Pottery at Blue Whole

Some new work at blue Whole.

Ned's Demo

B

Draw with a brush ,get the shapes and colors with out the detail ..It was a beautiful day,  low tide at Salt Creek.

Just had a wonderful three hot sunny days Pein Air painting with the Ned Mueller Workshop and a wonderful group of painters.  Training my brain see value in the "open air" using oil was a challenge. Just being outside setting up and trying to get more paint on the picture and less on me was a project.
      The Fine Art Center Show which was much too short ,due to wet oil paintings returning home with their owners (impossible to ship them) was really inspiring.  Big  applause to the Fine Art Center and Susan Spar for organizing and bringing  plein-air to the peninsula.
 

Blackberries Blue Whole First Friday

    Blackberries will be shown along with Kalaloch Beach-watercolor,  Late Flight- mixed media semi abstract, Sequim Haying Time - watercolor, Continuance- oil monotype and Squawk on the Dock- watercolor will be shown at Blue Whole in September. Come enjoy First Friday.

Making an Owl Vase

First the shape is pulled on the wheel

The ears are pinched shut, an air hole is pierced  and the "owl" is left to stiffen

Feather -like texture , eyes, a beak and toes ate added. the bottom shaped . 

Green clay and finished Owl 

It is easier to make several at a time 

Each Owl has a personality and a shape .

Into the Blue Little Birds

It is always a challenge to present  window displays  at Blue Whole Art Gallery which include new elements or creative projects.  Hanging the birds from their drift wood stick was a strikingly fun  presentation.  Thanks to excellent help from other gallery members, the windows for May are a tribute to what a cooperative gallery can do.
       Coop galleries require a lot of commitment of time and energy to present their artist's work, in return for which friendships,  inspiration

, encouragement  and creative feed back are our rewards.

Two Day Workshops

Bring your materials paints and finished and unfinished  paintings, a lunch and your ideas and photographs for a Workshop on the Elements and Principles of Design, composition and content.
       LOCATION:  The Cabana at Sunny Shores, Serpentine Rd ,off Woodcock Rd. Sequim
       DATES ------   June 17-18  from 10:00 until 3:00  and July 22-23,  10 - 3)
       COST -------- $20.00 a day  (2 days $40.00)  LIMITED to 12 participants
       CONTACT -- Carol Janda  360 452 6356
                               1216 West 5th St Port Angeles  , WA 97363
                               Fees to be paid by June 10


     

Please Join My Blog

I just sent off the press release for my May show in the window at Blue Whole Art Gallery  in Sequim. Some fortunate artist's have a 'wife' to take care if this activity which is such an involved part of an artist's work.  This Blog has helped keep verbal communication working while isolation in the studio occupies the other side of my brain. I used an oil monotype and a watercolor  enhanced with w/c crayon  and the Teaching Buddha shown in  previous blog.
"My goal is to express , exercise teach and test my accumulated ideas and philosophy through the art I make in clay and painting which has been a driving force and pleasure in my life."

Fields Before an Ancient City

Retired 

 



I just finished a 10 week Watercolor Class which reminded me how much I enjoy sharing my idea, teaching and meeting other artists.  I hope in future to do Workshops with selected projects. (seascapes , abstracts, fog,textures etc.) .

Frogs

Perfect for the Art Nouveau Glaze I love, this frog is the first experiment .  It has a rather awkward water container below the lily pad intended to hold water which would  rise to surround the frog and  support  live flowers.  

Getting Ready to Teach

Monday January 28,2013 I will be starting my Watercolor Classes at the Landing Art Gallery in Port Angeles.  I hope to share some of  ideas and activities of the class on the blog with a link it to Face Book.
 The  previous comments about the Seashell value study made me think about getting back to the teaching.
It will be a pleasure to share the things I've studied for years.
    

Watercolor Classes 2013

I'm finally going to restart my watercolor classes. I've rented a great space at the Landing Art Gallery in Port Angeles  which will be set up for the first class on the  28th of January.  I hope to work with all levels on an individual studies approach to the Elements and Principle of Design for any style or subject.  The class room is easy access on the lower level with good parking.  Call 452 6356

Let's Hope the Mayans are Wrong

According to the Mayan Calender Dec 21is supposed to be the end of the world.

 As if we didn't have enough to worry about.

Winter Kale

Winter Kale , watercolor on 300 pound Arches paper  stretched over oil stretcher bars like an oil painting and sealed with acrylic for protection.  Gallery Wrapping is being used more often and works really well on Winter Kale, allowing it breathing room..

