Oil and Cold Wax – Page 8 – Dayna J Collins

I’m Teaching! Four Days of Oil and Cold Wax

If you’ve ever been interested in working in oil and cold wax, I have a great opportunity to immerse yourself for four consecutive days of art making in a beautiful new space. I will be teaching my Abstracted Play class at the Salem Art Association’s newly revamped and remodeled Art Annex on October 6-9, from 9:30-4:30. There will be plenty of time to dive in, learn new techniques, experiment, be inspired, inspire each other, work hard, and, of course, play. But first, this is the bright, airy, new space, located in the heart of Bush Park, where we will be meeting. And my class is the very first to be offered!

This class is for everyone. If you have previously worked with oil and cold wax, this class will help take you to the next level, but it also works well for beginners with no experience at all. Oil paint mixed with cold wax is a versatile medium that creates rich luminosity and interesting surfaces. We’ll experiment with laying down paint, adding texture, scraping paint away, and then doing it all over again. And maybe yet again.

During the four days, we will work on multiple pieces, working intuitively and abstractly, exploring texture, layers, composition, design elements, and use of color through oil paint and pigment sticks. We will explore making marks using graphite pencils, twigs and awls, solvents to remove paint and leave marks, and oil pigment sticks. We will be working on wood substrates as well as Arches oil paper.

Oil paint mixed with cold wax allows the layers to dry quickly (and without much odor), and clean up is done with mineral or baby oil, so our use of solvents is very limited (or even unnecessary).

The cost for the four full days of class is $350 with a $20 supply fee. I provide some materials and share all of my paints and pigment sticks. To register, just go to the Salem Art Association website using this link.

Passage: Caught in the Flow of Life

Nine months ago I had the opportunity to become part owner in an art gallery. Along with Tory Brokenshire and Bonnie Hull, the three of us took over the reigns of Compass Gallery, located at the Willamette Heritage Center, where all three of us have upstairs art studios. We came up with nine months worth of shows and each of us took on a monthly task (Tory created the show cards, Bonnie kept our website current, and I produced the press release). Then there was the Herculean task of creating a steady stream of art every month (for those of us who didn’t have art in basement vaults). Yesterday, we hung our final show, Passage: Caught in the Flow of Life, which about sums up our nine-month grand experiment.

We all enjoyed our time as gallery owners, and we especially loved having lunch together after hanging a new show. Yesterday was no exception. We enjoyed a long, leisurely lunch at Taproot in downtown Salem, plotting and scheming about future projects. You knew we weren’t going softly into the night, didn’t you?

Fortunately, Compass Gallery will continue, reverting back to the original visionary, Catherine Alexander. There are some other changes in the wind with the gallery. . . . but all of that is for another day, another post.

Oil and Cold Wax: A Workshop With Lisa Pressman

It was pretty thrilling to experience several firsts in one week: my first visit to Whidbey Island in Washington, the first time I’ve taken a class at the Pacific Northwest Art School, and my first time taking a class with the talented Lisa Pressman.

I had a week of bliss. I invited my friend Tory Brokenshire to join me for the week and she enthusiastically said yes. It started with loading the car.

After a day of driving (okay, we might have stopped in Centralia for lunch and some junking in the many antique shops in that little town), we arrived on Whidbey Island. Our Airbnb was just as we pictured it would be: light, bright, cozy, and right on Penn Cove.

Class started on Monday morning and went for four days. Holy Moley. It was all I hoped it would be: lots of lessons, demos, prompts, and experimenting. Lisa left plenty of time for painting and was always circulating offering feedback, suggestions, and encouragement. The extensive demos and talks about R & F Pigment Sticks was an added bonus because I have been using these oil sticks for over a year, but didn’t know all the ins and outs of how they could be used. The answer is: endless ways.

Even my blotter papers turned out exciting.

I finished several 6×6 pieces on Arches oil paper.

And completed a series of little pieces on paper.

