Dueling Paintbrushes at Journaling Retreat ~ Day One

Today breaks clear, brilliant blue and sunny warm at our first full day of the Women's Journaling Alpine Retreat. After we've welcomed the day with yoga on the sparkling lake's edge, we breakfast and then, settle out between the two closest cabins with a view peering into the shadowed, cool forest.

We've designed this "Dueling Brushes" demonstration to show how differently both Jean and I approach a journal page and how differently we paint. Jean takes her thirty-five minute time frame first. With this result! And then I take mine. As I've mentioned I'm struggling with this new journal size (it's smaller) and the quality of paper (some of the pages are just writing paper). So my attempt to solve the paper challenge is to glue a small piece of watercolor paper into the page where I want to

watercolor. I like the results . . . and I'm pleased with the traveling off the watercolor paper in small overlappings onto the writing paper.

I'm actually pretty pleased with the full spread visual. I like how the colors happen to balance themselves out between the pigments I chose for the landscape and the delicate hues of the pods in this
handmade black paper. Still I feel astonished that those holes I've had to cut for the paper clay insert add harmony to this unpredicted page so much further back from when the holes originated.

It's that magical serendipity of the journal that continues to surprise and please and enamor me. I'm still in love with this process. Ever new . . .

Telluride Plein Air ~ From Lake to Parade to Class

This journal spread covers a lot of territory in our Colorado Summer. First we attempt a second 4-wheel drive up Tomboy - - and WOW - - even Roland eventually opts to turn around after facing giant lopsided granite rocks in the road. I'm rather relieved and we decide to go to Alta Lakes as an alternative. The terrain is wild, scenic and Cody gets to tip-top in the cooling water (yep, there he is with his red bandana!!). The day leisures away as we meander towards the Telluride MountainVillage with plans for a pizza dinner at the acclaimed "Crazy Elk" pizzeria. We'd forgotten this was the start to Fourth of July Weekend and parking is challenging. But the pizza was worth it and our evening ends gently back in town.

The big Fourth of July Parade is THE event in Telluride.

Hether has placed chairs in good spots along the main street and get all nested in as the crowds gather. First the town is buzzed by airplanes and hang gliders over main street!! The audience is nearly a fascinating as the parade: children in outrageous outfits, outlandish parade floats as well as every club in T-ride represented, including the Bearnaise Mountain Dog Club. T'was hilariously entertaining!! Then the entire town sludges-en-mass down to the Town Park for the Bar-B-Q. After eating til

ready to bust and chattering with ole' friends, I wanted to stay for the kids activities. The "Balloon Toss" was so fun but the one I really wanted to see was the "Kids Fish Catch" where kids hand catch the live fish and then release them. But t'was way later in the afternoon so I wandered back home. My stomach couldn't believe my bubbly hostess had organized a pot luck for evening and I was certain I'd pop (but didn't, in case you were worried). A day full of fond memories and being so alive in such a magnificent place!

I'd arranged to teach a Plein Air Class in Ouray at the Weehawken Creative Arts Center. We sail off early morn from T-ride to get to Ouray in time to set up. The discreet building sits along the Uncompahgre River, before you get into town. A lovey, spacious room is where my students and I collect and I take them over some plein air basics and examples. Then we move outside for a quick demo. I find the view looking into town tarnished with smoke (from New Mexico fires), and the river a milky grey from some kind of run-off. But finally, I find a charming little mining shed perched on the side of the ridge gazing northward. Ah-ha - - the subject for my demo (and here's the finished piece upon which I worked after arriving back home in Oregon). Then students set up and begin painting their chosen subjects and I pop around helping, making suggestions. The casual critique is held inside and it's impressive what everyone's accomplished. I feel like I'd like to return to teach another class should the situation present itself.

I especially love this grouping of images on my journal page. Well, I'm sure it's the sweet memories but also, I was pleased how combining several photos of the Fourth of July Parade came out. I got to savor the parts of the raucous gathering that I especially loved! Oh ... do I LOVE my journal!!!