                      There will be a drawing to win this piece at Blue Whole December art walk.  

Buddha

                  This  Buddha for my garden represents kindness and calm, a reminder for a busy life.

The Elements and Principles of Design

I am  interested  in the Elements and Principles of Design used in any media. As a potter and painter,I need  criteria to guide the making and critiquing  of my work.  Most of my study of the elements and principles has been done for painting but pottery follows the same ideas in a different media.
     Personal  choice of what to paint or make in clay provides the desire  to do the work.
 Focal point and composition are job-one once something catches my attention.  After starting , maybe thinking about  the work for weeks or even having struggled with an idea through several failures, decisions are made using  the Elements of color, value, shape, line, texture, size and rhythm integrated with the Principles of unity, conflict, dominance,  repetition, balance, harmony, alternation and gradation.

                                                          It's a brain game, the right side is trying to make sense of the left side.

 This small study was done with dominate value , limited complimentary colors, strong line, repeated  rounded shapes in large and small sizes which lead the eye in a rhythmic path supported by the shadow
.
 This kind of analysis isn't useful   if there's no chance to make changes especially with watercolor and clay.  Having a method to study and plan is really helpful when it becomes part of the procedure.  

Some 2012 Posts I Lost

The Petunia was in the August show at Blue Whole
along with  Easter Lillies

Celebrate Life

The Landing Art Gallery in Port Angeles will be showing the art of cancer survivor's.
 Oct 1st  thru the 31st with a reception on Oct 6 at 5:00 - 8:00.

This piece was painted on a plastic like paper called yupo using watercolor and metallics in a loose abstract manner. 

A second work on the same type of paper called Dance Aerobics  has that same bright full color effect due to the non absorbent  surface of the paper.

          

Red and Aqua = Purple What?

In efforts to pour watercolor and create a semi abstract painting  the effect of the chemistry of paint was strikingly not what I expected.  Red and green are supposed to mix grays but this lovely purple is much more appealing.

What Happened?

Some how all of the 2012 blogs have been lost, can't figure out why?

Constellations

Glazed color with the depth of many layers of paint and the shifting of the plate enrich this suggestion of the sky at night .

Oil Monotypes

My oil monotypes where produced on an Ettan Press using plexiglass bevel edge plates with oil paint. The plate is coated with a thin skin of color which is transferred in the reverse to the paper. Additional layers of color , texture and design create a depth of glazing, achieving a painting unique to this process. Although these originals are called mono(one)prints, there may be a ghost print made if enough oil paint is left from the first run.

Masking with templates, plant material, brayer marks , wiping out ,over painting ,oil pastel,and using varied sizes of plates make this process thoughtful, creative and challenging.

Monotypes have that magic of surprise when they are pulled from the plate each time added elements change the color and design.

Featured Artist Show at Blue Whole

My Featured Artist Show for August at Blue Whole is all oil monotype except for one watercolor, Remembering Georgia.

Oil monotypes to be posted

Small Sculptured Continers

After painting the Blue Poppy watercolor,working with clay to sculpt blue poppy petals with the center stamens amd pistils as lids. These are small, not much larger than the actual flower.
This lead to a waterlily pad, rose petal and several other flower sculptures.

Kalaloch Beach

I like to try to capture the movement, weather and atmosphere of a place. I found this composition especially interesting, full of triangles and directional lines which expressed Kalaloch's long beach with the wind pushing the clouds.

This is one of my favorite watercolors partly for the place but also for the pleasure I find in "revisiting "it by painting the scene as nature arranges and rearranges land and sea.. Capturing the feelings of the place is a challenge to which watercolor is well suited.

Glazed Gestural Sculpture

Drapery clay figure 9 inches tall

Stoneware Art

The "Fire Head Ladies" vases are 11 and 9 inches tall with the art nouveau glaze over underglaze and stains mixed with the glaze.

Clicking the picture to enlarge for a better view.

Gestural Sculpture

Gestural sculpture stoneware similar to Catch the Wind are a challenge in clay. Patience is the most important ingredient when draping clay, has to have just the right amount of time to stiffen so it will stand up without cracking or losing its form.

Draped clay sculpture creates just one original.

These have been bisque fired , ready to glaze with my art nouveau glaze like Catch the Wind.

Blue Poppies

Blue Poppies also called Himalayan

Poppies like shady cool places but I have never been able winter them over. Rare even in there native Tibet, I saw these at Butchart Gardens near Victoria across the waters in Canada.

