Image Odysseys

The Watercolor Society of Oregon Spring Convention is coming to Albany, April 5,6, and 7.
A description of the many events can be found in the Watermark, our newsletter - http://www.watercolorsocietyoforegon.com/pdf/2013.02.watermark.pdf.
The public is invited to the opening reception for the exhibit at Albany City Hall, Saturday, April 6 from 4:30-6:00 to see the excellent show. Eighty-three paintings will be on display.

Thursday night, OPB aired a segment on the Albany carousel. It did a great job of showing the carvers and the animals that have been carved, as well as ones still being carved.
The show will be shown again tonight (Oct. 28) on Oregon Art Beat’s repeat showing at 6:00 pm. Or, another option is watching the show online at http://www.opb.org/programs/artbeat/episodes/view/1404 . The carousel segment is about halfway through the episode.

Here are a few photos I took of some of the carousel animals.

"Cheyenne"

"Dragon"

"Quigga, the Quagga"

The next stop on our recent trip was Painted Hills, a unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The hills have amazing shapes and color as can be seen in the photos below (click on the image for a larger view).

Last week we took a trip to northeastern Oregon. Here are some photos from the first day along the way at Crooked River Canyon, north of Redmond, Oregon.

Sunday night I went to a very enjoyable show opening at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum at the University of Oregon. The show consists of 65 images made by Eugene artist, Linda Lasker. There are oil pastels, charcoal drawings, plate and stone engraving prints and other media depicting women ranchers in the US West. Along with the variety of media, there is a wide variety of image sizes, from small pencil sketches of a few inches to oil pastels and charcoal drawings about 3′x5′ (1×1.5m). The show is well worth a visit. More info can be found at the Museum’s site or on this PDF.
The excellent charcoal drawings in the exhibit have prompted me to pull out some charcoal pencils that I had not used yet and re-familiarize myself with the medium.

The 7th Annual Community Show at the Giustina Gallery at Oregon State University will run from July 5 – August 28. The reception will be held on July 26 from 5pm – 7pm. http://oregonstate.edu/lasells/gallery
My painting below, “To Distant Peaks”, will be in the show. It is acrylic paint on a wood panel, 16″x20″ (41x51cm). Much of the paint is iridescent which doesn’t show up well in the photograph. It is much more interesting to see the actual painting, so please stop by and take a look. There will be plenty of good artwork to see.

"To Distant Peaks"

This Sunday, May 20, there’s an annular solar eclipse, partial in our area of Oregon and  beginning about 5pm. Be sure to watch shadows, especially from trees and vegetation for interesting and unusual patterns. They could make for some interesting photographs and art ideas.

Some links to more info:
NASA
OMSI
Wikipedia

I’ll be at the Corvallis Arts Guild meeting on Monday, May 7 to give a presentation on Textures in Painting, Real and Implied. Various techniques and materials will be discussed, including making a variety of stamps and painting with them, and collaging with hand-made papers and flower petals.

Finally getting to the final stage of the collage…

After getting the paper surface covered with petals and letting the acrylic matte medium dry, I like to lay things out enough to get a feel for where I will place petals to comprise the main subject of the collage. In this case I have laid out petals without adhering them.

I got ideas for the image and pose from a studio drawing that I made,  but I changed the pose considerably while I was applying the petals.

I found during the layout that I wanted to add some different petals of nearly the same value as the back ground at the bottom of the page. This gives some depth and added complexity without being distracting.

The shine in the above image is due to the matte medium being wet. Since it is a matte medium, the shine disappears when it dries, as can be seen in the upper part of the collage.

Below is the collage with the figure added. Unfortunately the images taken during the application of the petals did not come out well. I had hoped to show more of the process, but hopefully this will give enough info to get you started on your own collage or at least understand more of the process that goes into this kind of artwork.

In the previous two posts, I talked about gathering flower petals and pressing them for collage. This time, the actual collage process begins. I like to use 7 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ squares of heavy watercolor paper (300lb cold press) for these collages. The paper is expensive, but you can get 12 sheets out of the full size 22″ x 30″ watercolor paper by cutting it to these squares.  I use acrylic matte medium as an adhesive and inexpensive, fairly stiff bristle brushes to apply the medium and brush the petals flat into place. You can see these tools and materials along with some clematis petals, a bowl for the medium and some water to moisten the brush in the two photos below (click on the images to see larger versions).

As you can see in the next two photos, the top and underside of the petals can differ in color and value, so that is something to keep in mind while placing the petals.

Clematis petals – top

Clematis petals – underneath

In the collage I will make for this post, I’ll first cover the entire 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 sheet with petals to serve as a background. Below, I have painted acrylic matte medium on a section of the paper large enough to cover the area where the first petal will be placed. Then I paint more medium on top of the petal to seal it to the surface.

I continue across the sheet, placing petals to cover the surface, watching the pattern that is created. In the corners, plenty of medium needs to be used so the petals will not pull free of the surface. It’s the trickiest place on the sheet.

The petals are adhered in rows until the sheet is covered. While wet, the petals still have a shine.

You’ll notice that I let the petals overhang the edge to make sure the surface is covered. Once the matte medium on the petals is dry, the shine disappears and the petals appear matte rather than glossy. It is possible to use a gloss acrylic medium if a glossy surface is preferred.

When the medium has dried, I trim the petals at the edges before continuing with the collage. (The collage is sitting on top of a sheet of illustration board in this photo.)

Next time – Collaging the subject….