Oaks Park Skating Rink

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Skating Rink 1
Oaks Park Series
Acrylic on Canvas Board
11 x 14

I have a very ambitious project in mind involving a Hopper-esque painting of some ladies behind the counter at the old Oaks Park skating rink. In the meantime, as a warm up, I'm doing a few atmospheric paintings from the same venue. Here's one of disco lights reflecting on the wood surface of the rink, along with some plastic balls they put out for the kids to play with.

Kitchen at Kam Wah Chung: A New Painting

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Kitchen at Kam Wah Chung
Acrylic on Canvas Board
11 x 14 inches

As some of you know, I'm writing a book of poetry that features the voices of 5 characters who settled the American West. One of those characters is Ing Hay, a Chinese immigrant who made his home in John Day, Oregon. In March, I took a trip to John Day to see his home, a store known as Kam Wah Chung.

Kam Wah Chung is now a museum. It was formerly a store, doctor's office, and pharmacopia run by Ing Hay and his business partner Lung On from about 1890-1950. These men were only teenagers when the arrived from Taishan County, ready to mine gold on "Gold Mountain." They arrived to find the gold mines largely played out, so Lung On turned his hand to business, and Ing Hay to medicine. They became business partners and lifelong friends.

Stepping into Kam Wah Chung is like stepping into history. The walls are lined with smoke-stained red paper, the shelves are lined with comestibles and herbal remedies from 100 years ago. I wasn't allowed to take flash photography, but the curator shone a flashlight on items I wanted to take pictures of.

This painting depicts the wok and tea kettle that Ing Hay used to prepare traditional Chinese food and drink for Lung On and their many boarders. Here is the photograph:


If you ever get a chance to visit Kam Wah Chung, you won't forget it.

Frist Apartment at Tivoli: A New Painting

AVAILABLE
First Apartment at Tivoli
Acrylic on Canvas Board
11 x 14 inches
$100

On the banks of the Hudson River, in the heart of Dutchess County, New York, lies the little Village of Tivoli. This is where my sister chose to make her home during the first year of her marriage. This painting depicts two of the earliest possessions of that marriage--a pair of blue lawn chairs.

I love painting objects that are overlooked in life, but beautiful when objectified. The most challenging parts of this painting were rendering the chair material transparent, and making all of the lines of the chair legs line up properly. I always fall in love with my paintings, and this one is no exception.

Here, for your enjoyment, the painting in all of its various stages:


Above: I've roughed in the basic shapes and colors. I like it already.


Above: Things are starting to look solid. The chair lying on its side is wrong, all wrong.


Above: Okay, now we are getting somewhere. The chairs are starting to look like they are the same size.


Above: Almost done, just a few tweaks left to make. Man, getting those chair legs to line up properly was a b****.

Above: Once again, the final painting.

Painting an "Inchie"

When you make hundreds and hundreds of one-inch-sized works of art (inchies), the question inevitably arises--what do I do with these? A friend suggested I make large paintings of them. Sounded good to me, so today I made a 12 x 12 painting of a 1 x 1 inchie.

Here is the 1 x 1 inchie:


And here is the 12 x 12 painting (due to the size of my scanner, you aren't getting the full painting, but this is pretty close:


I liked how it started to look like a landscape painting, so I decided to leave out the diagonal yellow lines, even though those are what attracted me to this inchie in the first place.

Howells: The evolution of a painting

AVAILABLE
Howells
Acrylic on canvas board
11 x 14
May 2008
$100

I've been wanting to do a series of Oregon City paintings, focusing on industry, business, and decline. I'm really attracted to the retro signage and buildings we have all over this little town. I've already photographed several of the subjects I want to paint, and I completed the first painting yesterday (above). Here is the evolution of the painting:


Here you see the painting in its very earliest stage, as well as the photo I'm working from. At this stage, I have roughed in the basic shapes and lines.


In stage 2 (above), I'm thinking more about volume and color, trying to work the entire canvas simultaneously.


In stage 3, I realize the perspective is off for the building roofline. I'm going to have to make some changes to the lines that are holding up the sign. I'm worrying a lot about how to make the lines and the metal look like lines and metal.

Here again is the final painting. I'm really happy with the composition and the sign itself. Not thrilled with the way the metal finishes turned out, but it's enough this time.

