Uluru.. and Good News

The three paintings submitted to RED.

In my last post I wrote about my paintings being rejected from a January show. This is a happier story. 

I tried again with the next juried show in February at the same gallery, The Cannon Beach Gallery, in the town of the same name on the northern Oregon coast. I submitted three very different pieces to the show entitled RED. Two of the pieces were accepted. One sold. But what pleased me even more is that I was the only artist who had two pieces accepted and only two pieces sold from the show, mine and one other.

Never give up. never. give. up.

ULURU

The piece which was sold is called ULURU which is the Aboriginal's ancient name for Ayers Rock in central Australia. It's a monolith, a huge red rock out in the middle of a flat plain. I composed the collage on heavy paper and then glued it to a cradled canvas and extended the colors around the sides.

The other piece that was accepted into the show is called Red Leaf - Falling.  

RED LEAF - FALLING

It's a collage of hand painted papers and a single maple leaf from a tree in my front yard. The collage is 12 x 12, matted in a 16 x 20" frame.

EVERY ROOM NEEDS A SPOT OF RED

 My mother was know as a creative homemaker and craftswoman who was one of the first women to paint the walls of her home with vibrant colors. She firmly believed that "every room needs a spot of red" to bring cheer to its occupants. This 20 x 30" cold wax and plaster piece honors her conviction... one which I consciously follow.

 

The Sense of Touch

I delivered the following three paintings to the Cannon Beach Gallery to be juried for a January show with the theme of The Six Senses. None of them were accepted into the show but at least I stretched myself and increased my self confidence.  I was disappointed that the work was rejected but after seeing photos of the show I understood why the juror passed over these... they didn't play well with others. After all, when a juror makes selections from available works her job is to build the strongest, most cohesive show possible. My work simply didn't fit.

 Each piece is 12" x 12" on stretched canvas with a 1.5" cradle (side depth). They are mixed media, mostly acrylic with cheesecloth.  The titles are: "If I Could Touch the Night Sky", "Close Enough to Touch", and "Beyond Our Reach", and as you can see each name could go with either piece.

My work refers to the sense of touch.  One wants to touch the work because the visual texture is appealing, and also I considered the universe of stars and planets in our night sky that are absolutely too far away to touch... beyond man's reach.

It's an interesting theme. Doing work about the sense of touch was personally appealing because I am drawn to texture having worked with fabrics and threads over a lifetime. I can't keep my hands off appealing surfaces.



Jo Reimer: Torn Paper Collage... trying a new method

FERMENTING FRIENDS

 

 

 

 

 Fermenting Friends is 9 x 12" on panel.

I challenged myself to try a new-to-me collage method, this one perfected by my friend Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson. Like me, Elizabeth paints her own collage papers with acrylics. See a short article about her in the current issue of The Artist's Magazine, April 2014. This article also features two other collage artists, Cathy M Woo and Laura Lein-Svencner

My paper stash contained all I need. What's different is that this method starts with a drawing on a strong substrate which is then painted before the collage process begins. Then various papers were torn into bits and pieces and glued in place, paying more attention to value than to color.

Elizabeth offers a DVD and a downloadable PDF of her process. See her website and gallery here.

I started with a photograph of a wine bottle from my friends private label, making the drawing part rather easy, even though I added a second bottle and glass to the original composition. This was a hostess gift for friends we visited recently in Arizona, a trip that enabled us to completely miss a major snow event in Portland.

Then yesterday I made a second torn paper collage, working from a quick stylized drawing. It's becoming a bit easier to work this way, but I suspect that this won't become much more comfortable to me and I'll revert to my old way of working.

RED FLOWER

Red Flower is 12 x 12 on cradled canvas.

Thanks, Elizabeth, for giving me the go ahead to try your methods.

Getting the Most out of an Art Workshop

First page of notes from a Cathy Woo workshop in 2007

I've taken dozens of art-related workshops and classes over the past 50 years, since my first one one day workshop at the Embroiderers Guild in London, England in 1966. I've had loads of fun with like-minded friends and learned a lot about making art, but I've also wasted time and money by not treating the time seriously...mostly because of lack of preparation and practice. But I have gotten smarter as I've matured and finally figured out how to make the most of the workshop experience.

EmptyEasel.com has just published my article about this subject. Hop over to read it HERE.

I'd love to hear about how you prepare and practice when you take a workshop. 

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Here's how I made this Christmas light:
I simply stuffed a string of LED lights into a turquoise vase along with a few small silver balls and placed some snowmen to guard the light. An extension cord runs down the back of the chest to a nearby electrical outlet. This light stays on all the time, maybe even long after the holidays.

I have several other similar lights in my entry hall and living room to serve as night lights and to add sparkle to the rooms. Lots of interesting light strings are now on sale. Grab a few strings and make some light vases for yourself and for gifts.



Here's the lamp in daylight:


Jo's Merry Christmas light

Limited materials, limited palette

 

Songs of the Soldiers
Jo Reimer
Collage on Paper
7.5" x 7.5"

 On a recent week at the coast I determined to limit my art supplies and took only a small box of compost with an assortment of black and white and a limited palette of colored papers and supports. It was a good decision that forced me to seek variety within limits. I learned that it's possible to do satisfactory work with limited means and is an appealing challenge.