Journaling's Different Approaches ~ Split Page

The second half of leading my "Plein Air Experience" portion at the "Expand Your Art Journaling", tandem-teaching with Elinor Peace Bailey, had moved down to the secluded, dappled-sun shine "Guy Talbot Park" just down from the Vista House.

We settled right in doing several focusing exercises and then, to contrast with the mega-view we'd just completed up at the Vista House (see previous post), I was gifted this perfect lil' "Heal-All" blossom (brought to my attention by Sally, thank you, Sally), I did a quick sketch close-up. What I love in doing an intimate painting of something so detailed and in-your-face ~ is that as you focus your attention, begin adoring this lil' damsel of-a-blossom, you become astonished at the variety of textures and colors that are revealed to you. You become more aware! And so was my experience with this plant, which I later pressed and then, sealed with Mod Podge before I glued it on the page. Here you can see the participants busy discovering intimacies of their chosen subject. As the sun began moving westward we clustered back into our cars for an interesting, chatty ride home that even a traffic jam couldn't dampen.

The third and final day of our workshop was split between the two of us. We all gathered in the cozy garage workplace and Elinor took first lead. For my journal page I nested Elinor's portrait up against the map of the Columbia Gorge area ~ and to my surprise, her turtle-neck ended up being the exact color of the map's border. Love serendipity!

For today her portion of the class would focus upon making our very own personal doll (and coming from a world class doll designer ~ we were all excited). She gave us basics to think about around designing our paper dolls and it proved more challenging than I'd imagined. For some reason, I decided to create a male paper doll and when just playing with the facial expressions ~ I swear he looked as perverse as possible!! Not at all my intent ... so it took some revision. But here he is ~ still looking a little twisted! I became aware that male dolls are decidedly less interesting to create. I heard everyone around me playing with flowered outfits and ribbons in their hair and adding buttons to the shoes. My guy was boring by contrast ... but a good lesson ... non-the-less! When I finished up my journal page, I needed a way to 'sit' my doll permanently into the page. Yet, I wanted to be able to take him out and move him in different positions. My solution was a business sized envelope (a transparent one here - to less distract from the page) and, sorry "Beach Boy" (which is kinda what I've named him) but, you'll have to stay folded at the knee to fit.

Next half of the day, after lunch, was my opportunity to share one of my favorite mediums to use in journal pages: Paper Clay (yes, just go to Paperclay.com to see what amazing things you can do)! Seems I've started a tradition to use a paper clay creation on the beginning page of each new journal I start. I find it adds excitement, dimension and when one cuts out behind the stitched in paper clay object, you cultivate several pages with unusual hole cuts around which you must to design. First, comes the rolling out of the medium (thin enough to move around, but not too thick either), then, carve, imprint whatever you imagine up. Next, it must totally dry and then, you may paint it. And then, once again dry, you can seal it. Here's the initial piece I started, impressed with lace (thanks for the great idea Elinor), painted and sealed. See the lil' holes around the edge with which I can stitch it into my journal page? Fast at work here is Elinor ... imagination "robusto!!"

And finally, here resides my full page spread, showing in full how I integrated the two days together.

Mistakes Stirring Invention

Any of you who journal, or paint, or create . . . Oh heck . . . if you're alive . . . know we make errors! And one of my greatest joys in the spontaneity of journaling is the way our creative minds show us solutions (and some, better than the original plan!). These next couple of pages are examples of exactly that!

Those of you familiar with the progress of my previous journal page with the fun paperclay 3-d frame, know my plan now would include leaving the following journal page blank where I needed to place my big letter "B". Right?

So immediately, the next day I went onsite with a private student venturing out into her first plein air adventure . . . and you guessed it! Where did I paint? Right in the space I needed to save. Here's the gurgling Lithia Park Creek, sitting right where I wanted to have white space. I fretted and pondered about cutting out the image, inserting a full page and on and on.

Rather than add a full page, I decided insert a small, almost "footnote like" page with, of course, my big "B" the first item on the lil' page. Next to my "B" I practiced a print from a self-portrait tile I'd recently carved. I like printing two times, yellow first to add warmth to the human skin then, a darker color (here, I've used Brown Madder). On the back of my mini-page, I found this beautiful business card from a peer watercolorist, Marni Marnee (http://www.marnimaree.com/), complimented all the colors on these pages. And I added how we'd met when she pass thru the Ashland Art Center where my studio is.

