Meeting Notes, June 2, 2016

At today’s meeting: Loretta U, Jeanie, Tim, Diane, Lisa, Jerry, Charlie, Vicki, Tom D, Genie, Annie, Tedd, Eunice, Loretta L, John, Tracie, Kristina, Joanne T, Stephanie, Tom V, Anna, Za, and (new) David Pomeroy.

Today’s suggested table topic good habits bad habits (as it pertains to painting and drawing).

Celeste: When I was a graphic designer a boss I had insisted on all of our stations being identical, so that anyone could sit in our seats and find necessary tools. We had to put things back in the same place religiously. I have continued to do that in my own painting studio. I can always find things because of this. It’s a good habit.
I am showing some studies I did at the Tualatin Wildlife refuge. I tried to capitalize on the feeling of summer.

Tom D: I always make sure that my brushes are clean. I don’t want any contamination of wrong colors. Here is a true confession I can’t go to any classes. I just refuse. I want to learn how to paint completely on my own and I don’t see why I can’t do that. I painted this from a slew in north Portland.

Vicki: I do clean my brushes right away. It is important to me that my brushes be clean and waiting for me the next day. I do have a bad habit of not knowing when to finish. I am showing two recent paintings.

Loretta L: I try to clean up at the end of every session. I want to know if any of you have any information on how to paint murals! I am going to be painting a mural. I didn’t bring anything to show today.

John: I also did not bring anything today. I find it hard to organize my life so that I have time to paint! I will do better in this regard.

Tracie:  For myself I am keen on observation! And I stand back to look at my work. I am going to read something that I found …advice from the artist Pissarro. It was written in 1896. (Editor’s note Tracie read this—the final words are…”Nature; she is the one always to be consulted” ---Applause!)!

Stephanie: Coming here as a good habit! I think coming here and looking at living art by living artist is very important. Other people who live in other places should manage to do this same thing. For one thing we get to see progress in each other’s work. I have a bad habit of letting my studio get messed up. I also want to get less locked in by reality. I am showing a recent plein air painting.

Kristina: I clean my palette and I am always observing. I am showing a recent painting that I did of figures in a garden.

Joanne T: Every day I go online and I see the latest work that shows up on Facebook. It does inspire me! There are so many wonderful artists on Facebook. I am pretty neat. I will sometimes forgo painting in favor of gardening. Lately I’ve been doing more painting. I wanted to share this DVD with you. This is someone who has excellent work habits. It is a wonderful DVD and I am willing to loan it out today. (Qiang Huang). I brought three recent watercolors.

Charlie: I have a good habit of looking at things and deciding in my head how I might do that!

Jerry: I put on an apron at the beginning of the day. If I don't I will make a correction to a painting and later find paint on my clothing. (Laughter)! I clean my brushes without fail. I painted this large painting in Jamison Square. At least I started it there-- I finished it in my studio. I got frustrated when I was in Jamison Square with people coming up to me asking over and over  “Are you an artist ---Are you an artist?”  (laughter)!

Lisa: When I have a painting that is not going well I just stop. I sit across from it and stare it down. I ask it to reveal to me what I should be doing and it does. I have to cover the whole canvas quickly right away.  I can't have any white showing. I am showing a painting from my archives. This is what I call my O’Connors painting.

Diane: I have had a lot of bad habits. Here is one… a teacher once took one of my brushes and held it in front of me and said “What the hell are you doing?” (Laughter)! She shamed me because my brush was stiff. I now take care of my brushes. I am showing two recent portraits. One is an underpainting.

Tim: I have a couple of good habits. I take a lot of photos and I have noticed because of that that I am learning composition. The other good habit I have is drawing. I draw a lot and I draw in the Sketch group every week at Medley tea. I am showing you some recent drawings.

David: I am a new (welcome David)! I don’t have a place set up where I live to work yet. I am so new to this I don’t yet have any bad habits yet! Laughter!

Tom V:  I have had a recent breakthrough. I realize that I have simply cared too much about outcome. I have gotten halfway through a painting and there is where I am concerned about if  I’m going to F it up! (laughter)! The answer is stop caring! (applause)!

Jeanie: I try to lay out my palette well. I have a kitchen rolling cart. It helps a lot. All of my gear is stored in it. I brought the painting that I recently did from a photo at the Tualatin wildlife refuge. I am inspired by the skies there.
  
Anna: I have a lot of bad habits one of them is punctuality (laughter)! I have good starts and I intend to finish them, but often I don't finish! I do have the good habit of painting more this year. My bad habit is that I lose track of time and I am not always the best at organizing my time. I am showing some recent plein air paintings.

Loretta: My good habit is showing up here. I keep everything very clean. I am kind of a neat painter. My brushes, my palette, everything is kept orderly and neat.

Za: Sometimes painting a painting reminds me of being in a relationship. Sometimes the relationship goes “bad”! (Laughter)! You have to know when to get out of a bad relationship! (Laughter)! Also, however, you can have a good relationship and you have to concentrate on that. Recently I painted at the Washington Park Rose Garden, but I have to tell you that it turned out to be a terrible place to paint! (laughter)! There are just so many tourists there. I snuck away from all the tourists, but I landed in a place where everyone went to make cell phone calls! (laughter)! I recommend if you want to paint roses to paint roses in Peninsula Park. I brought in a rose painting.

Eunice: I am now weary of this subject –enough has already been said about it (Laughter! Laughter)! I am showing you two paintings from a trip that I took with my husband. This is the back of Mt Hood.

Tedd: I cannot start a studio painting until conditions are right. I like to put on classical music and have everything laid out properly. My bad habit is not doing what my wife tells me to do (Laughter)! I am showing a painting I did of the Gorge.

Annie: I paint in acrylics. I have learned it is helpful to have more than one jar of water. I will rinse the brush in one jar and rinse it again in another. I am showing some thumbnails based on Edward Hopper's paintings. I am “stealing” colors from him. I am also showing you a book that I found at the library. Hopper and his wife did sketches of his paintings after he painted them! They did this with some annotations about the paintings. This was some sort of inventory system. He had “mood” in mind from the start.

Genie: My bad habit is that I jump in without planning. I brought in a essay about five ideas for painters. One of them that I like the best is “Give it what you've got and let it go”. I do a painting every day. My daughter graduated from college and I painted a painting for her. I am showing a painting of sunflowers.

Announcements: 

Mitch Baird at Art on the Boulevard first Friday June 3

Tonight at Oregon Society of Artists Brenda Boylan will give a presentation about her trip to Cuba. 7pm

There are spaces available at studio 111 for Saturday. The model is Tony.

Celeste Bergin and others/ a reception at the Borland gallery in Silverton on Friday 5 to 8 PM

Painting Workshops on Facebook:

Thank you everyone for sharing your ideas and paintings today. It was noisy!  If I missed what you said, my apologies. I also wasn't able to take the best photographs in some circumstances. If you do not like your photograph of your painting send me a new one and I will replace it.


Next meeting: Thursday June 9,  table topic “”Making ordinary extraordinary” ---do you have suggestions for making a bland or dull subject into something dynamic? Have you experience doing this? Can you point to paintings by others where this was accomplished? What are your suggestions? Let’s discuss.

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