Seriously?

So I fought and fought and fought with a trio of paintings this past week. Today I set them aside and began a new painting which painted itself.

My muse, she's a humorist.

So this new work is 16x20 in size and is, as yet, unnamed. I am open to suggestion. Thus far possible names include: Seriously? Was That Really Necessary? and Sigh.

I have no process images of this one as it painted itself. There is a looseness to this one I am hoping to achieve in future paintings.

Sigh.
Dawn

Mount Townsend

Several weeks ago I had about 4000 things to accomplish, so instead I went to the mountains. I hiked Mount Townsend, at least until my fear of heights kicked in (almost at the summit, alas.) It was a beautiful day, a beautiful hike, and it kicked my butt. (20% grade--yowza!)

This is an image from that hike. I took more time with this one than I usually do, and really contemplated each step and what it brought to the work.

In step one I am, as always, looking mostly at value and composition, laying in fields of color.

In the second step you can see the layering in the sky and mountain. At this point I am very enamored with the thick line at the horizon; it emphasizes the horizon in an interesting way.

The third layer shows what that layering looks like drawn down over the entire painting. This stage is technically pretty good. However, I feel I have lost something in this. It lost some interest, part of its spark.

The fourth step shows me working to regain that interest. You can see I re-worked the sky, lightening it towards the horizon plus adding several glazed layers of various colors to add depth. I also added more color to the mountain and the water.

Stage five. Alas, I had to kill my beautiful horizon line, subdue it. It was too bold and was hindering the sense of endless sky and water I was trying to achieve. I also added more rosy-peach color back in, as somewhere along the way I had lost that color of wildflowers.

I am still not satisfied with the foreground, but need to live with it for awhile. Let me know if you can tell me what I need to do to reconcile it!

Happy painting and hiking!
Dawn

Thomas Moran Studies

Top: "Atmospheric Perspective,"(after Moran’s “In the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming”)
oil on canvas, 20"x10"

Middle: "Romantic Sublime," (after Moran's "Grand Canyon in Arizona")
oil on panel, 16"x20"

Bottom: "Isle del Walpe," (after Moran's "Sunset, Pueblo del Walpe")
oil on panel, 10"x8"

Port Townsend Gallery is presenting a Faux Show in the month of October. Each gallery member chooses an artist to focus on, then creates a body of work inspired by that artist.

I have spent some time studying the Hudson River School of American landscape painting the last year. Thus I chose to look at work by Thomas Moran, one of the masters of the romantic landscape.

All of our myths of the West were embodied in the late 19th century. As Rebecca Solnit states, the West was not so much discovered as it was invented. These artists came west with the survey teams and presented some of the first visuals of the continent to the masses back East, all part of the agenda to sell the idea of the west.

The last half of the nineteenth century was a world on the cusp. The world view at the time was that wilderness was boundless, that nature (and God) would provide whatever we asked for. It was, of course, part of our entitlement, our manifest destiny.

There is such a seductive power in these works, and understand that I truly enjoy the romantic school of art. They are beautiful both in aesthetics and in content. The ideals of the time are lovely, sublime, and unattainable.

I wanted to create a body of work that both honors this aesthetic and, at the same time, intentionally pulls the viewer back out of the pastoral landscape. This is the purpose of the text in "Romantic Sublime." In "Isle del Walpe," I used Moran's composition but changed it from a desert landscape to a seascape. The last piece is a work in progress. I intend to add a map element to “Atmospheric Perspective," drawing attention to the journey to the unattainable West.

I would love to hear feedback on this body of work.

Please join us at Port Townsend Gallery for the Faux Show, up through the month of October. The opening reception will be Saturday, October 2nd, from 5:30 to 8:00. 715 Water Street, Port Townsend Washington

Untitled

New work! This is a 60"x48" oil on canvas. The image is from a storm cloud in Northern Colorado last June; not an epic storm, just a pretty one.

