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This glass container & lid were found at the local thrift store.  The rich color has been talking and saying paint me, but until I found the yellow/orange rose hips it would have been just another container to set up.  It is sitting on our white countertop with overhead lighting that made the shadows spatter like lace.

Today we are going to the new WAIF in Coupeville.  I can't wait to check it out.

Durandii Clematis

Durandii Clematis

This particular Clematis is not a natural climber (clinger) and needs to be supported or allowed to wander over and through bushes.  Its very pretty draped over the Rhododendron and our red Barberry.  I cut these flowers on Wednesday and they are still going strong.  The petals are stiff and don't wilt like other Clematis.  I would call this plant a winner!  I found the blue vase and children's silver cup at Good Cheer Two in Clinton.  The spoons have been hanging around waiting to be included in another painting.
The still life sketch was to distract me from the pain of recuperating from Dental Surgery.  Boy, that was a lot of Lidocaine!

Field Trip

Orange Slices oil 6x6 traditional

Oil on Oil paper traditional

Looking down on the subject matter 6x6

I started this painting before leaving for Eugene, OR. to paint with Carol Marine.  The painting below with the urn, was after Carol's class.  I am still over-working the paint but, I love the aspect of looking down on the subject.
The class was a wonderful eye-opener for handling oils, perspective, modes of seeing and still life setup.  My free spirit loves the somewhat abstract, unrelated items.  I hope you do also.







The class was held at the Emerald Art Center, Springfield, a beautiful facility with plenty of room for 18 students and Gallery/store.
We painted from 9-4 every day and went out for dinner. The restaurants in Eugene are terrific, eclectic, healthy and for the most part reasonably priced. Several of us stayed in airbnb's.  If you haven't checked these out, you should. I had a whole wing of a house to myself for a very reasonable price.
The artists I met, including Carol and her family were sophisticated, experienced and very sharing.  We had mutual appreciation of talents and it was fun sharing ideas for funky setups.  My favorite trip was to a Salvation Army looking for cute props.  You will see some of them in the next blog!








These little pink things are actually an orange, named Cara, Cara.  They were available at Costco in Oregon.  Delicious!

Fuchsia

 I found some beautiful fuchsia paper to use as a base for oil painting studies.  One of my setups is painted on woven paper canvas, the other on the new Oil paper by Arches.  The paint went onto the paper canvas beautifully; it just rolled off the brush and blended out.  The oil paper has a bit of a drag and the colors stay bright, however the surface absorbs the paint so you have to load the brush heavier. These surfaces are a way to experiment on inexpensive backgrounds.  Use black or neutral tape to adhere the paper to a board.
My setup is small and controlled.  I use a box with a black background, some colorful paper and control the amount of light going into the setup with a cloth or cardboard.  I have difficulty seeing the paint colors on my palette in the studio unless the overhead light is on or I put a lamp onto my work surface, so another recent addition is putting up my plein air umbrella to help block the ceiling light.  Here are a couple of pictures showing the differences.

Overhead light off.  Light is concentrated on work surface and still life.

Overhead light on.  The umbrella helps keep the still life somewhat shaded.

Paper canvas

Arches oil paper

Outside In

Whidbey Art Gallery will be having a new show in November titled "Outside In".  My simple brain takes this translation literally.  Here are a couple of entries for the show along with a redo of an 8x8 (Happy Mothers Day).

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!  The original pear was too elongated and tablecloth needed to be brighter.

MANDARINS!  I found the oval plate in Kentucky

I was painting this in reverse; looking at the subject in the reflection of a shed window.  The window was very dark and acted as a mirror.  It's too bad I didn't add the sides and edges of the window for perspective.
OLD HAY, KENTUCKY

Oils

Recently finished oil paintings.  I've been hovering over these on and off all summer.  The Fort and the mountain were painted plein air on a very hot day at Double Bluff.  I've never seen so many people coming to the beach.  Fortunately, we had primo parking places and were able to re-pack the car without traveling down the road with equipment.
Yes the pickles are dill and the lid is open on purpose!

Winter cabbage 8x8

Are they dill?8 8x10

Blossoms Peak 8x10

Cezanne's table 8x10

The Fort & mountain 8x10 plein air

Salmon berries  8x10 

Nest

Last year I found hiding under the Heathers a robins nest made from strips of cedar and other twigs.  I kept it on the porch table and recently thought I had better preserve it with a painting.  I painted a 12x16 version that is at Whidbey Art Gallery and framed it with a fancy frame.  This  8x8 version has a simple more modern frame and is square.  I like both of them and hope you do too!

Large nest 12x16

8x8 version with a bit of glare

Still life

I recently watched a demo of Still life painting at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio.  The demo was by Jeff Legg and I decided on the spot if there was room in the class for me, I was in!  Fortunately, there was and I spent the rest of the week learning more about the art of painting and setting up Still life. 

This first painting was composed during the class; the setup was in a three-sided box with controlled lighting.

The next two are the same painting; the first version is after receiving a critique from Jeff to enhance the darks and shadows.  The version below is the original painting using a tensor lamp and ambient light

More:  As a former watercolor painter, I had to get it into my head that it was okay to use black.  No, not just black, that deadens the color; Black with Alizarin, or black with yellow; black and raw umber make a beautiful background, add white and yellow ochre and you have a lighter more neutral foreground.  Whew!  Once I got my head around this, I was off and running.
More to come....