The name of the above small collage came from a piece of sheet music with my uncle's signature, dated 1918-19. Keith lost one arm as a teenager and couldn't serve in WWI but he loved to sing and I can imagine him thinking about those at war as he sang the songs that were currently popular... "Over Here" and "Over There" among them. The picture of the baseball player also was from that era.

Red Maple - Late Fall
Jo Reimer
Collage on Paper
12" x 12"

Red Maple - Late Fall is the main work I intended to do that week, an abstraction of the colors I saw from my front door, taken from this photograph:

Then I got out some paint (still the same color palette) and did a quick painting, remembering some recent weather:

Unsettled
Jo Reimer
Acrylic on Paper
9" x 12"

Then back to the collage box for the next piece:

Under the Clouds
Jo Reimer
Collage on Paper
9" x 12"

All these papers were ones I previously painted or dyed except for the brown, upper right corner.

And this is the final one in the series:

Teatro
Jo Reimer
Collage on paper
9" x 12"

 

Autumn Colors

 

 

At the tag end of autumn there's a whole different set of colors than those I noticed a month ago. The 'Bloodgood' Japanese Maple in the front bed with its bright red leaves suggests Christmas is just around the corner and the lichen on the vine maple at the front steps is a light but muted sage green. It's all about contrast, just waiting for me to notice. I see so much color here and while I'd love to have the painting skills to render a likeness, I can't, and why would I want to when a photograph captures the moment so well. Perhaps by using these colors from nature and the lines of the trees I could form an abstract collage. If I manage something I'll show you. 

From my Sketchbook ...

by Jo Reimer


Freesia

I keep a tiny metal alphabet stencil in the back pocket of my sketchbook and use it when I remember. The stenciled letters adds interest to any page. 



 

Geranium

 Cannon Beach Oregon is known for incredible flowers. There are planting beds and big pots of flowers and shrubs everywhere with blooms lasting most of the year in the mild climate. The misty ocean air is good for the plants and whoever tends the beds knows just how to keep the soil in tip top shape to stimulate growth. This September the geraniums were at their peak and gave me a good reason to sit on a bench and draw a nearby flower, noticing for the first time how the buds hang from this particular variety.

Calla Lily

 There are calla lilies everywhere, along fence lines, in big pots and beds alongside the sidewalks. In one neighborhood every yard has masses of calla lilies, leading to the suspicion that neighbors are generous with their plant starts.

Leaves

 The leaves of a vine outside the coffee shop window held their pose for me this morning.

Pink with text

 Sketching is a great activity when one is waiting for something to happen...

Red Japanese Maples

Our son planted about an acre of Japanese maples "Bloodgood" just before he left for the army right out of high school. We sold that place 21 years ago and there are still several dozen of the trees left in the field. Perhaps I should have titled this Nostalgia.  I hate to think about how many farming acres near cities, including this one, are slated to become housing developments. This is where my daughter rode horse, where our son had his first job working for a neighbor on his nursery, where we started our own nursery business, where birds sang and dogs ran free. Yep, Nostalgia. It's bittersweet.

From my sketchbook... another 5

by Jo Reimer

There's not much of interest to draw in a hospital exam room.

 I used a Pentel Pocket Brush pen for this drawing. I like the bold line but I need to warm up with writing or drawing before I tackle a drawing because my hand can be a bit shaky.

The swing on my back  deck

 I love porch swings, had one at my childhood home, one at the farm, and now one hanging from the pergola on my back deck. All my grandkids have grown up sitting on Gramma's lap in the swing or sitting beside me as we see how high we can go. I don't usually look at it from this angle.

Two drawings, two villages

 The upside down umbrellas are from among the many which hang from the ceiling in Marcos Cafe in Multnomah Village. The building is in Cannon Beach, OR.

Anniversary drawing

Using painted book page in my sketchbook

I don't remember that I'm a collage artist when I pull out my sketchbook! Now what's with that? Bits of paper ephemera such as those used here add lots of visual texture and interest to an otherwise dull page. A few years ago I bought a dozen small Japanese novels, at least I think they're novels, at a book sale. I've used them for altered books and for sketch journals, and have painted pages from one  in various colors to put in my compost.

Gratitude

by Jo Reimer

 

I watched Louis Schwartzberg's TedTalk  about Gratitude yesterday with all his wonderful time lapse photos of the majesty and intricacy of nature and can't help but be filled with gratitude to the One who created it all.

 

 

Our Western Oregon landscape is so lush and beautiful at this time of year with the hot colors of the turning leaves and fall blooming plants. Even the dead leaves are leaving their eco prints on the concrete sidewalks. Once again I am in awe of the beauty around me and I recalled a page in a 2009 journal so I dug it out to share with you. I hope each of you has a wonderful weekend and are mindful of the beauty around you and of all we have to be thankful for.

 

 

Thank You