I came home inspired and motivated to continue experimenting with some new ideas burbling around in my head.

Waterlines: Life On and Near the Water

My fascination with waterlines started the summer of 2014 when I was floating in the Columbia River and I saw the waterline of our boat, Rapture. I was captivated by the beautiful colors and thought it looked like an abstract painting.

I continued to love the idea of waterlines, at first the hulls of ships, then shifting to more natural waterlines, defining waterlines as “Where water meets an edge. A shoreline. The hull of a ship. The sea meets the sand. A passage of water.”

A few months ago it was decided that our July show at Compass Gallery would be titled Waterlines. I started painting with that theme in mind. The paint flowed easily because I was excited about the topic and the vast possibilities.

At the last minute we decided to spend two weeks on board Rapture at the Portland Waterfront. Our show would be hung two days after we returned, so I had no choice but to pack up my substrates, oil paints, cold wax, pigment sticks, and the tools associated with laying down and scraping off paint. I set up an impromptu studio in the galley of our boat and painted whenever I could.

I spread out plastic table cloths in the helm, on the coffee table, and on the back deck. Things dried quickly because it was warm, windy, and bright – all three things that encourage oil and cold wax to dry.

I’m sure the gentle rocking of the boat influenced my work, as did the view out of every window and porthole. I created a couple dozen pieces, ranging in size from 6×6 inches to 12×24. Fortunately they were dry by the time we made the cruise from the Willamette River back to the Columbia where we moor our boat.

Here’s a look at some of the pieces I created during our two weeks living on board Rapture.

"Caught Up in Waterweeds" — “Caught Up in Waterweeds”

"A Thrilling Release of Earth and Air" — “A Thrilling Release of Earth and Air”

"A Small Current of Power" — “A Small Current of Power”

"The Air Was Perfumed" — “The Air Was Perfumed”

"Mist Rose From the Water" — “Mist Rose From the Water”

"Memory Floating Up" — “Memory Floating Up”

The show at Compass Gallery, Waterlines, runs July 8 through August 3, 2016. The opening reception is Thursday, July 14, 5-7 pm.

In addition to my work, the current show features the work of Bonnie Hull and her interpretation of waterlines.

Abstracted Play: Three days of oil and cold wax

The paint was flying last week when I hosted a three day oil and cold wax workshop called Abstracted Play. The class was held in the classroom at The Art Studios at Mission Mill, so I kept the number of students to five to maximize space. But we had a kitchen, an espresso machine, lots of snacks, and a lovely art lounge to hang out in, so we made do.

The class consisted of demos, work time, one-on-one assistance, more demos, feedback and support. Photos tell the story better than anything I could say.

The artists created some lovely work during the three days. Here is a sampling.

Such a fun, hard-working group of women. They assured me they cycled all the way from number 1 to finally landing at number 6. Whew, but it was touch and go for a while.

Art Retreats x2

I have the good fortune to belong to two art groups: The Portland Art Collective and the Salem Art Group. The groups are very different. The Portland Art Collective has 33 members, meets monthly for a meeting where the main focus is show and tell, but they also take minutes and conduct business. Twice a year they have a retreat at Menucha and about twenty women attend. Attendance at meetings is not required and I haven’t seen a couple of members for years.

The Salem Art Group is a small group with only six members. This group meets monthly and does one of the following: 1) meet up for coffee and show and tell, 2) go on a field trip to an exhibit or museum, or 3) gets together for a day of art making. Once a year we go on an art retreat. In our small group, we have an attendance policy, which requires that everyone attend at least eight meetings per year.

This past week both of the groups held their art retreats, which meant I was gone for a week.

PORTLAND ART COLLECTIVE

PAC holds their retreat over a weekend at Menucha, a conference and retreat center in the Columbia Gorge, about an hour east of Portland. All of our art-making is done in The Greenhouse.

We arrive on Friday afternoon and the retreat concludes on Sunday afternoon, giving us two full days of making art, laughing,doing demos, relaxing, and being silly.

