The moon and approaching and leaving Ushuaia

One of my favorite parts of the cruise was when my husband pointed out the sea life to me as we left the Falklin Islands and approached Ushuiai, Argentina. I was delighted to wake early about 4:30 AM to see the moon through our portal. We quickly dressed and went to the 10th and 11th decks to watch the approach of Ushuaia.

Both the photographs and the scans of my paintings turned out too blue and I am working on getting the color adjusted or in the case of the paintings I may try to just photograph them and see if I can get the color closer.

Beginning to draw Tango dancers

(Please click on pictures to see enlargements) Beginning to draw Tango dancers, I am trying to feel the movements. Ideally I need a partner because Tango is a dance that depends upon two moving together. I feel that Icannot do a finished work until I have experienced both the male and the female parts with a partner holding me. No problem now, I am happy to say that I have a volunteer and some DVDs that will facilitate our learning. In a few days I hope to have some new work but in the mean time I will post some more of the scenic beauty in photographs and paintings made while seeing Argentina, the Falklin Islands, Cape Horn, and Chile.

Cruise photographs between Buenos Aires to Valparaiso

January 18, my husband and I entered our last port after out cruise On the Celebrity Cruise Ship Infinity.


Valparaiso is the San Francisco of South America with steep hills and cable cars.

After the 14 day cruise it had been months since we were in Ben's Aires and this colorful district. I wonder if the paintings here of the Argentina Tango truly reflect the real Tango spirit or if they were made to satisfy tourists. I am searching for the real tango spirit in the paintings I will be posting soon.

This Tango couple appear to hate each other. The man's right hand that acts as a signal to the woman is not directing her from the back of the rib cage.Maybe the artist didn't want to draw hands or they were making a comment on men and women these days.

On board ship our travel companions play chess.

Beagle Channel from the aft deck on the Infinity Cruise Ship

Watercolors from my Aquabee Supper Deluxe sketch book. January 11, 2009.

Sketching Tango Argentino as taught by Juan Pablo Vino

The number one most memorable and exciting part of my vacation was drawing Tango dancers seeking an understanding of this vital dance art form. I am beginning to develop an understanding and feeling for Tango. I am hoping that I will learn more with the videos that I purchased. As I gain in knowledge, I will make more finished works. The beauty of Argentina Tango, to me is the relationships of male and female expressed in movement as I saw the Carlos Gardel show in Buenos Aires and in the performances of the Pampas Devils Show on the Infinity Celebrity Cruise Ship. I am exceedingly pleased with the cruise ship Tango lessens in helping me to interpret the dance in drawings and future paintings. Tango dancers turn like tops with an imaginary cord running from the top of their head to the sole of their foot grounded. The way I see the tango man's hands are like the gentle firm touch shaping the movement of his spinning partner when she is centered and balanced like clay on a wheel. Movement takes form like magic.

Happy New Year

Holiday Season at Government Camp and Salem, Oregon

On request from my son-in-law, here are some holiday photos. In about three weeks I will return to blogging with some new directions. I enjoyed china painting on a tile at a party of the Independent Women Artists of Corvallis.
I did a 3" x 2" porcelain tile from this drawing done at the wedding.We were very pleased at how well the Chevy Tracker handled in the snow when we went up Mount Hood for a December Wedding.

Here are some of the first pictures of my 8 yearold granddaughter.

Woke up to snow - the early arctic blast for a white Christmas?

My better half at the wheel.

The news media may have over reacted to a storm that may or may not materialize into the demon they predict. The storm is rushing me for preparations for our children flying into Portland, Oregon for a wedding in our family, and Christmas gift making and shopping. After rushing about this season, a rest will be very much needed. So I will be taking a little break from blogging returning with new vigor later on in January.
One of the activities I plan in my break is to catch up on my favorite art blog links. A new one just added yesterday is Ellen Beier's. http://www.ellenbeier.com/ She has been a published illustrator for 20 years. Her historic fiction for children is exquisite. Ellen invited me to her home and studio yesterday. It is impressive how she reads and reads to familiarize herself with the period of time, places and people in her book illustrations. There are many steps in preparation before the illustrating begins.

