Tremont Activity Center...

 

Tremont Activity Center, 7119 SE Knight Street, Portland, Oregon. Gouache, watercolor pencil and pen. Approximately 8” x 10” in a watercolor sketchbook.

I’ve been intrigued by religious structures since seeing a small church on Big Island silhouetted by the sun against dark storm clouds in 1991. One day, I’ll paint the little church. Wandering around Europe I couldn’t turn a corner without bumping into a cathedral, chapel, synagogue or mosque. After returning home, I realized Portland has an abundance of religious architecture to explore with a pen. 

 

Objects in mirror...

I use the bathroom mirror as a huge whiteboard… because it’s big enough for the big ideas I have first thing in the morning and because I’ve been yelled at since I was three for writing on the walls. This statement is part of the current intention. 

The Hubs was driving me to an event and I was eating worms over a perceived lack of time, energy et al.

He:  (Attempting to remind me of the affirmation) “What do you read in your mirror?”

Me: (Rousing from the gloom to glance at the side mirror) “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.”

I was in Hyperdrive speeding toward Venus while he was waving frantically from Mars. 

After considering for a couple of days, I realized the mirror is indeed a teacher especially when we understand with our soul the intentions we set really are closer than they appear. 

 

Personal style...

I’ve spent a few weeks going through all of my paintings and drawings in an effort to document the early ones from as far back as gradeschool ~ obviously before I understood how important record keeping is for a working artist. It’s a miracle any of the work survived the frequent moves and mayhem. Most of the childhood pieces are on 8.5” x 11” typing paper from a manilla file folder that somehow stayed with me for five decades. As a result of traipsing down memory lane I’ve learned some things I’d like to share over the next few posts.

The question of developing a recognizable personal style keeps some of us up at night.  Not me, I sleep very well, however, you know what I mean. We want to insure we come up with a technique the collectors and galleries will notice as unique to us. 

Here’s a graphite drawing of a model from thirty years ago and a recent oil bar self-portrait posted late last year, reduced to black/white for comparison.

 

The same raw, brutally honest drawing style I seem to have hit the planet with is evident in both pieces. While my work has been informed by teachers and experiece, and there is always much more to learn, the rendering is clearly mine in both portraits. Whether anyone else thinks they are “good” drawings isn’t my concern.  The issue is to keep making drawings, paintings or sculpture. 

I’ve come to believe if we continue to put one foot in front of the other, do the work as frequently as we’re able and take the next intuitive step in our process, we’ll end up with our desired result ~ a personal style we can enjoy, have confidence in and share. 

Sketch...

There’s a song from one of my favorite movies with the lyrics, “Gotta get up, gotta get out.” That’s how I felt this morning. I’ve not been anywhere to sketch in far too long and made my escape to the wilds of Oregon City.  I’ve neglected to replenish the sketch pack so the pen was dried out and the water reservoir in the brush refused to cooperate. This drawing is a combined watercolor, gouache, pen and watercolor pencil effort ~ a mixed bag of whatever was functional. Doesn’t look much like the actual buildings although the energy of the place is evident. The disquiet of an unstable perch didn’t contribute to focused observation.