Back to Painting!

"Applegate River at Star Gulch" 9"x12" oil on canvas $125

It's been over two months since you have heard from me, but it has not been two months since I've painted. In June Terry Miura came to our studios at HUMMINGBIRD to present a plein air oil painting workshop and I participated as a student. I'm not really interested in becoming a landscape painter per se, but I often use landscape in my work and was happy to get some instruction on how to do it better. We live in such a beautiful place it's hard to resist wanting to paint what you see, and painting outdoors is very fun and challenging- almost a sport in some ways. Terry wrote a complete run-down on the workshop so I won't go into it here (Thanks Terry!), but a great time was had by all and I did three paintings. The first I sold without photographing it, the above is the second and I'll post the third as soon as the glaze dries.

More about what has been occupying my time in posts to come.

Beach Fires & Unconsciousness

Hello out there-
I said "you may not hear from me for a while" and it has been over a month!

The show in Portland went well and we came home to the joy of spring gardening and the sorrow of having to deal with a rental property we own and need to sell. It's been inhabited by too many animals whose owners were unconscious to the damage being done. As we have been cleaning and mowing and trying to decide how to best present this property, I have been thinking a lot about unconsciousness -- ours, the renter's, our property manager's, the country's, the world's. There is plenty of time to ruminate when you are swabbing the decks, but Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth has been helping me make some sense of it.

"Beach Fires" 6x8" oil on canvas SOLD

It's not a new theme for me. Last fall I made this painting of people on the beach enjoying a little campfire, oblivious of the raging wildfire that is about to descend on them. I think this image has power and intend to do a larger painting from it, where it will be easier to see the people on the beach and I can really get into swabbing all the color around.

If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in a lovely 3 acre piece of land in the country but close to stores, school, etc. , with an optional fixer-upper double-wide mobile, click here.

At the Window

"At the Window" 8" x 6" oil on canvas SOLD Thanks, A.M.

My daughter shot the photo below, in the bathroom mirror of our motel room, on the last trip we took together. She likes the work of Edward Hopper and maybe saw something of his mood in me standing at the window. Someone once commented that my work reminded them of Hopper (those paintings are on my web site, not on this blog), which I considered a supreme compliment, and Rachel's photo inspired me to move that way once again. I include it to show once more how a painting can come from photo without copying it.


My husband, Dennis Meiners, and I are getting ready to participate in our 25th year at Ceramic Showcase in Portland April 25-27. Dennis won Best of Show at this big event last year so his Falling Horse sculptural teapot graces all this year's publicity for the show. Since I no long make ceramic sculpture I show my paintings as canvas giclee prints mounted on ceramic plates which form their frames. Sounds pretty hokey, but they are not and my collectors really like them. Every year I resist doing this a little more. Truthfully, there's not much I'd rather do than just paint (and sell them so I can make more).

Soo...you may not hear from me for a while. We will return on April 29 and I will head for the garden, which will need much attention.

Green Stockings

"Green Stockings" Oil on Masonite panel 15.5 x 12" $185

This is the other half of the painting homework I mentioned yesterday. After the specific parameters for the first painting I asked them to ignore everything we had been studying and just go wild; to make the same painting again, but from the gut rather than the head. The above is what I did. I always do my own assignments so I can better understand the challenges my students face. I chose to do this on the back side of the Masonite panel which is very rough. Click on the image to see the texture better.

Peeping Tom

"Peeping Tom" 15.5 x 12" Oil on Masonite panel $185
SOLD- Thanks, J.E.

I'm disappointed that my camera can't seem to capture the correct yellows in this painting and it is too big to scan here at home, sooo... I'll have to re-post it later.

This was an assignment I gave my painting class: to compose a painting using a figure, a table and one other element, paying attention to the distribution of lights and darks and using a complimentary color scheme (meaning colors across from each other on the color wheel). I came up with this example of complimentary yellow and purple and of taking an unusual viewpoint, under the table. Then my imagination just took over.

There was a second part to the assignment which I will post tomorrow...

The Good Red Road

"The Good Red Road" 9 x12" oil on mahogany panel
SOLD- Thanks, N.W.

I liked this painting when I started it some months ago, but it was set aside. The inspiration came from a hawk that was reappearing every day on our property to the point that I finally consulted my Medicine Cards to see if there was a message we might be ignoring. The Hawk card talked of getting your nose out of the daily grind and taking an overview of your walk on The Good Red Road of life here on Earth. We heeded the message and the hawk went on his way.

When I came back to the painting the figure was standing in such a way that it looked like something was being pulled. A red wagon popped into my head-I've been think a lot lately about how much Stuff we all have.

It's been over a week since I last posted a painting, but that only means I have not been doing the small "daily" paintings, opting instead to do studies and stretch canvases for a couple large ones. I can see where this size thing will fluctuate- I'm getting a little tired of the small brushes and feel like getting my arm into action. I'm debating whether or not to share the process of creating a big painting with you. Having others looking over my shoulder has both pros and cons. We'll see.

Cropping Cherries

"Pitchers with Cherry Trio" 12 x 12" oil on Masonite panel $125

I set up this still life (without the cherries) for my students to practice painting glass, metal, ceramic and drapery. It was tough! and I struggled right along with them. Later, I decided to see if I could make it into something more by adding the cherries for some pizazz, but the composition was still floating in a sea of blue; I felt it needed to be cropped down to a smaller size. Fortunately, since it is painted on panel, I have the option of doing that. I thought you might be interested in the thought process:

Here's the original.










A little too tight..









maybe this is better?










What if I crop a cherry for more tension...









and add some air to the top?



This is what I decided on, but I won't be able to cut it down until it is totally dry so ...


if you like one of the other versions better and want to buy this painting cropped (or not) the way you like it, just let me know.

How's that for interactive art?