Oil and Cold Wax – Page 10

Work Continues . . . . after a brief pause

Being sick is no fun. Here is what I’ve been working on after about a three week hiatus. I battled pneumonia for most of February, and although I wanted to get back to painting, my body screamed NO. But I’m back on an abbreviated schedule, hoping to ramp up my time as I continue to mend.

I’ve been working on about 27 boards ranging in size from 8×8 inches up to 36×48 inches, all in plaster, oil, and cold wax. During each painting session, I work on several boards (not all 27!), adding swaths of paint, scraping it away, scratching into the paint with my awl, blotting paint from one board to another, adding marks using graphite pencils. and drawing with oil paint sticks.

Slowly my boards are beginning to take on a personality, a unique identity. As I wrote in my journal this morning, my hope is that each painting will evoke a feeling of intrigue, mystery, and curiosity. They aren’t there yet, but as I often tell my students: It’s just a layer.

This series of paintings is for my June show at Guardino Gallery on NE Alberta in Portland. My work will be in the Main Gallery, so I have a fairly sophisticated schematic in place to fill the many walls. This afternoon, my big paintings got some attention.

I recently acquired this three-tier, light weight cart. I painted it red and put it to use as a place to put my palette; it is easily maneuverable so I can take my palette to the boards all around my studio.

I also worked on my smallest boards. Here is a peek at sections from six in various stages of layers and completion.

Tomorrow, I’ll be adding more layers and marks. At the end of my painting session today, this is how one of my 30×30 inch boards looked; it started out as something entirely different.

And then it was time to end. A final look into the studio from two different doors.

Working Big, Really Big

I’ve begun applying oil and cold wax to my biggest boards ever, 36×48, and let me tell you, it is a vigorous workout covering so much territory.

This board’s theme is transformation and is for an upcoming show. And that’s all I’ll say for now.

Abstracted Play: Three Day Workshop

I’ve just spent the past three days guiding six beautiful women through the process of using plaster, oil, and cold wax. This was the first workshop held at The Art Studios at Mission Mill and it was a huge success. We went from this:

to this:

The women bonded instantly on Friday and by the end of Sunday, my sides were sore from laughing so much.

Friday afternoon we painted our boards and applied plaster.

Then on Saturday morning the ladies sanded and stained.

Before lunch on Saturday, I had the women applying initial layers of oil and cold wax.

And by the end of Saturday, the hall was filled with drying art.

Sunday morning, we were back at it.

We had snacks available all the time . . . .

. . . and on Sunday, Howard delivered a salad bar lunch to us.

Before we knew it, it was time to clean up and prepare for show and tell.

Here is a sampling of the incredible work the women created. A sampling, I tell you!

It was an energizing, exciting, creative three days.

Ricochet: The Opening

The opening reception for Ricochet: A Year of Collaborative Painting was held yesterday in the afternoon at Roy John Designer Goldsmith. We had a steady stream of friends and art lovers stop by. We sold several copies of our book, chatted about our paintings, shared about our year long process. It was a great celebration of our friendship and art.

Lucy and Jay relax before the reception begins

Me with Mary and Debbie, who made the trip from Portland

Guests enjoyed looking at our art journals

Delores and Rollie look at our book about the show

Howard was our wine server for the afternoon

The show will be up until February 28, so if you are in downtown Salem, please stop by.

Ricochet: Hanging Day

Today we hung our show, Ricochet: A Year of Collaborative Painting, at Roy John Designer Goldsmith, where our show will hang until February 28th. I wrote all about the show itself last week, so today I’m sharing about the hanging of the show.

We both arrived at 10:30, our arms full.

We each chose a wall and lined our paintings up to figure out spacing and layout.

And then we hung.

And adjusted lights.

And added labels.

Added art to the window.

Then admired our work.

Views.

We celebrated our accomplishment over a nice lunch at Amadeus, just around the corner from Roy John’s in downtown Salem. We talked about our year of painting, and how much we would miss our time together. Each month when we got together, we started by sharing a latte and visiting for about an hour about what we had been working on, how our art was progressing, what we had coming up. We chatted about our current theme and chose our theme for the following month.

So we decided we wanted to do it again, but not until summer or fall of this year. I have a big show coming up at Guardino Gallery, so that is where all of my attention will be focused for the next several months . . . . but we do already have a theme.

The Anatomy of a Painting

One of the paintings I did for Ricochet (click HERE to learn about this upcoming collaborative show) was month #10, September, 2014, when our theme was WATER. I knew immediately what I wanted to paint: the waterline of a ship.

The back story. We have a boat, which we moor on the Columbia River in Portland. In August, we went out for a weekend of boat camping with our daughters and grandkids. The weather was perfect and in a rare burst of exuberance, I put on my suit and jumped in the river for a float on the inner tube. While I was in the water, I noticed the waterline of our boat. It was a beautiful array of colorful patinas. I had someone carefully hand me my camera and I snapped a shot, thinking what a great painting it would make.

Fast forward to September. I dug out the photos I had taken and also looked on the internet for rusty ship hull waterlines. Oh, so many possibilities. I scooped up all the images and chose one for this project.

Then it was paint day with Cynthia.

By the end of the afternoon, it was pretty much completed. I futzed with it a bit more the next day, did the final wax, and called it done.

