then they started putting on their rain gear too. That night we saw lightening and heard thunder close by. In my coffeee cup, I found an inch of rain that fell in an hour. Our 20 years old tent with pin size holes everywhere leaked so much we could have been in a stream bed. The floor had as much as 3/4 inch of water. We sopped it up over and over again with a towel and a polar fleece hat. We held the saturated towel and hat outside the tent door and ringed them out by hand. We could not keep our things dry. We just couldn't save anything at all so I rolled up the drier sleeping bag and put it in our dry bag. Then we tried to arrange our bed so we could sleep best we could when the rain stopped. Since all was wet I put on all my rain gear and was about to go to sleep when we heard this loud crack like a lightening strike followed by the sound of rocks slidding towards us. Then there was another crack and more rocks sliding. I curled up in a ball holding my head with my arms. I wondered if we were in the path of these rocks or anyone in our camp had been hit. I was frightened and shaking. After it was quiet for awhile, Don and I got up and went outside wondering if the rocks fell right next to our tent. Our trip leader came over and we tried to look about the canyon with our flash lights but could not see anything new. He went on to the other camp sites to see his children and the rest of the group. His children ages 17 and 22 had been up and saw the sparks created each time the falling rocks hit the rock wall of the cliff across the river from us. His children were calm saying it was only another rock fall. The next morning we all talked about it. Actually it is safer outside than driving a car and there is just a very smalll chance that a rock will fall where you are according to Dr. Robert Cooley, psychologist. That was not the end of our troubles. At the take out one of the cars had two flat tires. Somehow we managed to put a spare on one and use some tire fix spray in the other. We had a 30 mile drive over a primitive road forging streams six times until we reached the highway. The people were great and I enjoyed the trip despite the difficulties.

Terrifying Reverberating Cracking, Sliding and Banging of Small Bolders

This 20" x 16"acrylic painting on cradled masonite hard board is for sale. $700
Camping in a Owyhee River Canyon 2:00 AM, June 14 the splitting away of even small rocks from the canyon cliff made me shake with fear because it sounded as though the rocks were huge and headed for me. I did not know when the land slide would stop. Surely this was big enough to change the course of the river. Later I heard some of my camping companions say they saw the sparks as the rocks hit the cliff wall. They had seen and heard falling rocks before. This is a painting of visualizing from hearing the noise.

Flight of Two Swallows

This painting is for sale for $300 and looks different as the lighting changes because of the interference acrylic paints. It is on an 18" square cradled masonite board.
Birds, fish and fire are symbolic of freedom and life. Playfulness is a part of life too. The metalic and interference colors are playful and that is reason enough for me to forget my old attitude that kept me thinking that standard paints are enough for a good painter.