I continued my journal sequentially, with the sketch from a "Plein Air Workshop" I was teaching. Top left on the full page, is a sketch of my dear painter friend, Silvia Trujillo (http://www.silviatrujillo.com/), (who'd instructed the oil students) posing her hand to crop a portion of a student's painting during critique. Farther down the page is one of my watercolor students busy at work.

So I can attest to the fact that mistakes can make me more creative and inventive. Honestly, I have to say I've not gotten to the point where I celebrate errors, but I DO aim to get there some day. Another goal to aim at . . . it keeps me going and getting more comfy with myself.

I suggest "Celebrate Your Errors!"?

My Process at Plein Air Workshop, Start to Finish

Just to give you an idea of how I work in a Plein Air situation . . . I've show a sampling of the two pieces from the recent Plein Air Workshop at Lithia Springs Resort in Ashland.

The first image I chose was of this ivory gazebo. I am constantly attracted to high contrast . . . so you can see the dark background furnishing that perfect subject for me. I wanted to portray the gazebo in the focal area so it was going to catch sunshine and I moved a red rosebush (sorry gardeners, it's an artists privilege) over to the right corner of the steps. I'm thinking, "compliments against the green foliage" and use my wax crayons to sketch them into place. You also can see some of the white wax crayon indications on the edges of the aspen trees where they catch high lights and some dark purple wax crayon in the deep shadows at the base of the gazebo. These serve as great reminders of my original value study (which you can see the corner of in the top left)! The Aureolin Yellow includes my foreground area and bright yellow areas that I want to glow through other pigments that I will layer with. I've also added an imagined shadow in the foreground to lead you into the painting and create dark/light/dark progressions from bottom to top.

As I work on the piece, I add variation in shape and add dark value pigment colors in the shadows. I fill in details of the flowers and sharpen the architectural edges in the building. One of the final things I do is bounce around the entire painting adding color accents to help balance all the color over the entire piece. I mean, there really is no reason why there is red sprinkled in that aspen tree in the foreground . . . other than I like it there. Again, isn't it fun having the artists' prerogative?

Don't worry, I did not finish this on site the first day. I got to the initial stage above (working, perhaps 30 minutes after I had the drawing done) and then, took the piece home to spend about 3 - 3 1/2 more hours on it. Finally feeling it was complete.

The following day, my vision was of this more complex pond/bridge scene. I'd planned for sun to play lots of different darks and lights for me - - but, remember, it was a cloudy day. So I set to accent the color rather than the value. You notice in both 'starts', I tend to get basic planes determined with yellow, then blue (of course, saving exaggerated whites) and then, move into exaggerating the darks. I have to say, that is what starts getting me excited (remember, I'm a contrast junkie!). And I usually just start bounding around adding bold colors. But in the case of the a demo, I stop to work with the other participants and really don't get much farther. I just have to get back into that 'zone' of reacting back and forth between the painting and my palette and the magic takes over again.

But you can see, I've not ventured there - yet - with my second day's painting. I believe I will take it in to the Ashland Studio for our upcoming Ashland First Friday Artwalk, September 3rd, and work it there, right before your very eyes. So, come watch if you like. Otherwise, I'll post it here, once she's done.


And now, go out and give the out-of-doors a visit for your plein air experience. Remember, it can be just as much about being in the beauty and marvel of nature as it is about creating a painting. Enjoy the experience . . .

The Plein Air Workshop

At first, I approached this weekend with some trepidation . . . not because of the new students nor the spontaneous on-site painting, but because of the 100 degree plus temperatures that had been predicted for these two days. But the five of us, four watercolor participants and myself, showed up with brushes in hand anyway.

First, we toured the lovely, cool (at that time) grounds projecting where we'd comfortably locate and what we'd like for subject matter. As best we could we considered where and how the sun would move during the day so as not to get placed in direct sun! I'd chosen the shade of the buildings, looking across at the contrast-y white gazebo against the lush shadowed greens (you know I'm a fan of strong contrast!) for my demo. I got the basic yellows and blues, to separate the foreground and background, then started going very dark (can't help myself).