Quince (done in a controlled setting)

After (darker)

Two pears and a bowl, before a bit of color change

All day sketching

Yesterday we celebrated our Whidbey Island Sketchers, fearless leader Sue Van Etten's birthday, with an all day sketching marathon.  We started at Mukilteo Coffee House's Cabuni Cafe with breakfast and moved on to Natalie Olsens, fine establishment, where she provided more food & wine while we sketched and discussed the upcoming trip to Winthrop (I can't wait to see the fall colors from this trip).  The final stop was the Holmes Harbor Rod and Gun Club to sketch the beautiful heads on the wall.  It was a long, but fun day!  Why is it so tiring sitting around all day painting?

Cabuni Cafe colorful food bar!

The best part of my day was acting like a traffic cop at Mukilteo Coffee, shooing drivers away from parking in front of the pumpkins, so I could finish painting them.  Gary came out and said "Oh its Pat", no problem!  Nice to see you again old pal!

Bambi's Dad & friend

View of the valley from Natalies

Part of the wonderful food & wine

The beautiful fall pumpkins at Mukilteo Coffee

Sketching in Private Homes

It's always interesting and fun to be invited into someones home.  It's even better when their home is beautiful, eclectic, art-filled and memorable.  For the past two weeks we have been sketching in a couple of homes that fill all these categories. Check out the Whidbey Island Sketchers blogspot for other versions of these homes. Enjoy the view!

Cynthia's still life

Gallery Amy and Bill  

The windowsill at Amy and Bill's

Looking out the window from Cynthia's

Strawberry lesson

What can I say, they didn't feel quite right so I asked my painting pals and got a variety of answers.  One was " It looks too ripe - almost rotten".  You might think this hurts my feelings, but no, I am made of tougher stuff and that perspective gave me pause.  Two other friends, said "you need to put some of the green into the red and red into the green." Also, the plate was catching the eye too much! This is good helpful criticism. 

So, I bought some more strawberries and ate them! Then, I revisited the painting and putzed, why not!  Here is the revised version.  I am done!

new version, different plate, softer background, different shadow

Old version, plate white, shadow dead

Spring & Strawberries

It has been a long, cold, wet winter here in the Pacific Northwest.  I know, you will say what about those beach sketches?  Weren't you in Hawaii?  Yes, we had a winter break, but I'm thinking it was too soon.  The rain Gods were relentless when we returned; the rain came down almost constantly and the temperature was raw.

What a celebration, when I saw strawberries at the supermarket.  Yes, they are from California, and buying local is our mantra, but OMG, strawberries, and then, THE SUN came out!   Before we ate all of them, I painted a few to remember the moment.  I am not sure this is finished, so comments welcome.  I just had to post some pretty Spring colors.

Spring strawberries (feels lopsided)

For my artist friends:  On Friday, I went to the sixth annual Bizart Conference, www.bizartinfo.com  at Edmonds Community College.  This was a two day brain workout for writers, performers and artists.  The subjects covered, ranged from Building Business Relationships in an Electronic Era, to 100 Promotional Ideas for Under $100.  One of my classes was with the manager of Columbia City Gallery in Southeast Seattle.  Talking to her in a 20 minute one to one opened my eyes about the realities of running a group art gallery.  Whidbey Artists Gallery (co-op), is planning on opening a gallery in Langley soon.

I would recommend all artists become more knowledgeable and take these classes next year.  The conference was well-managed; the classes were too short for everything I was learning, but long enough to teach me how much more I needed to know.  Wherever you live, find out what your community has to offer to help you learn how to make it in this fast-paced art world.  Catch phrase of the day:  "SUCCESS IS A SOCIAL ACTIVITY"

A little tradition; a little inspiration

Meyer Lemons are at Trader Joes and Costco.  If you are not hooked on the juicy sweetness of these wonderful fruits you should get some.  First of all they are beautiful to look at, not that cool lemon yellow for these lemons, no, they have a bit of orange in the skin.  They pose so nicely in the blue bowl.  They are gone now but live on in my traditional still life painting.

Symphony in Orange = pure play again.  Started with my usual mess in various colors and thought about black as a pure dark.  After that it was a bit of orange and green until I thought Spring flowers.  I was actually thinking about the Primroses waiting for me to plant them, but Toni says oh no, Calendula and Ligularia in background.   I wasn't representing a plant exactly, just thinking happy plants and lovely colors.  Both are painted on gessoed paper and mounted on board with a dark background.  Happy painting, Pat

Meyer Lemons mounted on 8x10 board

Symphony in orange, 9x12 board

Impressionistic Flower paintings

Playing with paint.  I have had a lot of fun playing in acrylics this week.  These two paintings are painted on watercolor paper(5.5 x7.5).  The background was a variety of reds that I had painted onto the gessoed paper a couple of months ago.  I started by thinking of flowers, values, color, vase shapes.    Also, I am continuing to be inspired by www.josephraffeal.com. The border and clear bright colors are influenced by his paintings and my decorative art background. I encourage you to let it go and have fun.  Till next time, Pat
ps.  You may want to select each of these paintings, then stand back from your screen for full effect!

Blue Vase 5.5 x 7.5

Flower Pot 5.5 x 7.5