Meeting Notes, August 20, 2015

At today's meeting Loretta, Carolyn, Tim, Bill, Jim, Leslie, Stephanie, Charlie, Erin, Barbara, Betsy, Mike, Eunice, Susan, Carrie, Joanne Thorpe (new), Diane, Bhavani, Carolyn, and me Celeste. 

Today's suggested table topic: Blue… tell us whatever you want to tell us about blue! 

Celeste: I have read that blue is considered the truest color. If you add white to blue it stays blue. If you add white to red it goes pink. If you add white to yellow it goes so pale that it’s use is limited. Therefore, apparently blue is considered the truest color and perhaps that's why we have the expression "true blue". Picasso painted mostly in blue from 1901 until 1904. I brought in two paintings. One I painted with a limited palette of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and white. 

Eunice: I like cobalt and thalo blue so much that if I had my way, I'd roll around naked in them (Laughter)! I brought in a large painting that I did quite some time ago. It is done with a lot of different references. It is predominantly blue. 

Mike: I have eight blues on my palette. I have done a chart of them that I am showing you. I also am showing you a new watercolor palette that I have. It is a cloverleaf palette. It is a lot less expensive than some of the palettes you'll find online. I am going to be taking a trip and I will use two different palettes during that time. 

Betsy: I did this watercolor recently in the courtyard where I live. I want to do the same scene again in the future! 

Erin: I have found out that if you mix thalo blue with magenta it makes a very pretty deep and interesting dark blue. I also brought in a chart that I did that shows some of my favorite blues. There is a Daniel Smith cobalt that is really beautiful. I brought in the Ted Goreschner book. I have gotten a lot out of it. I brought in a painting that I did at the lavender field. Halfway through this painting I changed the light in it! I know you aren’t “supposed” to do that…but I did and I like how it turned out. 

Charlie: My feeling is that children should not use blue to describe water and sky! I mean, that's what they are told to do and from that point they lose their own creativity. Historically blue was an important color, used in the dying of fabrics. In some Slavic countries there was actually no name for blue!

Stephanie: I am trying to get over a little bit of my addiction to blue. I just like it so much and will use it to try to heighten interest in my landscapes. I brought in a monochromatic blue painting of some tea cups from Medley tea.  I know that blue is a very spiritual color. Blue will soothe you. I went to Don Bishop's one-day workshop in Cooper Mountain. I am also showing paintings from there. I worked with thalo and ultramarine in this painting that I did from a photo reference. 

Leslie: I also agree that blue is a spiritual color. Indigo is mentioned in the Talmud. It was a very important color for the thread in prayer shawls. I'm also addicted to blue and I tend to over do it. Titanium white has blue in it and so you have to be careful about that. I try to be conservative with my use of blue in portraits. I am showing a portrait today. 

Jim: Years ago I painted still life only. I had my still life in a gallery and I would give myself some assignments in order to come up with different paintings.  I would do still life in the primary colors. I would do still life in secondary colors. I would do still life in analgous colors and complementary colors or diffused color. I would give myself assignments where I would do an “all" green still life and so my subject matter would be all green ...like with green peppers, etc.  But there is no blue vegetables, so I couldn't do a still life with blue vegetables. I opted to use eggs for my blue themed still life paintings. I'm showing my blue “egg” painitng..check out how I employed both complementary color and diffused color in this. I am also bringing in the painting that I started last week that I now have finished.

Barbara: Craig Srebnik says "I don't paint all a prima, I paint alla ad infinitum". (Laughter)!. I visited Florida recently and I painted from inside looking out. I changed the color of one of these buildings. I worked on this over the course of two days...So I guess you would call this and alla-two-day-uh” (Laughter)! I really love radiant turquoise by Gamblin. I really really love it!  I would like to add to the conversation about the spiritual. I have read an account where a higher up Catholic (a Cardinal perhaps?) limited the amount of cobalt that was allowed in the stained-glass windows. The reasoning was that people were looking at the glass so much that they weren't paying attention to anything else! (Laughter)! 

Joanne: (New! welcome Joanne). I have been learning about cobalt. I have been learning about how to "take down" the colors to be less intense. I have been working with Jennifer Diehl’s palette. I am showing two landscapes. 

