Saturday, 4/23/11: Shanon Playford

Thanks to guest writer Cameron Hawkey for today’s post.

Today I interview artist Shannon Playford. She’s wearing a white smock/lab coat streaked with paint strokes from reflexively wiping her brushes clean against her shoulder. Printout sheets of tornado pictures and self-portrait references litter the base of the easel, and she is sweeping the canvas with a fat wide brush, smoothing the smoky tornado clouds into a strange pink sky, and blurring her face, which gives the painting a surreal effect. She stops, steps outside, scrutinizes her painting through the storefront window, frowns, and comes back inside. It’s the only way she can get a distant look at her painting, and she does it often. I talk to her while she’s indoors.

About this series of paintings: “I’ve been doing these portraits for about a year. I used to paint on panels, but now I paint on canvas – the texture grabs more, so you can paint over other layers more easily without blending them together. I also paint pretty thin, which helps. There’s only so much oil painting I can do in one session, though, so I’ll take it home for another session, and add the more intense lights and darks.”

Why so many self-portraits? “I usually do self portraits just because I know what pose I want for reference. It doesn’t matter if it looks like me or not in the end. I’m wondering how much longer I’m going to want to paint myself like this, though [laughs]. In general younger faces attract me because I feel they have more of an open-ness, or transparency, to them. Although when I used to ride the bus, all I would draw were the old people.”

On smocks: “Sometimes I just wear a smock to let myself know that I’m working. Back when I didn’t have a studio, I would have to leave my apartment and walk around the block before coming back in to let myself know it was time to work.”

On doing your best: “When I was a kid and competing in a race, I would quit when I realized that I wasn’t going to make first or second place.”

How’s the weather? “The weather is terrible here! So bland. It’s a gray soup.”

On being a traditional painter in a seemingly digital world: “As a friend of mine put it: You cannot hunt your nature. Which is to say painting is what I want to do.”

The last picture below shows Shanon’s painting at the end of the day Saturday.  We’ll post an update with a picture of her finished work.  UPDATE:  The last picture shows Shanon’s finished painting.

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Wednesday, 4/20/11: Acey Thompson

Thanks to guest writer Sally Murdoch for today’s post.

Acey Thompson says she has almost always had a hard time staying still. Now in her final year at PNCA with her thesis proposal staring her down in just a few short weeks, the field of study she has chosen hits, literally, close to home. She is OK with being a dog artist amidst conceptual art students at PNCA, and for her thesis she has chosen to artfully depict a dog’s ability to be completely idle and zen-like, docile, blissful almost to the point of catatonic. She hopes to conduct this study starting with her two dogs at home, her pit bull Maggie and Catahoula leopard dog Jasper.

But there’s another reason the docile nature of dogs captures Acey’s heart and imagination; when she graduates this fall, she hopes to throw time and energy into softening the stigma against pit bulls. She hopes to do this through art, with exposing people to images of pit bulls with a partner out of LA, appropriately named Diamonds in the Ruff, a no-kill pet rescue shelter:

Last year, Acey’s painting of a Great Pyrenees dog lovingly arched over the shoulders of a woman fetched $250 at the final auction for An Artist a Day. One person liked it so much because it reminded her of her own dog, and when she was outbid, she later commissioned Acey to do a similar watercolor and ink rendering.

Today’s painting is her pit bull Maggie, who accompanied her on the journey to Portland five years ago. In the photo, Maggie, now nine, wears an expression that Acey loves and knows well. A recently finished watercolor of Maggie  is also on Acey’s homepage, and so realistic and detailed that many often mistake it for an oil panting.

Acey chose today’s photo for her Maggie’s expression as well as to capture two things she loves in her life: one is a sheer curtain with gold flecks and patterned with fleur de lys, giving the portrait a regal air. The other is an Afghani pillow that was once a dress her father brought back from the Middle East. The repurposed pillowcase, with its tiny mirrors and webby patterns, contributes to the colorful foreground of the painting.

