River Garden Studio

the mountains i see

It has been such an exciting week for me.  The Cloth Paper Scissors article that I wrote early this summer is out now. If you scroll down on this page you will see, "A Study in Color and Texture" listed in the table of contents.

 

My copies and my original art work were in my very crowded mail box on Thursday. The first thing I did when I got home, (after feeding my dogs) was to sit down and pour through it. My critical eye wondered, was it interesting, were the directions clear, how was the photography, etc.  And after about a half hour I thought, "I think its okay!"

Many of you know Chrystal Neubauer, who also has a wonderful story in this magazine.

 

My original title was "the mountains i see." It is about drawing, painting and collaging mountains, the way they look when they are high against the sky, the way their jagged edges and canyons join and flow down to the horizon, and the colors - how they get closer and closer to the color of the sky as they get higher and farther away.

 

My son and husband and I had taken a driving trip with our RV the summer before and I drew and wrote during those long hours in the car before we stopped at our destination campground. Looking back it was a beautiful trip, mostly because it was my son's last summer before he started college. And watching my husband relax and even be silly was priceless.

My favorite parts of this trip were seeing the Rocky mountains and spending time in Valdez, Alaska...Now seeing this article all the memories have come flooding back and I won't ever forget.

Below is my "homework assignment" also for this issue:

 

 

Family, mountains, art, time to think and create.  This is what I love. Thank you to Barbara and Jennifer for the beautiful job they did on my article and for their amazing magazine.

 

 

 

 

places that hold things

I have this collection of photographs that I have been thinking about using in a post, and I realized that what they all have in common is that they hold things.

 

These beautiful mailboxes were at the old school outside of Salem, Oregon where I went to Encausticamp this summer.

The letters that they once held and still hold, are a mystery to me, and I can only imagine the words that they might have contained.  

Words of love and sadness, words of pride and encouragement, words containing thoughts and stories of a day or a week of the person sending them.

One of the artists I met at Encausticamp, named Colleen Monette, had this old dentist box that she used for her art supplies and collections.  

The items in this box speak to me of both the past and the future. What project will they inspire or bring to life? What will their purpose be?

 

These packing crates were stacked in the fields on the west side of the Cascade Mountains.  They hold more than grain. They hold the celebration of a seasons crop, livelihood of a farmer and his family, and the health of the community.

 

 

And I come home each day from work to my own places that hold things.  This amazing new journal is from Trace Willans.

You can visit her Etsy store, here.

Oh, the stitching, the fabric and the colors are all so beautiful to me!  

When I wrote to her how much I loved the paper inside she wrote back: "

The paper inside the journal is not paper!!!
It is cotton fabric coated on both sides in a traditional gesso which is made of a mix of whiting (calcium carbonate) and rabbit skin glue.

It is a really lovely surface to paint on.

 

And, when I asked her about the button and the small heart, this is what she wrote:

They are a white clay with a porcelaneous body fired to earthenware and then smoke fired in tins in the woodfire with leftover plant material from the natural dyeing.

And these little tin boxes, what do they hold?  Ideas for art projects, scraps of color, tiny paintings or photographs. Bits and pieces of my life.

 

 

And outside, besides a home for a spider web and seeds for next years garden, what about this flower?  

Still strong and upright, it's seeds so sharp they sting to the touch... for me she symbolizes fortitude and strength, in facing the long months of winter.

 

And yellow. The color of strength and the sunrise.  

This flower holds the magic of mother nature.

 

Even in a fading garden there is beauty. Contrast.

Hopes and dreams that will sleep and deepen over winter.

My garden goddess holds the secrets of my dreams in her half smile.

And the fountain holds a place for this rusty grate to lean on, and the memories of it's water-songs of last summer.

October fog

 

I love October. But this year seems different, the rains that usually soak the mountains and riverlands are taking their time in getting here, and instead we have fog.

Stretches of fog, over the river and lakes, covering the wetlands and following the canals. I follow the fog to work everyday as I drive the half hour distance across the farmlands to my school.

The fog gives my eyes and my spirit a rest as I juggle my time between my job and making art, my home and family.  

When I do get time to stand at my work table and paint with wax I almost feel like I'm in a whole other place, and it's so hard to pull myself away from the spell of creating and get back into the real world.  

I was going into my classroom for a while every Sunday, but just can't seem to anymore, so instead I go in early Monday just to make sure I am ready for my week.  The art time is just too important.

 

 

Here are images of my days.  Mornings and evenings.  Just trying to capture a moment or a color, the lines and shadows of October.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, the leaves are just beginning to turn. 

 

These are piles of the different waxes that I am experimenting with.  I love them all, and try them in different combinations.

 

 

 

 

I found this pan up in the mountains, something about the blue called to me.  Now the rim reminds me of the blue of the river, and the rust is the color of the fields that thrive along side of it.

 

I am working on a new link on my sidebar for my etsy shop.  I also made a link to a video I made last autumn: Autumn Rains that is there as well.  Please visit if you have a chance!

And while I try to find my own rhythm, (and for you that are finding yours as well), I will take time to rest my eyes-on the images that make this month so special, to make art even if it is just an hour a day, and try to find a balance in my world.

And for a beautiful post about balancing life and art and the Encausticamp I went to this summer, visit Amanda Jolley's blog here.

And Bridgettes blog here for thoughts on motherhood and art.

I love thinking that while we go through our life, all in different stages, that we all try so hard to hold on to our passions.