Cherry Orchards

This time of year when the trees start to blossom is exciting! Last year I studied, sketched and painted lots of blooming trees and never felt satisfied. This year I started with a pink stripe on a square canvas and an orchard scene emerged that seemed to sum up all the scenes I had wanted to paint. Then I got out to Sauvie Island and painted with acrylics inside a just starting to bloom orchard on a rare sunny day. The air was filled with fresh scents and buzzing bees. Two weeks later I returned to the same spot to paint with oils, the first time I've used them plein air. It has been quite a few years since I handled oils and I wanted to compare them with acrylic. As expected, acrylics are fast drying which limits blending, while oils are slow, creamy, blendable, messy and smelly! For now, I'll continue with both media, sketching, plein air, using photo references and my imagination.

Purple Portraits

Drizzly gray days are great for figure drawing and painting from models. Despite my many years of figure drawing since high school, I find painting portraits very challenging and worked hard on these two. For some reason, purple dominated my color schemes, maybe I just got bored with dull colors and wanted to liven things up!

March Challenge

The March challenge was to work from photos, including this one of a cattle pond near the Dalles. Did not see any cattle or the necessity of adding any critters, but I did like the line of poplars, often used as a wind break, including the fallen "soldiers". The April challenge is to get outside and paint from nature, rain or shine!

ordinary people

I enjoy drawing "ordinary" people (as opposed to models who tend to be young and beautiful, sometimes nude which is nice, too) in their every day clothes, being who they are. People who have been on this planet for more than a few decades show their lives on their faces: the effects of gravity, time, relationships, emotions, all we have suffered, enjoyed, experienced with grace and humor.

Hip to be Square

Are you hip, or is it unhip to ask? Hip to be Square is the Spring Show at Sequoia Gallery in Hillsboro, featuring 12" x 12" canvases, any media. My acrylic painting is based on a yoga pose with the weight held strongly to the earth by the arms, the rest of the body and legs defying gravity, almost floating. I have been doing yoga all my adult life, and would not attempt this! Don't ask! But I can dream of it, and paint it, imagining the floating feeling, air alive almost like water.

Hip to be Square opens with a reception on Tuesday, April 5 at 6 pm, and runs through April. The gallery is located at 136 SE 3rd Avenue, Hillsboro.

Madonna

The model on Monday night is expecting a baby boy in two months! She seemed so peaceful and relaxed (or just sleepy?), full of hope and love.

Spring grays

Happy first day of Spring! There are a few signs meekly coming out, but mainly there has been a lot of gray. Studying gray tones is a great exercise and is the foundation for painting in color with correct values. I watched a video on drawing in values with black pastel with my friend Marcia Vander Schaaf, then went into her back yard to draw. I saw grayish dead leaves, rocks with bits of green moss, a stone bunny sculpture suggesting life, bits of greenery poking out along with a few purple crocuses. In my pencil drawing, it's easy to leave out the color.

For my painting, I wanted to add something more alive, a bird or squirrel? Then I saw the wonderful collection of cat paintings on Art on Broadway in Beaverton, and of course, I am a cat lover, so that was it. I mixed grays with red, green, blue, yellow, no black, for richer tones and let a bit more green come through in places. Sketches can be done quickly in cold weather and I like the feeling of freedom to interpret and change that I get instead of relying on too literal photos.

Next time, more color!