Drawing Classes at Amato's Gallery

Monday evenings, July 5, 12, 19, and 26, from 6 to 8 p.m., I'll be teaching Drawing classes at Amato's Gallery, 12320 1St Street, Beaverton 97005. Fee for the 4 classes is $90 and includes materials. Registration is limited to eight students.

It should be really fun to teach in the atmosphere of a fine art gallery - lots of imagery and inspiration on the walls and pedestals to peak your imagination. I'll use both real life set-ups and photographs as references.

If you, or someone you know, has an interest in taking a drawing class, please contact me to reserve a space. I taught drawing and watercolor for years out of my studio in California and for the Fremont Adult School in Fremont, Ca. My main goal as an instructor is to teach students to really see what they're looking at, by studying shape, value and relationships. Email or call me: donnasansonartworks@comcast.net or 503.477.0489.

Multnomah Village Painting Accepted into Show

My painting of the Multnomah Village overpass was accepted into "Art in the Heart of Multnomah Village," an exhibition at the town's art center from August 6 through September 1.

David Hooten at Pixel Point Artistry just completed imaging the painting and printing some greeting cards for me, and I'll be off to the framer's tomorrow to complete the product. The center will host an opening reception on Friday, August 6, from 7-9 p.m. I plan to attend and hopefully will see some familiar faces there.

Alaska and More

My husband Tom and our good friends, Doug and Julie Ward, just returned from a wonderful Holland America cruise to Alaska via the inside passage. It was a wonderful trip out of Seattle with stops in Juneau, Hubbard Glacier, Sitka, Ketchikan, and British Columbia, before returning to Seattle. We took Amtrack out of Portland and boarded the Rotterdam not far from the Space Needle. I did some sketching on board the ship - there were lots of beautiful pieces of sculpture and floral arrangements, and I also did a couple very quick paintings from our veranda, which looked pretty much like very quick paintings. I used my camera to capture some of the beauty of the ship, the scenery, the food, the adventures, and the Butchart Gardens, and wish to share a selection of those photos with you. There is no way to really convey the freshness of the air, the clearness of the water, the crackling sounds and thunder of the Hubbard Glacier calving, the aromas of the dining room, the musicality of The Neptune Trio each night in The Ocean Bar, the invigoration of our windy walks on Decks 3 and 9 each day, the trickiness of manuevering the ship when the seas became more turbulent - but perhaps these photos will give you some sense of why it was such a memorable trip. Hope to get a few good paintings from this batch.

I had a good day today - hope you did too. Donna

Well, I had high hopes to share a slide show of about 35 images, but the slideshow didn't transfer so you'll have to be content with just a hint of what we experienced. Sorry.

A Sketch Becomes A Painting

After Tuesday's breakfast at O'Connor's with artists from the Portland Plein Air & Studio Painters group, and after sketching with Celeste Bergin and Carrie Holst for the group's Behind the Scenes activity, I headed home. I made my usual right turn and the bridge carrying folks in and out of Multnomah Village lay before me. I have always thought the scene would make great subject material for a painting, so I pulled into a conveniently empty parking spot and did a quick sketch with an even quicker wash of color. I simplified the images and exaggerated the passageways and arches of the structure.

Thursday morning I decided to use the sketch as the basis for a painting; I enlarged the scene by redrawing it on tracing paper and transferring the larger image to my Arches block. I used to draw directly onto my watercolor paper, but ended up with too many unwanted pencil lines and too much erasing. Next I evaluated the composition and felt I needed more information to make the painting work. I drove back to the scene of the crime with my trusty digital camera to record the architectural elements of the bridge more accurately, but alas accuracy was not meant to be - the batteries in my camera were depleted. This was a sign - go with my gut - stay true to the original sketch and the great shapes created by the play of positive and negative shapes.

Once back in my studio, I laid in the basic design with light washes, waited for them to dry, and then began to build the painting. I returned to it on and off all afternoon and evening, added gouache and a few details here and there. As usual, I'm not quite satisfied and will probably make some more "adjustments," but I'm happy that I finally painted a scene that speaks to me every time I drive past.

It was a good day - hope you're having a great weekend.

More Colors, More Fun

Last Thursday, Bridget Weislouel - a new artist friend from Kitty Wallis' workshop - came over and we created handmade pastels from a kit we purchased from Kitty. What a fun day, and it took all day to use up all the materials and add over 5 dozen new hues each to our collection of beautiful pastels.

The same day, my neighbor delivered a bouquet of glorious spring tulips which I chose to display in my study on the same table as the drying pastels. What a sight - glorious tulips and lovely new hues. Too much inspiration to ignore!

I spent several hours last night painting the tulips with the challenge of using every one of the new 60+ colors. Not my usual approach to painting but a neat exercise nevertheless.

I had fun with pastels this week - hope you have fun in the week ahead.

Critique and Demo and Oregon Society of Artists

Friday, March 19, 2010
Last night I attended a demo by Paul Missal at Oregon Society of Artists. He did a pencil drawing of a nude model using two graphite pencils in both hands. It was magical to see how the drawing came together as he rapidly orchestrated the pencils over the paper. That's what his movements reminded me of - a conductor waving his "wands" and creating a tone, a tempo, a balance of lines from which to choose as he refined the drawing. At one point, he put his pencils down and picked up a simple Pink Pearl eraser and skillfully (but with some abandon) scrubbed in all directions over the pencil lines. I had never seen anyone work this way and I felt his sense of confidence and freedom as he created a rather traditional image, with a rather non-traditional approach. It was a great demo.

Earlier in the evening, Steve Keiser critiqued members' paintings that had been brought to the meeting for that purpose. I submitted the two plein air images above, which I did last year at a Cannon Beach workshop with Mitch Baird. Steve liked the composition of the bottom image and my use of cool blue hues in the shadows of the large rock formation. He suggested the composition in the top image created a problem because there was nothing on the left side to balance the imagery on the right. What do you think of these two paintings?

Tomorrow is our third Saturday morning "Breakfast in the Gallery" event. Brenda Boylan will be sharing her mastery of pastel painting and I will demo basic watercolor techniques. Free coffee and pastries from Beaverton Bakery will be on hand for you to enjoy as you browse the gallery and observe the demonstrations. This event takes place each Saturday during March from 9-11 a.m. at Amato's Fine Art Gallery, 12320 1st Street, Beaverton (503.601.3300).

Amato's is open weekdays from 9 to 5, and Saturdays 9 to 4. It exhibits artwork by sixteen award-winning local artists. Hope you can stop by.

The sun is shining - hope you have a great day!