Wild Arts Festival, Portland, November 17-18, 2018

This is the final year for the 6x6 Artist Open at the Wild Arts Festival. I made two works of art this year using watercolor, collage and topped by encaustic.

Harry Heron - before the encaustic top layer

Harry after the encaustic layer - photo enhanced.

A side view of the 1.5 inch cradled panel. A better depiction of the final colors.

Autumn Crow - before the encaustic top layer

Crow after the encaustic layer

The encaustic wax does dull the colors, but you can touch the surface! It soaks into the paper layers and changes them somewhat.  The work can be shined with a soft cloth every couple of months.  

More information about the festival is here:

http://wildartsfestival.org/

They will put up a slideshow of all of the 6x6 works for this year before the festival.

Portland Audubon Society Wild Arts Festival

It's almost time for the Wilds Arts Festival held in November by Portland Audubon Society.

http://wildartsfestival.org/  This year it takes place on November 24 and 25.  Lots of art and books to peruse.

Corvus II, Corvus I, Blackbirds

There is always an open show of 6 x 6 art works to raise money for conservation.  I donated three pieces this year.  Water color topped by clear encaustic medium on 6 x 6 x 1.5 inch boards.  I love that the encaustic medium gives an atmospheric look to the art and it allows one to touch the paintings.  I struggled a little with this batch, but you can only be where you are at the moment. The middle one, Corvus I, was done while we still were dealing with smoke from the forest fires in the Columbia Gorge. Corvus II was more abstract. Blackbirds was inspired by blackbirds in the reeds by Cathedral Park in Portland.

Fall Post Card Swap 2016 - my cards

For this swap I decided to try the Etegami as described by Diana Trout on her blog:http://dianatrout.com/  It's the entry from 10/15/2016.

I wrote fewer words and mostly used letter stamps for the words. I ordered a custom chop, but it didn't arrive in time.  Most of the cards are using the paper rated "full blur." You can see how the paint spreads in the Nasturtium card below. The stamps are from Spain in the 1980's.  I found a stack of letters written by friends I met there in college.  I need to read through the letters again, but I'll save that for a nostalgia day. In the meantime I grabbed some of the stamps for the art project.

I'm obviously inspired by my surroundings: my dog, my cat, a mini pumpkin my husband has on his desk, an owl from the Audubon Society of Portland, indoor flowers we had from the market, nasturtiums and asters from our yard.

Speaking of the Audubon society, I just could not decide on a design for the 6x6 project this year. I gave up, but we did go to the show this weekend. We picked up a couple of steel ravens for the yard and notecards.

I've received about 5 post cards so far. I'll post those next time.

My post cards for iHanna's Spring 2016 swap

For iHanna's Spring 2016 Post card swap:

I had intended to make some reduction linocut cards, but that didn't work out.  Maybe I should start NOW for the next swap.  So, I played around with water color and words.  The mantras helped with how I've been feeling lately.

In progress

 

Finished - and put into clear bags to mail. I tested one to myself and it made it through in good condition. Hopefully the international ones made it!

All manner of thing(s) shall be well

 

Nina Johansson drawing year

http://bogglemymind.tumblr.com/

If anyone has not had a chance to look at Nina's tumblr where she drew every day in a 2015 calendar book, check it out at the link above.

 

Also, I don't know how to link to this particular question/answer page in her tumblr, so I'll post the screen shot:

Great advice, right?

 

Here's my attempt to capture some flowers I bought for the new year.  I like the top part - the looseness and variety of color in the Freesia.  The composition could be better, for sure.

 

Stonehenge notebook

Sketches, play and rest

The paint is flowing a bit more nowadays.  The first painting I tried to do of this fading poinsettia had everything wrong - overpainting, muddy, stiff.

Then I loosened up a bit and managed to bring in a bit of light with this sketch painting.

This next one was done free-hand with a size 36 round brush (BIG brush).

Using Charles Reid's "Painting Flowers in Watercolor" (I have a copy for my Kindle Fire - which is very exciting), I practiced some of his techniques.  He paints alla prima (get it down the first time). The rule is no re-stating of darks.  If you don't get it right the first time, too bad!

I used a lot of water and paint, so I didn't have a lot of control, but I had a lot of fun!