Last summer, Acey took two classes at PCC that she says really broadened her horizons in her artistic adventure. One was a watercolor painting class taught by Theresa Redinger who shows at Blackfish Gallery. Redinger took students through technical basics such as color theory using a color wheel, stretching paper, and taking the palette from small primaries to larger ones. The other class was a soapstone carving class, which gave her newfound respect for rocks and polishing.

The supplies Acey uses are: Synthetic brushes from Da Vinci, Escoda, and Raphael. Her large porcelain palette is from Muse. Watercolors are M Graham and Sennelier, and paper is Arches 140 lb watercolor. The gouache is M Graham. Her elegant bamboo brush wrap is from Muse, and she is trying out a new wax crayon to save whites, a technique she gleaned from John Singer Sergeant. She’ll use pearlescent liquid acrylic for the details in the curtains and Maggie’s collar.   UPDATE:  The last picture shows Acey’s finished painting.

Click on thumbnails to see larger pictures.

Monday, 4/18/11: Carolynn Wagler

Thanks to guest writer Christina Hugo for today’s post.

Today Carolynn Wagler helped to bring spring to Portland with a watercolor of warm, vibrant, orangey tulips. It was a fitting subject as we sat in the window of Muse safe from the intermittent April showers.

Carolynn came ready with a light graphite sketch of her design, which was from a photograph she had taken at a tulip festival a few years back. It was an image she had been saving, waiting to give it new life in paint. After a few touch-ups with her pencil to define her lines, which would be the map for her piece, she began by masking her whites. Carefully identifying any white detail in her color photo, she mimicked these areas with masking fluid to repel paint and maintain her tulips’soft white tips. The plump blooms were then washed with a wide, wet brush followed by a sweep of lemon yellow. Carolynn then used a blow drier to set the yellow, and already the strong effect of the masking fluid was evident. Bright yellow tulips with sweet white highlights now filled much of the page. She told me that as she added more color the masking fluid would be scrubbed away to blend the white naturally into the petals.

Crimsons, golden oranges, and bluish purples gave the blooms dimension, texture and richness . Thin upward strokes of color brought out the veins and spines of the petals, while a water-charged brush diluted color in other places to give contour and shading, bringing it all slowly to life.

Carolynn used a test palette of watercolor paper painted with her original yellow to see how each new hue would appear layered on the last. On this tiny watercolor laboratory she discovered, through trial, error, and inquisitive patience how to coax her perfect purple from a neutralizing yellow background.

Carolynn has been painting with watercolors for 11 years, but has experience with acrylics and pastel as well. She says watercolor is her favorite because of its fluidity. She says she finds it “a thrill to see what you come up with through the nature of the water and pigment together.” Carolynn’s portfolio is filled with landscapes in all seasons, and expressive faces which portray emotion through bright eyes and flowing features. She is looking forward to painting some of the tropical flora she captured on film during a recent trip to Hawaii. Carolynn teaches pastel painting through Portland Parks and Recreation and she is a member of the Portland Fine Arts Guild.

The last picture below shows Carolynn’s painting at the end of the day Monday (with watercolor paper still taped to board).  We’ll post an update with a picture of the finished piece.  UPDATE:  The last picture below shows Carolynn’s finished painting.

Click on thumbnails to see larger pictures.

Wednesday, 4/13/11: Shawn Demarest

Shawn Demarest set up her French-style easel today with her palette positioned on the drawer of her easel between her canvas and her chair.  To her left, she set up her photographic reference as though she were sitting outdoors viewing her subject to the side of her easel.  Her painting today was inspired by a night-time photo she’d taken of traffic crossing the Ross Island Bridge south of downtown Portland.   Shawn has spent a lot of time painting outdoors on location, or “en plein air.”  This experience has helped her develop skills very useful to painters — quickly taking in a scene and making creative decisions about how to depict forms, light, and colors; selecting and mixing paints from a limited and harmonious range of colors; and choosing the appropriate level of detail to convey the mood and movement of a specific place and time.

Over the past year, a greater amount of Shawn’s work has occurred inside her studio.  Painting indoors has allowed her to keep making paintings during our long, wet winter and as enabled her to work on more pieces at a time when preparing for shows.  Painting in her studio also allows more time to work on each piece without having to worry about changing light or packing up at the end of the day.  With more time to focus on each painting, she can take breaks to get some distance from her work and reflect on the direction her work is taking.

Shawn is inspired by the scenes and places she sees every day in her Southeast Portland neighborhood.   When she’s planning a piece that she will work on indoors, Shawn likes to take photos outdoors that capture a special view or moment.  Her plein air background enables her to keep these special moments fresh and alive in her paintings, even when working indoors away from her subjects.

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Wednesday, 4/6/11: Christopher B. Mooney

Thanks to guest writer Sally Murdoch for today’s post

Last year Christopher B. Mooney brought his oil painting talents to a canvas at An Artist A Day with one subject firmly implanted; Portland bridges. While his picturesque painting of the Interstate Bridge captured the event’s highest bid at $510, this year he comes to Muse with an entirely new study; portraits of people.

Currently living in SE Portland, Mooney is still open to paint the arches, beams and girders of Portland’s bridges that held his imagination for two decades. However, he feels he has taken urban landmark painting as far as it could go. “I have accomplished my mission,” he says. “And painting people is an entirely new chapter for me.”

Mooney cites two reasons for the subject change last year; The first is economic, and with a number of commissions already completed, has proven to be a good move. And second, there’s an abundance of material in painting people and their facial expressions, which was limited when he depicted bridges.

Today, Mooney’s subject is Lavonne Russell, a fellow artist he met in the Portland Social Artists Guild who popped in to Muse while Mooney began painting. He is using many of M. Graham’s oil paints in his palette. He begins with unbleached titanium (from the Harding oil line) for the flesh tones and blends in burnt sienna for facial structure. He begins with the eyes, and then moves to the nose and mouth, working the opposite of some artists who use large blocks and shapes in painting faces.

He painted Russell’s face from a contrasty photograph. Mooney chose Russell and her photo because he liked her unique facial expression and would be able to play up the highlights and shadows in the photo. He was looking forward to using techniques in the style of Caravaggio and Eugene Delacroix.

One technique that works well for Mooney is turning his portraits to the side and upside down as recommended in Betty Edwards seminal tome Drawing on the Right side of the Brain. “When I’m involved in something for so long,” he said, “sometimes turning it to another angle will help me see more abstractly and make sure I get the eyelashes, eyebrows, and curvature of the mouth just right.” For his career and switch to portraiture, Mooney also calls upon his degrees in illustration and photography from Parsons New School for Design.

Mooney begins his commissioned portraits by meeting his subject or commissioner at a comfortable coffee spot with good lighting. He can either paint from a photo or do rough sketches while meeting. He then uses Camera Obscura techniques in getting proportions right through projection. Some of his pieces are as large as 4 feet by 5 feet and have been displayed in the vaulted staircases of stately NW homes for sale.

When not painting or studying art history, Mooney dances in ballroom events and takes dance classes. His finished portraits range in price anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000, available here through Christopher’s website. You can bid on his piece today for a fraction of the price, starting at only $75!

On May 6^th, Christopher B. Mooney will be the guest artist at Portland artist Kristin Fritz’s studio from 4 to 7 pm.

Click on thumbnails to see larger pictures.

Saturday, 4/2/11: James Franssen

Thanks to guest writer Mesha Koczian for today’s post

James sketches realistic portraits of people and animals. He starts by projecting the image onto his paper (vellum-surface bristol) and sketches the outline and major highlight spots. He uses a soft charcoal pencil with a smudge stick and a kneaded eraser to achieve the varying shades that occur in real life. The charcoal is layered up and taken away creating depth. He goes over the image after covering it in charcoal and adds the fine highlights and details.

