Daily painting is still happening in my studio (and sometimes when I’m on the road and not at home). One time I forgot to take my painting journal with me, so I painted on little pieces of watercolor paper I had available and then taped the pieces into my journal, a couple of make do entries (you’ll see them below). Here are some selected pages since my last post on May 28.
May 30, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJune 5, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJune 7, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJune 12, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJune 13, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJune 14, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJune 22, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJune 23, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 8, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 13, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 15, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 20, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 21, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 23, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 26, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 27, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 28, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 29, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJuly 31, 2019 Dayna J. Collins
I’m a tad tardy in sharing about my June class at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, but it has been fun looking through all of the photos a month later. This class was special because Sitka had a last minute workshop cancellation and I was asked to teach an additional session of my Abstracted Play in Oil and Cold Wax (my August class filled quickly and had a long waiting list).
Sitka is located on the Oregon Coast at Cascade Head (between Lincoln City and Neskowin). I got to stay in Gray House, a cabin located just a short walk up from Boyden Studio, where my class was held.
Gray House
I love the process of preparing to teach – walking the grounds, the lesson planning, and getting the studio set up.
Boyden Studio
Once class got started, it was a whirlwind of activity. I started each morning with a warm up exercise, and then moved into teaching techniques. Students were given lots of time to practice and play – and they all jumped in with a fearless enthusiasm.
This routine was repeated for four days and it was a blur of heightened energy, creativity, and beautiful results.
On the fourth day, we worked in the morning, and then cleaned up in preparation for our sharing and wrap up.
During our class, I did warm ups along with students and also illustrated how working in a visual journal can be great inspiration for creating paintings.
I’m already excited for my next class, August 22-25.
I started doing a daily painting in my visual journal on January 1st and believe it or not, I’ve stuck with it. I got a little behind over the past couple of weeks, but I’ve been slowly doubling down on my daily paintings and I’m almost caught up. I did my first post about this project on January 25 and then an update on March 27. In both of my previous posts, I shared a selection of daily paintings from my journals (I’m on journal number 3). I figured it was time I did another update and share more paintings. Going through the pages of my journals, I am reminded why I’m incorporating this practice into my daily schedule: 1) It gets me into the studio, and 2) I’m experimenting with composition, colors, and ideas. All very good things.
March 25, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 1, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 3, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 4, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 7, 2019 Dayna J. Collins100th Painting! April 10, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 17, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 20, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 21, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 22, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 23, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 27, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsApril 29, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 1, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 3, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 5, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 9, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 10, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 15, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 16, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 18, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 21, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMay 25, 2019 Dayna J. Collins
Last November, I was invited by Barbara Bassett to do a show with her at her gallery, Barbara Basset Art Gallery, located at Pudding River Wine Cellars. I’ve long admired Barbara’s work and love the setting of her gallery, so I said yes.
We got together several months ago to plan for our show and come up with a title; we both liked Nature’s Rhythm, as it gave us freedom to create in our own styles.
I wrote a quick blurb about my pieces:
Color is an overriding theme in Dayna’s work. Whether she is painting abstract landscapes or creating more nonrepresentational work, color always finds its way into her paintings, mimicking or exaggerating nature’s wild palette.
We hung our show last week with the help of Sean, the owner and winemaker at Pudding River Wine Cellars.
Barbara worked big, I did a series of 12×12 inch pieces.
We got the show hung quickly, and then we did a timed selfie.
Some of the pieces I will have in the show:
“The Thread of a Path,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.“Spellbound By Thoughts,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.“Grateful For the Silence of the River,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.“A River of Gratitude,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.“A Silver Curtain of Rain,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.“The Hum of Mosquitoes,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.“A Pulsing Wave of Gratitude,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.“The Light Glimmers On,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 12×12 inches.
The opening reception is Wednesday, May 22, 4:00 – 6:00 pm. The Pudding River Wine Cellars and Barbara Bassett Art Gallery are just a ten-minute drive from from Silverton and 15-minutes from Salem, through the beautiful countryside. The show will be up for several months, so if you can’t make the opening, take a short drive and visit this beautiful winery and gallery.
A few months ago I was contacted by Mary Lou Zeek, an artist and art force in Oregon, asking if I would be interested in being the featured artist for the Family Building Blocks annual fundraiser, Uncorked Live. I was familiar with Family Building Blocks and I knew they did excellent work in our community; their motto is: Keeping Children Safe and Families Together. I did a little research on their annual auction and in pretty short order told Mary Lou I was definitely interested and to please put me in contact with the Uncorked organizer.
I had been working on three new large paintings (30×40 inches) and I thought any one of them might be a possibility. I was also working on a fourth painting (36×36 inches), that was coming along. A date was set of April 1st to decide on a painting. Because I have lots of work hanging in my house, it was decided that a committee would come to my house and select a painting.
