Sept 9 - Portland, OR

I took the train up to Portland and have a little over 24 hrs here before I fly out to Salt Lake City.  With the time crunch I wanted to catch as much as I could, so I'm limiting myself to just photographs while I'm in the city.

Portland was made for me to photo!  It's got that funky blend of modern sleek appeal with historic charm; I knew I was in trouble when I spotted three of my favourite browsing companies (because they're certainly out of my price range) with display windows right on the main streets for me to drool on.  I'm staying in the northwest part of the city - the Pearl District they call it - and within walking distance of some of the best attractions in the city.  I was commanded to Powell's Books, which is the largest privately owned bookstore, and just did my usual wandering around with camera in hand.  I should make a tee that says "Caution: tourist" across the back.

I'm also headed to the famous Rose Garden and perhaps the Japanese and Chinese gardens as well.  The sky is again overcast, but here's hoping the morning the fog will burn off a little bit!  As usual, click the photo to view the Portland photos . . . more coming soon!

Sept 9 - Roseburg, OR (artist favorites)

There were some amazing pieces created during the plein air event, and I wanted to share some of my favorite works before I left town and got sidetracked by other cities.  I neglected to write down titles and artists.

This first is an acrylic painting that just floored me--the artist is sketching with paint!  I saw this and thought to myself, "She's doing exactly what I want to do with the markers and pens with my rough sketch illustrations and exactly what I need to be doing with paint!"  Swaths and blocks of color and some line-work to add details where needed.  The eye and the brain fill in the rest.  LOVE IT!

A zoom of the detail.  LOVE!

Ditto the following.  The juror created a special award for this one and then bought it for himself!  Let me say that again: the COMPETITION JUDGE bought this painting . . . that's a major coup for the artist!

Detail

Despite my exuberant love of the above two paintings, the one I would have bought for myself (had I won prize money) is this pastel piece:

And then these are just some of my other favorites:

Acrylic

Pastel

Pastel

Roseburg, OR - Roseburg Painters (illustration)

This illustration was done as part of the plein air event during a "quick draw" session in downtown historic Roseburg.  We were given two hours to complete (and frame) a painting of any subject along a stretch of Jackson Street.  My goal here was to keep the viewer's eye moving back into the picture to suggest the long open space of a street but suggest a lot of energy and movement with very few details.

This one is my favorite of the four I did during the competition: it is exactly what I pictured it would be when I started.  The correct perspective was there, the figures were good, the lines were clean and energetic without being over-worked; it came together perfectly.

And people are loving this style!  I had about 6 people stop to comment on it while I was working during the competition, and later during the show several others told me they really loved this look.  You will definitely be seeing more of it.

Roseburg, OR - High Contrast View (illustration)

This was the third piece I worked on during the plein air event, and was really just something I did for fun and not for competition.  The intent of a plein air painting is to capture the correct tone, value, and contrast in light and shadow of a subject under natural (ever-changing) light conditions.  By the time I was looking for my third subject, I was hot, sweaty, getting tired, and really just wanting to do something fun.

The color-blocking appealed to a lot of people at the show though it doesn't follow the intent of plein air per se.  One person suggested I take this image (or the style, at least) and apply this to decorative tiles like what might be seen on a back-splash.  It's something I never thought of (but I like it!), so I'll mull the tile idea over and run some numbers once I'm back home.  Decorative tiling by Pencilated . . . has a nice ring to it.

Roseburg, OR - Cornflowers (illustration)

This is a mixed media of illustration marker and ink stick--after I thought about it, I realized I could've just called the medium "ink" and been done with it, but hey.  There was this GREAT ancient truck parked on the farm that had once been red but was so faded it was mostly bone white with red around whatever edges it had--there's a photo of it in the Roseburg album and you'll see it again in some other work once I'm back in the studio.

I'd picked up a packet of solid ink sticks the other day and thought I'd give them a try for the faded paint effect.

Yes, I said "give them a try."  I'd never used them before, had literally taken the cellophane off the box sitting right there during the competition, and tried them out on something I was planning on submitting in a show.  The jury here is still out on whether that was an incredibly stupid thing to do or an incredibly gutsy thing to do.  (Hint: it was an educated guess based on some experience with the same ink-solid in pencil form, so this artist would like to suggest the correct answer is "incredibly gutsy.")

Anyway, this piece earned accolades (but not awards) from some of the folks at the gallery, and I got a lot of compliments on it during opening night.  It's featured in the arts center "top 40" gallery for the event (out of about 160), which made my day!

Things that I like about this:  The high contrast between the warm colors on the top half and the cool colors on the bottom half.

Thing that I don't like about this: I should have used the dang rusty brown (instead of fire engine red that was closer to the real deal) to play down the truck and added in some cream tones to the background to make the white less bright.  Maybe include more weedy flowers with future attempts?  I don't know--but this has potential as a style.

Cornflowers.  Appx 8 x 10 in. (unframed), mixed media on paper.  $150 (framed) at UVAC.

Roseburg, OR - Hint of Fall (illustration)

Apologies for the picture-of-a-picture here (and in the next few posts); these had to be framed on site and dropped off for display within an hour of finishing them so I wasn't able to scan them as I've been doing with the other illustrations I've done on this trip.

This was my first sketch of the day for the plein air competition and although I've received some compliments for it, this was actually a flub for the day in my book.  I fell prey to the classic competition faux pas of second-guessing what I wanted to do and reigned it in to what I thought they (the juror, really) would want to see.  What I got was a sketch that didn't accomplish anything except disappointment in myself.  I wanted to do this in the ink wash and scribbley-pen overlay like I did with the butterflies or the Tin Roof sketches from Knoxville, and that's what I should have done!  I'll redo this when I get back home to the studio.