James enjoys using charcoal because it’s easy to use and is relatively cheap to buy. He prefers charcoal to graphite because it doesn’t shine. Instead of reflecting light, it seems to absorb it. “Horses are my favorite subject right now, next to people, because I just started to draw them,” explains James. He covers the shape in charcoal with basic shading first then goes over it and defines the shadows and highlights. He uses the smudge stick to spread the medium adding a little along the way. “I like to add the major highlights later,” says James.

“I like to draw from pictures instead of real life because I don’t like to divide up my work into sessions,” He explains, “Sometimes I’ll sit and work on a drawing for 14 hours straight or until it’s done.” According to James, he’s still learning and is just getting the hang of charcoal as he’s only been working with it for 5 years. He hopes to keep learning and experimenting with new techniques and mediums.

(see COMMENTS  below for some clarifications and additional information from James)

Click on thumbnails to see larger pictures.

Thursday, 4/29/10: Christopher Mooney

Thanks to guest writer Sally Murdoch for today’s post:

You could say Christopher B. Mooney is a fan of Portland’s bridges. As the focal point of almost all of his oil painting work, he says bridges “stand for achievement and they frame the landscape of a city. They’re ubiquitous and they’re critical to the city, to commerce, and communities and they bring them together. I think it’s amazing people can build these structures.”

When talking to him and glancing through his portfolio, it’s obvious he has gained unique access to many bridge vantage points. The paintings also trigger experiences he’s had while gaining access to these bridges. One image of the St. John’s Bridge shows the structure in the mid-90’s and a pastoral East bank, both of which would only be accessible from the water. Turns out Christopher had snapped this photo from the deck of a Vancouver BC to Portland Holland America cruise liner, and this became an oil painting years later.

Similarly, his image peering through the Broadway Bridge toward McCormick Pier was one shot many years ago that had him perched on the underside of the bridge. “I could never capture that shot again post-9/11,” he said. The image however, circulated in various homes and businesses through the Rental Sales Gallery at the Portland Art Museum until it finally sold almost a decade after it was painted.

Another fond memory was a recent one in December 2009 in which he was able to tag along with Portland bridge maintenance crews on their fortnightly lubrication mission on the bearings on the Hawthorne Bridge.

A Parsons New School for Design graduate with a BFA in illustration and a minor in photography, Christopher recently quit his job as a picture framer to devote his career to art. Today’s project is the Interstate Bridge which he paints using a time-honored technique using a “cartoon,” that has been in use since frescoes were painted in the Renaissance. The cartoon is essential in getting the scale right from large to small or vice versa, so once he has a photo, he scores it with a grid by hand. This gives the final painting some trueness in proportion as the artist is able to break the piece down into tiny squares.

He is also using M. Graham oil paints in his palette. Christopher has many works at the Rental Sales Gallery, and most paintings take him a number of days to complete. They range in price anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000 for a larger piece, available here: http://christopherbmooney.com/ Or here: http://portlandartmuseum.org/visit/rsg/artists/Christopher-B-Mooney/

His favorite in Bridgetown? The Marquam Bridge, he says. “When you’re heading north on that upper deck of I-5 and you’re coming down the hill around the turn, the city is to your left. You feel as if you’re flying like a bird.”

The last image shows Chrisopher’s painting at the end of the day Thursday.  We’ll post an update with a picture of his finished piece.

Monday, 4/26/10: Anna Magruder

Thanks to guest writer Kinoko for today’s post.

Five years ago Anna Magruder reinvented her style through oil painting. Following a career in graphic design with illustration in acrylics, Anna found in oils a medium that would allow her to carefully carve out and develop a personal stylized representation of images. Through pale honey hues and rich peacock, Anna tells stories in oil paint.

Today she painted from an old photograph. She uses found pictures of the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s & 70’s. Sepia and grayscale portraits are transformed into surreal characters with delicate skin tones and telling eyes. These are strong men, women and sometimes animals. A pair of youthful women standing side by side in nostalgic lemon and blue dresses was her subject today. She groomed them from the photographic muse into wide eyed, imaginary illustration. ”I find the ones that grab me and fall in love with them,” she admitted about the pictures.

