Motor Coach/Studio House Warming

First painting completed at home after our weekend at Coyote Rock, Kernville, Oregon! first painting of our new life style! It is inspired by the spring color as seen on the Siletz River.

"Rain" came to see and wish us well with our Winnebago Coach at Coyote Rock. Generously if we needed any help Rain and her husband were ready to assist. ( photo by Rain's husband )Thank you!

Framing the July and August Exhibits

"Dragon Song II" is my fiery painting for the group exhibit, "Feathers, Fins and Fire". It is going on a wall with other red fiery paintings by artists Gordon Dobbie and Diane Hoff-Rome. This frame is being restored to give the piece some weight. The linen liner was painted red to be part of the painting. It will be hung next to a very fiery mural size painting.

Some collector stuffed animals and my Peter Pan book from my childhood were the subjects of this painting completed about three years ago. It has never sold and I have never painted over it. It is getting a complete make over for the August Corvallis Art Guild Annual Clothes Line Sale. This hand made frame featured a white, a very bright painted white linen liner. The dark blue outer frame over powered the picture. The red painted liner goes much better with my warmed up painting. Even the whites in the painting have a warm tone.

Polishing the exhibit: Feathers, Fins, and Fire

"Siuslaw River Gull" was started seven years ago and has been exhibited before but today I felt very liberated by the daily paintings I have done in recent months. I had new found courage. I repainted the fisherman. Much of the back ground was significantly simplified. Painting the background and the figure while both are wet intermixing colors is the trick to creating atmosphere.

"Reef at Lubbers' Quarters" is one of my key paintings for "Feathers, Fins, and Fire" exhibit June at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Again I modified the lighting to come closer to my memory.

Managing My Collection

Between exhibits is as good a time as any to go through my older paintings. I am compressing them by taking them out of frames. In some cases I cut out favorite parts of the painting and discard the remains. I am not rich like other artists who have filled one house and just move to another. Today I am trying to save a painting with a frame that really overpowered it. The white fill was just too white and the dark blue frame was too contrasty. The colors were disturbing and even after lightening them improving the color interest, they still do not sing to me yet.

Gull and Clam

After a very stormy Wednesday on Thursday we were rewarded with one of the most beautiful days at Newport, Oregon. My husband dug clams while I watched the birds. There was a bald eagel and gulls also finding and opening clams. After returning home and helping prepare a chowder, I painted this acrylic painting 3 foot by 1 foot.

Published my Granny book in new blog

In the spirit of sharing I have published my book, "When I Get to be Older". Perhaps others would like to join me and paint their dreams. And if you want to share them I will be very happy to see what your dreams are.
My new blog URL is http://widlerwenzeldreams.blogspot.com

Benton County Historical Museum Opening

Although it was difficult to get the word out that the museum was having an opening, there was a count of 92 people who came to see our "Journeys of the Heart" of four women presenting a sequel to an exhibit seven years ago. My picture book was hanging between a saying by a famous Confucius Scholar and two verses from the Psalms. I felt my work was very pretentious. It was not yet a story. Then two hours before the opening I finally let go and let the structure of what I had done write the ending.

Finally an ending for Granny Book

This evening is the opening to the "Journeys of the Heart" art exhibit. The paintings are hung but I must go back to change the ninth and last page of the book,"When I Get to be Older"
The last page is now:

No longer do I paint
about when I get to be older.
It is my 64th birthday.
I like giving myself these dreams.

If you are in the Corvallis Philomath area this evening please drop in the Benton County Museum. See what a treasure of a gallery we have here. It is about to be phased out because of county budget cuts.

Final Preperations

With only three days left before hanging the granny series at the Benton County Museum, I became very tired of the many revisions and went back to the original with the exception of the final ninth page.
I painted a dream of me dancing free of how we have to make ourselves look younger. Age is beautiful when you have a dream in your heart.

December Moon Set at Sunrise: April First Eve

Moon Rise at Sunset

All day yesterday I missed painting my daily painting so when evening approached I checked out the moon rise and was so pleased to make a few elementary astronomical observations. Mid December I painted the moon setting at sunrise. The last day of March the sun sets where the moon had in December representing about a 40 degree change in the sunset.

The Peaceable Kingdom

"The Peaceable Kingdom" is acrylic on canvas 36" x 60" It is a collaborative piece for the "Journeys of the Heart" exhibit at the Benton County Historical Museum in Philomath, Oregon, April 12 th through May 31st. With the purpose of getting ourselves loosened up and engaged in making art for our exhibit Barbara Levine, Michelle Jondrow Schults, Barbara Weber and I worked in collaboration. First Three of us individually did drawings and then we gave them to Barbara Levine who selected from our drawings, composed them into a composition, and drew them on the stretched canvas. Then all four of us got together. Barbara Weber brought leavies to print. We painted for several hours. Some areas were not painted leaving many parts with our different styles unrelated to each other. This was a challenge because the painting is a more limited palette than I use. Furthermore, I do not start from a drawing as we did. My goal was to to keep a sense of our individual styles. I wanted to keep each individual style recognizable and relate all our styles to one another.

This collaborative painting is available for sale and the full $800 is a donation to the Benton County Historical Society and Museum in Philomath, Oregon. The content of this painting is spiritual. For more of my spiritual paintings click here.

Swinging To Imaginary Voyages

"Swinging to Imaginary Voyages" is acrylic on museum wrapped canvas 12" square by 1 1/2" deep. For sale $800 Here is the painting which links the book "When I Get To Be Older" with paintings I have been doing about my Widler family who lived for generations in China. My painting motives and aesthetics have been influenced by the Chinese culture. The theme of my book also is inspired by the Chinese respect for people of many years. Our culture idalizes youth and when I painted my dreams of old age I learned why the best years are really the golden years. See http://widlerwenzeldreams.blogspot.com

Steelhead Tale

On my first fishing trip of the year not only was the weather beautiful, but my husband allowed me to reel in this beauty. When at home I I was allowed to paint the tail before dinner.

The acrylic painting is on a cradeled Masonite board 12" square.

One New Tree in the Neighborhood

Acrylic on 12" square x 1 7/8" deep Masonite box.

This is the fifth painting of the tree life cycle series. It is a sequoia planted by a neighbor last week. The neighbors will also miss the view of the fallen trees and the sequoia will be wonderful to watch as it grows and will hold a great deal of the water and help dry the very wet ground here. In the foreground there is a twigs left behind from the trees fallen to make way for a new house. We also plan to plant some trees but will wait until our new neighbors build their home.

Trees' Life Cycle

The two jay birds' nest fell to the ground with the tree. I may need more detail showing that the tree is on the ground. This painting is taking me the longest to resolve because the blue of the birds did not show up until I popped them out by darkening the background. Today I began to recapture the magic of the tree top first revealed to me when I first looked at it on the ground.

My series is not done. The second one with the round cut tree was a disappointment when placed in the group. It is the only dominate round shape and looks like a distracting target. Today's painting of the newly planted tree is developing well. When seen with the group I see it needs cues to show it is the only close up picture. It could be mistaken for a mature tree when it is supposed to be a newly planted tree. Please click on the pictures to see a larger image.

From Fir Tree to Cooking Coals

At 2:45 this afternoon I set up my easel to paint the last coals from yesterday's burning. There was such a small pile now of aches from our two fir trees cut down to make space for the building of a new home. I wanted to contrast the burn pile and dirt piles with the earlier paintings I did of the standing trees. The fire was still hot. I put a clay sculpture of a head into the coals and then decided to get a Reynald's heavy duty pouch filled with our dinner. I watched dinner cook as I painted. The dinner cooked faster than I thought, so we had dinner at 4:15 P. M. After dinner I only two plates the aluminum pouch to clean up and I went outside and finished my painting.

First Acrylic Painting of Bahama Reef Fish

Today is the beginning of a series of studio works inspired by my field notes in watercolor and the photos I took at Lubbers' Quarters in the Bahamas. I observed this little juvenile Beaugregory for a couple of hours. The fish was shy but held its waters near the big blocks of coral rock that were placed on the coral flats by an island resident who dug them out of his boat harbor.

Bahama Photograhs

My husband caught and released some real colorful snappers and a bone fish while I painted for one week, Feb. 25th to March 2.

When it rained sheer water curtains, two inches per hour filled our pan.

Light played on sun bleached conch shells.

Watercolors from Lubbers Quarters, Bahamas

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