But, hey, if you really like this version, you can buy it for $150 (framed!) from the Umpqua Valley Arts Center in Roseburg, OR.

I'll work on my salesmanship in the meantime . . .

Sept 6 - Roseburg, OR (the plein air event)

So, so tired!

Today was a whirlwind of activity starting at about 7am and going right up until now (1030pm).  The weather was beautiful, the farm I worked on was beautiful, downtown was beautiful . . . the margaritas and designer cupcakes I ate with dinner were beautiful.

I did a total of four pieces today--I had to have them stamped, framed, and delivered to the art center within one hour of completion, so I don't have any scans of them to post.  Tomorrow I'll have photos of them from the display, though, so keep an eye out for those.

I didn't know what I was going to do when I started the competition this morning, so I did whatever felt right for the subject. The shed and tree at the entrance to the farm became a nice, calm ink illustration; the rough and tumble cornflowers against the aged truck became a roughed-in drawing in ink stick I applied with my fingers; the blowzy over-blown red begonias against the blue mountain ridge became a cartoon-like illustration; and the energy of the downtown street scene became that rough ink sketch style with a color wash I liked so much back in Nashville.  I'll redo a version of these once I get back home, too.

Anyway, enough of that--no sense talking about them if I can't share pictures of the art right now.  What I'm trying so unelegantly and unsuccinctly to say is that it was a busy day, I did some good stuff, I got a few pictures, I ate, I laughed . . . and I am exhausted!  Tomorrow we have a morning full of demos and more painting (non-competitive), and then at 5pm they announce the winners and open the display to the artists and the public.  The top forty pictures are displayed in the main hall of the arts center, and I'm hoping I get at least one picture chosen for that.  (Secretly, of course, I'm hoping I win the top prize cash pot, but I'll be really happy if someone buys something!  Heh.)

Okay, I'm falling asleep while I sit here, so without further ado I present to you a small selection of the photos I managed to take today while I wasn't scribbling away on paper.  Enjoy . . . and wish me luck for tomorrow!

Sept 5 - Roseburg, OR

This morning we (my hosts and I) had some time to kill before the plein air events started in the afternoon, so we drove up to Crater Lake to get in a little sight-seeing.  It was amazing--so blue!  And (oddly) I forgot to take the camera, so just pretend there's a bunch of lodge pole pines standing in front of an electric blue blue-screen (or one of the guys from the Blue Man Group) and that would be about the color intensity of the lake.  Just . . . wow.

We got back to town just in time to change clothes and clean up, then run back out for the event meet/greet and associated dinner.  I met the guest juror (Thomas Kitts) and talked to him for a bit, and met a lot of other really great people--most are here as competitors, though I'm trying not to think of the event that way.  He gave a short speech about the plein air process and (thankfully!) also gave us a heads up on what judging criteria he'll be looking for with our work.  I am the ONLY pencil/pen/ink artist here, so that made me feel better since I had been thinking there was NO chance I'd even be able to compete.

I don't even have a plan for any of my work, I'm just going to show up and let it roll.  I'm definitely feeling the high-contrast graphic vibe, though, so we'll see!

I'm not the only fish out of water, though, since there's a woman here who does encaustic paintings, and I hear she did really well last year.  I'm astounded that she's able to do her work in the field at all but apparently she has a whole rig set up in the back of a van, which has got to be a sight to see so you know who I'll be looking for once I'm done with my stuff!

Tomorrow I should have some photos to post--of my work, at least!

Here's how tomorrow will play out:

• 730am: Check in, get my papers time-stamped and start sketching/drawing/whatever.  I'll start at a nearby farm, though I have the option to also travel down to a local vineyard.
• 2pm: Whatever I've done, I get it time-stamped again and slap one-, two-, or three of my best pictures into frames and schlep them down to the arts center within one hour of the final time-stamp.  If I leave the farm location and go to the vineyard, I have to frame and deliver what I did to the art center before going back out to the vineyard.
• 3pm: If it's not at the art center by this time it won't be part of the judging.
• 4pm: Pencils ready for the quick-draw contest in downtown Roseburg!  We have about two city blocks roped off for the event, and we have two hours to do whatever we're going to do.  We can each only enter 1 picture from the quick-draw event for judging.
• 6pm: Pencils down!  Like the painting session earlier, I have to get the work checked out and framed before it's due back at the art center.  I have the chance to win a people's choice award with this one!
• 7pm: Deadline to have the quick-draw art delivered to the art center and then I'm sure I'll fall over asleep before I get back to the car.

There will be a bunch of artist demos on Friday morning while things are being judged (I'm hoping to catch a pastel demo), and then later that day they'll announce winners and hand out awards.  I win "furthest traveled" and I heard I'll get an award for that, which will be nice.  Maybe it'll be a gas card. . . heh!

Sept 4 - Roseburg, OR

Well, it seems to have been a few days since I last popped on to update my traveling blurbs.  The extended pit-stop in New Orleans really kinked up my art plans for the southwest and the west coast, and it was only yesterday that things settled back into place as planned.  I'll spare you the long version and skip straight to the short and sweet: I traveled.  A lot.  Then, I visited briefly with my family, and then I did more traveling.  Now I'm here in Oregon (also visiting with family) and it's beautiful and warm and sunny and I may never leave.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) begins the first day of the plein air competition that started this whole cross-country trip.  It's pretty much a meet and greet over dinner, official sign-in and name-tagging, etc; the real work starts at 7:30am on Thursday when we start the competition and quick-draw contests.  I'm entered in both events and have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing or how I'll be doing it . . .I'm just going to let the location and light talk to me once I get out there.

But, before I get too far ahead of myself, I owe you a couple of images from the last few days . . .