Susan: I remember watching the movie Turner. In the very beginning there was a scene where he was in a color shop buying pigment. He complained about the expense of pigment. I thought to myself “wow, nothing has changed". (Laughter)! I have been painitng at Alpenrose dairy. I painted all of these of their baseball field. I live right next door to Alpenrose. There is endless interesting subject matter there!

Bill: I have am very fascinated by crows. I painted this recent painting of a crow on a stoplight. I painted this Nocturne. I used a lot of ultramarine blue. I also brought in two paintings of my grandchildren. 

Tom: I would like to echo what is been said about the expression "true blue". If you think about it the Virgin Mary is always depicted as wearing blue. This has to do with the sentiment that blue means truth and purity. I brought in a portrait. 

Tim: I have restricted my blues lately to thalo. Historically, there are some pigments that were as expensive as gold. Sunday I went plein air painting and I did this 11 x 14 and a smaller version in the Gorge. Lots of atomospheric blue there!

Carolyn: (Welcome “Home”, Carolyn)! I am visiting from Washington, DC. I used to live here. I’m a watercolorist. My favorite blue is ultramarine blue. I use the Valesquez palette sometimes.. it is ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. I am going to be participating in an art fair in Washington DC soon. I brought in some of my paintings that will be represented there. 

Loretta: I love blue! I have already brought in my blue paintings in the past and I don't want to “repeat” myself.  I know that there is a color called bode blue. it was in use during the 1700s. A barrel of bode blue was worth a fortune. Unbelieveably, It was made with yellow flowers! The shutters that you see in the south of France that are blue are bode blue.  Ultramarine blue is my favorite blue for darks. 

Bhavani: I have brought in a portrait that is in-progress. I have been taking classes. 

Carrie: I took classes with Gene Gill. He was a master watercolorist. He had a strong rule. No blue in the face! Use only green for shadows in the face because (according to Gene Gill) blue in the face will make the face look bruised! 

Diane: I will pass on the subject today. 

Announcements 

Stephanie tells us that Remax on Broadway will have a juried show. (Stephanie please email that information to me to share.  I neglected to get it from you today). 

Beaverton Arts Commission is seeking vendors for the remaining First Friday event on September 4.  SW Broadway in Beaverton is closed to traffic from 4 to 9 p.m. to accommodate vendors, musicians, and food carts on the street.
There is still time to register as a First Friday vendor – $15/month or $50/season. Email donnasansonartworks@comcast.net for a Participation Form. Deadline: 9/4/15
Figure exhibit: http://www.aunaturelart.com  Deadline 11/7/15

OSA is having their 200 for under 200 show. This is an open call to everyone not just OSA members. Carol Marine is going to be the Juror. 

Several Alla Prima Portland people are in the Phyllis Trowbridge workshop (Judith, Jerry, Jeanie and others)..They’ll be back in two weeks

The Hood River show is up until August 30:

Plein Air at Washington County (October):

Create Eugene (August 21-23)

The friends of easels meets on Mondays in the Gorge. You can always just show up with them.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tuesdaygorgepainters/?fref=nf

Susan Kuznitsky, Brenda Boylan, Anton Pavlenko and others giving demos and classes at OSA:
http://www.oregonsocietyofartists.com/brushmarks/brushmarks.pdf

For more announcements/events/groups/paint outs: our facebook page:

Oh my gosh you guys….. today was such a challenge! I could NOT believe how noisy it was! I asked Cheri about it and she said it was not a reservation they just came in off the street. Our luck! So sorry that it was so difficult today to hear and sorry if I didn't hear everything you said. So, thanks for soldiering on, as you did,  and for sharing your ideas today. Let’s try again next week! (If it were to happen again, maybe we could ASK to move to the Annex!)

August 27 suggested table topic: What painting (or drawing) did you paint (or draw) that you thought was good when you did it…only to look at it later and realize that it is not as good as you thought? Why? What specifically changed your mind? (This is a question about your progress. If you have still have the painting (or drawing), bring it in. If you don’t have it, just describe it). Also, bring in something of your “recent” work too, if you can. 

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