During our stay, all meals are provided in the dining room, and they beautifully accommodate people with special diets (like me, who is vegetarian and stays away from gluten, but obviously not from sugar!).

SALEM ART GROUP

SAG holds one retreat a year and the location and time of year vary. For the past several years we have retreated at Camp Sherman along the Metolius River. This year we chose to retreat at the Oregon Coast. Bonnie, one of our members, has a cabin at the coast and a friend of hers offered for us to use her house on the bay as our place to stay and create.

We arrived on Tuesday morning and stayed until Friday. Of course, there was no one preparing our meals, so everyone made their own breakfast and lunch, but we dined out every night at one of the great restaurants, all within a short drive from where we were staying.

ART

During the two retreats, I chose to work on three different projects. I always schlepp more art supplies that I ever use, and I panic at the idea of not having enough to do. During the PAC retreat in the Gorge, I focused on acrylic paintings and visual journaling, along with a new collage project I am developing.

At the coast, I lugged all of my oil and cold wax supplies, set up shop on a long table I brought, and spent the entire time slathering on layers, scraping away the oil and cold wax the next morning, then applying another layer. I have a show deadline coming up the first part of June, so these days were spent working on several pieces for that show. It was a luxury to have uninterrupted expanses of time to work.

Because of the intimate nature of the second retreat, I took more photos during the week. Here’s a look at our little group and some of our activities during our stay.

Here’s my two piles of packing. First to Menucha for the weekend, then to the beach for four days. I thought I took a lot to Menucha, but my stack of stuff doubled for the beach!

It was a treat to have so many days dedicated to art without any of the responsibilities of home. But now it’s time for reentry and to finish up some of the projects I started over the past ten days.

Tulips-ish: Let’s Just Call Them Tulips

What? Tulips? I don’t paint flowers, at least not specific flowers. In the past I’ve painted a couple of paintings that could be considered flowers, but they were wonky and highly abstracted. But amazingly, they both sold . . . . ummmmm.

My heart sank a bit when Tory, Bonnie, and I met the end of 2015 to decide our 2016 show schedule for Compass Gallery. January was Magnetic Pull and reflected what art we felt pulled to create. February was Light As Air, and I had happily been working on my Funky Junkyard Birds for a couple of months. When it came time to decide on March, Bonnie suggested we have a show about tulips. I gulped and resolved to push through the fear and just make the art.

I decided I needed to start early for the March show. On a rainy day in January, I spent the day in my studio. I was playing with the idea of painting a close up of a tulip, abstracted beyond recognition. My first go round went like this:

Then I started another one and the first layer looked like a misshaped lemon (I’m not even sharing the photo of the big yellow painted lemon!).

I decided this idea wasn’t working for me. I eventually left the studio that day feeling like I had spread a lot of paint, but feeling uninspired and unsuccessful. I was missing something. I remembered a favorite children’s book titled ish by Peter Reynolds. Why couldn’t I paint tulips in the ish fashion? I felt myself getting inspired and motivated again, motivated to get painting, big and small.

I started in using three pre-prepared boards that were a wee 6×6 inches. I had fun adding splashes of color mimicking bouquets of tulips. I felt like I was on to something.

Then I prepared four 12×12-inch boards in my usual fashion, applying paint, a layer of plaster, and then sealing them with a layer of acrylic. I was ready to paint my version of tulips using oil and cold wax. I laid down paint, I scraped it back. I told myself I didn’t need to paint exact replicas of tulips, but just to use color and texture to create something tulips-ish. It was working.

I ended up with a series of three paintings where I used black and grey as a backdrop to really make the color of the flowers pop.

I wanted to create one bigger piece for the show, so I dug out a 24×24 inch painting that had been in a show in 2013. It was begging to be repurposed and given new life.

I had fun covering the bright stripes of color, leaving the essence of a flower, which I then went in and defined using an ebony pencil, a combination of reds and alizarin crimson mixed with white to create some lovely pinks.

