FAVES an Exhibit of Personal Favorites among My Paintings

My husband and I had a joint art exhibit for the month of October 2019. Along with our artworks we posted explanations as to why each was a favorite. Here is a summary of the works I exhibited.

These three paintings and a title sign were hung on the panels at the entrance to the gallery. When photographing the hung paintings, it was impossible to avoid glare at times, so try to ignore it.

When my mother and sister were alive, we three would frequently play “Upwords,” a game like 3-D Scrabble. Done last year, The Game (above, left) shows the fun we had and the closeness we shared. In addition, I am pleased with the composition, colors, and shapes in this watercolor. Somehow the shapes I used capture the characteristic attitude of each person in those days.

Done recently, Medicine Woman (above, middle) began with a bunch of watercolors thrown onto Arches oil paper (huile) and then scraped with a credit card, which created interesting textures and scored the paper. Then I began painting shapes until there emerged a Native American woman selling pots on the Plaza in Santa Fe, my favorite town. The colors and the ambiguous space almost capture the magic of the place. 

In 2007 with Christopher Van Winkle as judge, Bird Girl (above, right) garnered my very first Best of Show ribbon at a Huntington Beach Art League meeting. It was also published in The Palette Magazine, and I felt hope that I could be a “real artist.” It shows my love of parrots and the special relationship I’ve had with pet birds. I also love how the skin color on the girl came out, and it frustrates me greatly that try as I might, I have never managed to replicate that dark reddish color.

I recently painted Aunts at a Picnic 1945 (above, left) for the tenth time. It is based on a photograph of my paternal aunts at a picnic in an Indianapolis park in 1945, while their boyfriends and husbands were at war and after their parents had been killed just a few years before. It’s a beautiful, admiring portrait of their courage and perseverance, and I managed to capture a bit of each aunt’s character. 

Sisters 2 (above, middle) was created on my iPad after my sister died. I did several sisters paintings after she died, but most of them are too sad and painful. This one has beautiful colors, yet also depth and symbolism. To me it also captures the dynamic between us, as well as our personalities. It is my top favorite of all my digital works.

Sisters 1 (above, right) was the first of a series of paintings of my sister and me, and it was  created before she suddenly and unexpectedly died at age 67 in 2014. It’s a favorite because it brings back happy memories with its many symbols and because it reminds me of how we felt together, so close and carefree, when we were unaware that our time together was to be so limited.

The three artworks on this wall represent some of my favorite digital creations. Making art on my wonderful iPad Pro is great fun, leading to increased creativity. 

There Used to Be Birds (above, top left) is one of a series I’ve done on the destruction of our planet by climate change and the resultant extinctions of species after species, especially birds. We are leaving our grandchildren and great-grandchildren a bitter legacy.

Fertilizing the Future (above, right) is a personally meaningful and highly symbolic digital work, combining photographs of many objects with digitally drawn details. The old and broken parts of our lives can still contribute a little something worthwhile, even beautiful, to the world.

Ashes (above, bottom left) is another work about my sister, drawn entirely on the iPad. The urn of ashes floating in the universe represents my sister’s absence from this world. It seems sad, yet I felt compelled to add glitter to the ashes to represent what was beautiful about her.

Playing Anyway (above, top) may not be my best painting, but it really does capture how brave and full of life my mother was. She was an excellent pianist, and she continued to enjoy playing into her old age despite the pain and swollen joints of her arthritic hands. I hope I can bravely carry on as she did, now that I am facing worsening arthritis. In addition, I’d like to be as warm, caring, kind, and compassionate as she was.

I did a series of paintings called Grandma Love, and this (above, bottom) was the first one. It is also the one that best captures the love, warmth, and protection of a grandmother’s hug. This painting reminds me of how my mother adored my daughters and how I now feel the same towards my own grandchildren. I enjoy the wonky shapes and subtle color changes, and I love the baby hand and baby foot.

One of my first attempts to paint with water soluble oil paints, Taking Sammy to the Beach (above, left) brings back happy memories. I tried to do it in the style of one of my favorite painters, Milton Avery, and I enjoy the wonky shapes and subtle color changes. I also learned that oil paints are not for me.

My Hero (above, right) was inspired by watching my husband walk around the house to soothe our first two infant grandchildren. He would hold them tenderly and softly chant “walk, walk, walk” for hours if necessary. Obviously this is a favorite because it raises happy memories, and I love the little baby foot peeking out.

My Vessels (above, left) is my favorite vessel painting, and I especially like the juxtaposition of a fairly accurate graphite drawing of a hand amid the abstract and transparent shapes of bottles and jars and pots.

Story Storage (above, middle) is a recent one of many paintings I have done over the years of vessel shapes. Vessels can hold our memories, our secrets, our stories, even our hopes. Also, my sister was a potter, and these shapes remind me of her. I enjoy the textures and sense of life, activity, and motion in this piece.

Purple Mountain Majesty (above, right, bottom) is another one of my recent experiments with making nonobjective paintings and with using ink with watercolor. I’m not sure how successful this painting is, but I really like all the interesting textures I managed to get, especially the blue “mountain.” And I think it looks cool in the frame.

Seaside (above, right, top) is one of my recent experiments with making nonobjective paintings, a much more challenging goal than I had expected. It also shows my experiments with using ink with watercolor. I’ve thrown away a lot of these paintings, but I like this one very much. I just feel happy when I look at it.

