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

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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.