The result of my push/pull transformation is Echoes of Summer.

We hung the show on Thursday and I was happy with my nod to tulips. Once again, our disparate work came together to form a lively show.

Just Tulips will be on display at the Compass Gallery at Willamette Heritage Center through March 30, 2016, and the gallery is open Monday-Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. The Opening Reception will be held Thursday, March 10, from 5-7 pm.

Magnetic Pull

New year. New month. New gallery. New show. All of this means I have been busily and happily painting in plaster, oil, and cold wax.

I wrote about my new gallery last month, sharing the happy news that I was joining with Tory Brokenshire and Bonnie Hull to be the new owner-artists of the Compass Gallery. Our January show, Magnetic Pull, represents what art is tugging at our hearts as we begin 2016. All three of us recently wrote briefly about our individual magnetic pulls. I thought it would be fun for me to share what all three of us wrote:

Bonnie Hull

A person who makes art experiences the magnetic pull of the creative urge every day. As she goes on with it, the methods and media change, overlap . . . . collide maybe. “Mark-making” has become the single thread on which my own art practice hangs and I’m in the midst of discovering the commonality of what mark-making really means across a spectrum of activity. In 2016 my idea is to continue examining the relation between drawing and quilt making.

Tory Brokenshire

Magnetic pull is more than just a thought, it is a reality for anyone who is passionate about anything they do. I’m pulled towards the human figure, drawing, sewing, or sculpting in clay. Teaching and sharing figurative sculpture has also become a very important part of my passion. I believe everyone can feel a little bit of that pull to create.

Dayna Collins

Texture. Intersections. Excavation. Layers. Marks. Lines. Words. Color. Scratching. Scritching. These are the things that have pulled at me for the past several years. During 2016, I am hoping to dig deeper, incorporating more marks, more lines, more layers. A year of more, seeing how far I can push the processes I love.

The newly formed Compass Gallery has a fresh show in January with a fun twist. Throughout the month, weekly Wednesday – Saturday, from 11 am – 3 pm, one of us will be in the gallery working on our art and available to chat about our process, inspiration, and techniques. The show, Magnetic Pull, runs January 11-February 3, 2016.

Throughout January, join us as we work on our art in the gallery from 11-3 on Wednesdays through Saturdays. Here is the schedule:

January 13-16 Bonnie Hull will be stitching and drawing (and she invites people to bring their own projects and join her).

January 20-23 Tory Brokenshire will be creating whimsical characters in polymer clay.

January 27-30 Dayna Collins will be painting with her favorite mediums on pre-plastered boards: oil, cold wax, and oil pigment sticks.

Here are photos of some of my new work that will be included in the show:

The exhibition begins January 11 and the artists will host a simple reception in the gallery on Thursday, January 14, 5:00-7:00 pm, as part of Art After Dark, when the second floor studios will be open and Max Marbles, bookbinder, will be in his first floor studio demonstrating a publishing technique. These events are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. The exhibition will be on view through February 3.

A New Art Gallery in Salem

I have exciting news to share. There is a new art gallery in Salem and I’m one of the five founding artists. The gallery, located at the Willamette Heritage Center, borders downtown and is across the street from the Amtrak Station and Willamette University. A recent press release gives all of the pertinent information:

After a successful year at the Willamette Heritage Center (formerly Mission Mill Museum), Compass Gallery celebrates its first anniversary with a transition to a cooperative gallery under the auspices of the Art Studios at Mission Mill. The gallery will represent five artists who are members of the Art Studios: Dayna Collins, Bonnie Hull, Leonard Kelly, Kathy Shen and Rollie Wisbrock. The artists will curate monthly rotating exhibitions of their artwork in the gallery space. The first group exhibition opened to the public on October 1 and an opening reception is planned for Thursday, October 8 from 3:00-5:00 pm in the gallery. This event is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. The exhibition will be on view through November 4.

On Thursday, four of us gathered to hang our first show.