Daniel Smith paints on rough India-made paper. Khadi brand.


My progress on Martha Beck's A Wild New World so far.  Well, I've been trying to Play and Rest.  It's quite easy to play, rest, play, rest.  I don't seem to have any issues with this part of the plan.  However, of course, there are lots of other things to do during the day.  If the tax receipts need to be finished, does she mean mark up the bank statements with a fat, purple marker (tried it - it was fun for 5 minutes,) or does she mean just send it all out and have someone else deal with it?

Dishes?  OK, if I'm chilly, playing in the sudsy water can be a joy, but only for a short time, then it's drudgery.. 

Work, as in job work.  Hmm - how to make this one follow the rules?  I'll tell you one way - I slept Friday afternoon. I slept Saturday afternoon.  Sunday, I slept in later in the morning, and then passed out for about an hour around 7 pm. I didn't get any "work" done.  However, by Tuesday, I felt much less resistent to the work I had to do.  Last night, late, I was preparing for a meeting.  I took a 20 minute break, realized that I didn't need to pull an all nighter as long as I had an outline, finished and was in bed by 1 am.  Today the meeting went well.

So, I think 3 days of napping are a good pre-requisite to a few days of working!

I haven't researched the elephant situation, but it's still on my list.

Latest Commissions

Oh - doesn't that sound nice: "Latest Commissions". My friend asked for a few more of the "Pear Mail" series. I made a few as gifts as well. (Jenny? Raegan?)


Of course, once I received a request and a deadline, I went into resistance mode. I put it off as long as I could.



The story of my life.

The same thing happened with crochet. My niece asked for a scarf made from yarn she chose. I had to make her a hat, scarf and gloves from yarn I picked out before I could get around to making the one she wanted. Of course, don't even get me started with my regular work.

The scarf and hat colors I chose.

The scarf and hat colors she chose

They're both nice. Both easy.

My sister Rachael's scarf.

I can't be the only person who has resistance issues. Anyone else have any stories? Remedies?

Dee Dee in the window on a sleepy January day in Portland.

"Pear Mail" Series

The other set I created for the Oregon Society of Artists show are done in watercolor with clear encaustic on top. The boards are Claybord Aquabord. The surface is more absorbent in order to use water media more easily.



Since we were supposed to paint a series, I started with 1 pear and added on. I had a hard time thinking of a subject. We had a bowl of beautiful pears on the table so I started with those.



After I painted the watercolors, I looked at them for a few days. They were OK, but not really thrilling me. Did I want to hang them on my wall? I felt they were a little bit boring.



At the same time, I've been reading a couple of books on mail art. Oh my goodness - Pear Mail! Get it - P-air Mail. That's it! I added postage stamps, ink stamps and imagined sending the pears off to foreign lands: Spain, France, Germany and well, San Francisco. They are finished with 2 layers of encaustic medium.



Numbers 3 and 4 were purchased by an Oregon Society of Artist member before the show even opened! The other two are listed for $20 each.

Art Journal Challenge

I found out about an Art Journal Challenge from Bridget Benton's tweets. Starting today, November 1, through the end of the month, work on a page or part of a page of an art journal. Sounds fun - I think I'll try it!

It's call NaNoJouMo (National Nonstop Journaling Month) and you can go to http://www.dblogala.com/ to find out about it. I've posted links to the blog, the Flickr group and to my Flickr stream on the Links list to the right.

In case you don't know, there are other challenges out there such as NaNoWriMo*, NaNoBlogMo, etc. Kind of silly names, but kind of fun too!

Notes on my creative progress: I didn't quite make some goals I had of finishing some work projects and billing goals in September, so I kept working into October without taking a break for art. I started getting really grumpy and angry. Finally, I realized I had better take some time for myself. I am so much happier this past week, but I'm slipping on my "day job" a bit. Such a challenge for me to keep up with both, but obviously necessary!

I went to a drop-in life drawing class last Wednesday at Hip Bone Studio in Portland (http://hipbonestudio.com/.) It was incredibly fun for me! I brought charcoal and watercolors and switched back and forth between the two. The three hours went by in a flash. Since everything I did was of a nekid woman (NSFW**), I won't post it right now, but I had the best time. And it's only $10 a session! Such a deal.