Inchies

Ya'll, I am obsessed. I first heard about inchies on http://www.craftster.org/. They are little one inch square pieces of art. You can pretty much make 'em any way you want, but from what I can tell, most people use a collage technique. Right away, I wanted to try making some. So I made a set of about 100 using a map of the Pearl District (Portland's arts district), some scrapbooking paper, and some handwritten messages I collected from the women who were with me at the scrapbooking weekend. Here's a sampling of the result (affixed to a notebook with brads):

Once I got into these, I realized they are all about RANDOMNESS for me. So much of my art is about control--making the image perfect--making the line just the way I want it--trying to get the light right. But the way I make inchies, I have no control over the final image, and each little square that comes out is a little miracle of composition, line and color. Of course they don't ALL turn out that great, but out of 100, you might get 25 really great images.

So I made some more (4 of 100):

And then some more (4 of 100): Then, I went to Chicago for the GREAT ART WEEKEND (more on that in a separate post), where I collected found paper all wekend, and created some more. In fact, if you look at the first picture on this posting, you will see approximately 540 Chicago inchies in progress. Here are a few complete Chicago inchies:

If you don't get it by now, you probably never will. But that's okay; I'll be making enough for both of us. However, if you want to make some, here's a tutorial on craftster: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=211483.0;images

Mommy and Son Project

Duncan has been home from pre-school a lot this week. On Tuesday, I suggested we make a Robot. I was thinking about some construction paper and glue. But no. He had a particular Robot in mind--the one from a book his dad likes to read him called Le "Manitoba" ne Repond Plus by Herge (he's the same guy who does Tin Tin). So, we find the book and start making the robot. I cut out the shapes while Duncan picks out and glues on the buttons for the eyes, nose and mouth. Sometime while we are working, Duncan says, "Let's make all the stories that the robot is in." After some clarification, I realize he wants to make the whole picture, not just the robot. So, we get started on the porthole with three fish (he mostly glues it together while I do the drawing and cutting), the boy, and the girl. Duncan lost interest about 1/2 way through the girl, but I compulsively had to finish her anyway. Now, Duncan says, "we still have to do the monkey." Here's what the actual book looks like:

Slow Going Part Deux: Still Going

I am still working on the painting for my handy man friend (though he has probably forgotten my name by now). It is for his daughter Sophie, so my little hippo (who will be wearing a tutu en fin) is named. . . wait for it. . . Sophie. It's a terrible photo--blurry and the color's too green, but at least you can see the progress since the previous slow going post. Jeremy, if you're out there, I'll try to finish it before she graduates from college.

The Little Trailer that Could

This trailer was sitting by the side of the road on my drive home. Everytime I passed it, it screamed out to me, "Notice me, photograph me, paint me." So I did. About one week later, after having sat there for years, the trailer, along with all the other accumulated detritus in the yard, disappeared.

I've since taken photos of several trailers on my street, just in case there is a trailer Rapture in which all the quirky vehicles on Livesay Road suddenly disappear into the heavens leaving patch after patch of dead, yellowed grass where they once stood. Here are just a few:

Mini Masterpieces

I've been working on some tiny paintings: 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

The Swirl

2.5 x 3.5

acrylic on canvas

. My favorite shape has always been a swirl. This one turned out kind of cosmic.

The Tulip

2.5 x 3.5

acrylic on canvas

This one is based on a sketch I did many years ago. I guess I've been drawing these same two shapes, the tulip and the swirl, as long as I can remember. What's that about?

Argh!

The image above is a hand-carved stamp I made using a linoleum block. I then aged and stamped a blank notebook to create a cool pirate journal.

Slow Going

Well, it's been a long time since I posted, mostly because my art has taken a backseat to finishing my book of poetry, which is due to the publisher at the beginning of May. I do have a work in progress. I guess I can post a picture of it, though it's very rough at this point. Here it is:

Sophie, a commission for my friend Jeremy's daughter.

It has actually progressed a little further since this sketch, but not a lot. The color scheme is very Marie Antoinette, and the little girl is a hippo in her birthday tutu. I'm not sure when I'll finish it. I'm going out of town to give a talk on children's book illustrators (see my other blog for more info). When I get back, hopefully, I'll get a little further on Sophie. I've also been kind of obsessed with paper crafts lately, since I went scrapbooking the other day and then found the website craftster.

