Meeting Notes, August 28, 2014, Thursday

At today's meeting Loretta, Anton, Tim, Stephanie, Vicki, Jerry, Peggie Jeanne, Cody, Brenda, Jeannie, Lisa, Diane, Kathy, Eunice, Joanne, Talya, Troy, Erin, Khanh, Thomas, Claudia, Renita, Za, and me Celeste. 

Today's suggested table topic "War Stories"...humorous or unusual things that happened to you while you were painting.

(editor's note: -this was all very funny, but will no doubt lose a lot in the translation."You had to be there"-!):

Celeste: I took a still life workshop from a very famous painter. He insisted on having the palette set out exactly to his specifications. He also started the workshop by stating that he absolutely did not want to see paintings of individual petals on flowers. (He wanted us to use big blocks of paint to mass in shapes). "No petals! No petals"! My paint order hadn't arrived, so I had to borrow paint and didn't have the palette set out correctly. As predicted, he didn't like this and as a result he refused to spend any time with me. Finally, I got my paint order (on the final day) and set out my palette just right. He STILL wouldn't talk to me.  At one point I implored him to pahleeze help me with my flower! Pahleeze!  He took my brush and said slowly (in his Russian accent): "for you... I paint a pet-al.... so you can sleep tonight". 

Joanne: I took a workshop with a very famous Portrait artist. He is/was a smoker. I decided to go and buy some American Spirit cigarettes, so I could go "hang" with him during the breaks. This was a very good strategy and it worked...I got to spend extra time with him, but the downside was that I hadn't smoked in years...so it made me very dizzy. (laughter)!

Claudia: I took a workshop with a world class guy too! While he was demonstrating (in a city park) a entire bus-load of children descended on the very scene he was painting.  Another time, I was painting a scene of autumn leaves. The leaves were the main focus of my painting. A guy showed up with a blower...to blow away the leaves. 

Thomas: I was painting on Sauvie Island when I heard the distinct sound of a shotgun being cocked/pumped. I didn't even turn around,  I threw my french easel and myself over a fence. Another time I was out at night doing a Nocturne. I was painting with a friend and it was Halloween. We were in an urban area.  The Memorial Coliseum had had some sort of an event and it had let out. We watched the people driving by in costumes..."Look, there goes a Frankenstein and there is a Dracula". It was a pretty steady stream of cars. At one point something hit a brick wall right next to my head. It hit really hard and then there was a great big CLANK on the sidewalk. And this was what it was (pictured below). Someone had thrown this at my head!  I have kept it ever since then. 



Talya: I was one of the organizers for a cruise in Alaska. My business partner had never been out of the country before and we had to go through the Canadian border. She was very scared...and acted like she had something to hide, even though she didn't! We had tons of "swag" for the participants of the cruise, but it was all explainable. She handed the officer our entire file. It all turned out fine.  Once we (finally) made it through the border we realized we had no "international data plans" on our phones...we had to use a map in the old-fashioned way in order to find where we were going. 

Erin: I have not been painting long enough to have any war stories yet! I'm sure I will have some in the future. 

Renita: I have also had a gun held on me but it was not art-related, it was realtor related. Once I painted a person's dog. I gave it to the person as a gift. What she said to me: "thank you, I like folk-Americana art". 

Vicki: I was walking in the Lone Fir Cemetery, scouting for where I would paint. Naturally, I wore my old painting clothes and had my gear in a rolling (two wheeled) grocery cart. A couple of homeless people approached me. One inquired; "Are you all right, dear?" I had the realization..they thought I was one of them. 

Nancy: I don't have any stories yet! I will!

Khanh: I have to paint at night because of my work. I use live models via the computer (Skype). Sometimes the model falls asleep. It is boring for them, after all.  One time the camera/computer (on the other end) inexplicably fell from where it was ONTO the person who was modeling! It was pretty funny because she was apparently still asleep and it looked as if she was being "crushed" .. (because all of what was showing on my screen was her feet). 

Peggie: While I was painting a painting there was a huge boulder that suddenly came barreling down right where I was standing! Luckily, a smaller rock made it so the bigger boulder didn't completely run me over! (As it was, my leg did get injured-but it could have been so much worse). I brought in the painting that I did there.

Jerry: I was in an industrial area painting Union Pacific railroad cars. I was three-quarters of the way through when I saw a man in an orange vest approaching me. I thought certainly he would tell me that I needed to leave ...or that I was in the restricted area. "What are you doing...are you an artist?" he asked. He stepped around and saw my painting. Then he (rather meekly) said "well we didn't want to interrupt your work, but we were wondering if we could move the train now?"  (laughter)! I told him yes of course, I'll just take a photo for reference (and I also handed him my camera and asked him to take this photo) click to enlarge:

Stephanie: I was at Sauvie island. I wanted to use a porta potty. As I drove and drove to find somewhere to go to the bathroom the area seemed worse and worse to me. Then I heard gunshots. Sauvie Island has a shooting club. It was very creepy to hear gunshots. I turned around.

Tim: I was at the Gorge Vista House area...it was windy. People were talking to me..and not really letting on to any problems.  Later, I saw that I had a lot of Alizarin Crimson in my beard. 

Anton: I seem to find a lot of drug paraphernalia when I am painting. I paint in lots of different types of areas. Once, when I was deep in the woods, I had headphones on and I didn't see right away that there was a homeless man on a bicycle ....smiling at me!  (laughter)!

Eunice: I don't have any funny stories that I can think of right now. I've been taking reference photos and dealing with my reference file at home. 

Kathy: I was in a jewelry class. I was doing some very physical work ...I had to pull on gold wire.  I had to do this over and over again. I used both hands/arms and had to pull and pull. At one point I realized that my shirt had somehow flown completely open.. (every one of all my buttons had come loose)! This was in a room full of men.  I just buttoned my buttons and went back to work. 

Diane: Going to Mexico is a unique situation. It is not like traveling within the US!  I had paint wrapped in newspapers which concerned the uniformed men. I also had coffee beans with me and upon inspection all my coffee beans went flying onto the floor.  My husband could speak Spanish (I don't)...but he was separated from me. You can be jailed in Mexico if they don't like you. I was very worried. 

Lisa: I was in a life drawing class when an inexperienced male model showed up. We explained to him that he was going to have to take his clothes off. "What??!!" he said. We convinced him to remove clothing..which he did in increments until finally we were able to make him understand that he had to be nude. I am sure he thought that we were all perverts. (laughter)!

Jeannie: the most bizarre thing that's happened to me recently is that I broke my foot by dropping a giant canvas on it. 

Brenda: I have so many stories I could tell ...I could tell stories all day long. I have been caught going to the bathroom out-of-doors. I had a pastel box full of pastels fall and scatter to the floor just as I was supposed to do a demonstration to a huge group.  I had someone come up to me from behind and beller: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? !!" (so that I jumped and fell into my own gear). I had a homeless man who was very hyper showing me his arms and telling me that he had meningitis! I  actually I had to report that one to some security. 

Jeanne: Last week I painted in a place called "Ruby Peak". A man came up to me and rolled up his sleeve to show me the tattoo that he had of "Ruby Peak" on his arm. 

Za: I was painting with someone who could no longer go out with me..so I decided to go out by myself. I was painting in an industrial area and two guys came up to me who seemed friendly enough. However, after a short while, these same two guys starting having a colossal fight right near me. It was kind of a fight to the finish with blood and everything. I kept painting and did not make eye contact. Eventually, it got so bad I had to leave my gear to go find someone to ask them to please call the police. The police came....but they had to wait until a train went by before they could get to where "we" were!  (laughter)!

Loretta: On walking out with my painting to show at thismeeting, a crow said, "Ha ha," ! (haha!)

Announcements. 

Brenda Boylan received notice from the Pastel Society of America that her pastel "The Blue Line" received the President's Award in the PSA's 42nd Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club, NYC. juror Margorie Shelly from  MOMA.http://www.pastelsocietyofamerica.org (Congratulations, Brenda!)

Vicki and Stephanie will be painting tomorrow at Sauvie Island at 10 AM (Sauvie Island Farms). Join in with them! 

Erin: My joint show is at "Coffeehouse North West" on the corner on W Burnside and Trinity, 1951 W Burnside, Portland OR sterlingcoffeeroasters.com From Sept 1-30. Opening Reception Wednesday Sept 3rd 6-8 pm

Also, on Thursday September 4th 6-10 pm I will have a "booth" on 13th Ave. (Many Galleries are open for an art walk as well as an arts and crafts street fair on NW 13th Ave. between NW Glisan St. and NW Irving St). Northwest neighborhood "First Thursday" firstthursdayportland.com 

Anton Pavlenko at the Brian Marki: http://www.brianmarki.com/ARTIST-PAGES/AntonPavlenko_BlueGreenSummer.html
Reception Friday,  Sept 5, 5-8pm

Khanh N. Huynh, MD: Pearl Gallery, First Thursday, Sept 4, 6-9pm http://studiobuda.com/2014/08/18/beautoxacillin-a-remedy-for-beauty/

Talya has a workshop August October 17: http://talyajohnson.com/oil-portrait-workshop-with-talya-johnson/

Brenda has a workshop at Sequoia Gallery (subject: values/all mediums) http://sequoiagallerystudios.org

Kevin McPherson painting demo on Sept 6: http://kevinmacpherson.com/blog/78472/art-spirit-saturday-portland-paint-out-and-free-painting-demonstration 

Don't forget about Hillsboro http://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/index.aspx?page=229

Hood river begins next week (schedule in sidebar): http://pleinairhoodriver.blogspot.com

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Editors note: sorry this is late, my computer has gone into the hospital! If you need to correspond with me use this email address: celesteobergin@gmail.com (and not any of my other emails).

Thanks to all for sharing your stories and ideas today as well as your paintings.

Next meeting:
Thursday, Sept 4. Suggested table topic: Shadows! How do you rate your ability to express and describe both form and cast shadow? What do you know about shadow in painting ...and do you have any tips about painting them?



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