my week

It snowed overnight in Portland.  I guess Punxsutawney Phil was right after all. 

Another outing with my daughter's third grade class.  We took public transit to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland.  You really can't miss the 65 ft sign out front with over 6000 lights.  The 1928 concert hall is home to the Oregon Symphony. On Friday, the symphony performed a concert for students in the Portland area.  These special concerts have been a longstanding tradition for the Oregon Symphony.  I remember going to them as a young school girl! 

I went to see renown makeup artist Bobbi Brown speak at my alma mater.  She shared her story and gave some practical tips to entrepreneurs starting out.  About 95 percent of the audience were women.  I guess that shouldn't surprise me, especially since there were free makeup samples.  

During the Q and A session, Bobbi talked about persistence.  She mentioned working for a company for free if that means getting your foot in the door.  I wholeheartedly agree with this, and this is actually how I got my teaching job.  I volunteered at the neighborhood high school, and after a few weeks, I had an interview with the principal. 

Our new pet.  He's a beauty.  My eight year-old named him Leonardo DiCaprio. 

Here's a sneak peek of my current piece about half-way finished.  Mountains are a favorite subject of mine, but I've been wanting a change of scenery.  So a night forest scene it is. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Just in case you didn't catch the little promo box in the sidebar, I am running an art print sale in my Etsy shop.  Buy two prints and get a third free.  [Sale ends this Thursday.] For more details, go here. 

things i'm fond of today

latest work by street artist tellas

left: beautiful piece on flickr by common elements;  right: graduation project by kirstie van noort, a student at design academy in eindhoven, netherlands

aunt by inca pan

this put a smile on my face today.  photo by artist sabine timm.

things i'm fond of today

drifting in the depths, tiel seivl-keevers [brisbane, australia]

paintings by michelle breton [melbourne, australia]

tussle by melissa castrillon [cambridge, england]



ceramic vessels by shino takeda  [brooklyn, ny]

I had this idea of recording my sketchbook via video.  Then I came across this video that artist adriana lozano [buenos aires, argentina] uploaded onto her flickr last week.



Adriana's sketchbook reads like a book.  Did you notice how the drawings continue onto the next page?  This is another project I have been wanting to do but just haven't had the time to work on . . .  one day.

To see other videos of adriana lozano's wonderful work, go here.

things i'm fond of today

>> emily barletta's thread and paper series

>> pattern by sandra dieckmann

>> ballpoint pen drawing by linda kim

>> porcelain bangles // a golden ink collaboration

>> anni albers, always a favorite

>> acrylic and graphite work by hollis brown thornton

Artists at work

I finally took advantage yesterday of the movie setting on my camera.  Here's a 30 second video of me working on my latest mixed media piece.

One day I might try a fast motion time lapse.  I recently discovered this video of artist Mary Ann Wakeley at work.  And then there's this incredible video of French artist Jean-Pierre Blanchard painting a oversized portrait of Roger Federer in 4 minutes!  [I have to say that the orchestral rendition of St. Elmo's Fire makes the video even that much more entertaining.]




Blanchard's painting sold for $20,000, all going to charity.  Maybe I should take up speed painting. 

artists I like: jon jay cruson and sally cohen

When we were at the beach recently, my husband and I visited a local art gallery in Lincoln City.  I came across two Oregon artists whose works resonated with me- Jon Jay Cruson and Sally Cohen.  Both artists paint sweeping Oregon landscapes.

Jon Jay Cruson, Farm Country, acrylic, 48 x 48 in., White Lotus Gallery

Jon Jay Cruson, Landscape 5, acrylic on canvas, 42 x 32 in. and Landscape 6, acrylic, 41.5 x 31.5 in., Hanson Howard Gallery

I'm absolutely in love with these bold, patterned paintings of rolling fields.  Reminds me of another great American artist that I like- Grant Wood (1891 - 1942). 