Gloves of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Volunteer

"Honoring the River Enhancers," Mixed media, Caran d'ache on paper, image 20" x 22" framed approximately 21" x 23" (click on image to see detail) This is my other entry for "Our Fish Story," a juried show for LaSells Stewart Center Galleries, in Corvallis, Oregon, February 2 - March 10, 2009. The jurors will be looking for art that creatively represents how fish and fishing habitats are sustaining the spirit of Oregon's bounty. For entry information click on the URL here: http://oregonstate.edu/lasells/galleries There is a $30.00 entry fee which makes me pause before entering. But ever since 1986 at Breitenbush Camp Grounds where I painted my first oil painting -"Humbug Creek", I have been hooked on the fishing story in my paintings. I have available "Breitenbush 32 years later" and "Ripples" both under 56" x 48" posted on my artist page, Diane Widler Wenzel, at The Pegasus Art Gallery web site - http://pegasusartgallery.com/

Possible entry to juried exhibit at La Selles Stewart Center

"Spirit of Oregonians Volunteering to Save Salmon and Steelhead" (South Santiam Hatchery), Watermedia on paper, image 15" x 29 1/2" frame 23" x 36" (click on image for detail)
Completed in studio

Before finished - my painting on location

Volunteers fertilize salmon eggs at South Santiam Hatchery, a painting started on location and never completed is another painting I'll be finishing to enter in the show, FISH STORY.

Linda Rees Tapestrys at DIVA, Eugene

two photos of exhibit by Dennis Galloway

Linda Rees’ tapestry exhibit, “Putting Content to Color” at DIVA, Eugene, Oregon.
With great pleasure I viewed Linda Rees’ tapestries yesterday evening just before and during the First Friday, Eugene Art Walk. We are both veteran members of a marketing group, Fiber Design, dating back to 1977 through 1978 in Bellingham, Washington. During this period Linda’s designs were based on Southwestern geometric rugs. She departed from Hispanic tradition by using their design elements to make shapes and patterns expressive of her own life. Each new piece stretched the limits building one experience upon another in an admirable journey. Linda experimented with color moving from the natural wool colors to brighter died yarns from the spool ends for commercial carpets.
Linda Rees also started experimenting with curved shapes in her tapestries. I am the proud owner of her first or one of her first tapestries, “Pile of Rocks.” I was drawn to an interesting play between the hard idea of rocks and the softness of woven wool. Some of the yarn for this piece was hand spun by Linda. My tapestry and Rees rug adds much warmth to my home. The warmth comes from the wool but even more from it being a work made from the patient, enduring heart of an artist. Her work is an inspiration to my painting because of her process and deep personal involvement in each tapestry.
Linda Rees will be giving a gallery talk Friday December 12th at noon at DIVA, 110 W Broadway on a corner of Broadway and Olive in Eugene, Oregon. The gallery is open 12:00 - 5:00 PM Tuesday - Saturday. Linda's exhibit will be up through December 23rd. For more information click on the gallery's web site here www.divacenter.org

Entering juried show, Sustaining the Spirit of Oregon's Bounty, Our Fish Story

Having a husband who volunteers much of his time to Oregon Fish and Wildlife, I have started a number of paintings that are from his volunteering for enhancing and helping the survival of Steelhead and Salmon. The on-line entries must be submitted by January 12. and the exhibit is February 2 - March 10 at Oregon State University LaSells Stewart Center, Corvallis, Oregon. As I finish them I will be showing them here'

Resolution of my experimental novel, I am Darion Painter

Here I go again, fast forwarding to chapter 10 and the satisfying ending right immediately after the deepest darkest climax. The climax came to me in a dream last night. But first a few words will cover chapters 6 through 9 in which Diane identifies the characters in her dream. Mad Hatter was one facet of her personality. Mad Hatter was at the wheel of the car that went out of control narrowly missing her lean and hungry side, Penny. The other mysterious character was the person Darion wants to become -Jeannette Cougar Woman. Cougar Woman chased Penny who fell in the deathly snow and was almost killed by my car before getting up and slashing Mad Hatter's tires.
My friend Rain Song wisely says that Mad Hatter is one who does everything for everybody else. Mad hatter actually has many hats more than her bird nests and paint brush head coverings. She also has a nurse cap, a baseball cap, a cooks hat, and so on. She always has to have a hat and feels guilty about doing things just for herself. And yet she resents her other hats and will keep on doing more and more paintings without taking care of herself or her other commitements.
Then in chapter nine she dreamt that she was trying to drive a delivery truck out of her drive way and the wheels kept spinning. But she must get the truck moving to deliver all the matches for people to light holiday candles. The weight of the world's celebration depended upon her. How rediculous she realized it was. It finally became clear what she must do to become the person she wants to be. She will take time for herself without always having to feel that everything she does has to be for someone else.

