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

Illustrations for J. H. Sweet's WISHING WELL

Here are four of the early renderings but the large areas of black bleed through the pages and would be costly in ink to print.

My inspiration for Foo came from my joyous but fiercely protective mixed rat terror, part Pomeranian, part toy poodle, 100% Seattle cosmopolitan. As I did more and more drawings Foo looked more like my dog and me. I became fascinated by my treasured memento from my grandfather Emil Widler. In particular two Foo dogs on tiny, carved stone chops. He used his chops in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th. One was a stamp of his Chinese name and the other the name of his FiNe Arts store on Bubbling Well in old Shanghai. Grandfather Emil a foreign native of the Orient, an old China hand whose scholarly enthusiasm for books gave my mother encouragement to make dolls to photograph as children's book illustrations. My mother then in return encouraged me and taught me by allowing me, as young as five years old, to finish her sculpted clay faces giving them the touch of life expression.

Now I am a grandmother and I began the illustrations the same way as I learned, by sculpting Foo in oil clay. making movement flow like clay does. My own style was polished by a trip to China and Tibet in 2003.

I shed tears of happiness to have a meaningful partnership with a cousin who I have not known until her brother found me through seeing my art work on the Internet. Like the Foo dog we have origins in Istanbul and have been shipped from port to port in the Orient. We trekked in the Himalayan Mountains, been in service of Queens and Emperors. Like Foo we have lost partners and have gone on to be protective and healing to the world where ever we are. Now working on Foo and Friends book we fulfill grandfather's greatest wish that we could go across the world to meet cousins like J. H. Sweet and bring the family together. Like grandfather believed books truly transport you through space and time bringing the dead, the living and the yet to be born together in a loving way.

I am deeply honored to illustrate Joanne Sweet's Foo And Friend's Series. http://www.jhsweet.com/

Now going up - "Skating Yes I Can" book

"Magic Man help me skate if you can" will be my new blog complete in two week. I am publishing this older work of mine and a friend Lee Ann Lehni's verse. http://skateyesican.blogspot.com/

Just noticed how close the message of the magic man book is to my Obama wood block paintings. In both the magic comes from within us inspired by a leading facilitator. The purpose of the skating book was to encourage the self-esteem of my children through the physical sport of roller skating. My kids were competitive roller skaters. They learned new skills by visualizing in their minds what they wished to accomplish. The purpose of the new Obama blocks is for my grandchildren to visualize that the teaming up of citizens can give them an effective voice in government.

Now one of my paintings is hanging in the Corvallis, Oregon Obama Democrate Party Headquarters, "Challenges us to know we can because Obama "won't back down from any challenge." This is the block picturing the high school aged Obama holding the ball of fair play. The quote is from his brother-in-law, the OSU Basketball Coach C. Robinson from his speech at the Democratic Convention.

Our current election has just too much fearful mud throwing. The reason that the Republicans are able to make fear an effective strategy in the presidential campaign is the low self-esteem of citizens. If the citizens of the United States of America believe in their ability to be heard, the fabricated fear factor in campaigns would just roll off and citizens would be able to make a clear choice.

The process of the original book was very different. I first made the illustrations on large silk banners and then found a writer who wrote the verse. LeeAnn Lehni gives me permission to self publish our work. LeeAnn is very gracious because we are very different. I am liberal and she is conservative.

Imagine conservatism and liberalism could exist without this very destructive polarization. It is like a third illness of fear destroying us. It is nothing new as in 1870 Mark Twain quotes his grandmother in RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR. " You have never done one single thing in all your life to be ashamed of - not one. Look at the newspapers - look at them and comprehend what sort of characters Messrs. Smith and Blank are, and then see if you are willing to lower yourself to their level and enter a public canvas with them." An expression for what his opponents did to Twain is - ad hominem. 1) appealing to a person's feelings or prejudices rather than his intellect. 2. marked by an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to his contentions.

Excited to Illustrate J. H. Sweet's Foo and Friends early reader chapter book

The illustrator in me is encouraged by an invitation by published author, HJ Sweet. I have signed a professional contract and by the end of October or before I'll complete the first in a series of books about Foo and Friends. These books, for now, will be free books on the Internet. Joanne's writing has extraordinary characters and great action making illustrating her work both challenging and rewarding. I am now brain storming by making clay models of the faces of ceramic fantasy dogs, march monster, and an Evil Eye, a gnome, a gargoyle, a flamingo, a plastic owl and many more.

The evolving Obama Presidency Paintings

Yesterday I volunteered at the Corvallis, Oregon Democratic headquarters. My task was to enter data into computers with the aim of tracking the phone calling so all voters get one call. And the undecided get further information. While volunteering I was happy to see the number of young voters and senior citizens volunteering.
I looked over the graphics at the headquarters and judged them as strong. The portraits of Obama in red white and blues were symbolic of the message that skin color matters less than patriotism. I thought the other banners with slogan words were doing the job of creating an energetic atmosphere. The addition of any more art would lessen the general effect. The idea of using them as a fund raiser is not a good one because of al the logistic problems and the prospects of getting a very good return.

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.

Final update on visualizing Obama

These were paintings I did for the Move On Obama Art Contest. I only entered the first one because I missed the deadline on the second.

Flash Back to Early Paintings

Church Lake, Washington State, 1985, acrylic on canvas

Still Life Class Assignment painted at Portland State College 1962 or 1963, oil on Burlap from Miller's Bag Company, Portland Oregon. or Belgium Linen The Fiber is still holding up after about 46 years.

Still Life outside of class assignments painted at Portland State College 1963 or 1964

Breitenbush at confluence of Humbug Creek, Acrylic on canvas

When I get to be older " I'll Twirl my Umbrella Upsidedown to Catch Oregon's Liquid Sunshine"

This July grandchildren will be visiting and I will be posting on the 19th and maybe some creative things we do together.

Study for visualizing Obama as a changer of world politics

Frequent readers of my blog have seen my first dream of Obama's team winning the Presidency overcoming the "Plaguers" - Greed, Inertia, Dream Squelcher, Big Lie, Prejudice, Fear, Panic and Ego. Obama's experience in team effort to overcome these plagues makes him the most talented to change the United States' imperialistic world policy. My dreams formed as I painted. At first there was the world below the hoop halo. And the heads of state stood below the haloed world as though they were just passive receivers of a miracle. All the people were equal. No more imperial superpowers. At their feet were the "Plaguers" just piled up limply. Then I started making the world leaders engaged in the game of basketball. Not real basketball but the essence of basketball team work.
This is a progress report. Can you tell that the world is going through the net of a unifying force - possibly the world wide web? I can paint the blue marble more beautifully. The heads of state pictured here may need an attitude adjustment through painting different body language. It is just hard for me to visulize the transformation of heads of state when the United States stops rescuing as an excuse for domination.
I understand many still believe we are waging war in Iraq to keep terrorists from attacking us at home. I wonder if I am in an ivory tower painting too far beyond common comprehension.
The next study will be a dream of Obama inspiring the direction of the homeland. Finally I'll be making a blog with these political dream paintings along with earlier political paintings soon.

New images appear in my dream of Obama becoming President

Friday I will post more dreams of the where with all talent of Obama facing our nation at home and in the world. I am painting on wood cradled boxes 12" Squre by 1 1/2". These are not for sale but I am planning to sell a portfolio of reproductions on demand.

Finley National Wildlife Refuge from Bird Viewing Blind

"Finley Marsh Atmosphere" is acrylic color droped into wet acrylic medium on cradled wood box 12" x 9" x 1 1/2" for sale, $ 150.

Cabell Marsh, Finley National Wildlife Refuge

"Junary 8, 2008 Cabell Marsh" is acrylic on a cradled wood board 12" x 9" x 1 1/2" for sale $100 Last Sunday was very special because it was a rare sunny day. the news media here in Oregon have said that this year the unseasonal snows and cold weather makes it more like January than June. I painted from memory and a small drawing done while walking along the marsh with "Rain" and her husband "Ranch Boss".

Finding new beginnings in older paintings

To "Cebolia Wildfowers" I added a thin layer of paint around the flowers sympifying and thus making the areas relate to one another. The way I draped the flowers over the landscape reminds me of the Iris Patch Dragon that I just painted. This painting is acrylic on canvas 16" x 20" for sale $300.



"The Iris Patch Dragon" is watercolor and acrylic in Acrylic medium on cradled wood board 6" x 8" x 1 1/2" for sale $100. The iris hve been beaten down by the rains since I first started this painting. The way they line up on the ground in curved lines suggested the legs and claws.

The weather is very rainy and cold. So in my studio I am adding myself to old painting such as this one.

"Riding the Dragon of Windy Bend", is acrylic on museum wrapped canvas 24" x 36" x 1 1/2" is for sale for $300

Plunkett Creek Loop, Beazell Memorial Forest

"Plunkett Creek Larkspur" is watercolor and acrylic paint in acrylic medium washes on cradled wood board, 10" x 8" sold. Saturday my husband and I with "Rain" and her husband, "the Ranch Boss", enjoyed walking at Fort Hoskins taking photographs. I have some sketches in my mole skin sketch book ready to develop further and will soon be posted. On Sunday we were treated to a extraordinary surprise. We met again at Beazell Memorial Park in King's valley, Oregon. We walked through the little valley with a brook lined in larkspur. Every flower and towering oak truly made me feel small like I was walking into a fairyland of my childhood.

Redwood Sapling

"Redwood Sapling" is acrylic on cradled wood board 12" square by 1 1/2" deep. Not for sale until the completion of my series on our urban forest is complete.

Memory of Our Cut Down Fir Tree

"Memory of our Cut Down Fir Tree with Nest" first painted with two blue jays in flight is acrylic and iridescent color on cradled wood board, 12" square by 1 1/2" deep and will be for sale when I complete this series on urban forests. There is much work to be done on our neighbor's overgrown Christmas tree lots. more and more houses are being built close by. The city ordinance says in vacant areas the grass must be cut and in order to get to the grass the trees need to be thinned. Our neighborhood looks like it is between being a park and a tree farm.

Reducing Fire Danger in Overgrown Christmas Tree Lot

My husband on tractor is pushing the burn pile together burning excessive branches.This picture was taken exactly a year after posting my environmental painting of birds and fish benefiting from a root ball in a pond. When I did this final painting of the series about loosing the fir trees I had no idea that I could continue the story this year. Pictured above is one of last years paintings, " The Dream, A Submerged Root Ball is a Fish Nursery." acrylic on cradled Masonite, 12" square by 1 1/2" deep, will be for sale when series is complete. This is an important series in my life work. More paintings will follow soon.

I am overwelmed that my dream came true. My husband is lining up trees to be transported soon to ponds which fill old rock quarries where gravel was dug for the I 5 Freeway that traverses Oregon between California and Washington. The stumps and root balls will provide habitats for fisheries thaks to volunteer workers like my husband.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wild Life loading fallen trees.

Thinned Overgrown Christmas Trees

"Thinned Overgrown Christmas Trees" is acrylic on a cradled wood box 6" x 8" x 1 1/2", ready to hang, no frame necessary, for sale $100 plus postage. For fire protection my husband is thinning a neighbor's Christmas trees grown to 45 feet tall. These trees are not of much commercial value so they are being donated to the Department of Fish and Wild Life. The tree with root ball will be placed in the old gravel pits left behind when they were dug out for the construction of I5 Freeway. These gravel pits have filled with water and will become better fish habitats with the addition of these spindly trees and roots.
This project came about after I painted a series on the trees cut down on the lot we sold. I imagined that their roots were placed in a lake and fish fry were swimming and taking shelter in the tangled roots. So this means I will continue the series started just over a year ago. http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2007/05/fish-habitat.html#links

I make dragons to express spirit and essence of the unseeable

To see these and more dragons click on the linkhttp://widlerwenzeldragons.blogspot.com/

Early Spiritual Dragon Painting

" Primeval Sea", 1965, is an acrylic painting on canvas, 19.5" x 49.5" "Rain's collection. Rain is correct in labeling the painting a spiritual abstract. "Rain," who was the first to notice hidden dragons in my paintings, saw the dragon in this early painting.