The remainder of the day was traveling around from each working artist to artist. Each of them worked diligently and I'd make suggestions, but mostly compliments. These artists were all invested in their work and some launching into Plein Air for their first time. And they did a darn good job! I was honored, in that one of them was even a watercolor instructor . . . I wondered what could I teach him . . . but I just have learned to trust the Universe with her wisdom in the out comings of all (well, almost all) things.

We all worked til just around 12:30pm, when we'd agreed to stop and meet for lunch and a short sharing. Just at the moment one of the resorts sprinklers turned on and spattered two of my participants. That certainly put an end to their painting sessions and we dabbed them off and got settled into a dry spot for the gentle critique/sharing.

Most everyone realized something positive and individual about their perspective and what they brought to their painting. Some were gutsy with color, some were meek and sensitive with delicate washes and others were bold with new pigments. All brave souls who ventured into new experiences and still had some time to put in to complete their pieces . . . but successful in their efforts! And you know, we didn't even notice the day starting to heat up til around 1:30. We'd beat the heat, at least for Saturday!

Next morning, Sunday, Mother Nature had blessed us with cloud cover, keeping the morn near chilly. I was grateful and optimistic for the day ahead. With a smaller group than the previous day, the group was more intimate and located within each others site. This time, I wanted to let the artists get settled into their chosen positions and start their sketches. This way I could assist with suggestions and/or ideas early on. Once they a "beginning" down, I called them over for my brief demo. I'd chosen the canna flowers in front of the white bridge crossing the pond.

This more quiet day, blanketed by cooling clouds seemed to magnify the nature around us. Or was it we were more attuned to it the second day. Around the pond we watched the miracle of these water lilies, puckered tightly in a bud when we first got settled, opening moment by moment wide into these magnificent blossoms!!

Later in the day, as some blue sky began to poke out thru the clouds, we noticed this giant frog! First he was hiding in the reeds, but later, provided us picturesque shots. Like this one next to the lily pads and the real tender sight of him later, opening up his padded little toes to rub his face like he was smoothing his cheek. He was fascinating! Have I told you about my fondness for frogs? Well, perhaps that's another post.

Because we were such a small, intimate group, we decided there was no need for a critique. We'd pretty much spent the day watching one another's progress already. So, casually we munched our lunches and then gathered up our workings.

It was rather sadly sweet to end the weekend, having felt like we'd woven this sweet little painters community in just these few hours.

It set me to pondering what it would be like to live in an artists community like so many artist legendaries have . . . now wouldn't THAT be magical? Think about it . . .

First Plein Air Painting of this Spring

Well, according to the calendar, it's not r-e-e-e-e-a-a-a-l-l-y Spring yet. But I'm ignoring that. One of the artists who is my dear neighbor at the Ashland Art Center, Sylvia Trujillo (http://www.ashlandartcenter.org/pages/homeSylviaTrujillo.html), 2nd Floor Artists Studios, set out to have our first plein air session on her birthday, Sunday, February 14th. She sent off invites to her students and other interested artists. I got there just after her suggested meeting time, 1pm, giving the morning chill a chance to burn off.

We all met at the southwest end of Emmigrant Lake, near Ashland, Oregon. It was a warm afternoon with only the breeze coming off the lake to cool us. I treked around with my camera to catch potential paintings. Although I favored some of the views right on the lake, I opted for the south side of a knoll with exaggerated, bare trees and a manzanita bush with gorgeous cast shadows.

I'd planned to work on a flat format 12 x 16 inch block, plotting out a design that would eventually wrap around 6 x 12 x 1.5 inch stretcher bars. The drawing took me awhile but I did get in my sketch and the majority of my wax crayon resists. I've been working on the piece on and off for these couple of weeks and finally feel about 3/4 done.

