New show by Molly Reeves was happening in the Compass GalleryMission Mill’s newest gallery: The Willamette Trading Company
Max Marbles did a book-binding demo.
And I did a demo on using oil and cold wax. Not only did I demo how to use the mediums, I provided little canvases and 300 lb. watercolor paper for anyone who wanted to give it a try. I had lots of takers.
Molly Reeves, who was having a reception for her work in Compass Gallery downstairs, popped upstairs to see what I was doing.Delores Wisbrock showed no fear and created a beautiful little abstract. Watch out Rollie!
Delores and Tanna choosing paint colors.
At the end of the evening, I snapped this photo of the view from my studio.
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be teaching my Plaster, Oil, and Cold Wax: Abstracted Play class in August. It will be held at the wonderful studio of Stacey Mattraw, Arcangelo Productions, located in a hip, diverse, funky area of North Portland.
The class will be held Friday-Sunday, August 14-16, 10 am-5 pm every day.
The first day we’ll be painting our boards and applying plaster and by Friday afternoon we’ll be learning oil and cold wax techniques (I provide you with a pre plastered board so we don’t waste a minute of our precious time.)
On Saturday morning, we’ll sand our plastered boards.
And quickly seal them with acrylic paint.
By Saturday afternoon, we’ll be applying layers and layers of luminous, buttery, oil and cold wax.
I’ll be sharing lots of techniques throughout the weekend on how to add interesting texture, add text, scrape back, and so much more.
As an added special bonus, on Thursday evening, 5-6:30 pm, we’ll meet at Arcangelo Productions for a pre-workshop gathering hosted by Stacey. We’ll have snacks and drinks and get to know each other in advance of the class beginning on Friday morning. We have also scheduled a field trip to Collage, a delightful, and full-to-the-brim art supply store on NE Alberta, where Maria is offering a 10% discount on all purchases.
The cost of the three-day class (with some supplies included) is $375. A $100 deposit holds your space, with the balance due on July 14, 2015. If you are interested, please contact me: dayna@alleyartstudio.com and I’ll e-mail detailed information about what supplies are included, what you need to bring, and my refund policy. Also, if you’re coming from out of town, I can send you information on places to stay in the surrounding area.
The maximum number of students will be 12 and five spaces are available as of this posting.
Me teaching the Abstracted Play class in Gig Harbor, WA
If you’d like to see photos from previous classes, here are two links. Number one and number two.
And I’ll leave you with a few more samples of my plaster, oil, and cold wax pieces.
“The Journey Home: The Ease of Slumber” Venetian plaster, oil, cold wax“Insatiably Curious” 16×16, plaster, oil, and cold waxVisual Language
A new show opens on Thursday, March 12, 2015 at Compass Gallery, located at the Willamette Heritage Center. The show, Eco Icon: Art About Environmentalism, opens with a reception on Thursday, 5-7 pm. From 5:30-6:15 pm there will be a panel discussion, Environmentalism Then & Now.
I was invited to submit a painting to this juried group show and I chose Aldo Leopold as my Eco Icon.
All entries had to be 10×10 inches, so I chose a board that I had already applied plaster and some initial layers of oil and cold wax. I did some research on Aldo Leopold and pulled out his book, A Sand County Almanac.
Here is what I wrote to accompany my submission:
Aldo Leopold is known as a fierce environmentalist and one of the foremost conservationists of our century, with a deep love and respect for the land. I have created an abstraction representing the restoration of natural habitats and man’s relationship to the land.
“Some Other Explanation” 10×10 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax
The show is hanging and it is beautiful.
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
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.
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.
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 beginsNancy Eng with CynthiaMe with Mary and Debbie, who made the trip from PortlandGuests enjoyed looking at our art journalsBonnie and Roger HullSusan and my niece, KristinMy mom and sister, DeniseDelores and Rollie look at our book about the showHoward was our wine server for the afternoonFriends Tory and JillRollie and Delores WisbrockCynthia shares about our processMe with my supportive husband, Howard
The show will be up until February 28, so if you are in downtown Salem, please stop by.
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.
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” 16×16, plaster, oil, and cold wax
I plan to continue exploring the theme of waterlines in upcoming paintings.
At the end of the evening, I snapped this photo of the view from my studio.
