Tango Tiles and Dancing with the Stars

Dancing With the Stars had the most successful season in showcasing the best that dancing competition can give contestants. No matter what your ability you are a winner if you are dancing at your highest ability. Every dance couple were wonderful in their own way. Dance is all about the joy of carrying yourself to bring forth your best qualities and inner beauty with confidence.
The tiles are not available for sale. Click on images for enlargement.

What is finished? outdoor paintings started on location

Two questions haunt me. One, I keep asking why I become dissatisfied with so many paintings I once considered finished. I am puzzled because this change in judgement is made in light of my desires to make, to be done and to go onto new experiences. Could it be that I depart from a prescribed and predictable finish? My approach is to paint only what is necessary to communicate. I want to make my emotions of the moment come forth through my subject or abstraction. I could be in a different thinking mode in years to come. I become my own audience and thus demand more clearly stated visions. I like the random order of nature and want to approximate nature's energy. If the painting has gone through labor and torment I want to make it more natural than my first markings on the paper. The second question is why am I becoming less interested in selling. It would be nice to have money to buy materials and cover my expenses. Could be because there are fewer sales today and in defense I just say I don't care. But I was growing less interested before the recession. Could it be because I have had wonderful sales in the past where my art work was enjoyed by someone who I met and cared about. Maybe I am less interested in selling because of my organization of my work to keep some from each year and to recycle the rest into new works. Today I organized my work on paper by subject and labeled the shelves of work. I am going to constantly accept a or recycle my work so the total growth of my collection remains constant. Full Moon Over Lava Rock Pond, Eastern Oregon 1992, South Devil's Kitchen 1998, and Wave at Seal Rock, 1991 all watercolors completed today, 18" x 21", $200 each

Grand Prairie Park Trout Pond, Albany, started 1989 and completed today, w. c., 21" x 15", donated to Oregon Hatchery Research Center

Twin Bridges to McDowel Creek Run, started 1989 and completed today. w.c. and gouache foreground added today, 18" x 22", donated to Oregon Hatchery Research Center

Before going fishing - sharing not failed yet paintings of Tango dancers, Avarie Park and Garden in the Woods, Corvallis

The painting of the couple visiting under the redwood trees looked tormented in being over worked. But I won't accept failure yet. Not until I rip it apart and try some new compositions. Another visit to Avery Park in Corvallis is going to be in the near future. I remember How good it felt to use bold colors from my emotions when I was first painting it in 2001.

"Barb's Garden, Corvallis, started Fall 2001. Today added dark lamp blacks to punch out the flowers and trees, later I'll decide if it is complete, water media, 30" x 28", $200.

The plate has not been fired yet. At this stage I am not very pleased with my mineral painting. Filtered color is suppose to show through the over painting. I like painting fast and wet - not a good idea on a glazed ceramic because the oil ran especially on the tapered edges. I used so much oil that even baking it in a regular oven didn't dry the oil much. made a few repairs before the firing. I'll be picking it up late next week.

Three illustrations - Corvallis, North Albany, Oregon Coast

"Play Garden Wall and Queen Ann's Lace Train Yard" Western and 7th Street , Corvallis, 1996, w.c., 12 1/2" x 22", $90

"1986 View from our Kitchen", w. c., completed today, 15" x 20", $90.

"Photographer Stretching His Limits," Oregon Coast, 1986, air brush and watercolor, determined to be complete without need of change today, 20" x 14", $90

Paintings grasses at Jackson-Frazier Wetland, Hatfield Marine Center, and my back yard - abstracting the unseen forces

I AM PAINTING THE EFFECT OF ATMOSPHERIC CONDIONS ON THE GESTURE OF THE GRASS NOT THE GRASS.

"Calm morning light in our back yard in Albany" - I was finished yesterday and today started a new painting. Then I realized that the first did not have the gesture of being in still air after a night of being hydrated. So I ripped the new one apart and pasted it over the first one. Finally I cropped the painting, 8" x 10", $90.

"Autumn frost on the grass at the Jackson-Frazier Wetland viewing platform", started in 2000 - today I judged the work completed. Painted entirely on location, 22" x 30", $300.

"Sheltered shade under the bridge to Jackson-Frazier Wetland Boardwalk, Corvallis," started 1998, w.c. mixed media, 22" x 30". $120

Wind at Hatfield Marine Center, Newport, 2002, w.c., 22" x 26", $150

Abstracted from French Creek Rd, my back yard in North Albany, and Iron Mountain : paintings completed today

While riding in the car on French Creek Road headed to Detroit Lake, 2001, I sketched ink contours of a tree here and another down the way in an imaginary landscape. Later I filled the shapes with colors seen through an emotional lens, 14" x 11", $250.

My Back Yard Field, today, abstracting the slender grass patterns against fir trees, w.c., 11" x 14", See up date May 17.

Iron Mount Hike, 2004, abstracting immediate feel of energy, w.c., 12" x 9", $90.

Three paintings of trees on the Oregon Coast

2002, Trees in the Breeze, Cleawox Lake, Oregon, w.c., 30" x 22". $150




2002Four Trees at Cleawox Lake at Honeyman State Park, Oregon, w.c., 22" x 15", $90

2003, Looking inland at Devil's Kitchen Wayside near Bandon, Oregon, watercolor on handmade tinted paper, 19" x 15", $120

Three new tango paintings

Bellows and Dancers, mixed water media plus glitter on black paper, 11 1/2" x 9", $90.

