ARTEMISIA

We went to the current exhibit at Seattle Art Museum:  Flesh and Blood. 

I really wanted to see Artemisia Gentileschi's "Judith and Holofernes".

I was really pleased - it's fantastic.

There were a lot of other treasures there, too.  I particularly liked Titian's Danae and the story behind it.

PAINTING

I donated my 97th pint of blood this morning then came home and did my Monday morning cleaning (always fun - not).

After lunch, I went up to the studio and painted a bit, some for my homework - she wanted me to re-do this one by moving the teapot of flowers to the right, in order to make the 'triangle' more pronounced.

Original 

Re-done with flowers moved to the right (it needs more work).

This little painting is of some of our garden tomatoes, painted in one of the Etchr sketchbooks I recently bought for a lot of money.  They are nice though. 

After dinner, I painted the cool Mr. Bentley.  I traced him into the sketchbook from a photo and then painted with watercolors.  I mixed Cadmium Red with  a lot of Cerulean Blue and a touch of Hansa Yellow Medium to get this grey.

FRIDAY LITE

We picked up Quentin early this morning.  He's going to spend the weekend with us.

First stop was breakfast at PCC.  He wanted waffles.

Then I went to Puyallup to drop off a couple of quilts for the Fair.

Back home, I worked on the black blocks for the Black and White quilt.  I have all of the parts made, but only got one block sewn together.

After lunch, Quentin and I painted.

I even did a quick drawing of Jax in the garden.

LIGHTHOUSE

This week's watercolor class was an image of a lighthouse at a sunset.

We learned about layering and dropping color into a pre-wetted area.

SAIL BOATS

We painted a couple of sail boats in my watercolor class today.  Here's everyone's completed paintings.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM

One of the main reasons for visiting Santa Fe New Mexico is to see the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

Outside of the museum is this wonderfully huge tree.  There was a plaque nearby, saying the tree has it's own instagram tag #doublecottonwood

CHANGING THREADS

I'm having to change thread colors a lot with this quilt.

I'm enjoying using this new HQ Ditch Ruler from HandiQuilter.  It does it's job very well.  It has a little arch at each end that I'm using on the smaller leaves.  

I got my mom to do a paint-by-numbers of sunflowers to add to my collection.  And then was pleasantly thrilled when my sister, Sue, surprised me with a colored pencil drawing she did.

Mom's is bottom left, Sue's is bottom middle.  I did the paint-by-number in the center and the original painting on the bottom right.  Van Gogh did the two big ones.  The upper middle that you can't really see is what started it.  I bought this really cool instant-photo art of sunflowers and haven't been able to stop.

GAUGUIN AT SEATTLE ART MUSEUM





 My husband Darrell and I spent part of our anniversary, February 17th, at Seattle Art Museum viewing their exhibit "Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise" (February 9, 2012 thru April 29, 2012). 

Although Gauguin's Polynesia period is not our favorite of his, we enjoyed this show immensely.  It's always enjoyable to get close-up to such talent and beauty.  I spent a lot of time getting too close to the paintings and looking at his brush-strokes and the colors he chose.

Three Tahitians 1899



Beneath the Pandanu Tree 1891





Tahitian Mountains 1893




Landscape with Three Figures 1901

I stood and stared in awe at "Landscape with Three Figures", which was one of the paintings towards the last of the exhibit.  I marveled at the brush strokes.  I contemplated the sky for a long time.  I stood there with my mouth open, I'm sure.  I had to remark to Darrell that I had just spent a good deal of time yesterday finishing up the sky on one of my freeway paintings, trying to get it very evenly all-over blue with no brush strokes showing.  Gauguin's sky in this painting is a series of little brush strokes in every shade and hue.  The white and grey clouds on the right dissipate off into the blue-ness of the sky unlike the clearly defined ones towards the center.  I thought, why don't I do skies like this?  These are gorgeous!

I went home and looked at my freeway painting...wondering if I should redo it.  I decided the sky I painted for it, fit it.  It would not look right with an impressionistic sky in a sorta realistic painting.  I left it the way it was.  I guess I knew what I was doing after all.

Pare Paillard by Gauguin 1902

 Who knew Gauguin was such a talented carver?  The above statue was also one of our favorites because of the story behind it. "Pere Paillard" (Father Lechery or Debauchery) inscribed on its base.  It was recognizable as the local Catholic bishop, who demanded Gauguin stop his liaisons with the local women, while still pursuing them himself despite his vows of celibacy, and all while the church was engaged in wholesale destruction of the native culture.  Things never change!

Also included in this exhibit are a lot of the local art from the Islands, including a tiki that is said to embody all of the ancestors.  We were invited to greet it and speak to it.

There was another room dedicated to Gauguin's wood block prints, which I found fascinating.  I had no idea he had done any.  Apparently, he didn't do much with the prints after he had carved the blocks (he had planned a book about Polynesia, but it never materialized).  Gauguin's son later printed some of the blocks which are on display here.

Gauguin Woodblock print 1903

If you are in the Seattle area during this show, I encourage you to go see it.  You'll definitely enjoy it.
  We did.

PAINTINGS ON DISPLAY THIS MONTH

Some of my paintings are now hanging in a local pizza place - Proletariat Pizza in White Center.  

We first discovered this place by chance, while driving by. What caught my attention was the font on their big overhead sign.  It's a very cool Art Deco font. Very different than everything else in this neighborhood of porno shops and Asian markets.  White Center is definitely an area that can only get better.