"Anchored in Memory" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Anchored in Memory”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

I plan to continue exploring the theme of waterlines in upcoming paintings.

Ricochet: A Year of Collaborative Painting

Dayna Collins and Cynthia Herron

January 6-February 28, 2015

Opening Reception: January 10, 2015

Saturday, 1:00-3:00 pm

Roy John Designer Goldsmith

315 Court Street

Salem, OR

For the past year and a half, Cynthia and I have been painting together. It emerged out of casual painting dates in the summer of 2013 and in the fall of 2013, it morphed into the idea to have a show.

We met monthly to paint. We usually started around 10:00 am with a latte and a visit, going over what we had been up to, how our painting had been going, and what was going on in our art life. We often scribbled in our journals, and always determined what our theme or topic would be for the next month of painting, so we had time for ideas to formulate and percolate.

We would paint for a couple of hours, then break for lunch – a recharge for us and a time for our oil and cold wax to set up.

After lunch, we would head back upstairs to my painting studio and paint for a few more hours.

About midway through the afternoon, we would eat a gluten-free treat that Cynthia provided from a local bakery.

Our show, which opens with a reception on Saturday, January 10, 2015, reflects 12 months of painting together and covers 12 topics/themes.

#1 October 2013: The way I wish I could paint

"It Was a Relief to Disappear" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “It Was a Relief to Disappear”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#2 December 2013: A poem

"Remembered Always" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Remembered Always”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#3 January 2014: Something borrowed

"Full of Expectation" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Full of Expectation”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#4 February 2014: Words

"Practicing Vocabulary Words" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Practicing Vocabulary Words”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#5 March 2014: Spring

"Along a Curious Path" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Along a Curious Path”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#6 April 2014: Precious

"Insatiably Curious" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Insatiably Curious”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#7 June 2014: Astoria

"Protected by Silence" 24x24, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Protected by Silence”
24×24, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#8 July 2014: Summer

"Lingering Shadows" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “Lingering Shadows”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#9 August 2014: Window

"An Invisible Thread" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “An Invisible Thread”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#10 September 2014: Water

#11 October 2014: Fall

"The Shadow of Chance" 16x16, plaster, oil, and cold wax — “The Shadow of Chance”
16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax

#12 November 2014: Music

In addition to our two-month show, Cynthia and I have created a book, which includes photos of all 24 pieces of art created by the two of us, a narrative of how our show came about, 24 action or process photos, and a brief narrative from each of us for all 12 months. Here is a link for ordering a copy through Blurb.

LCAC Artful Gift Sale a Success

I was invited to participate in the Left Coast Artists Collective Artful Gift Sale, which was held last Friday and Saturday at the Multnomah Arts Center in Portland. It was a fun day, I made lots of sales, I met some great new people, I bought some art, and did some art trades. (Bonus: I got to hang out with Stephanie Brockway, who had her booth right next to mine.) I say it was successful all the way around.

Upcoming Art Shows and Sales

I’ve been invited to participate in two upcoming shows. The first is at Guardino Gallery in Portland, Little Things 14. This is a group show where all the pieces are 7×7 inches or smaller. I have 12 little plaster, oil, and cold wax paintings in the show. The opening reception is Thursday, November 28, 6-9 pm, and the show runs through December 28th.

The other show I’m a part of is the Left Coast Artist Collective Artful Gift Sale. It will be held for two days, Friday, December 5 (10 am – 8 pm) and Saturday, December 6 (9 am – 5 pm). This event will be held in the gym at the Multnomah Arts Center (7688 SW Capitol Highway in Portland). There will be jewelry, photography, glass art, paintings, book arts, fiber, and mixed media arts. I will be selling paintings, Funky Junkyard Birds, Curious Elements, and a big assortment of cards.

If you are looking for gifts or something fun for yourself, both of these events will have a great assortment of art by local artists.

Group Dynamics

The Salem Art Group: Dayna, Kathy, Tory, Woody standing in for Celia, Katy, Nancy

I’m a member of the Salem Art Group, a closed, close-knit group of six women. We get together once a month, varying our activities. Some months we meet for coffee and to share what we’ve been up to, other months we take field trips. Regularly we meet for art play dates. And once a year we go on a multi-day art retreat in the woods. Earlier this year we decided it would be fun to do an art show together and last night we hosted our opening reception at The Art Department, a downtown Salem fine art store. Our show, Group Dynamics, will be up through the end of November.

The south wall, artist's work left to right: Katy Vigland, Nancy Eng, Dayna Collins — The south wall, artist’s work left to right: Katy Vigland, Nancy Eng, Dayna Collins

The north wall, left to right, the art work of Tory Brokenshire and Kathy Shen

I created three pieces for the show, which I started at our retreat back in August.

Here are my completed pieces:

My art work, all are 16x20 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled boards — My art work, all are 16×20 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled boards

"Fairy Tales & Poetry," 16x20 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled board — “Fairy Tales & Poetry,” 16×20 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled board

"Curiosity & Tolerance," 16x20, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled board — “Curiosity & Tolerance,” 16×20, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled board

"Insight & Imagination," 16x20, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled board — “Insight & Imagination,” 16×20, plaster, oil, and cold wax on cradled board

And here are photos from last night’s reception.

Cynthia and Susan try on clothes created by Celia

Tory and Becky, an old friend from when my son was in school

By the end of the evening, we were all a bit rummy