The group walked through my house: upstairs, main floor, and downstairs, looking at their options. They settled on three possibilities, and my husband lugged each of them outside so they could be viewed in the best light. The three options included:
“Morning Clouds Giving Way to Sunshine,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 30×60 inches.
“It Smelled Like the End of Summer,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 30×40 inches
“Against a Cloud Lit Night,” plaster, oil, and cold wax, 36×36 inches.
The ladies whittled it down to two selections and asked me to choose as they wanted me to select the one that best represented me. I chose Against A Cloud Lit Night because it was my most recent painting, but also because I had painted it with the auction in mind.
The painting was delivered to the photographer the first week of April, photographed and then returned to me to finish drying until the auction in mid May. Last week the painting was delivered to Zenith Vineyard, where the auction was being held.
The perks of being the featured artist for this prestigious event was having my art featured on the cover of the auction catalog and for my art to be on the wine labels of the bottles of wine, which were given to everyone in attendance. What I didn’t know was that my art would be etched onto a jeroboam of wine (a jeroboam is equivalent to six standard 750 ml bottles – who knew there was such a thing!). The etched label was gorgeous and even had texture.
Patrice Altenhofen, Executive Director of Family Building Blocks, holding the jeroboam of wine.
Uncorked Live was held last Saturday night, May 18th. It was a surreal evening; seeing my art on display, then being handed an auction catalog with my art featured on the front. Everyone in attendance received a bottle of red wine or sparkling chardonnay, both with my art on the label.
Two people asked for my autograph, first on the cover of the catalog, and then later to sign a bottle of wine.
What a thrill.
I was anxious leading up to the actual auction, fearful that no one would bid on my piece. My painting was the fifth on the line up . . . .
. . . and it sold for $3,500. I later learned that two jeroboams of wine had sold for $850 each and one of the bottles was purchased by the owner of a vineyard who wanted it on display at her vineyard for the art rather than for the wine.
I was happy to have helped raise over $5,000 for this wonderful organization keeping children safe and families together.
I last posted pages from my Visual Journal on January 25, 2019, and unbelievably, I have continued with my daily practice of painting every day, focusing on color, composition, and making random marks. I have found several benefits from this daily practice. 1) It gets me into my studio. Even though I sometimes think I’ll just pop in to paint a page, I often linger and work on other projects. 2) Because these daily pages aren’t precious or for anything other than fun and practice, I work looser and with more freedom than when I’m painting for a show or a deadline. 3) My practice pages have become inspiration for my paintings in oil and cold wax.
Wall of 12×12 inch oil and cold wax works in progress with photocopies of my journal pages above.
Here’s a smattering of my pages from the past couple of months:
January 26, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 27, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 31, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsFebruary 1, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsFebruary 4, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsFebruary 5, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsFebruary 17, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsFebruary 18, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsFebruary 23, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsFebruary 24, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 3, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 4, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 5, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 7, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 9, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 10, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 17, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 18, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 19, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 20, 2019 Dayna J. CollinsMarch 22, 2019 Dayna J. Collins
I decided to shake things up a bit when I hung my 2019 calendar, thinking I would paint a quick abstract each day in my visual journal. Who knows how long I will maintain this practice, but so far, so good, and today is January 25th.
January 1 Dayna J. Collins
I’ve learned a couple of things along the way. First, it is fun to paint quickly, loose, and free, for no reason other than the joy of painting. And second, as a result of painting quick, loose, and free, I have several ideas for bigger paintings!
My acrylic painting station in my studio. Photo taken the morning of January 25.
No need to share every daily painting, but here’s a random selection.
January 4 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 5 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 7 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 10 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 12 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 17 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 20 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 21 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 22 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 23 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 24 Dayna J. CollinsJanuary 25 Dayna J. Collins
My journal is 9×9 inches, mixed media paper, and spiral bound so it lays flat when it is open. I’ve been using Golden acrylics, a black Stabilo pencil, sharp pointy objects for scritching and scratching, Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 Stabilo pencils, a paintbrush, occasional stamps and stencils, a No.2 pencil, and a palette knife.
The Little Things show at Guardino Galleryin Portland is my favorite group show of the year. I don’t know how many years I have participated, but this year will be the gallery’s 18th year. For the current show, there are over 58 participating artists and the only requirement is that all pieces are 7×7 inches and smaller. I created 12 abstract paintings on cradled panels, each is 6×6 inches.
