Summer is almost here

Rebecca's Purple Feet, pastel, 9x12, 2006

There is something about climbing on rocks that I just love.  Climbing on rocks in water is even better.  With this picture, I was thinking about the process of looking for a foothold, a stable place to stand.  Sometimes you have to take a step at an awkward angle.  The intense blue and purple is there just because I liked it.

Grandma Valerie

Not out of the Woods Yet, pastel, 22x28, 2000

Here is a drawing of Grandma Valerie who passed away recently, and her husband Arne, who passed away in 1999.  In the photo I used as a reference, they are seated at a long folding table at their grandaughter's wedding, watching the bride and groom dance.  There really was a styrofoam coffee cup sitting on the table, of course the trees are my invention.  They were married 67 years, I believe.

The pastor who did the service was new to the church, so he never met Valerie or Arne, but he asked some of the longtime members about them and did a really nice job talking about memories different people had of them.  Bill and his sister did a nice job too in talking about their Grandma.

I drove 400 miles yesterday, so now would be a good time to try to finish that painting I posted the other day.

Rocks and Water

Emerging Worlds of Rocks and Water, pastel, 22x28, 2004

I made this on my way home from a Split Rock Art Program workshop in 2004.  It felt like it worked.  It was wonderful sitting there in Jay Cooke State Park just me and the landscape and the pastels.

I've been reading that Kandinsky book a few pages a day because it is a heavy read.  He talks about color and form and representation as three elements of painting.  If I understand him correctly he says that the only way to get at the essence of color and form is to eliminate the representation of known objects.

I tried to make a picture with no representation the other day, the shapes looked too much like hair to me so it turned into a portrait.  I'll try again perhaps.

Bridges 32 and 33

Bridge #33, pastel, 11x14, 2003

Bridge #32, pastel, 11x14, 2003

The house I lived in in St. Paul showed up uninvited.  It pushed its way in and sat there.  It forced me to deal with it.

This is my Thursday morning post.  Next post scheduled for Saturday morning before I go deliver girl scout cookies with my daughter.

This is where it gets a little weird. Bridges 22, 23, 26

Bridge #26, photocopies of drawings, 11x14, 2002

Bridge #23, pastel, 9x24, 2002

Bridge #22, pastel, 11x14, 2002

This was 9 years ago, but I remember thinking that what I really liked about the bridge visually was the big sweeping curve with the straight lines of the support beams just on the one side.  I also liked how the backgrounds were all gradual changes of warm to cool colors.  But the composition of #22 was too simple so I started to play around with using the big curve as a building block to create other images.  The teacher encouraged me to explore this, and to use the photocopy machine so that I could figure out how I wanted to combine the pieces before starting another drawing.  I kept photos of these as a record of how I got from where I was to where I was going, but these are not show pieces.  I picked a sampling from this phase.  There are many that are a variation of #26.  I cropped off the notes I wrote on them to remind me of what I was thinking about for each one.  At that time in my life, I was about to move from the city to the suburbs and I was not sure how I felt about that.  Now I have lived 12 years in a rural setting, 11 years in the city, and 8 years in the suburbs.  I wonder if anyone else out there has had a similar experience and can speak to how that messes with your sense of identity.  Oh, and if you are trying to figure out my age, I left out the years before rural when my family moved around a lot, and the college years, when I moved around a lot.

Fail! Bridges 11 and 14

Bridges #14, pastel, 11x14, 2002

Bridges #11, pastel on sandpaper, 8x11, 2002

Argh!  I forgot to post this morning, so I have failed at my resolution of posting every other morning.  And yet life goes on.  I want to continue posting so here I am.

After using the fabulous Wallis sandpaper, I thought that regular old sandpaper would work just as well.  Not so.  It was ok.  Of course it also is not PH balanced and so who knows how long it will last.

I'm interested in continuing to revisit this bridge series, but I don't think it's necessary to post every single one. Often the differences are not dramatic.  I like the dark brown stenciled shape in #11 against the vibrant wiggly lines.  Bridge #14 turned purple and seems to float.  I wonder if this was the beginning of that wiggly line thing that I seem to repeat often.

Go Gophers

Swimming Gopher, pastel, 9x12, 2005

So I was at Wm O'Brien state park in Minnesota, watching this creature swim in the Mississippi (I think its a gopher, not sure, but since I'm a U of MN alum, it makes sense to call it a gopher).  I was wondering what is going through its mind.  Is it worried about something or just going through the motions of its everyday life.

Trees!

Side Lake in Purple, pastel, 11x14, 2004 (or so)

Jill chose this one when she came to my show a few years ago. Thanks Jill! The purple and white combination is reminding me of Atwater today.  My hometown has been on my mind lately.  Trees have been on my mind too, because I recently tripped and crashed into one.  I keep replaying the incident in my mind, trying to figure out why I could not avoid it.  I guess it is best to just try to heal and move on.

Reminds me of Orange Crush

Exercise in Futility, watercolor and pastel, 22x28, 2007

Jay Cooke State Park.  The water does have a lot of iron in it, but obviously not this orange in real life.  I really enjoyed this one.  Each area has a different texture and shape type like in real life.  I drew with pastel over the top of a watercolor painting I did at the park.  I did a lot of pictures of that spot.  I'd like to go back there.

More Rocks and Water

Duluth Waterfall, pastel, 22"x28", 2009

Here's the one Jill liked.  Same park as the last post.

Serenade

Bill at Rest, pastel, 11"x14" 2008

By request, here is a picture of Bill.  He is playing his uke with the Van Halen style finish.  It really is bright blue like that, but I doubt he was wearing bright red shorts and a bright yellow shirt that day.  I made the chair green so it would not stand out too much.