We went back a few nights later and enjoyed one of their great pizzas, and have been back several times since.  It's owned and operated by Mike and his wife, who make the pizza dough every afternoon and hand-make the pizzas - when they run out of dough they close the doors! 

We noticed the art on the walls and asked about it.  Mike told us they planned to invite artists in to display their art.

Several months later I saw a request from them on Facebook, asking if anyone knew of an artist that would like to hang in their restaurant.  I figured my paintings of 17th & Roxbury, which is only a few blocks away, would be perfect for there.

My paintings will be on display through the month of August.  I highly recommend you stop by for a pizza and tell them you heard about them from me!  There will be an official Art Walk on the third Saturday of the month, maybe I'll see you there.

FIRST IN THE STEEL PLANT SERIES

OMG!  Did I just say I was starting another series?  You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, but seriously, I've been wanting to do some paintings of the Steel Plant.  I'm not going to say I'm doing a bunch of them.  I'm just going to nonchalantly say this is the first.

When I drove a truck every day I was going to Vashon Island a lot, mostly to haul the leachate runoff from the landfill with a tanker.  I would cross over the West Seattle Bridge (elevated above Spokane Street) in the early morning and see the Steel Plant and just be enthralled.  I can't say what it is exactly, but the way the sun hit all those pipes and metal buildings with steam coming out.  There are piles of rusty scrap outside, railroad tracks and cars, cat-walks, chimneys and occasionally, if you were lucky, you could see red-hot bars of steel coming out of one of the buildings.  The ground around the plant is black, there are mud puddles that reflect the light and the men are driving equipment around the yard.  It's all very.....I don't know....industrial?  

Now that we live in West Seattle I really need to put what I see on canvas.  Here is the beginnings, the underpainting - mostly I was using up what was left on my palette.  I really like it just like this, but knowing me, it will get too real-looking very soon.  This is 24" by 30".

My husband and I recently went on a tour of this place, the Nucor Steel Plant with a group from Historic Seattle.  I thought I'd be able to take pictures from the inside, but alas, it was not to be so.  They said I could take all the pictures I wanted....from outside their fence. Phooey!  Once the tour started I began to question why I was there!  It was scary, dirty, hot and smelly.  We had to walk on the cat-walks- metal grates suspended over the yard.  I hate walking on something you can see down through.  I have a very great fear of heights.  So, needless to say, I had a death grip on the hand railing, which was filthy with who-knows-what kind of dust.  By the end of the tour, most of that dust was either on my face or on my jeans.

It was a very interesting tour in that we learned a great deal about how steel is made.  Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and generous.  Almost all of the steel made in America is made from recycled materials, hence the big piles of rusty scraps in the yard.  Nucor is very proud of the fact that they are 100% recycled material only.  We got to see the cauldron where they mix the metals and melt them down to make the steel.  It was a little like I would image Hell to be.  Hot, loud, dirty and it even smelled a little sulpher-like.  There were so many things I wish I could have photographed, but I restrained myself.  I'm going to have to walk down around that area a little more and see just how close I can get with my long-lensed camera.

EXHIBIT AT WINDERMERE REALTY & WEST SEATTLE ART WALK

I want to thank Windermere agents Kim Tingley and Barb Ogden for inviting me (and for being such gracious hostesses) to exhibit my paintings in their offices for the September WEST SEATTLE ART WALK. Thanks to my husband Darrell for helping hang my canvases and to my various friends and family members for supporting me with their attendance. It was really a pleasure visiting with you.

I had a really good time. The evening started out a little slow but it soon got really lively! I couldn't believe all the people that showed up (and thanks to the weather gods for such a pleasant evening). I had planned to take pictures when there were a lot of people there - but I got so busy, I forgot!

The most enjoyable moments were hearing all the generous and meaningful comments about my work, it meant a lot to me.

But the really interesting stuff is listening (or should I say eavesdropping) without people knowing I'm the artist. I heard some great (and very helpful) comments:

"I like the style, but not the content"

"I recognize that building" and "I recognize that freeway"

"But the buildings are all run-down and depressing"

"I want to see more of what's in the shadows"
(my art instructor Julia Hensley has been saying this too!)

"I like the close in shots of the freeways best, they are more abstract"
(I heard this comment quite a few times - and Julia also said the same thing to me several times, hmmm. I noticed people were drawn to the small grouping of paintings representing the structural details probably because they are more just shapes and colors, not the freeways they drive to work everyday!)

“These are the only paintings my husband (the architect) enjoyed in the Art Walk”

But my favorite was:

"I vote this one 'Best of Show'"
(I want to know - is that for the best of just mine or all of the West Seattle Art Walk?!)

If you are interested in seeing my paintings in real life, they are display through October 7th at:

Windermere Real Estate
4526 California Ave SW

Seattle, WA 98116

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

I hung some of my paintings upstairs at a coffee shop in Ballard (northwest Seattle) today. They will be available to see through the end of July. Thank you to my friend, Sue Danielson (there is a link to her website on the page under 'Links') who curates the artwork for

Java Jahn's Coffee

1438 Leary Way NW, Seattle, WA 98107

206-789-9441

They are open M-F 5am to 6:30pm, S-S 7am to 7pm.

Stop by, have some great coffee, go upstairs and view the show.

Let me know what you think! Thanks.

I am so pleased to have them out in the world!