Here are my pieces:
“The Waters of the Night,” oil and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“The Sudden Dip into Evening,” acrylic and cold was by Dayna Collins.“The Heat of the Long Afternoon,” Oil and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“The Heart is Restless,” oil and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“The Flash of Summer Lightning,” oil and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“The Darkness of the Water,” acrylic and cold was by Dayna Collins.“Outside the Window,” oil and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“Dropped Through the Gate of Memory,” acrylic and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“Dreaming of Drums and Magic,” oil and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“Another Knot in the String of Time,” plaster, acrylic, and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“All the Moments of the Past,” plaster, acrylic, and cold wax by Dayna Collins.“A Deep Pool of Silence,” oil and cold wax by Dayna Collins.
The show runs through December 30 and all pieces are take and go. If you’re looking for original art and creative gifts, this would be a perfect place to shop.
We’re back from our six-week plus trip and my blank pages are now plump with found fodder, scrounged materials, a few photos, and lots of writing describing our adventures.
I posted on my personal (and public) Facebook page throughout our trip (Dayna Davidson Collins), so I’m not sharing about any of the trip. What I am sharing are some of the pages from my travel visual journal. In my last blog post, I shared that all of my pages (104 of them) had been pre-gessoed and painted, so all I took in the way of art supplies was a pair of scissors, a jar of matte gel medium, a paintbrush, a brayer, wax paper, and three gel pens – black, white, and red; all my supplies fit in a zip lock baggie.
The daily routine went something like this:
We set out for a day of exploring, hoping to easily find the Tourist Information office so I could gather brochures. Sometimes we weren’t near a TI, so the hunt was on for paper fodder. Art museums were good for brochures, and often their tickets were large and had beautiful art images on them, but there didn’t seem to be as much paper materials as there has been in the past. In a pinch, I bought a bookmark or a couple of post cards so I had images to incorporate onto my pages. Or I picked up bits and pieces of trash or pulled down chunks of posters.
At the end of the day and after dinner, I sat at my makeshift desk or on the bed and cut up images and words to use on my pages. I would make a list of everything we did and saw and began gluing things onto the pages; each day had a two-page spread. I glued, brayered, cleaned up the gluey edges, placed a piece of wax paper over the pages, and weighted them down with whatever was heavy and handy.
In the morning while sipping my cappuccino (which my sweet husband faithfully fetched), I removed the weights and wax paper, grabbed my gel pens, and referring to the list I made the previous day, wrote in and around the images I had glued, recounting what we had done and added details I thought were interesting.
Here are a few photos of me at various points of our trip, working on my pages.
Working at a table in Dubrovnik, Croatia.Working at my desk in Vienna, Austria.Sneak attack as I worked at my desk in our Berlin, Germany apartment.
The Pages. As I mentioned, my travel journal has 104 pages, so I’ll share a sampling of my two-page spreads, in no particular order.
When we got home, I had a few blank pages remaining, so I printed off some photos, inserted those on the last pages, then added my completed travel journal to a stack of pages from previous trips.
Every once in a delightful while you come across an individual who is so apologetically bold and creatively daring in how they live and work and play that you cannot help but feel inspired by their vivacious presence and vibrant energy. Jessica Murdoch
I was invited by Carlee Wright, publisher and editor, and Jessica Murdoch, co-editor and writer, to be featured in the second issue of Press Play Salem, an arts + entertainment + culture magazine focusing on the people, places, and things to do in Oregon’s beautiful capital city, Salem. How could I refuse, it was such an honor.
Carlee came to our July Art After Dark Open Studios at The Studios at Mission Mill, where I have my Special Projects Studio, and shot some photos of me for the article. Then Jessica sent me a series of questions to answer – a LOT of questions – and I wrote and wrote and wrote, wondering how she would ever decipher everything and boil it down into an article. But she did. Amazingly well, I might add.
I ran downtown on July 31 and picked up a stack of copies. I spread them out the next day and shot this photo. But I didn’t read the article. I really didn’t. I was too nervous. Two days later, I finally decided I would read what Jessica had written. I read it out loud to Howard, choking up a bit as I read. How could this article be about me? But there it was, a beautifully written expose of how I live my life and the art I make.
The next day, we met our son and two granddaughters for lunch at Taproot, where there was a huge stack of Press Play Salem. I grabbed a couple to show Scott, just as Avery grabbed crayons and colored over my face. Sounds about right.
Jessica’s final paragraph:
And that’s Dayna. The woman is — in a word–colorful. She is a kaleidoscope of personality and spontaneity. Her art and her method reflect the most intimate version of her spirited self, and she is fearless when it comes to sharing her artistic expression with the world, making no apology for the outcome: ‘Taking an idea and expanding upon it, with twists and turns along the way, and ending up with something entirely unexpected, is the thrill of the process.’