Grant Wood, Young Corn, oil on masonite panel, 1931. Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Sally Cohen's painting of the cyclist on the open road captivated me at the gallery.  The sharpness, contrast, and simplicity is striking.  Even though the scene captures a rural Oregon setting, many Portlanders would agree that the cyclist adds a familiar local element to the painting. 

Sally Cohen, On the Road to Silver Lake, 30 x 40 in., Freed Gallery

Sally Cohen, Summer Daze, oil, 36 x 48 in., Portland Art Museum

things I'm fond of today

whimsical drawings by hiromitsu t.okra

rural industrial landscapes

painting by a.ortiz // photo taken by me at the gorge

mountains painting by ida

pinch pots handcrafted by sonia powell of pinch me ceramics

no surprise i love the hand carved designs

dream of the mountain man wife's (2009)

a colored pencil and graphite drawing by william crump

Young Picassos all around us

Marla Olmstead.  Painting on the right: Dory, 36 x 48 inches, painted at age 5 (2005).  [image sources: map, marlaolmstead.com]

Kids love art.  Walk into any preschool class, and you'll find children coloring, making a collage, or fingerpainting.  When I was an elementary art specialist for a year in the public school district, I had the privilege of teaching the fundamentals of art to primary students.  Even when there was only copy paper and #2 yellow pencils available at a school, children were excited to learn something new with art.

The younger kids, in particular, were much more uninhibited about diving into an art project. They didn't worry about making "mistakes," so their works were more spontaneous.  It's this innocent, child-like approach that many famous artists have strived for in their professional career.

Akiane Kramarik, Planted Eyes, 36 x 48 in., painted at age 8 (2003). [image source: artakiane.com]

Art is a learned skill, but some children have artistic abilities that come naturally. The three young artists whose works are showcased here are undoubtedly all very gifted children.  Akiane Kramarik was only eight years-old when she painted this large portrait of an African woman.  It was her first oil painting, and she finished it within 15 hours, which includes the preliminary drawing.

In the past couple of weeks, 4 year-old Aelita Andre from Australia has been spotlighted in the media. Her large scale works are currently showing in a Manhattan gallery and selling for tens of thousands of dollars.   

Aelita Andre, age 4, Autumn, 30 x 36 in. [image source: aelitaandreart.com

These three talented girls come from different backgrounds and places, yet there is one common denominator that plays a significant role in the girls' artistic pursuits and success.  They all have parents who support and foster their aptitude for painting.  Four year-old Aelita even has her own art studio (bigger than mine!).

Below is a short documentary of Aelita painting in her studio.  It is quite fascinating to watch the creative process of such a young girl, especially when she is given so much freedom with art supplies. In the ten years that I taught art,  I've worked with a number of truly gifted kids.   And it makes me wonder how many more young Picassos we would run across if every young child who has a propensity for the arts was given ample supplies, time, space, and parental support.  

My latest painting and an art sale!

This new wood panel work started out as an ocean-themed piece.  About an hour into painting, I didn't like the direction I was going.  So, it sat by my ark desk for two weeks before I picked it up again.  This time, I was envisioning a mountain and forest- not surprised.

The new piece is for an art show coming up this summer.  Although I'll be focusing most of my creative energy on the show the next several weeks, I am still committed to adding new original pieces to my Etsy shop every week.  Also, to celebrate the launch of my new website, I'm throwing on art sale in my Etsy shop!  Everything, including original work, is an additional 15% off.  All you have to do is enter ILOVEART at checkout.

Art is more than just a pretty painting

Yeffe Kimball, Fawn and Spirits, 1942, oil on canvas, 19 in x 29 in, Portland Art Museum, gift of Dr. William K. Livingston.

I recently fell in love with this painting at the Portland Art Museum.  I tried to find more information about it on the internet but couldn't even locate an image.  I eventually contacted the museum, who is permitting me to use this image for my post. 

Information on the artist Yeffe Kimball (? - 1978) is scarce on the internet, but the little information I did find was fascinating and quite controversial.  Kimball,  who is a noted figure in the modern Native American arts community, is believed to have fabricated her ancestral connection to the Osage tribe.  This raises a lot of questions for me on how an artist's personal life impacts our opinion of their work.  Here we have an example of an artist whose artistic career greatly benefited from her cultural claims. Her works have hung in numerous museums and galleries, some dedicated solely to Native American art.   