At this point, I seperate the single sheet from the block. First, I wet only the back of the paper (remember, the image is already on the other side), readying to wrap the paper around the stretcher bars. I center using the sun streaming in my kitchen doors to position the paper, centered over the bars. Gently, I lay down the face of the painting on a soft, plastic wrapping and begin pulling the opposite sides of the paper tight before stapling with a staple gun. When I've got the corners tucked and stapled back, I let the piece dry, braced back up, while resting on any object about 1-2 inches high.

I've spent some time finishing up details. Softening some hard edges, darkening focal point values and dotting in some color to balance out the painting and increasing interest in my area of focus. Here she is from the right side, demonstrating what I love about these lil' "intimates" as I like to call them (no frame or glazing to seperate you from the painting surface). When you walk up to these, because of the wrap, the side of the painting introduces you to the image and it changes as you walk by ~ ~ even from the top or bottom. I believe her name will be "Early Spring Break". What do you think?

Mt. Shasta Lavender Farm

We started early in the morn, to get all the way down to the Mt. Shasta area by 9-ish. The recent class I taught (an 8 day time period, with 3 meeting times) had opted to go paint out at the blooming lavender fields rather than meet in the classroom. When we left Ashland, Oregon it was a grey, cool day, but as soon as we passed into California, the sun was brilliant. The perfect day for outdoor painting.

We arrived just after the Lavender Farms opened and toured the area, snapping photos and envisioning where we'd what to start our plein air sketches. In the charming French style shop, we were greeted with the smell of lavender filling the room and a cup of lavender-lemonade, with a lavender swirl stick!

On the walls they have showing various renditions of other artists images of the purple fields. One was a photo which may have used filters for it's effects, but I devoured the deep orange earth color and the late evening shadows - they were so strong and vibrant. And although the day was bright, light and breezy, you can see the sketch I ended up with mimicked those colors AND time of day.

We settled about center of the lavender rows and savored the bees humming and birds flitting from spot to spot. The magnificent Mt. Shasta pontificated over the entire scene and each of the class participants got varied renditions filled with self-expression and use of varied media.

And although we'd planned on leaving around 1pm, it was after 3pm when we'd finished our second cup of the lavender-lemonade and eaten our treat, a shared bag of shortbread cookies.

The day ended with weary artists but, many terriffic images, both mental and digital, to proceed with other paintings. I'm chewing on returning to the Lavender Farm to catch the lavender more full in bloom and to see it late in the day. I mean, how many times can one visit a goregous place? My answer ... endless times!!!

Latest Lil' Painting

I have been back to work. I smile as I say that, "work" sounds so heavy and daunting. My work is a joy and a privilege - so let's re-define that word, ok?!? I began this lil painting on site, "plein air" with my group, PAS-SO, Plein Air Society of Southern Oregon, (http://www.pas-so.com/). We went to the lovely Eden Valley Orchards & Winery (http://www.edenvalleyorchards.com/) where the beautiful Voorhies Mansion is located. This painting is from the vantage point offered by standing on the mansion front porch in the morning sun. It was gorgeous!! And, of course, I've exaggerated color and value! That's the speciality of being the artist :)


I'm painting for a local show in Ashland, "Art in the Garden, Art in the Home" coming up June 12- 14th. I visited the venue last year and was charmed by the two home sites, perched atop one of Ashland's mountain hillsides and offering magnificent vista views. The show moves between the two houses with artwork in both interior and garden portions. I'll be inside, looking out windows that peer out upon the entire valley.


Right now, I'm focusing on smaller pieces. I just yesterday finished this watercolor/wax crayon piece on watercolor paper stretched over 2" deep stretcher bars with 5 x 5 inch dimensions. I love these small pieces, especially the way the image wraps around the sides and top. Painting the pieces is rather delicious too! It's like holding a tiny world on your fingers (because I hold the piece up to rotate by inserting four fingers of my left hand into the small square box formed on the back by the thick stretcher bars) and maneuvering the piece as I paint on the different planes. Not to mention the bleeding of the pigment around to the back - you won't believe how much paint I get upon myself :)


Anyway, here's the lil gem. I'm toying with titles, so if you have a suggestion - just sent it to me. AND - by all means, give yourself the gift of getting out into this gorgeous Spring!!!