I have spent much of my life watching these thunderstorms grow over the plains of Colorado. It was very nice of the weather to cooperate during my family visit last June; lovely weather overall and a small thunderstorm.

This shows the underpainting (used to lay out the composition, establish value, and as a tool for layering) and the finished piece. This piece is not yet titled.

Dawn

The Need for Solitude

"Solitude" mixed media, 16x20 on illustration board

I've been spending a lot of time walking this summer, particularly through the woods all around Port Townsend. The rhythm of walking, the quietude, the sights to be found: all these things quiet my mind like nothing else can.

This piece began as a failed watercolor; it was not very interesting. I added layers of charcoal and clear gesso to the piece which gave it depth and the illusion of having detail. The final coat is an oil glaze to further enrich the surface.

Happy walking and painting,
Dawn

Birth of a Tree (drawing...)

So here is a drawing process for you. I have been experimenting in the studio with drawing effects and have come up with a mixed-media approach that is making me very happy. The final surface is rich with process and almost patina-like effects. I have been very inspired by the work of Larry Thomas in California; he has a series of monumental drawings that are amazing. Johanna and Shirley at Akamai Art here in Port Townsend were instrumental in helping me figure this out.

The first three images are straight up charcoal on watercolor paper. At this point I realize I have made a critical compositional error in the diagonal branch at the top right hand side of the piece, which detracted from the overall movement. Image 4 shows how much I was able to erase but, by image 5, I have employed a layer of Acryla Gouache (Holbein) to cover the mistake. Aaah, gouache. The artist's whiteout.

Next I fixed the holy living hell out of it so that I could apply a layer of clear gesso without lifting the charcoal. Clear gesso has tooth to it that colored gesso does not, a perfect layer to seal in the first layers of charcoal and be able to work more layers on top. This is fundamental as the next multitude of layers include more vine charcoal and oil washes. I used about 10 layers of oil washes, which involve a little tiny bit of paint in a ton of pale drying oil and mineral spirits. This serves to encase the charcoal and gives the drawing that luster I mentioned.

This process is very happy-making. It feels like encaustic as you are sealing in various layers; both watercolor and oil painting; and drawing.

The last image is a detail, in which you can kind of see what a cool surface this is.

"The Grove" is 25"x38" in size, available unframed for $125.

Dawn

Drawings

New work, done as part of my graduate studies. I have been thinking about trees a lot, easy to do when you live up here.

When I was finding myself again last summer, I went to visit my friends in Novato, CA. I spent hours walking the dry California hills above their house, delighting in the isolation, the views, nature above giant tracts of humanity. I also delighted in the trees. Weird, oddly shaped trees, trees I was not familiar with. These trees make me think of European myths and about dryads and tree entities, beings being trapped in trees or becoming trees, trees becoming people. Some of their forms are so surreal they look like mythical beings. Some of them just Feel powerful.

Inspired greatly by Larry Thomas, I began some larger drawings on good paper. It feels great to be drawing “seriously” again.

This first image “Lost and Found” (top) is supposed to be non-representational, though I began with source photography. I fought the image of the bird that kept reemerging until, finally, I realized it needed to be there. This piece is charcoal and pastel on Stonehenge paper, 22x30" in size.

The second piece, “California Trees” (middle) is from a very complicated image, vast patterns of branches. I remember at the time thinking about the patterns of light and shadow as a language spoken by nature. Also charcoal and pastel on Stonehenge, 22x30" in size.

“Offering” (bottom) is a looser quicker image, influenced by the joy of a new paintbrush (Liquitex Freestyle Paddle brush = too cool!) The immediacy of ink and concentrated watercolor and a springy brush gave me freedom. I did not draw this out ahead of time. The focal point of the lighter branch resembles a dryad, she and her tree. This was not intentional but fits. "Offering" is on Rives BFK, 22x30" in size.

Each of these drawings are available unframed for $100 each.

Dawn