Her work is pleasing to look at as it carries a timeline and an event. Confident gazes, a muted palette and balanced consistency are reliable in her work. Beyond the figure and the subject are such subtleties in color offering hints of hue through the use of unbleached titanium and rose grey. Her use of Gamblin Galkyd Lite enables her to paint smooth, glossed brush lines with an especially buttered appearance while they are wet on the canvas. Informational details such as pattern and hairstyle in her portraits stand as clues to time period and add social posture to her characters.

Anna lives in Portland, where she paints from a North East studio. Her work is online annamagruder.com Currently her work is solo at East Bank Commerce Center on SE Water St. and in a group show titled ‘Rainy Day Wild Fire’ at Olympic Mills Commerce center. Through May Anna Magruder’s prints will display at Cricket Café.

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Monday, 4/19/10: Acey Thompson

Thanks to guest writer Sally Murdoch King for today’s post

Pasadena native Acey Thompson is a PNCA student who’s quick to recognize teachers, jobs, friends and family members who have helped shape her emerging career as an artist. She remembers aspects about her childhood too that helped her grow; She spent an entire hazy LA summer copying every Sir John Tenniel illustration in Alice in Wonderland she stumbled upon at age 7. She remembers the art teacher who showed her how to add salt to a watercolor wash at age 10 and the eye-opening effect of “starry patches” left behind. She resisted taking a Japanese brushstroke and calligraphy course in 10^th grade and then gave in only to not want to take any other classes but brushstroke ones. And she remembers one time as a 4 year old where she spent an afternoon laying out plastic spoons in an artful pattern on her living room floor. When she was done, she collapsed in exhaustion, and her mother later told her that the energy her daughter put into her project showed she was destined to be an artist.

Acey’s medium of choice is watercolor, although some teachers, such as Anne Johnson, her Intermedia Painting professor at PNCA, try to steer her to other mediums out of her comfort zone. Acey says Johnson helps her explore her subjects’ environment and pushes her to explore the atmosphere while taking the time to capture the room, the windows and the light as well as her subjects. Acey began painting with watercolors as a 10 year old and since her dad was an amateur calligrapher, “there were lots of ink bottles laying around the house” to dabble in. She likes the spontaneity to watercolors, the lack of drying time and of course the price, pointing out that you can get a good set for a few dollars that can last forever.

Acey has a passion that is inescapable when you view her portfolio and the painting she was creating today: dogs. As a youth she had a family dog and friends would raise funds for the Humane Society. However it wasn’t until she was 17 that her canine appreciation kicked into high gear while working at Three Dog Bakery in LA, a bakery chain that specializes in edible treats for pups. Her interaction with animals over three years of working here expanded her love for dogs, and at 21 she moved to Portland with her pitbull Maggie. Acey’s work has been commissioned for album covers for bands such as New York’s For Every Story Untold, and up and comers Matt Taylor and his Laurels. She has also done commissioned pet portraits and works part time at Lazy Dog Crazy Dog in Montavilla.

Today’s painting began with a vintage photo Acey says has been popping up in various places over the past three years. She first saw it on Flickr, then Facebook, then Tumblr, among other spots. She decided to print it out, not knowing the name of the photographer or the subject, only that it is a vintage image of a woman with a retriever/Great Pyrennees wrapped around her neck like a stole. She began with watercolors, and then to achieve the blacker blacks used a bottle of Chroma brand India ink from Muse Art and Design.

Monday, 4/12/10: Corrine Loomis-Dietz

Corrine Loomis-Dietz is a painter, photographer, and mixed-media artist who brings a wealth of both creativity and technical know-how to her work.  In addition to her own work as an artist, Corrine is part of the GOLDEN Working Artist Program and leads many workshops about creative uses of acrylic paints and mediums.  For Corrine, knowledge is creative freedom. Her extensive knowledge of the properties of acrylic gels, polymers, and paints allows her to approach her work with confidence and playfulness.  Whatever she can imagine, she can realize on her canvas.  When she gets a new inspiration or decides to change direction in a piece, she has an unlimited repertoire of techniques to draw from so she can go wherever her imagination leads her.