I would be lying if I were to say that this doesn't bother me.  If Kimball doesn't have any Native American roots, then her work shouldn't be recognized as modern Native American art. 

Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist),1950, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1976.

I realize that a lot of great art comes with controversy, controversy related to the art itself and controversy pertaining to the individual artist.  I watched the film Pollock for the first time just last week.  I have always been a huge fan of Jackson Pollock's art, but, while watching the movie,  I was reminded again of the details surrounding his tragic death.  While drinking and driving, he killed himself and a passenger in his car.  I struggle with the fact that his reckless actions took another life, and yet his painting, No. 5, 1948,  sold for $140 million dollars in 2006- the highest price tag for a painting to date. 

Art is not meant to be black and white, I get it.  And, as much as we like to talk about "pretty" art, sometimes we need to ask the hard questions.  So, what do you think?  Should the details of an artist's personal life have any impact in our response to their art?

Circles abound

You know me, I'm a fan of triangles.  But the circle has grabbed my attention lately.  Take a look at what all the hoop-la is about. 

 

Jennifer Sanchez

Tom Moglu

Bovey Lee

Jeremy Miranda

Chris MacFarlane

   

Marco Suarez

Artists I like: Tracy Rocca

Moonstone Beach

This painting by Tracy Rocca had me at hello.  Earlier today I came across Tracy's art on Artist A Day, and I had to see more.  I clicked over to her website and soon became lost in a world of celestial images. 

At first glance, the blurred images look like they were taken by a camera.  Moonstone Beach, for example, reminds me of this photograph shot by Portland photographer Anthony Georgis.

Rainier

When I discovered that Tracy's works were not photographs but paintings,  I became that much more intrigued with her creative process.  In her statement she writes,

the use of instantaneous digital tools in my everyday life makes me want to find a slower, gradual, more contemplative painting process that reasserts the value of the human hand. I work every morning in natural light using traditional painting materials, walnut oils and mongoose brushes, to apply thin glazes of color that I blend and blur into soft transitions.

Even the way Tracy paints sounds heavenly!

Lili Pad II

Parrots

Sound View

My process of reusing wood panels

A couple of pieces that have been reworked. The painting on the right is still a work in progress.

I don't have a problem with painting over a painting, especially if I'm not emotionally attached to the work anymore.  This week,  I "deconstructed" three of my wood panel works because they had yellowed over time.  The yellowing was not a total surprise; I was forewarned that this could happen if painting medium was used as a final coat on a painting.  You can especially see the yellowing effect in the work shown below.  On the left is what the work looked like when I completed it a year ago.  The photo on the right was taken yesterday.  

I found out that storing the paintings in the dark most likely made the yellowing worse.  Supposedly, extended exposure to sunlight helps bleach the yellowing factor of painting mediums.  Hmm, I will test this out with one other painting that I have.  Fortunately, I only poured painting medium on top of a select number of pieces, so it wasn't a huge loss of my time, creative energy, and resources.

To deconstruct these pieces, I have been using an xacto knife to scrape away the top surface.  When pulling the top layers off of the cathedral painting, I rediscovered a simple line drawing that I had done on the wood panel (shown in right photo above).  It's so common for artists to work over their drawings or paintings that it's easy to forget what lies underneath.

Here's a closer look at my "new" painting, Mist.  After peeling away the top layer, I glued a segment of a drawing to the wood panel.  (It's actually part of the same drawing shown on the other small wood panel.)  There were cuts already made in the paper, and I liked how the textures of the wood showed through those open spaces.  I painted on top of the watercolor and marker drawing with acrylic and ink.  And while the acrylic was still wet, I took the end of my paintbrush to "carve" into the painting and reveal the bright colors underneath. 

I just added it to my Etsy shop, so you can see more pictures of it here.