Abstract Painter – Dayna J Collins

A Year of Transformation

2024 was a year of transformation, in my art life and in my personal life. On the personal front, in November we sold our 1926 vintage home in Central Salem and moved into a 1960 home in suburbia. We miss the vibrancy of inner city living and the close proximity to downtown and the waterfront, but we don’t miss the constant noise of traffic or the sound of shopping carts being rolled down the middle of the street in the wee hours of the morning. On our first night in our new house, Howard said, “I can’t sleep, it’s too quiet.” We have adjusted and we’re just a ten-minute drive to downtown.

One of the first things we did once we got settled into our new house, was to build a painting studio. We went with a Tuff Shed (click HERE to see lots of photos and to read the story of the build), and it has worked out perfectly. My studio is just 16 steps from our house, close enough to slip out wearing pajamas, but removed enough to have solitude. My beautiful new studio was completed the end of January, just two months after moving into our new house.

As for teaching, I had decided in 2023 that I didn’t want to teach very much in 2024, just at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in the summer, something I have done for many years. But things didn’t work out as planned. I ended up teaching the most I had ever taught; twice at Sitka and three times at the Art Department. I also did something I didn’t imagine doing,: I began teaching online thanks to an invitation by Martha, the owner of Winslow Art Center.

Here’s a summary of my 2024 teaching:

I developed a new class, which I titled Building Creative Muscles. I taught it at the Art Department in May and again in November, and it got added to the Sitka teaching schedule in July.

Another new class I developed this year was Lexicon of Collage. This class came out of my one collage a day in 2023, which I called my Lexicon of Collage project. I launched this new class at the Art Department in Salem in April (stay tuned for news about where I will be teaching this class in 2025).

I taught my annual five-day oil and cold wax class at Sitka in August, Wild and Free Abstracted Florals, and it was fun to teach a different subject. The class was filled with vibrant, fearless, creative artists, having fun making abstracted florals using the versatile medium of oil paint mixed with cold wax. Their paintings were stunning.

The biggest addition to my teaching schedule came with the addition of doing online classes through the excellent Winslow Art Center. Throughout the year I did some small online classes: an Art Chat (about my art journey) and a Technique Takeaway (oil and cold wax) in May, and another Technique Takeaway (making a collage using book parts) in October; and a couple of free to students short classes, one in October and another this month.

In July, I did my first official online class, Wild and Free Abstracted Landscapes in Oil and Cold Wax, and it was a great success. Winslow takes care of registration and has an excellent platform for watching the classes through Zoom, as well as a private classroom for interactions with and between students. I did a second class, Curious Untamed Blooms in Oil and Cold Wax in October. My biggest fear about teaching online has always been the technology, but Martha and her team are intimately involved with all aspects of the technology part, holding my hand and helping me solve any problems that popped up.

Outside of teaching, I was invited to serve as a juror for the biennial Word and Image show through the Hoffman Center for the Arts. It was an honor to serve as a juror, but it meant I wasn’t able to participate in the show, a favorite of mine, but I will be submitting my proposal when it is held again in two years.

One of the highlights of my year was having a show at RiverSea Gallery in July, Curious Untamed Blooms. I spent six months painting abstracted florals, pushing the design, color, and composition in fresh ways. By the time the show was ready to hang, I had painted 34 pieces: four were 20 x 20, with five 12 x 12s, several 8 x 8s, and the rest 6-1/2 x 12 inches. It was a beautiful affirmation of my work when 12 pieces were purchased from the floor – meaning, the pieces were leaned up against the wall in preparation for the hanging. What a way to open a show. In the end, I sold 28 of the 34 pieces. My heart is still fluttering.

On a more personal note, I took a couple of classes at Sitka. One in June with Ken Marunowski, Painting the Abstract Impressionist Landscape and Abstract Sketching and the Creative Process in September with Lauren Ohlgren. Both were excellent classes and enrichened my own painting and drawing life.

“With Gracious Strength,” Curious Untamed Bloom by Dayna Collins

My personal transformation began in July after my show opened at RiverSea Gallery. In looking at photos of myself, it hit me how much weight I had gained since 2023 and especially through all the stress of packing for our move, having a gigantic garage sale to downsize so many years of collections, and then the move itself. So when I looked at my photos after my opening, I had a light bulb moment that I wanted to make some changes; they weren’t big changes, but I reevaluated what I was eating and trimmed down some of the types of food I was eating (POPCORN being a huge delight and culprit), and I upped my daily steps (I was already averaging 12,000 a day, but I increased it to 14,000 a day). But the biggest change I made was joining a Club Pilates that was four blocks from our new house. It was the biggest game changer. I had heard of Pilates since forever, but had never done it and didn’t even know what it really was. I learned that Club Pilates offers Reformer Pilates, which I absolutely had never heard of. Reformer Pilates involves equipment, (and some say the reformer bed is a torture bed). I took a beginner class, and I was hooked. I love the Flow classes, which are whole body workouts, focusing on core work and stretching, weights are involved, as are a lot of springs. If you don’t know what Reformer Pilates is, just Google it to get an idea.

