10th Annual Day of the Dead Show at Guardino Gallery

For ten years, Guardino Gallery in NE Portland has hosted a dia de los muertos group art show. I’ve participated in many of the shows over the past ten years. This year the show moved to the Main Gallery and features over 50 artists. The show, curated by Donna Guardino and Stephanie Brockway, runs through October 23, so if you’re in Portland, I hope you’ll swing by and see an amazing show.

MY ART

THE SHOW

THE PARTY (I mean, opening reception)

BONUS: Preparing

Make up done by our daughter, Amy Kayon.

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.

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.

Flags of Hope

Back in 2014 I was invited to participate in a pilot program between the Salem Art Association and the Salem Cancer Institute. I taught my Embellishing a Soft Cloth Doll that first year, then last year I taught three sessions in visual journaling. Over the past couple of weeks I taught two sessions of making prayer flags, calling the class Flags of Hope.

Creating prayer flags came out of a project I facilitated the summer of 2014 through the Salem Art Association’s Project Space. I wrote several blog posts about it at that time, which can be read by clicking here. After the success of that project, I led a similar project last year at Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility, and now, on occasion, I offer mini workshops on creating flags, which is how these flags were created.

The Flags of Hope project was held in the reception area of Building C at Salem Hospital, a lovely, comfortable space where patients and caregivers can relax with a latte, work on a puzzle, color a mandala, or read a magazine.

I always come away from these classes feeling blessed, humbled, and honored, as the women who take these classes are either in the middle of cancer treatment, just finishing treatment, or have gone through it in the past. Here are some photos of the flags being created over the past couple of weeks.

During this week’s session, a cancer survivor was chatting with a woman who just finished up chemo. Her hair is starting to come back in, but she revealed she wasn’t feeling very pretty. The woman who battled cancer in the past, stepped over and began encouraging and sharing her experience with this woman, affirming to her how beautiful she is and how it gets better. The painting of prayer flags was a lovely respite from the treatment, but the beauty for me was witnessing the human connection of two women being able to talk about a shared experience.

Another woman, who came in late, finished up as I was putting supplies away. She said, “This is so therapeutic for me. I needed this. I live with the fear of wondering if my cancer will return.” This is her flag:

The flags from the two classes will be on display at the hospital on Wednesday, June 8, during the National Cancer Survivors Day celebration.

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.

Mentorship Program: Emma

I had the good fortune to participate in Salem Art Association’s mentorship program again this year (here’s a link about my mentorship a year ago). During the program, high school students are paired with professional artists, who work with their student for several months helping the student build a portfolio of work. This year I had the pleasure of working with Emma, a sophomore at a local high school.

Emma chose to work in plaster and acrylic so during the past several months we met for Emma to prepare her boards and then do paint on them.

It was great to watch Emma work: she worked intuitively and was very confident and self-assured when it came to painting her boards. We met last week for our final session, where Emma signed her pieces and then applied a layer of cold wax to bring out the luscious and rich colors of her boards.

We loaded up Emma’s boards for transport to the reception site in downtown Salem.

Here are the five pieces Emma created during our mentorship:

Last night was the reception for all of the students and their mentors. What a fun evening!

And here’s beautiful Emma standing in front of her work.

The Artist’s Journey: An Online Class

I recently finished a four-week online class with California abstract artist Nancy Hillis. I don’t find many classes I want to take anymore, but something about this one caught my attention. The official title of the class was The Artist’s Journey: 3 Secrets of the Masters to Transform Your Painting. I was also attracted to this class because I love Nancy’s style of non-representational abstract paintings.

The class was four weeks with five modules. During the month long class, we watched video demonstrations, read written course material, worked through workbooks, and interacted with other participating artists in a private Facebook group. We even had the opportunity for a one-on-one telephone consultation with Nancy. Each week we were given a painting challenge to put the lessons into practice.

I won’t give away the class in detail, but I’ll share a bit of what we learned. Our modules covered everything from why we create art, to the importance of committing to a daily studio practice. Nancy covered a variety of topics, such as trusting yourself, the importance of practice, and allowing yourself to be surprised. She offered lots of lessons addressing various techniques, i.e., activating the canvas (making marks), to veiling and experimenting with flux (creating layers). The module on composition was invaluable, filled with game changing pointers. Module 4 covered value and how to use value to make strong and powerful paintings. The final module was a refresher of everything we covered and how to move forward. Wow. This class was worth the investment of money and time.

Photos. How do I choose which photos to share. Rather than break my post down into weekly bites, I’ll just share a sampling of photos taken throughout the past month.

About two weeks into the class, it was time for Art After Dark, the monthly Open Studios event at my downtown studio. I decided to share what I had been working on rather than display finished art like I usually do.

Palettes. I ended up with so many great pieces of paper that I used as my palette, that I saved a bunch of them!

Time to hang up my gloves? No, I’m more inspired and motivated than ever.

Studio Revamp

We moved into our current house about three and a half years ago. I claimed a bright and airy upstairs space for my painting studio. I’ve reorganized it a couple of times over the past couple of years, but never made such a huge transformation until a couple weeks ago. When we moved in, this is what the space looked like (beige was the only color throughout the house).