I'M BACK

I won't bore you with a bunch of excuses and reasons for my negligence here. I'll just get going again.

I'm in Juneau for most of this month, boat and cat sitting for my son who has gone south.  I offered to do so some time ago thinking it would be a week or 2, not 4 weeks.  For the first time in 30+ years, I will be away from home for most of the summer.  At the end of June I will be taking off for Ireland for a workshop with Nina Weiss.

The last 3 months have flown by.... and I was doing a lot of flying, coming to Juneau for dental and medical appointments. My painting output has not been good these last few months. Here is at least one that I like:

watercolor, about 20x12 inches

 

 

 

 

 

LONG OVERDUE

Oh my.  I'm taking the afternoon to put something on my blog and now I see that I never published what I started at the end of February..... telling about my rather unproductive month.  Here is some of what I wrote:

I spent about 2 weeks making some books for friends.... most of the time on the computer getting the pages to fit on the pages properly. They are gifts and so I don't want to put them here as I haven't sent them out yet.   My hope to do a postcard everyday has not succeeded.  But I have kept with my resolve to play my guitar  and get more exercise a good bit better.

My progress with the oils hasn't been going very well. 

about 8x8 inches water mixable oils

This is one of a few small oils that I've done, the only one worthy of putting here.

Bosc Pears   5x12 inches watercolor and gouache

And I found this in my photos, done sometime in December when I was trying to come up with something for a woodcut.  The color is different in this photo... the background gouache in the painting is more purple.  I think I like this blue better.

 I'm in Juneau now for the usual things here:  visiting my son and grand daughter, dentist, taxes, shopping, and will leave for Anchorage tomorrow for my 6 month check up.  

We've had a lot of cold weather this winter and it continues on.  Maybe after a few days in Anchorage, coming home to SE Alaska will feel like going to the tropics.

And now its almost the middle of March, home, but will be going back to Juneau in a couple of days.... and it was actually colder in SE Alaska than Anchorage when I came home.  All my tests were good in Anchorage, which was a big relief and I had a very enjoyable visit with a fabulous and inspirational artist, Wanda Seamster .  Our tax returns are filed and I had a good visit with family and friends in Juneau  But my dentist appointment there for a check up and cleaning resulted in 2 crowns so I have to go back  to finish up and also for another doctor appointment.
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After coming home I got out my old acrylic paints.  I had gotten pretty discouraged with my last few attempts with the oils  Several people have suggested I use acrylics instead of the water mixable oils if I want to avoid solvents.  I did some fish on a couple of fish-roe boxes.... kind of funky looking... and  discovered in the process that I definitely like the oils better.  The acrylics were hard to blend.... dried too fast.  I had something that makes them stay wet longer, but it had dried out..... has been years since I had tried acrylics.   I seem to be scared to start another oil, so started a watercolor yesterday.  It started out wrong and  got to a point of failure where I couldn't fix it.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get the nerve to start another oil painting.  But for the rest of today, its here with the laptop.

WETLANDS

We had a sunny day on Sunday and I got out and took some photos of what I've been working on.  The internet was out on Monday, I finally uploaded 2 of the images on Tuesday and her it is Thursday.  And of course all that I wrote on Tuesday isn't where I am now, so just a couple of paintings today. 

Wetlands  watercolor 13x20 inches

WETLANDS water mixable oils 10x10 inches

 

FIRST OIL PAINTING OF THE YEAR

Here it is the end of January already, and I only have one finished painting to put here.    And I am so behind with my computer stuff.  I have lots of emails to answer, my postcard postings are behind though at least I've done 6 each week, and my 2 woodblocks are done and the exchange ones off in the mail.  But new resolve for the next month to get more painting done.  I started a new oil and a larger than usual watercolor last week.  They are coming alone, but today I'm catching up on the internet.  After a lot of trouble earlier in the month, it has been working well lately.

 

9 x 12 inches, water mixable oil

This is a stand of mountain hemlock that I've painted several times before, more often with late summer sun making them glow. I need to work on the lower right side.  So often, I don't see the weak spots until I've put the photos here.

I seem to need a sunny day to get a decent image to put here, and we've had a few the last few days. Thankfully, I remembered to take this outside and take a picture yesterday, as it turned overcast again today and snow or rain is on its way. 

SMALL STUDIES

Last week, I finished another oil painting and  spent hours on one of the older ones. Maybe it will be dry outside today so I can take some photos.
  

Since the beginning of the year, I've been again posting my little watercolors and gouache on my other blog.  I'm pretty proud of myself for having a post for every day.... on Sundays I've given myself a day off and post an older image and I'm often a day or two late getting my posting on.  These are usually from life and  only one each day, but on  Saturday, inspire by blog postings by both Nathan Fowkes  and Sherrie York  I did the 3 mountain ones on this  page using images for reference from old slides that I had scanned , thinking more of finding a good composition than I usually do. I'm determined to keep doing more, trying different arrangements and view points.