So here I am five months later, down 33 pounds, and feeling the best I have ever felt. My word for 2024 was TRANSFORMATION and it was a year of transformation. In my art because of my teaching schedule and my shift to abstracted florals, and in my personal life because I looked at myself and knew I wanted a transformation.

My word for 2025?

Radiance.

Teaching at Sitka: Part 1

I had the privilege of teaching two classes at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. The first, June 30-July 3, was in the smaller of the two studios at Sitka, Smith, and with ten students, it was the perfect space.

I taught two classes at Sitka, the first class was in the smaller, lower studio and the second class was in the spectacular upper studio, Boyden.

Because I was teaching two classes and they were back-to-back (I had the 4th of July off between the two classes), I got to stay at Morley House, which was a first for me. I loved this space!

This is where I got to stay for ten days: Morley House.

Now to the good stuff. The class. I could babble on about it, but instead I’m going to share photos – a fraction of the photos I took, but it gives a good look into our four days of art making. The group was talented, energetic, spirited, and hard workers — and they wanted to know if they could sign up for my 2023 class on the final day!

Brand new overalls! Soft fabric . . . and WHITE. I’m ready.

How I set up the oil paints I bring for the class to use.

An old wallpaper roller I bought at a flea market in Europe years ago was a huge hit.

Blotting with tissue paper, lifting paint, and moving paint around.

Carol experimenting with using a solvent to create drips.

Colorful, powerful, and fascinating example of a grid composition.

R&F Pigment Sticks – making a monoprint.

A beautiful, finished painting. Carol started this one in a class with me a few years ago, brought it with her, and brought it to a beautiful finish.

I love the variety of color and marks in this series.

This is a monoprint of the original oil and cold wax painting (Marc let me have the monoprint and it is hanging in my studio).

Ripping off tape to reveal small beauties.

And then I rested.

Color Can’t Wait

Toward the end of March, my friend Lucy Hewitt texted me and asked if she could paint my portrait. She had been doing portraits of herself, and decided she wanted to branch out and start painting her art friends. I told her, “Of course, I’d be honored.” She wanted to schedule a time to come to my house and take some photos of me painting . . . with the caveat that she wanted me to be wearing my overalls and have curlers in my hair. Her strange request was prompted by a photo I had posted of me in my curlers on Instagram on March 16.

A date was set for photos, I washed my hair and put in my curlers. Lucy took photos of me getting ready to paint, then some action shots of me working.

Lucy had me stand in front of one of my big boards in progress – and then had me choose a pair of prop glasses she had brought along – I chose PINK!

In preparation for our photo shoot, Lucy had me write out words and phrases that describe me and my art. I was in the middle of #the100dayproject where I was creating art on scraps of brown paper bags, so I wrote my list on a scrap of bag.

Fast forward to a week ago when Lucy delivered the painting. My response was an emotional one as Lucy had captured me so wonderfully in paint. She titled the painting Color Can’t Wait. It was a gorgeous oil painting and Lucy captured every detail – from my earrings, to my bracelet, from the bright stripes of the background, to the sassiness in my stance.

On the back of the painting was a magical history of the painting, my words, and a poem that Lucy wrote (using my list of words and painted on the front of my overalls). She also shared how she likened my portrait to the Caryatids (a stone carving of a draped female figure, used as a pillar to support the entablature of a Greek or Greek-style building). And she had written the word contrapposto (an asymmetrical arrangement of the human figure in which the line of the arms and shoulders contrasts with, while balancing, those of the hips and legs).

After Lucy had explained her inspiration and process, we called Howard in to see the portrait. His reaction was priceless; he laughed, saluted, then bowed down. As it should be.

When we asked Lucy if we could purchase the painting, she graciously consented. Howard and I both love having Color Can’t Wait in our Art House and have hung it in a place of honor.

Emotional Alignments: Opening Weekend

My solo show at RiverSea Gallery, Emotional Alignments, opened on January 9 and I celebrated the opening for a couple of days. I had dropped my art off at the gallery on the Thursday before the opening and saw it for the first time on Friday afternoon.

When we walked into the gallery on Friday, our friends Greg and Tabor were there, so we had a nice long visit about the show.

On Saturday, the official opening and Astoria’s monthly Art Walk, ran from noon until 8 pm, the hours greatly expanded to accommodate social distancing in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. My friend Stephanie drove to Astoria and we spent the day playing in and around Astoria.

Saturday night arrived and I was at the gallery from 5-8 pm.

It was a pretty quiet opening, but I was able to visit with everyone who stopped by and social distancing was easily achieved. Our friends from Salem, Lois and Dave, were in Astoria for a few days and they popped in for a hello and to see the show.