To see a video walkthrough of the entire show, click here
To see Dan's part of the show, click here

These two photographs were also in the show, favorites because they show my youngest grandchildren and because they garnered my first two First Place ribbons in photography:

Mixed Media Workshop with Chris Sullivan

Last Saturday I attended a one day workshop on mixed media taught by Chris Sullivan. In the painting I did I tried to use every technique she was teaching. It started with a quarter sheet of Arches watercolor paper, and the following was added:

     Gesso, applied with a spoon, bubble wrap, and plastic wrap, then scored a bit.
     Watercolor paint.
     More gesso to cover up some things I didn't like.
     More paint.
     Black ink, applied with a brush pen, not with an eye dropper or a stick, as she demonstrated.
     Watercolor crayons and watercolor pencils, dry and wet.

The highly texturized result was "Red Rock Canyon":

Grandchildren Give Good Art Advice

A few days ago, as an art exercise with my three older grandchildren (11, 9, 7), I pulled out three old paintings, laid them on the floor, and then gave each child small pieces of colored paper. I told them to take turns and place the pieces of colored paper on my paintings to make them look better. I was surprised at how much their changes improved the paintings, so I painted on those three again. The old paintings were photographed differently from the recent revisions, but you'll get the idea. Here are those three before and after.

Nightfall Canyon Trail after

Nightfall Canyon Trail

Let's Dance

Let's Dance After

Moody Day after

Moody Day

Middle 2019 Artwork: Abstracts and Vessels

Recently, I have been using Arches huile paper, which is made for oil paints. One can get some spectacular texture putting watercolors on this paper. I have also been experimenting with a more spontaneous, intuitive way of painting. I put granulating colors all over the paper and spread them around with a credit card, making textural marks into the paper and occasionally squirting with water and tilting the paper to create runs and more textures. This is a great deal of fun. Then I have the puzzle of trying to make something interesting, emotional, and/or beautiful out of it. 

In this process, two types of paintings have evolved. In one type I use ink to make lines and shapes that become "abstracts." In the other I use negative painting techniques and somehow vessels (vases, pitchers, pots) keep showing up.

Here are some abstract paintings, in the order painted:

Pale Male

Purple Mountain Majesty

Seaside

And here are three "vessel" paintings, in the order painted:

Story Storage

Spirits

My Vessels

I hope the texture of the granulating paints and that which results from credit card scraping show up well in these reproductions of my work. Now I am wondering if hot press Arches paper would work just as well with this process as the huile paper. I guess we'll have to try it and see!

Early 2019 Artwork

My eighth grandchild, a lovely girl named Alana Grace, was born in February, and I have been feeling extra creative. In the first part of 2019 I made over 20 artworks, and here are some of them. All are watercolor, except the last one, which is collage.

Digital Artwork by Participants in My iPad Workshop

I wanted all the workshop participants to send me JPGs of their iPad artwork, and a few have done so. I'm very impressed with their first tries. It was such an enjoyable workshop for me, and I really loved how the whole class collaborated, supported each other, and shared their knowledge.

Ruth Merkle experimented with some techniques I didn't cover, and she came up with some beauties, starting with this this lovely, ethereal, nonobjective creation:

Then she digitally painted over a newspaper article, which resulted in partially obscured words, which is very "in" now in contemporary art, and created this original piece:

Finally she sent a moody, surreal digital collage plus digital painting: 

She said she was "just playing," but I say "Well done, Ruth!"

Eileen Clary created this gorgeous digital collage, from a photo and parts of her watercolor paintings:

Jan McKinnon made this beautiful, surreal, moody scene, a digital collage from photos and parts of her watercolor paintings, I believe:

Kathleen Prebble tried something quite different for her, and she digitally painted this vivid, expressive nonobjective artwork:

Mimi Spencer digitally collaged in parts of her analog paintings and then digitally painted too, to create a lovely, evocative, somewhat abstract portrayal of birds:

Nancy Minear digitally combined parts of previous analog paintings and also digitally painted various elements, and made this charming, touching, beautiful work:

Stan Wolf created this evocative painting with his finger, blending colors for an ethereal feel:

Stan had a painting that he had done with too large figures in the distance, shown on the left below. He removed them and put smaller ones in the distance, shown on the right below. He did a great job of "fixing" an old painting. 

Finally, Carrol Wolf created the following four exuberant, gestural collages and drawings, using only her fingers:

Well done, everyone! I am grateful for the opportunity to work with so many talented artists, as we try to move into the future and create art with the technological "advances" now available to us. I was truly inspired to keep trying new things, to keep playing, to enjoy all these gifts.

Thought I Was Getting Good at iPad Art

February 16, 2019, I taught a workshop on creating art on the iPad with the app Procreate to 22 people, who paid actual money to attend. I had thought I was getting good enough with Procreate to teach about iPad art, but today I learned about Nancy Baker Cahill and was just amazed. Look at what SHE does!!   She gives you a free app, then you go to specific places, hold up your phone to view the place, and animated art appears in the scene. It's hard to explain, so go see for yourself and     Click here

While I wish I had thought of that, I remind myself that we are each on our own artistic journey, and wherever we are on that path is fine. We're lucky to be able to pursue the journey. So I will post some recent work.

At the end of February I attended Christopher Schink's workshop in Upland on exploring different ways to use color. One Procreate drawing I did there, called "The Game," will make a good painting I think, with a few changes:

Sometimes for fun I make bird heads, based on the work of one of my favorite artists, Rufino Tamayo. In addition to using strange color combinations, I tried to create a lot of texture in my bird portraits, which I then combined into "Bird Identification."

My 3-year-old granddaughter made something on her iPad, and she said it was a "Rainbow Hedgehog," posted here just because it's so creative and cute: