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.

BACK IN THE STUDIO

I just don't know where the time goes. The older I get, the faster time passes., it seems. I went to Anchorage almost 3 weeks ago, then back to SE and spent a week in Juneau... partly medical reasons (all OK for now), partly shopping and partly to visit my son and grand daughter.

I stayed a little longer in Juneau so I could come back home on the very first ferry to our fair city on the 23rd. The car deck was full and there was quite a party atmosphere aboard. Seemed half the town was out to meet us. There's a very informative article about the ferry and our little city here.

As usual when I travel, my sketchbook and paints went along, but I only did a few pen and ink sketches. Back home came the turkey and time with friends and now back to painting.

These 3 were done last month before my travels. I had another photographed that I thought was finished but seeing it here, deleted it and decided to work on it some more.

.


Buddha in Homer 16 x 12 water mixable oil


Inner Lagoon 9 x 9 water mixable oil


Secret Beach 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 water mixable oils

VERY BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is my ninth year of participating in a print exchange of Chinese New Years greetings on Baren Forum. Each year I have made a print, about 4x6 and mailed them out to about 50 others and they send one to me... or at least they are suppose to. Most do eventually. This year is the year of the tiger. I usually get mine out around the first of the year, but not this year. I had almost decided to wait and send them out with the next years print, but that could lead to even more procrastination. So last week, I took a few days and yesterday put them all in the mail.


The black is printed with linoleum which I had carved months ago. The bamboo was printed with one woodblock reductive, the ochre first and then the green. I cut another woodblock for the "2010" which originally included color for the tiger, but I liked her better white. And 2010 is actually the year of the white tiger so that it is. I use Japanese methods for printing.

I came to Juneau yesterday and flying to Anchorage today. Will be back home before Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll put some photos on before I get back.

THE PAINT IS DRYING

Here are a couple of paintings that have dried enough to put in the scanner.


Almost to the Top 9 x 9 inches oil on gessoed watercolor paper

So often I don't see something wrong in a painting until I've put it on the screen. The left tree needs a lot of redoing and I think a little more lighter plants at the bottom would lead into the painting better. I'm sure liking being able to fix things, unlike with watercolor.




Wetland Path 8 1/2 x8 1/2 inches oil on Canson Canva-Paper

I read about doing an under-painting and tried it with this one. I used burnt sienna. I like the way the color shows through. I don't know if splattering is a common oil technique, but its what I would have done with watercolor and it seemed to work.

GRANITE COVE VIEW

I've continued painting with the oils almost everyday and doing lots of reading and looking at the way other people do them and making progress. My years of painting with watercolor have certainly hastened the progress.

I've tried to photograph some but can't get anything but blurs or glare, so guess I'll have to wait for a sunshiny day, or at least one that isn't raining all day or get my tripod out to get a decent photo. This one has dried enough to put in the scanner, though there was a little white speck of paint to clean off the plate of glass when I finished. Any suggestions for photographing wet oil paints would be greatly appreciated.



GRANITE BEACH VIEW water mixable oils on watercolor paper 5.5x5.5 inches

This is from a photo I took on a kayak and camping trip last May.

WATER MIXABLE OILS

I'm making one last effort to become an oil painter. I said that the last time I tried.... May of last year when I took a 3 day plein aire workshop in Juneau. After I got home, I didn't touch the paints again. The time before that was about 12 years ago... I did one painting which wasn't too bad. Someone even bought it. There were a couple of times before that, years and years ago. Each time, though, I probably never spent more than a week trying to work with them. Always back to watercolor with the easy clean up and no bad toxic odors.

In the last couple of years, working with gouache, I've been finding watercolor less and less appealing. I really like being able to paint lights on dark, not having to save the whites. All summer, I had lots of intentions to go outside and try out the oils again, not wanting to use them inside, but just the idea of getting outside with all the gear and remembering the frustration outside in that workshop, I never got there. I saw a show in Juneau last summer with some work done with "water miscible oils" and read up on them, figured they would be good to try, and last month ordered a few tubes made by Winsor and Newton and started working with them a couple of weeks ago. And after starting to experiment with them, I ordered some more tubes. I'm loving them.

From what I heard and read, most oil painters say they aren't like real oil paints. But since I'm not at all experienced, I don't know the difference. Here are a couple of what I did the first week:





These are both small, about 5 inches high and painted on gessoed watercolor paper

It hasn't been easy. Controlling the long brushes at an easel instead of a flat table still feels awkward and it has been hard getting the colors right and painting on top of wet paint.... especially painting on top of wet paint. I ordered some fast drying medium and hope it helps. Also ordered some more brushes and some canvas panels. I think I'm hooked.

PEARS

Last week I found this website of pear paintings, got inspired to paint another still life, and went to our little stores looking for pears and there weren't any in town. I asked a friend who was coming from Juneau to bring some out to me and spent the week painting them. Here are 2 I did in watercolor. In each there are 2 De'angelos and a Bartlett.





watercolor about 8x8 inches on Fabriano hot press




watercolor 11 x 8.5 inches on mystery paper

I placed the cloth hanging vertically behind the pears. I'm not sure it reads that way. I love this paper..... on a block that I got at a garage sale.... a German company (I think) with a long name starting with an S. I no longer have the cover of the block with the name on it.

CARROTS FROM THE GARDEN

watercolor about 9 x 9 inches

I brought these in from the garden to have for dinner one night and they looked so pretty I started painting them. Different light coming through the window on different days made for some confusing shadows, I used some white paint in the highlights. By the time I finished panting them they were ready for the compost pile.

ACROSS FROM THE LAKE

No rain today and would have gone outside and painted in the sun, but was waiting for someone to come by all day (he never showed up) and so painted from a photo that I took last week. Tried to do something a little larger than usual with gouache.... still pretty small.



gouache painting 8x8 inches

I feel like such a beginner with gouache, still having trouble with the values..... the mountains should have been lighter. I have begun using oil painting brushes and painting on an easel instead of with my watercolor rounds working flat, and it is beginning to feel a little easier but for the details. I had a lot of trouble with the foreground on this one, wiped it out a couple of times and still don't like it.