For our first exhibit I created a new framed series of plaster, oil, and cold wax pieces.

"The Whisper of Truth," 8x8 framed to 12x12, plaster, oil, and cold wax. — “The Whisper of Truth,” 8×8 framed to 12×12, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

"A Quiet Confidence," 8x8 framed to 12x12, plaster, oil, and cold wax. — “A Quiet Confidence,” 8×8 framed to 12×12, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

"A Light Wind Pushed at the Lace Curtains," 8x8 framed to 12x12, plaster, oil, and cold wax. — “A Light Wind Pushed at the Lace Curtains,” 8×8 framed to 12×12, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

"All Suffering Erased," 8x8 framed to 12x12, plaster, oil, and cold wax. — “All Suffering Erased,” 8×8 framed to 12×12, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

"Forgetting is the Only Way Back," 8x8 framed to 12x12, plaster, oil, and cold wax. — “Forgetting is the Only Way Back,” 8×8 framed to 12×12, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

"The Return of Memory," 8x8 framed to 12x12, plaster, oil, and cold wax. — “The Return of Memory,” 8×8 framed to 12×12, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

"Beyond the Reach of Reality," 8x8 framed to 12x12, plaster, oil, and cold wax. — “Beyond the Reach of Reality,” 8×8 framed to 12×12, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

We are still figuring out shows and what direction we want to take the gallery, but we are going to let it evolve and morph over the next few months of experimentation.

Affordable Art For Everyone

Affordable Art for Everyone is a special buying event where more than 60 artists offer high-quality work for under $100. I am excited to share that I was invited to participate. Here is the information from their website:

The juried fine art and fine crafts will include paintings, ceramics, glass, jewelry, wood, metalwork and photography. This is a unique opportunity to purchase quality art at outstanding prices. Frame Central will be onsite with custom and ready made framing options.

This sale will be held at NW Events in Hillsboro, Oregon, a spacious facility conveniently located off of Highway 26 at 2900 NW 229th Ave Hillsboro, OR 97124. The site is fully accessible and has restrooms and ample free parking. Admission is free!

To add even more fun to the day and showcase all kinds of artistry, the Affordable Art show will offer activities for the whole family, such as our Performing Arts Showcase. The Showcase will feature short performances on stage all day by stellar local acts including The Hillsboro Community Youth Choir and NW Dance Conservatory. Display tables in our Performing Arts Marketplace will offer visitors an opportunity to connect and check out what’s coming up in our region’s vibrant performing arts scene.

Family Activities on tap all day from Village Home Education Resource Center, Swallowtail School, Hillsboro Library, and the Artosaur. For food, there are simple snacks and water available for purchase in the kids’ activity room. In addition there will be food trucks in the front parking lot.

So what am I bringing? I am bringing several oil and cold wax pieces, ranging from 6×6 to 6×24 inches. To give you an idea of my pricing, my 6×6 inch $80 pieces will be $60, my 8×8 inch $150 pieces will be $75, my 11×14 inch $190 pieces will be $80, and my 6×24 inch $200 pieces will be $95.

I will be bringing a batch of my Curious Elements, some old and some new. They are regularly $15-$85 and I will have them priced at $5-$60.

A sampling of brand new pieces:

I am clearing out my last four Funky Junkyard Birds. They sell for $50 and I’ve marked them down to $20-$30.

I only have three of my Fearless Faces reproductions left, and instead of the original price of $80, I will be selling them for $20 each (they are about 16×20 inches).

I have four new framed acrylic and mixed media pieces. These will be $75-$90 each.

I have four tins of my Slightly Off Kilter Blocks, originally $45 a set, now $15 a set. These are oil and cold wax on wood blocks.

I have several prints of “Spotted With Crimson,” and I will be selling them for half price.

Finally, I’m bringing lots of greeting cards. Some are reproductions glued onto heavy duty, beautiful watercolor paper, and others are original pieces of art. All of them will be marked down from their original price.