Catch the Wind

Catch the Wind is an abstract gestural clay drapery figure with my art nouveau glaze 12 inches tall.

Blue Glacier

Blue Glacier from High Divide
Late summer when the snow has finally gone from high divide, the view of Mount Olympus after walking the 17miles or so from the Hoh River Visitors center is a wonderful reward.
Defining ridges, valleys , cliffs and path ways to the mountain is an intense study of this spectacular place. I especially enjoy leaving the white paper for the snow patches which define the contour of the land.
Sold

Minus Tide at Kalaloch

Crabs are sometimes stranded in the tide pools of a minus tide. Razor clams are common on this beach but the season is very limited and there are usually crowds of diggers.

It was a pleasure to be there in the quiet

early morning listening to the sea. The limited light accentuates the value relationships in an almost monochromatic scene with darks and lighs of blue and burnt sienna.

MERRY CHRISTMAS
BEST WISHES FOR 2011

Pussy Cats have joined the Owls

The method used to build the owls works well for cats also, they have lots of personality.

Owls

These Owls are made on the wheel and shaped by pinching the "ears" and cutting away the eyes and a hole in the back . Carving and adding clay to indicate feathers,nose and feet give each one personality.They can be used to hold flowers or pencils or just indicate that the owner is a wise old soul:)

Sea Weed Why Paint That

The previous watercolor has an abstract design which guides the viewer's eye due to its circular nature. As the ocean creates a vortex with the movement of the waves it leaves the sea weed high and dry as the tide declines and picks up the sea weed again on the returning high tide, moving it to a new arrangement and location
The painting was a nature arrangement with subtle artistic changes to express shape, color and the effect of light and shadow. Why- because it had not been seen in other work, it had a lot of interesting shadows in a shallow depth, memories of walks on the beach and it challenged the high key brightness of a rare sunny day on the Olympic Peninsula .

Sea Weed

Full sheet 300 lb Arches w/c paper. Still Life of sea weed arranged by an out going tide left on a sunny sand beach made an interesting abstract pattern of line color and shape.

Face Book

I just sent a share message to Face Book. Please let me know what you think if you look at my Blog.

My Art Class Notes

Framing made simple. For the practical watercolorists, framing in the same metal chop frames presents paintings in a consistent manner which avoids readjusting the eye due to a variety of frames. It also allows the practical reuse of frames, easier storage and the cost benefits the purchaser who is paying mainly for the art not the expensive frame.
The value of art should be greater than the value of framing.

Blog or Website

I'm trying to decide if a website benefitst artists. At this point I have a site with Yahoo at $110.00 a year but I think it is more of an ego display which costs my art income additiional expenses. Soooo...Bloggers what do you think?

Leaf Designs

New Pottery

Looking Back

It was wonderful to see the butterflies last year, I would not visit now due to the drug problems .

Pictures

There are thousands

Warming Up

The Monarchs come down to get water when it warms up. It is a thrill to be surrounded by them as you ride along.

Click the picture to enlarge so you can see the butterflies.

Monarch Butterflies

The trip to Mexico for the Monarch migration was great, good weather and great friends. To see them clusterd in the trees, at 6 to 7 thousand feet we rode horses.

New Website for 2010

My 2010 resolution is to learn how to show and sell my pottery and paintings on the Web

A new website is in progress with help by my daughter, using Yahoo web tools and templates.
Etsy.com, a site showing hand made work only, is showing one of my round dragonfly vases.
I hope to add more work as it is completed .
.

NEW WATERFRONT ART GALLERY

The gallery to which I have belonged since coming to Port Angeles, has moved to a new location , 120 West Front St. This was a previous "home" before the building was restored .
It is open ,well lighted and quite elegant

As a thank you for my years as the Director, the new Board of Director asked me to be the Featured Artist for our Grand Opening, Feb 9 -14 . I will be showing watercolors, stoneware and prints as well as cards ,magnets,and fused glass jewelry.

Stoneware clay

These are some of my standing ladies " Stands with Birds". They are made in three parts , the body the legs and the base. The first one was an idea created by the piece of drifrt wood she is holding, with the small birds attached .

Passages I

Passages I , a water media painting in warn colors , is based on the tools which can create a painting. Values, lights and darks, are muted to hold the relationship of shapes and color together. Texture provides interest and variety while line moves the viewer throughout the painting as it suggests place or emotion. The transition from area to area is as important as as sense of depth.

Second Beach

Second Beach is and easy hike fromn the trail head near La Push on the Washington coast.