*National Novel Writing Month

**Not Safe for Work

October Zombies

As I promised, I am showing some of my "zombie" paintings. These were not done intentionally - just accidents that happened when I lost control of the paints. This is very easy to do with watercolors. One day it will be 105 degrees F with low humidity, and a week later, it will be 70 degrees F and raining. Paper and paint dry at completely different rates depending on the weather and, of course, how much water I slop on. Also, I actually forget how to paint if I haven't done it for a week or so. That's why it's often a good idea to warm up first!

So, Happy Halloween everyone!

My beautiful sister Rachael and her daughter Emma. Not what I intended, but you both look kind of cool, actually.

Jon Stewart in July. No offense - we love you Jon!

I can't remember who this was. I was trying out a Chinese Water Pen and using my Koi pan water colors. The paper was too wet, but I kind of like the moodiness of it now.

Speedy with "Lost Edges"

I really enjoyed painting this - the Canal paper is very absorbent. It's a little difficult to control the paint, but it is fun to try.

When I paint people, and lose control, I end up with "zombies." I won't post those - although, maybe at Halloween... The boys in the previous post are rather close.

In case you don't know, lost edges (or soft edges) are where the borders between two areas blur a bit as compared to "hard" edges which are clearly delineated. It's a concept that may be obvious to others, but I admit was very difficult for me to understand at first.

Water color

Here are some exercises I painted. The first two use Koi pan water colors, the second two use the colors from my palette, mostly Daniel Smith and M. Graham paints.
They're painted on Khadi Rough paper from India, about 5x7.

First try - clematis and roses from our garden. I thought I didn't quite get it all integrated enough - not enough lost edges.

More lost edges.

Drawn using a grey Pitt pen and painted using my palette colors.

Drawn in pencil, painted, then ink added with a calligraphy pen. I have to admit, I like the high contrast. Next time, I might try to remember to vary the type of lines.

Final pieces for the art show

My pieces are polished and packed up, ready to be submitted to the Lake Oswego Art Festival Open Show tomorrow.


"My Blue Ocean" - Final. I removed some of the sea foam - it was obscuring the ocean blues.

"Arranging a Sunny Day" - 12x12 bulletin board with 9 4x4 tiles. These are all Aquabord with water color and water color pencil and colored markers. I topped them with 2 layers of clear encaustic medium.

Magnets were glued on the back. Most of the tiles can be arranged in any orientation and in any position on the board. I thought this would be fun because it would give you an excuse to touch the encaustic finish. A soft cloth will remove fingerprints and smudges.

Close-ups of a few of the tiles.

Encaustic works in progress

The Lake Oswego Art Festival takes place June 26 - June 28, 2009. They have an Open Show that is, well, open to anyone who wants to enter. There is a small fee of $25 per three pieces, the items have to be for sale, and the festival keeps 40% of the sale price.

I set a goal to have something ready for the show this year as a challenge to myself. It's a way to get started interacting with other artists, learn about art shows, learn about readying a piece of art (hanging, framing, matting correctly), and see how my works compare.

The submission date is June 21. Here are two of the pieces I'm working on:



"Vaux Swifts at Chapman" - 12x12 on birch board, encaustic with tissue paper transfers, in progress.


"Vaux Swifts at Chapman" - completed in a frame. Sorry about the parallax in the photo.



"My Blue Ocean" - 11x14 on Aquabord with water color and 2 coats of clear encaustic medium (beeswax and damar resin), in progress.



"My Blue Ocean" - still in progress. I added encaustic paint and ground glass for the sand. This is on a 2 inch cradled board, so I'm collaging the edges. I'll show that when I post the finished piece.

I have one more to display. It's called "Arranging a Sunny Day."

Spring Hostas

This is an 8 inch by 7 inch detail from a 15 x 11 watercolor painting.
I've decided I don't like the original but I want to start posting.

What don't I like about it? Too few colors? Composition. Values - the center of the leaves turned out too dark. It was painted on Arches 140lb Rough. The paper was kept loose to be able to move the paint around. I think 300 lb will work better. The Sap Green was very sedimentary, which is something I've never noticed before.

Here's the original: