Celeste: I so loved the book about Sergei Bongart ---he said if you are in direct sun you *must* use an umbrella. (according to Bongart the only person who could paint in the sun without an umbrella was William Reese). I don't know if it is true or not, but Bongart has me using an umbrella! Also, I recently read this book ("Master the Day") about how making a concerted effort to do specific things for manageable amounts of time add up to become full-fledged habits. The key is to engage in the activity 3-4 times per week. I especially liked the form the author devised. I painted this tree at Laurelhurst Park yesterday.
Loretta U: Bongart said: "Color First!"
Chris: I keep quoting Yong Hong Zhong! He told me it is more important to just go out and paint than to worry about if you have the right supplies. Just go out with whatever you have! The expression "use it or lose it" applies to just about everything. I want to acquire new skills and to try new things.
I am showing a painting I did from one of Tim Young's photos.
Annie: Something said that stuck with me: "I take photographs to see what this would look like as a photograph" (laughter)! I have been in Central Oregon. I took my watercolors. Za Vue has me thinking about mixing colors with whatever color will make the result the most beautiful...so instead of mixing "just" primary yellow and primary red to achieve orange, I mixed yellow with alizarin. I did a chart with this in mind. I painted flowers in the High Desert. I did this chart of different fields of color (to determine which would look best)...but then I still couldn't tell which version was "best"! (laughter)! David Brooks said "being part of a group is like doubling your income". (Applause)!
Raphael: I don't know what to say about the topic! I am currently interested in water media. I started with watercolor and I painted this wheelbarrow. Then I moved into gouache...I was inspired by my friend Mike Rangner who paints a lot in gouache. I put together a kit of Talons gouache and painted this parking lot..it is my first gouache (yay!) Then, I painted this painting of 3 boats from one of my photos. I like the smoothness you get from gouache!
Renita: I have heard it said: Before you start to paint...look at it and remember why you want to paint it! It is so important to feel engaged --otherwise, disaster! I am showing a recent painting.
Stephanie: I get a lot of inspiration from a newsletter by Robert Genn and his daughter. (Robert Genn passed away, but his daughter took over). I have been spring cleaning and this quote seemed so apropos: "When a painting isn't realized, pitch it in the fire"! (Laughter)! Jerry Saltz, formerly a "failed artist" and current art critic says you must accept that if you are going to be an artist...you're going to be poor!
https://www.vulture.com/2017/04/jerry-saltz-my-life-as-a-failed-artist.html
http://painterskeys.com/ I am showing recent paintings.
Donna (new! Welcome): I am an admirer of pastelist Richard McKinley. He refers to painting as "dance" --and when you see him paint you understand why. he paints incrementally and he gave me the permission I needed to paint my own way (slowly)! I went on a road trip and painted these two paintings...sunrise and sunset.
Loretta L: A teacher once said to me "They're just shapes"! (very helpful)! I also like the "Creative Process" (see below) (Laughter)! I finally got into Za Vue's classes. I am showing two plein air paintings.
Joanne T: I was painting alongside Thomas Kitts one time and I asked him...Should I move this barn? Should I do this, should I do that? He said: "Why not start a new one"?! What a revelation! (Laughter)! It hadn't occurred to me! (Laughter)! I've been taking my online class, I am learning about perspective and angles...as well as going over warm sun, cool shadows, cool light warm shadows! I am showing 2 recent paintings.
Paula: I really enjoyed an article I read in Outdoor Painter. I thought it was really helpful. The author recommends that you walk around with a sketchbook before you settle in to paint...don't be in a hurry. https://www.outdoorpainter.com/painting-landscapes-seeing-light/ Also, I learned from Jennifer Diehl about "reserving" values. If you don't plan you might not have the right value to be able to place a highlight. When you work things out in advance...you'll provide enough value for the highlight to read. All your values have to be believable. I am showing a painting I did in Za's class. It is monochromatic.
Tom D: I remember something from the Agony and the Ecstasy "If the wine is sour, throw it out"! (Laughter)! I also watched a video once about something called sunk cost fallacy. The more you are invested in something, the harder it is for you to give up on it. An example of this is people trekking up Everest and not turning around despite a storm...they wind up dying because they had made such an investment of effort! Strange as it seems sunk cost fallacy affects us as artists too. (We may not die, but abandoning a bad painting, despite investment, is a mature approach!) I am showing a recent plein air painting.
Kay: I am mostly here, because I missed you all! (Applause)! I have been in the process of moving and my things are in storage. I got things out of storage to paint something for the Elizabeth Jones Gallery. It is of Wilshire Park...and it is an exhibit about the positive influence of neighborhood associations. I brought this copy of "A Beautiful Banker" (that was painted by Raphael). I found a copy I did of this painting and you could not pay me to show it to anyone! (Laughter)! I have painted it again since and I did better --I don't know why I love it so, maybe I came from that time in another lifetime!
Bonny: I like this from Winston Churchill. This is written on a whiteboard in my studio: "Success is not final, Failure is not fatal..it is the courage to continue that counts". I like to watch sunrises...I "collect" them! My interest in sunrise makes it so I am sitting out there at 4am! I wanted this painting to be about the fog...this day there were shapes in the fog that I could not quite capture--(but I'll try again!) I am also showing some drawings of the carousel horses. I have been given permission to draw them in a studio (where they are being refurbished). I have gone three times. If you have an interest in drawing/painting the carousel horses contact me.
Tim: John Singer Sargent: "It takes time to be really happy"! I painted this painting from a photo of Tom Daniels...and I am giving it to him today. (sorry, I didn't get a photo of this painting). I am also showing this big painting I did of a field in Gresham. It is "about" the atmosphere!
Jim: I was taken with a quote from a book I am reading. It comes from a Doctor. He said: "You will never move forward by looking back"! Also Mother Teresa said.."We can't always do great things, but we can do small things with love"! I have recently returned from a road trip to Missouri. It is shocking how the rains and floods have affected the midwest. It is devastating! I painted this painting from a photo. I also painted these three paintings, thinking about abstraction, with gouache.
Becky: The Alla Prima book by Richard Schmid has a passage in it that can be summed up...Problems surface when painting something there that is *not* there or painting something that *is* there (that would be better not there). It boils down to clarity!
Geri: I like how Bonny "collects" sunrises...I "collect" stories about artists. I am showing a book ("Just Kids") authored by Patti Smith. I highly recommend it. She is an inspiration to me. I also recommend this book by Danny Gregory.."An Illustrated Life". I am showing a painting I call "15 minutes each side" (Laughter)!
Eunice: Joanne K always brings up Tedd Goerschner. ..I will do it today! He says you must put color into your grays. Very important! Scott Christensen feels the same. Get some color into your grays and you will be happier.
Wendy: I will quote my Mother: "There's no harm in trying" (Laughter)!
Greg: I have been doing a lot of figure drawing lately. It is my current focus. I like this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: " Every artist was first an amateur"
Thomas: Some quotes I especially like: "Nature is the best instructor"/ "I apply color until I achieve a likeness"/"Get the color right and the eye will do the rest"/ "If your lights and darks and your warms and cools agree..you have achieved harmony". It's a moment I am after, a fleeting moment not a frozen moment"/ "You will learn more from 100 starts than from 100 finishes" "Contrast is the most important element in design" (It also has to do with "duality...light/dark, thick/thin etc). I painted in downtown Portland at night with Eduardo Fernandez. We painted on the riverfront and we also painted some food carts. I put burnt umber and prussian blue back on my palette for these nocturnes.
Announcements:
Three upcoming paint outs (Thank you, hosts!):
June 14 Friday Paint out (beginning at 9am) at Oakwood Gardens with host Joanne Thorpe 11785 SW River Rd, Hillsboro 97123 https://www.oakwood-gardens.com/
PLEASE PARK ON THE RIGHT SIDE, not in the residence parking that is on the left
http://allaprimaportland.blogspot.com/2019/06/paint-out-friday-june-14-9am-at-oakwood.html
June 14, 15 and 16 Paint out (and swim, float, camp!) on Kat Sowa's Vernonia farm (see information at the bottom of this page)
June 21 Friday Paint out (beginning at 9am) at Grice Farm with host Mike Porter
10405 SW Grabhorn Road https://goo.gl/maps/QaEUnSa2jiMaWdEq7
Tom Daniels show is up until July at the First Presbyterian Church Downtown
Register for the Lake Oswego Plein Air 2019 event (June 14) https://clackamasartsalliance.org/event/arts-council-of-lake-oswegos-annual-chronicle-plein-air-exhibit/2019-06-14/ (thanks, Becky Land)
Eric Jacobsen at Art on the Boulevard, http://artontheboulevard.org
Elo Wobig Lakewood Show, 11:00 am demo June 22 https://www.lakewood-center.org/pages/lakewood-Festival-Date-2019
Za Vue classes (write for details and/or to be put on wait list): studioza@me.com
Tuesday Figure Sessions facilitated by Bhavani Krishnan Tuesdays 3-6pm email Bhavani for location (outdoors when weather permits): bhavani.krishnan@gmail.com
Thomas Kitts has two upcoming workshops in Portland (Drawing for Plein Air and Plein Air) First two weeks of September 2019
http://www.thomaskitts.com/2019/04/remaining-2019-workshop-with-thomas.html
Dianna Shyne introduction to acrylics 9-12 in her Portland studio on Saturdays https://diannashyne.com/contact
Friday Figure Sessions continue not tomorrow, but next Friday June 21 at OSA 1:15-4:00 Joanne Radmilovich Kollman
Hiatus Drawing club meets after the Alla Prima Meeting at French Quarter
Next Meeting Thursday June 20 --"Blocking in" how do you first establish your painting, share your method and why you do what you do! (watercolorists, pastelists share your initial steps too!) ---Let's Discuss!
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An invitation from Kat Sowa for this weekend. Paint, Camp, Swim, Float and Relax with host Kat Sowa at Weed Creek Ranch on 58 private acres with The Nehalem River running through it! (It is a 40 minute drive from Portland, but so worth it).
It is this coming Friday-Sunday June 14-16. Come early stay, stay late. BYO whatever, there is grill and griddle and fire ring, refrigerator and freezer.
Call or email at kat@katsowa.com
or 503-913-7599 `or 503-429-1918 ~
Weed Creek Ranch, 58335 Timber Rd., Vernonia OR 97064
Kat says: "It’s so beautiful out here right now at our place"
Folks could come Sat & Sun or arrive Friday evening for an early morning paint"! (Please make sure to RSVP to Kat if you are camping).
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