Today, Corrine created some image transfers and “glued” them onto a solid-colored background with clear acrylic gel.  The process of image transfers basically involves painting clear acrylic onto a laser copy, letting the acrylic dry, and scrubbing off the paper to leave a clear “skin” that retains the image.  Corrine used her own photographs as imagery.

Other techniques Corrine used as she worked included using a palette knife to spread a thickly textured mix of acrylic paint and acrylic gel; swirling acrylic airbrush colors into Golden Clear Tar Gel to create glass-like twists of color; and tinting her image transfers with transparent glazes of paint mixed with acrylic polymer.  An excellent resource on these and many other techniques with acrylic paints and mediums is the book Rethinking Acrylic by Patti Brady, which includes an artist profile on Corrine’s work with image transfers –available at Muse Art and Design (currently on order).

Of all our guest artists this month, Corrine has traveled the farthest to take part in “An Artist A Day.”   She’s a resident of the Salem area, and is very active in her community supporting art education and cultural organizations.  She hopes to encourage artists and others in the Salem area to put together an event similar to “An Artist A Day” in the future!

Friday, 4/9/10: John Fisher

John Fisher was our guest today at Muse Art and Design. He painted a landscape in oils. A transplant from the Midwest, John enjoys painting wide-open vistas with uncluttered horizons and dramatic skies. Some of his favorite local spots to find such scenes are Sauvie Island and the wine country to the south of Portland. He likes to capture light and mood in his paintings, especially in the contrasts and colors of the clouds. As he painted today, he commented several times on the changing light outside and the interesting clouds we’ve had lately. His work shows his attention to and awareness of these aspects of nature.

John had prepared his canvas yesterday by mapping out some dark and light values and some beginning hints of warm and cool accents. He continued today with layering color onto this background, creating trees, foreground, clouds, and sky. He worked with a limited palette of colors, and for the most part mixed his paints directly on his canvas as he worked. To give shape and lighting effects to features on the ground, he worked mostly with small brushes, and often with thicker paint. In the sky, he used larger brushes for blending and thinner applications of paint. He also wiped paint off the canvas at times to create highlights by revealing colors from earlier layers.

For his painting today, John referred to photos that he had taken at Sauvie Island last fall. He also does plein air paintings (onsite outdoors). Often, his plein air paintings will be in watercolors. Some of these watercolor paintings result in finished works, and some become studies for larger, more detailed oil paintings. For oil paintings that he does in his studio, John usually waits a number of months and adds a final layer of transparent glazes that add mood and more effect of light in his work. Today, he skillfully included those features within one afternoon!

Sunday, April 26: Erika Lee Sears

Erika worked today with oil colors on wooden panel.  She had already started her piece with a yellow underpainting and some elements of an initial drawing.  She had done these first steps several days ago so that they would be fully dry when she came in today.  She used some alkyd medium with her paint in the first layer to help it dry faster.  The medium also made the paint hold high points and brush strokes, so some texture will show through her other layers.
Erika had taken photograph of an old truck on a wooded road that she used for reference and inspiration.  The colors in the photograph were fairly gray and muted with a sunlit sky.   Where the yellow underpainting shows through the other layers, it will bring some of the sunny warmth into the painting, so most of the layers Erika added today brought out the more muted tones.  Erika started by covering the background in the sky area with translucent white, then placed some of the shapes and lines she needed for her trees.  Next, she mixed and worked in shades of grays, greens, and blues for the road, truck, grass, and patches of blue sky. By the end of the afternoon, much of Erika’s scene had taken shape.
Erika will continue her painting by completing trees and other foliage along with more details and shading to the truck and street.  Erika’s paintings often have a high degree of fine detail and always convey a specific sense of mood and feeling in her settings.  We’re eager to see these elements continue to come together in her finished work!

Update, 5/02:  Erika’s finished piece (last picture) really came to life with the additional work she did.  Although the basic elements of the scene were apparent at the end of one sitting, the depth, dimension, light, and mood show up in the final layers!