Well, off to a new week.  I seem to have something else to do almost everyday that keeps me from spending the whole day in the studio. On Monday mornings I do a couple of hours at the local second hand store and I'm already late.

PEAR WOODCUT

PEAR  woodcut 11 x 5 inches

Wow, I switched to the new Blogger editor  (Maybe its not all that new, but I just found it) and can put a larger picture here.  I did but changed it because it was too big for the window. 

I finished  my other print and am somewhat pleased with it. It took a lot longer than I expected. I used 4 blocks, 3 were reduction, and I think there were 17 passes.  I ended up with an edition of 33 and a couple of artist proofs.  28 of them will be included in a Baren Forum exchange. 

The printing stuff is put away and I'm anxious to get back to the oils tomorrow.

WOODCUTS CONTINUE

I've been cutting and printing for over a week now. I finished printing the Year of the Rabbit yesterday. I used 2 blocks reductive. Had some problems with the trees, but like it otherwise.

Still working on the other print.... Its reduction with 4 blocks. I've done 10 impressions so far and have 7 more, I think. Loving and hating it.

BACK TO THE WOODCUTS

Yesterday, I got back to the struggle with the woodcut exchange print. As I said before, coming up with a good image is a challenge. I spent much of yesterday going through old photographs, looking for something I could use on the specified 13 x 6 inch paper. I finally went back to some sketches I had done before Christmas of pears and whipped out this watercolor.



It is 12 x 5 inches, which will leave a half inch border. The scanner left an inch off the bottom which was dark brown.... I may leave it off the print too and I'm not sure about the background color behind the pear. There is also some of the image missing on the right; why, I don't know. There will be more shadow in the pear. The paint ran together because I was in a hurry and couldn't find my hair dryer.

I really wanted to do a landscape, but everything I came up with was really complicated. I'm feeling relief that I've finally got a design.

NEW YEARS EVE THOUGHTS

These holiday weeks have been relatively quiet here. Seems half the town has gone south. We had friends for Christmas dinner and our grand daughter came out from Juneau yesterday for a visit. We will have friends over tonight for fun and games.

I had intended to get two woodblock prints done before the end of the year, but am a long way from it. They are both for Baren exchanges. I have cut 2 blocks for the year of the rabbit exchange and once I start printing will do some reduction in one or both of them which should go pretty easily. but I'm anguishing over my image for the other one. The size is what's giving me problems... 13x 6 inches. Though it can be any orientation, I'm trying to do it with the 13 inches vertical. I've gone back and forth between 2 images, but now looking at something completely different.

I put my water mixable oils away a couple of weeks ago with intentions of getting back to them after New Years, but will have at least another week with these blasted prints. I'm admitting to myself that my love for printmaking has taken a downward curve. I've only done one or two editions for each of the last few years, and these have been for exchanges. The exchanges have been fun and I have received some real treasures and once I get into the long process, I do enjoy making them, but more and more I realize I'd rather be doing something else. There was once a passion there, but now it is just something I do. In this season of renewal, as I reflect on my recent illness and approaching another decade, time is much on my mind and using it more satisfyingly, more meaningfully is my goal for the new year.

My show in September is a big priority in my time and I want to continue with the oil painting, . And speaking of satisfying, I really must get back in the habit of sketching and/or painting my little "postcards" everyday. And with the daily doing will probably come more frequent posts on my blogs.

Here is a painting I was working on earlier in the month:



Creek 10 x 10 inches water mixable oils on canvas panel

I still haven't figured out how to get a decent photograph. The rocks definitely need more work and my values are off, more so in the photo than in the real thing. I like this stage of the painting better than the stage its in now:


I had done an under painting with burnt sienna before this layer.

I'm looking forward to long quiet hours in the studio in the coming weeks.

Wishing all a blessed 2011!

OOPS and NEW PAINTINGS

I am so inept at doing things on my blog. A few days ago I was adding some blogs to the list of ones I follow onto my blog and also deleting a couple that haven't had posts in months then clicked on the remove button and lost my whole list. What is so bad is that this is the second time I've done that. I got some back from the list of the ones I officially "follow".

But I'm making progress with the water mixable oils. I made a mahl stick that has helped a lot with details. It took me a while to figure out that it works quite well with just one end on the easel and the other end in my hand.



The School 9 x 12 inches water mixable oil on canvas



Beartrack Mountain 5x5 inches water mixable oil on canvus

I opened my little gallery today for the first time since my surgery in August. It feels good to be out here. I brought some of the oils out to get some feedback. Not very many people came by (the roads and paths are treacherous with ice), but the little one of the mountain that I just posted seems to be the favorite.