Fifth Installment of the novel, I AM DARION PAINTER

Mug on left is lean and hungry Penny and mug at center is the dream office secretary. Any one of these characters could be responsible of the crime. With the exception of course of Mad Hatter who deserves to be restrained for her successive disregard of property herself. She gets paint all over my clothes and drips it all over the house. Or heaven forbid the slashing of the tires of my dream car could have been a conspiracy. Now back to the drawing board to try and remember any clue to who the other pedestrian was that snowy night of a life changing dream.

The Mad Hatter Darion, Installment Four

This is, as all of you know who follow my blog, one of Darion Painter's personalities. Darion is the main character in my experimental novel. She is the mad hatter in me saying: All I want to do is paint. Who cares about anything or anybody else but me. I don't answer the telephone. Could be a bill collector. I don't comb my hair or brush my teeth and the blue birds build nests on my head. Their waste adds great texture to my paint, don't you think?
This novel is about solving the secret of a life changing dream. Dreams like this snowy night dream are messages to bring inspiration and life into my painting. These dreams are all about unlocking my painting process. I don't remember the dream as well as I did a few installments back and could use some help in that respect because at my age my memory is not as keen as it used to be. Or perhaps you only remember what you can handle. I do hope it is only aging that is at play here and not dementia in one form or other.
One thing I do know : This drawing is not the secretary of my dreams. In my dream I didn't get a good look at the person who chased the one who tripped and fell in the snow. I hope I have not confused you. I might have hit the one laying in the snowy road when the car went out of control. I think she got up slashed my wheels and then tried to open the door and get me. She was familiar and I remembered who she was right after the dream, but now I have forgotten already who she was. I think she is the one who slashed my tires. Maybe if we make some more pictures I will remember as I help Diane draw. Now the personality that attacked me was lean and hungary. For sure I can draw that Darion personality and the secretary tomorrow.

Third installment of Darion Painter

Darion just had to paint whatever caught her attention like the sunset peeping from behind the rain scowl. Soon Diane will paint a portrait of Darion as the wild painter who just can't get enough of painting. the painting is acrylic on a cradled wood board 8" x 10". A great deal of dilute acrylic matte medium kept the paint very juicy wet. As promised in the previous installment of this novel experiment, I will make portraits of various aspects of Darion Painter's personality.

Thoughts forThanksgiving Week

(a visiting buck in our back yard) (safely in city limits)

I am thankful that I am not Darion. For those of you who have not read my recent blog entries, Darion is the main character in my first novel that I am writing in daily installments on my blog. It may become a novel. I am having to think if this story of a daily painter has enough plot and character to develop. I think there is drama enough in the development of an artist.

Darion does come from my experiences but I have much more than she has to be thankful for because I have a supportive husband, family and friends and art patrons who are buying my art and a commission to do children's book illustrations for JH Sweet's series FOO AND FRIENDS. http://www.jhsweet.com/

The next installment of I AM DARION will be December 1st. This week I will take off to devote to family and friends.

Second installment of the novel I AM DARION PAINTER

Tucson Adobe Home

I brushed the dust off of TUCSON ADOBE HOME. Then hung it up where I could study it.

I am amused to think that it doesn't really belong to me in my dream. It belongs only to part of me - the worker in the dream office. The first thing I notice when I look at the painting is the dream land colors of coral and teal green. I feel the warmth and breath in the fragrant desert air. Then I saw the path moving past an open mailbox curving towards the front door of the entry porch. The empty mail box tells me the occupant of the house is waiting and open to and hears the world. The interior beyond the covered porch is made of two buildings and a mysterious inner garden. The garden is cool and peaceful on a hot day. This painting reminds me that my home is the structure of my relationship to living. My home and life is an art creation.

An Internet friend, Rain Song, pays close attention to the meaning of dream symbols. She says a house in your dreams means you need to organize your house. I believe she is absolutely completely correct. Two places in my dream house are my dream office and another is the TUCSON ADOBE HOME.

I think part of the significance of the painting lies in the adobe home being made by hand by artists. The home is environmentally in harmony with the hot climate of Tucson. There might be more to this painting than I was aware of when I painted it to become a dream symbol of mine. How I journey in my dreams will determine who I will become.

I get up every morning and ask myself if I have some ideas for what I will paint each day. The need to be relevant is always a pressing matter for me. Every morning starts as a cross road but now I am at a particularly big crossroad. I don't have any more commitments to do shows or exhibit my work. A very freeing feeling!

There are obstacles ahead. Or maybe I should say challenges. My house is full of paintings and keeping it free of allergens means frequently reviewing the contents with a donation bag. Opening up to me are some exciting avenues. There is sharing art and giving back to the community. I might be satisfied with helping hospital patients express themselves in the arts. But that Penny in me wants to jealously save her time to paint for herself. She is always hungry for more. I have so many styles I wonder which one is my truest me. Excuse me I am going to paint now. Or rather Penny is going to be staisfied as I paint now.

Here is the painting she is working on. I am calling it Sunset Peeping Around Stormy Scowl. Well it isn't ready yet but will be coming soon along with self-portraits of Darion Painter.

First installment of the novel, I AM DARION PAINTER

The Office

I was in line waiting to voice my complaint. I was going to bring Penny to justice for slashing all four of my tires. But then on the other hand, I might be in line to defend myself. Dreams can turn the tables on me. Anyway behind the desk lined up against the windows were some of my very own paintings. At first I thought good. I can pick them up at the same time as my interview. Saves time! But what paintings are these? One was a 1999 painting I did of Mockingbird Lane in Tucson. It was of the humble but aesthetically sensual, adobe home of Professor Robert Colescott. He was a former inspiration from my college days. Then the other paintings were the ones I was trying to place in my mind.

'Oh no!', the strange woman said from behind the desk. 'I like these paintings , I purchased them. Don't you remember? They are not hanging yet because we just moved into smaller quarters. With the economy so bad we couldn't afford our larger office. I still have hopes, though, in a few months we will be moving back. Our service is crucial to a changing world and doesn't cost the tax payer a dime. We are the office of dreams.'

Now we could proceed with the charges I had in mind, but the dream ended.

As I write this afternoon, enough time has passed so I see more clearly the meaning of my dream. I am Penny who opened my car door, and put her face in mine after slashing my tires. But I still can not see the meaning of Colescott's house.

I AM DARIONE PAINTER, my first novel

Oh oh! Here I go again dreaming about those paintings I did in the days when my paintings sold, before the great recession of 2008. My mind was still groggy as I was beginning to wake up trying to hold on to this dream and begin to analyze the meaning of it all. Was it when we first moved back to Oregon's industrial arm pit on Interstate 5? No, it must have been when we lived at that Washington State boarder town or was it 42 years ago after graduate study in painting at the University of Arizona. Yes, it was when I felt complimented by people saying I painted like a man. The paintings came from before women's lib while painting all year full time with a stipend awarded to me by the Lake Oswego Art Guild. Might have been when Marion Munger tirelessly moved the show from library to library to a Salem department store.
I feel a chill of worry. My memory is gone. I can't remember for sure if the paintings in my dream were ones I actually did and sold or if they were the dream paintings I see in my dreams over and over. Is forgetting caused by not caring enough about each painting? Or coming from making saleable products? No I always put myself completely in all that I do. My laps of memory must be a senior moment of sorts. That is all I thought.

Going back over the dream in my mind as I still lay in bed, I gradually remember the beginning. While driving our car on a snowy slushy road there were two pedestrians ahead crossing the road. No, THEY WERE NOT CASUAL WALKERS. One was chasing the other. Then one fell and my car went out of control in a little sideways slide and I feared that I may have hit one of them. So I stopped and waited. Every muscle tensed up, realizing my danger. The two people in the dusk were wild and irrational. I wanted to lock the doors but couldn't move fast enough before a dreaded familiar face appeared. Lean and hungry, jealous Penny opened the door and grinned a I gotcha smile.

Sylvia Beach exhibit goes up Thursday

(update: The show is up. Below is most of the paintings. Click on picture to enlarge.)

I am painting memories of the beach accessible from the Salishan Market Place Nature Trail. The dunes were high in October giving me the idea for "Tide Reaching Over the Dunes" I loved the way the sea foam was so light and marked the water's receding edges. This will be one of the 30 paintings going up at Sylvia Beach Hotel. The painting is acrylic on a wood cradled board 12" square. Until the exhibit is over January 20th the only place to purchase this painting is at Sylvia Beach Hotel.

Sylvia Beach Hotel featuring Widler Wenzel small paintings

November 21 to January 19 at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon I will be exhibiting over thirty of my vignette acrylic paintings. http://www.sylviabeachhotel.com/ These works were made while living several months each year for the last three years at Coyote Rock RV and Marina Park on the Alsea River, Kernsville, Lincoln City. While these Oregon Coast paintings are on exhibit, all sales of them will be through the Hotel and not over the Internet. Pictured here are three of these paintings from this year. Update Dec. 19th:The second painting of Rocky Reach sold.

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