Labels, however, make me uncomfortable and when people ask what kind of painter I am, I squirm in discomfort and I stammer a few confusing words wishing I would just disappear at that moment.

I have always considered this painting spiritual. I remember having coffee with Rain the morning before painting it as we often did. That morning we thought about how the universe began and if there was a God. Spiritual means to me that which we know exists beyond what can be measured scientifically.

I am in the process of identifying which works are spiritual. I think most of my work is spiritual because of the way I go about making them like they are a journey each one of them.

Essence of Breeze and Apple Blossoms

This is my final abstraction of the apple blossoms and blue bird series. "Essence of Breeze in Apple Blossoms" is acrylic on cradled wood board 6" x 8." For sale $120 plus postage. The peak of the blossoms are almost over and my husband is logging so I want to add to the series on the life cycle of trees.
In answer to the question - "Is a painting just a blurred photograph. I would say not today because a photograph is reproduced with small dots of ink while a painting is produced by the brush stroke. In my case the brush strokes try to be paint like and not reproduce a photographic image.

Essence of Honey Bee and Apple Blossoms

The acrylic abstract, " Essence of Honey bee and Apple Blossoms" is painted on a cradled board 6" x 8" x 1 1/2". For sale $ 120 plus shipping cost. A special only through May 31.

The question before me as I am abstracting is: On a cold cloudy gray day, am I going to get inspired in the next couple of minutes as I am painting? And I did. I kept wanting to continue painting. Then I took a load back to the patio. Coming back for a second load, the blue birds flew by. At first I thought maybe they were curious about the paintings but most likely they were thinking, "Yippy, she is leaving and it will be our turn to feed."

Essence of Apple Blossoms, Freshly Tilled Dirt, and Blue Birds

"The essence of (yesterday's painting) Apple Blossoms, Tilled Dirt and Blue Birds" is on a cradled wood board 6" x 8" x 1 1/2". For sale $120 plus shipping cost. I am having a hard time saying it is for sale because it felt so inspired by the feeling of being outside on one of our first nice days.

Apple Blossoms, Fresh Tiled Dirt and Blue Birds

"Apple Blossoms, Fresh Tiled Dirt and Blue Birds" is many layers of acrylic on a cradled wood board. 5" x 7". For sale $120 plus shipping cost.
Blue birds in flight make a magnificent iridescent blue streak. They often perch in our blossoming apple tree and when they see a bug in the freshly tiled earth, they fly down. The next painting will be an essence abstracted from the "Apple Blossoms, Fresh Tiled Dirt, and Blue Birds." My husband is also enjoying the day driving tractor to haul the cut trees to the fence where Fish and Wild Life can pick up the trees for a lake enhancement program with the goal of making an ideal spawning grounds.

Blue Bird Watches and Waits for Tractor Mower

"Blue Bird and Tractor Mower" is acrylic on cradled wood board 5" x 7". For sale $100 plus cost of shipping.

While my husband mowed the fields, I painted a bluebird watching and waiting. Today the hawk was gone and the bluebirds were out feeding. There was much going on at home. Airing out the motor coach, bookkeeping, volunteer work. With so much happening at home, I wonder when we will think about our next RVing trip.

Defender Blue Bird

"Defender Bluebird" is acrylic on a cradled board 8" x 6" x 1 1/2". Sold
The weather was so nice this afternoon, I enjoyed painting outdoors. I can feel the spring day as I painted. There were many birds including a hawk in the woods near by. I did not see the blue birds who were very defensive of their bird house just a week ago. The hawk circled about with a twig.