Welcome to the Neighborhood!

Imagine getting up in the morning, descending the stairs into a gallery filled with beautiful colors and shapes. Artwork by great artists that are your friends. Drink coffee while planning a day where you are privileged to have the whole day to paint if you want. Walk a block to a beautiful (and interesting) park with your happy dog in tow. Here, there are high rise condos and the beautiful people scurrying around to work, shop, eat, drink and be "happy."

Two or three blocks the other direction is a transition housing project, flop houses and the homeless. The scurrying is slower and its noisy, and can be unpredictable, as mental illness tends to be.  But everyone has to get their own, no matter what their circumstances.

We have just moved into a live/work/gallery space on the edge of the Pearl District in Downtown Portland.

The world operates best fed by diversity -- so do artists, I'm thinkin'.

Corner Office, commission

This commission is titled, "Corner Office." It is 4 ft by 9 ft.

About blogging... and not...

Ok, ok, ok. I haven't written in my blog for a long time -- two years?

Well, I've been busy. I thought moving to the beach was a great idea. It was cheap and quiet. I could really get a lot of painting done. And I did. But I found the beach a great place to visit but boring to live there. The ocean comes in, the ocean goes out. Very little socialization. Very little art opportunities. PLUS, I paint Portland, sell almost exclusively in Portland, SO, at last we are in Portland again. Living on a yacht (really just a big 'ol boat) with a wonderful studio at the top of the dock. Whew! Am I glad.

Open Studio, January 29

You can see Jeni Lee's art in this shot and some of Natalie Warren's in the previous post.

This was fun. I would like to have another open studio again soon.

Open Studio, January 29

Open Studio, January 29

Sonny Hess and Lisa Mann playing at the Open Studio held at my new studio space. These women played delicious music together.

The Sum of the Whole

I just completed this painting of the Astoria Sunday Market where I am showing this summer. I did the painting hoping to show the overall "feel" of the market: the setting, the colors, the people and the activities. Often I find within the large composition - several small compositions that I like very much. So I am making details of these for several small prints of them. I find in paintings sometimes the sums are better than the whole. Or at least as good.

A Lucky Painter

Sometimes I sit here and feel sorry for myself because I am working so hard. I am scheduled for an average of 2 shows a week throughout the summer and although I did get a lot of paintings done over the winter - what with commissions coming in and travel time, I find myself incredibly busy. And then I think, "what am i whining about? How lucky I am to be painting, traveling, making lots of wonderful new friends and actually selling some work!"

So, the next time i start feeling sorry for myself, i will have to remind myself how much better it is & no wondering how the hell are you gonna pay your property taxes? So back to work it is!

Here is the latest commission for the Paulson Coletti Law Firm of the Pearl District where their new offices are located.

Review

After looking over the paintings I have completed for my current show, the most popular by consensus is, "Donut Que." Maybe not the best painting, but the most popular, which may have to do with "donuts."

Preparing for shows

Have spent the last couple of days readying images for festival applications this year. This is my third year. First year I attended 2 shows, next year - 3 shows, this year I am going for 4 shows, PLUS 2 gallery shows AND the Sunday Market in Astoria! Maybe I will actually make some money. What a concept.

I could not do this without Jacki's help. She does all the computer and paperwork, keeps me on schedule and gathers information. I don't know how "artists without partners" do it. (This sounds like a self-help group.) Its hard enough to work at growing as an artist and completing the work, let alone, marketing yourself.

I am looking forward to traveling around the NW, being a tourist and meeting new people.

Staying in Front of Things

The weather here has been so gorgeous it is hard to stay in the studio -- what with the sunshine, beach, ocean and a dog that really wants to go running.

But I am painting for a show that is just a month away so I have to stay at it. There is nothing worse than hanging a show knowing you could'a / should'a had more and better paintings if you had only worked a little harder.

That being said, on our walk to the beach the other afternoon, we ran into a new friend, Pam, a wonderful painter with a gallery in Seaview. She was bemoaning not having painted more this winter, as she will be re-opening her gallery for the summer.

As we continued on our stroll, I noticed a group of plovers running in front of the tide. When the tide peaked and receded, they would chase it back and enjoy a rich harvest. There is a lesson here, said I. Stay in front of your deadlines and you will reap the rewards. What a blowhard!

Just try not to be distracted...

The only downfall of a studio at home (that I can see so far) is fighting distractions that happen just in daily living.

But I gotta say, the last few days have been the perfect storm. Saturday night the internet AND phone went down. Sunday morning the coffee pot and microwave kept blowing fuses. What, no coffee?!!! Oh, and the battery was dead in the car since Friday night. A little hard to ignore. Sunday is not a good day to get things fixed - at least on the Peninsula. And Monday was a holiday.

I've always fantasized about living off the grid, but just not right now.

Everything is up and running again so I am back to painting. I did get some good beach walking in which always makes for better art.

Fresh Eyes

OK. I finished my "Freeway" painting. The one I just knew was going to be the best painting I've ever done. Well, maybe it isn't. Maybe the one I am now working on will be it. If you didn't feel that way, I guess you'd never start a new painting...

I'm going to set this painting aside ("freeway") and look at it with "fresh eyes" next week.

What we see and don't see...

I am really "looking" at the painting I am working on today. A freeway bridge - I am looking at it for both the overall sense of it and the details that give it its "bridgeness." How the pillars connect. How the approach curves and slants. What can you see between its struts.

And color - not just gray -- green moss (mildew), purple stains, rusted iron, brown gray and blue gray.
Different angles.
Leaving things out.
Putting things in.

What do we miss when we look at our surroundings too quickly, in a conventional manner?

Anticipating the best painting I have ever done...

I am very excited because I am starting a series of 8 new paintings. I am always filled with anticipation that I just KNOW that each new painting is the best I have ever done. Unfortunately it never turns out that way... but it is probably for the best because you would probably never want to do a new painting, would you? And maybe the trying is the whole idea. So here we go, a painting a week for the next 6 weeks. They are not going to be my usual larger size canvases but I have learned something about painting smaller ... like in golf, the swing is the same, you just use smaller clubs. In painting, you just use smaller brushes -- a revelation! I'll let you know tomorrow how I progress today.

A place to paint

I am not going to write a blog today because I am painting. The sun is shining (a little). I just finished a painting of the Buffalo Gap Saloon on Macadam in Portland, a fun portrait to do. Yes, I call them portraits. When you do a portrait of a person's business, it is as important as their children. I try to give the portrait their personality. I missed on this one a little bit. It wasn't nearly as fun as they are -- maybe it had something to do with the cold weather we had in December and January and I did not have my studio finished & its so important for a painter to have a place to paint.

Well I guess I did write a blog today after all.