Merry Christmas 2007

Every year, my family decorates Christmas cookies. We like to add nontraditional forms to the mix--this year we had an elephant, a pig, and a dog in addition to the usual holiday shapes. I thought I would share my favorite cookies with you on the blog. After all, these are art, kind of.

Ballerina Reindeer

Paris Hilton Angel

Bento: A New Painting

I just completed a new painting for a group show with the Three Rivers Artist Guild. The show is entitled The Art of Food, and I've been chairing the committee to get the show organized. I had ambitious ideas about a painting of a sushi chef I know who works at the local Market of Choice, but in a pinch, I ended up doing this variation on a still life. I am intrigued with bentos in general because they are, inherently, works of art. This is a fantasy bento--rather than painting one from real life, I looked at hundreds of photos of bentos and chose the contents I thought were most beautiful in combination with each other. The painting is acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 9 inches unframed. A painting like this takes me at least 20 hours, not including the time spent researching/referencing and composing the sketch. I'm quite happy with the finished painting.

Sketches from the Italian Countryside

My recent visit with Barb Blumer got me reminiscing about our trip to Italy back in 1999. It was my first experience with plein air landscape painting, as well as my first experience using oils. Barb always reminds me about how excited one of the teachers got about my drawings, and I always remind her how excited one of the teachers got about her compositions. Anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and scan those old charcoal drawings in and post them on the blog so Barb could see them again. They're not so great after all. But they're not so bad either. I've got two poems I wrote about this trip to Italy. Maybe I'll post them on the blog.

You can see Barb's awesome paintings at http://www.barbarahallblumer.blogspot.com/

I've been busy working on my book of poems, as well as getting a new wall and flooring put in to make my studio fabulous. I'll post pictures when the work's all done.

Nadine's Kitchen

Boy, this one has been tough! I'm not sure it's totally there yet, but time to move on to the next. One thing I borrowed from David Hohn's teaching--if the composition is static, try turning the picture on an angle. What do you know--it works.

Nadine Illustrations

I thought I'd post an illustration in process to show how I'm creating these. I start with a basic sketch, then I add on as I go, building up layers of paper. The last thing to go in is the paper for the walls and floor. I won't decide what they will look like till the very end. This is a very fun process.

New Illustrations Started

Okay, I've broken through to the other side, and thanks to Antonia's permission, I've allowed myself to start using collage for the illustrations for Nadine. Hurray! I've actually started. Here's the first look at what Nadine (the book) will look like. Retro illustrations using cut paper. I'm loving it.

A Scene from Froggy Went A-Courtin' from Thumbnail to Finished (almost)

Well, my class has been over for several weeks now, and I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever finish the painting. I thought I'd go ahead and show the finished work here, so you can see how the concept evolved from thumbnail sketch to a finished (almost) piece of art.



Stage 1 (above) was the thumbnail sketch. Here you see the main elements--the three cats peering into the hollow tree. This thumbnail was done with tracing paper and a pencil, then marker over top that.

Above, you see a more finished sketch. Here we have all of the characters taking shape. This sketch was created on a large sketchpad with colored pencil, then revised several times with tracing paper.



Above is the value study. This was completed with color pencil on white paper. I had a really tough time with this stage.

Finally, the finished art begins to emerge. Painted on Bristol Board using acrylics. The light still isn't quite right, and the highlights need to be put in on the cats, but I like the way the scene has come together. Also, you can see the color palate I would work with for the entire book. Will this ever be a book? Depends on my ability to pitch it to a publisher. I think I'll have an easier time with it if I already have a few books under my belt.

CD Cover Art for Dad's CD

My dad, Bruce Jennings, just recorded a 2-disc CD of music that he used to sing to my sister and I when we were young. The title of the CD is, appropriately, When We Were Young. Duncan listens to it every night when he goes to bed. He calls it "Grandpa Bruce Music." I wanted to do cover art that would feel very fun and modern, but would evoke the era I was raised in--the 70s. I took inspiration from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, as well as a dress fabric I saw in Star Magazine recently. I'm really happy with the way the project turned out.