Scooter Stop, 10x8

"Scooter Stop" 10x8" Oil

Life has been non stop for me so please pardon my lack of posting activity. Honestly, I can't tell you how much busier life has been for me since March, and I don't see it stopping until I get my daughter off to college and all settled in. The distractions are plentiful and too much to list lest I bore you. Just suffice it to say I have been brewing up a lot of pastel dust and oil.  Here is a piece I did today that I am pretty happy with from an outing in the low down area of Union Station (the famous Go By Train station in downtown Portland). There have been many other paintings that I have worked on but not many that I am satisfied with or have completed.

There are many new events I've listed on the right. A Plein Air Showcase at Art Elements Gallery, a 1 day workshop on painting water, and a few plein air events that I will be participating in and jurying are listed. Please take a moment and check these venues out, all worthy of a few blinks.  

Planning out my schedule has been most difficult with the onset of drier painting weather and also the Plein Air Conference had taken up the bulk of my absence. Also, I do have to blame my lack of blog posts on Facebook for it's immediacy of posting. It seems that my blog has taken a back seat as life gets busier and it seems that if I can get snippets in at a fraction of the time. Oh, but I miss the diary of sorts that a blog offers, hoping not to bore anyone at the same time keeping time with my artist career.

I do hope to post a few new pieces here in the next few days, so please drop by and I'd love your feedback.

Urban Posts, 16x12

"Urban Posts" 16x12" Oil

You gotta love it! The dry weather was holding for a beautiful fall and the trees have hinted their annual notes of color.  Since the landscape is not in its full foliage, I've been working the streets again with oils and it's been well, rather interesting. Here is a piece I worked on SE Belmont and SE 34th in Portland along with three other plein air artists. I stood in the nook of Stumptown Roasters and surely enough, an hour into my piece, someone asked if we "were in a painting class."  I didn't think to add this one to my list of top 10 most asked Plein Air questions, but I should have because it's asked a lot. I also had the company of a young man, down on his luck, settle two yards from my easel.  He had a sign that read "I need money for food, fuel and ganja". Now, if you don't know what ganja is, then that's a good thing, but I remember a neighbor in college smoked the stuff, and so that was all I needed to know at that point to stay clear. Anyway, I guess I missed the memo to bring my "starving artist" sign, but I digress...  

The rain has begun here in earnest and it's all downhill for the plein air season, so I will be hunkering down in my studio until the spring warmth brings dry skies.

Oh yes, let me resume back to the topic of this post.  Here is a detail of "Urban Posts".  I was trying to come up with some sort of title that had the flyers and the pole as the subject of this painting. Noting how we communicate on many levels, be it through old fashioned telephone lines carrying conversations across a distance, or colorful flyers stapled on a greasy pole shouting about the local band scene.  I've been taking the liberty of a loose, painterly approach with my oil work and I'm really really enjoying my results.  I wonder how it will influence my pastel work as I jump into it this winter. 

"Urban Posts" detail

If you get SouthwestArt magazine, be sure to check out pages 48 and 49.  There is info on the American Impressionist Society 13th Annual Exhibit coming up this November 8~30th at Eckert and Ross Fine Art. I'm thrilled to have my piece "Curbsides" included in this prestigious national show.  Here is the list of work with images of those pieces invited into this show. Indeed, a stunning gathering of work.

I also have an advertisement in SouthwestArt with my gallery American Art Company, in Tacoma, WA.  Currently AAC has 9 of my large pastels proudly displayed for the next few months.  If you are in the area, please stop by and indulge your senses with color, shape and form.

Caught cheatin' again with oils!

"Dahlia Repose" 12x12" Oil

"Old Sellwood" 9x12" Oil

Painted in Craig Srebnik's Street Scenes' workshop

"Slope and Line" 6x8" Oil

"The Gates of ESCO" 12x9" Oil

It's official! I've fallen in love with oil painting all over again! I am wholeheartedly enjoying the challenge of learning as much as I can in what time I have available to devote to my art. My all time favorite is still soft pastel, so if you are wondering if I have abandoned them, the answer is no, I haven't.  There is currently a pastel commission on the easel and many more works to be created in pastel that rest impatiently in my mind. I am finding that working with each medium offers different methods and results, and that my pastel work has definitely influenced my work with oils. I believe this will be reciprocal as I move along in my painting journey.  As for now, I am going to post a few of my more recent pieces that I have created in oils.

Starting on Friday Aug 31st, I will be participating in the Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2012 event in Hood River.  Thirty five juried artists will be painting the region over the course of 4 days.  Non-stop painting in this great location is one of my favorite events of the year.  Come join us at the reception this Sept 7th at the Columbia Arts Center in Hood River at 5pm.  Hope to see you there....

So I'll see you next week at the same bat time, same bat channel for another round of artwork.