Love Doves Tango in 1900 Paris, mixed water media on watercolor board, 30" x 20", $175.

Tango Energy, mixed water media on watercolor paper plus glitter, 20"x 16", $120.

Oregon Beaches

Face Rock, Oregon Coast, 2001, water media on yellow tinted handmade paper, 15" x 19 1/2" $200

Siletz Bay Gull and Crow, 2006, water media on Lanaquerelle paper, 15"x 20", $90

Hug Point, Oreon, 2002, watercolor mixed media on Lanaquarelle paper, 29" x 22", $ 120

Women Following Their Passion

She Goes Painting in a Red Rain Coat, 1990, Gouache, 19" x 25", $150

Bouquet for Baby Buggie Blues, Stavanger, Norway, March 1994, 10" x 14", $90

Fisher woman in Pink, 10" x 14", $90

Here are some of the results from painting with rejuvenated watercolors and gouache kept in small jars. It is time not only to start new work but also look at older pieces that might be enhanced by a touch of juicy paint. Reviewing my work, I found three that I could put up for sale.

I still will post the mineral painted plate but I couldn't go to class yesterday because the car battery was dead and it took to long to fix.

Tip for hard to squeeze watercolor tubes

My style requires big loads of paint fast. Writing these tips has reminded me of a critic back 35 years ago when I took a refresher class from Frederick Heidel. He said I did not make myself an ample set up for painting. I had to agree looking at my little plastic cabinet with drawers upon drawers of watercolor paint tubes and seeing how much time was involved in opening and closing the drawers and unscrewing and messing with a palette. I wasn't cutting the mustard. There must be another way instead of poking with the wrong end of my brush pushing the hard paint plug down so soft paint could ooze around and through the opening. Such important lessons sometimes are forgotten . Today I finally have no fear in ripping open hard to squeeze tube. I wear gloves of course.

More tips for dealing with dried out watercolor tubes

This is a close up of one of the many small paintings illustrates the grainy texture of rejuvenated dried up watercolor. The shiny dark at top center was a wet pool of color allowed to dry. Well, it has some medium in it that will never dry. So it is best to shake or mix the watery paint in the jars before pouring it on Arches hot press paper. The watery mixtures of colors delight me on the smooth paper and they dry inplace without soaking into the paper. The example below still has the making tapes still in place. Click on image for an enlargement.

The watercolor pigments had dried up in the tubes. I put the tube tops in a tin and sprayed the colors so they made a tiny palette. Wearing Playtex gloves I pealed of the metal outer tube and put the paint chunks in spice bottles, baby food jars, or film canisters. Then covered with water.
In the studio or home patio the jars have a ready supply of color especially good for mixing on the paper.

Dried up watercolor tubes and tips

My watercolor tubes dry up. They didn't used to. In fact I have some 50 year old tubes of Shiva and Liquitex watercolors that remain moist even if they are left open for years. Some colors dry up faster than others and when the tops start accumulating stiffened paint I put them in a tin like this and spray some water on them and paint with them like pan colors.

Supper of Emmaus paintings of the 16th century and me

Forty four years ago I wrote a term paper for a college history class and put it away. Recently while cleaning house I found and read the paper - surprised to find the paintings reveal the problems I have faced in developing my energy and artistic expression. Here are a few examples from my paper of analyzed paintings.
Looking at Pontormo's Supper I see he has resorted to symbolism and has esoteric reasons for the naked feet and the dog and cat in the left corner. Adding extra stuff weakens a painting because only a few in the know feel the emotion. In the previous post I showed some works by Rembrandt who expressed a comparatively more intimate spiritual journey. In Italy one reached the holy through the priest. But Rembrandt painted in an environment where people as individuals could reach the holy. He drew the supper over and over again showing his increasing religious awareness. To me it is important to do subjects over again that I painted years ago. It is important to me to paint what I care about.
Pontormo painted the painting below my analysis. Supper at Emmaus in 1525 for the Carthusian monastery at Galluzzo, ( ITALIAN MANNERISM, Guiliani , Figure 3.)http://www.blogger.com/www.wga.hu

Papolo Caliari know as Veronese around 1559 painted the Supper of Emmaus, now in the Louvre, Paris.There is so much happening with everyone's family and landscape as well as a probable dog fight in the makings. The Biblical story was simply an excuse for a grand scale work commissioned by the rich. http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres

Titian's Supper at Emmaus painted 1533 -34. reproduction from http://www.mfa.org/venice/exhibition.html Titian's linear energy is made static with the tablecloth wrinkles more important than Christ.

Caravaggio's Pilgrimage of Our Lord to Emmaus at the National Gallery, London renders the Emmaus' Supper with poor street people in rags. The moment of recognition of Christ is dramatized by lighting and compositional linear movement. This Caravaggio painting is one of my favorites but does not compare with Rembrandt's posted earlier. http://www.artbible.info/art/

The Supper of Emmaus frequently painted by Italian artists of the 16th century are wonderfully rich in connections to me. The paintings reveal what happens when artists depend on commissions. It also shows how the style of your art community can undermine or enhance the expressiveness of a theme. Analyzing the energy movement in these paintings when I was a student 44 years ago has entered my subconscious. These paintings are a part of my background for making expressive movement in my own paintings.