A Very Special Dog

I recently spent some time in the Methow Valley of Washington, with the help of the Methow Arts Alliance. What wonderful scenery and so many fruit orchards in that area around Wenatchee. I'll go back in peach season.

I went to Twisp to deliver this painting to my new friend Megan who is a councilor at the elementary school. This is her dog, Snags, who helped her to work with the children.  I think that Snags' snaggle tooth sideways smile helped the kids to feel that being different is still being lovable. Very sadly Snags died recently and Megan asked me to paint her wonderful friend to help her and the kids remember Snags in a happy way.

We also did some art workshops with the kids and got fabulously messy with chalk pastels. It was such an intimate experience helping the kids to draw their own animal friends. Megan and the kids have a new dog - Stellar - and some of the kids made pictures of her during our workshops. I don't know if it helped them with their grief but I do know that we had a lot of fun. I hope to visit again soon.

Last Chance in Sodo

My show at Macrina Bakery headquarters in Sodo was wonderful fun. I got such a positive response and some very touching letters. But I'll take it down tomorrow, Tuesday 31 May. Not to worry! Some of the paintings that didn't sell will be rehung at Macrina in Queen Anne for the month of June. Yay!

Web Site Update!

My talented friend Chris Munson has updated my website for me. You can see it here. It is quite exciting to see so many little pictures of my work gathered together and I still left out many paintings. I think I've been busy!
If you would like to contact Chris for your own exciting web work why not visit his web site.

Dreaming of Blue

 

As part of my experiments with natural colour sources I planted Indigo and Woad yesterday. Here are Indigo seeds looking like lentils. I think they are the same family or some kind of pea.

Its a bit crazy since they need 75 degrees to germinate and even hotter to grow. But they are sitting beside my gas fire with their little pots wrapped in plastic. I'll feel pleased even if all I manage to do is germinate them

Imagine all the history contained in these seeds! Indigo has been cultivated for centuries and exported around the world. Probably on donkeys and camels and all kinds of wooden sailing ships. Once the intense blue dye was available in Northern Europe it displaced woad as a source of blue. Poor woad farmers! I like to think of all the rich and exotic stories these seeds suggest to me. 

This is woad and I planted it outside since it is more suited to the Seattle climate. I think it can become invasive so it is growing in pots and I won't let it go to seed. It will be fun if it grows well enough to produce blue dye. 

Drapery

I started a painting of a donkey being ridden by a child yesterday. And remembered that painting people often requires painting the folds of their clothing. Some old masters' studios employed people who painted only clothing, leaving the faces and bodies up to the master or someone else. This was called drapery painting, and is more complex and fascinating than one might think. Art schools used to offer courses in it. I wonder if they still do.

I laughed at this clip from the BBC about the new Frank Gehry building in Manhattan. "Do you know the difference between Michelangelo folds and Bernini folds? Of course!" Well I did not and had to look them up.

Bernini on the left. Michelangelo on the right. I am still not sure I see that Bernini's fold are sharp and Michelangelo's are rounded. But if Frank Gehry says so...

Here's a sneak peak of the donkey painting. First with a large woman wearing black. Next without the woman. But the child is too small... And I need to find a model for an older child to stand behind the donkey. Does anyone have a ten year old kid who will pose for a photo?

More work is needed today. I am also still working on the herd of goats and a couple of other pieces too. Too many ideas and not enough time!

Kitten

A little study using an old canvas with lots of texture. It is about 8x10 inches.

Lots of Goats

I'm not sure what direction this painting will take. I wanted a frieze since it is so wide and narrow. I think I'll get rid of the dark parts and add some more goats and maybe some plants. It is three feet wide and quite fun to paint so big.

This is a frieze from the Elgin Marbles.

A New Show!

I have a show at Macrina Bakery in Sodo for the month of May. You'll find it at 1943 First Avenue South in Seattle.

Here are some of the pieces you can see there. They range in price from $350 - $700.

Don't forget to buy some potato bread! And some rosemary raisin buns...

Goat

The sculptural shapes and date palms make this painting look like a travel poster from the 1930s. I am still working on the plants but am happy with the calm dignity of the goat. They are such wonderful creatures.

Here is the most recent version of the goat. The new plants I added grow wild in the Jordan Valley and I am working from photos taken by the some of the women in the photography workshop we did there.

My wild flower guide book says the plant is Calotropis procera and it grows in tropical and central Africa but I found them as roadside weeds in the farms of Dead Sea. They can grow to fifteen feet tall. They are also known as Apple of Sodom, which is appropriate for the region where I found them. In Arabic they are called "ashir". I have noticed them before with their poisonous grapefruit-like fruit later in the season and would like to try using the sap as a glue or pigment binder. I like how the leaves are similar in shape to the ears of the goat.

I can't decide if I like the palm tree or if I shall change it into a procera too. Trees are so hard for me!

Animals in Jordan

I loved all the goat herds wandering the hills of Jordan. This family are my favourite colour to paint - white!

What wonderful faces they have - and ears which I suppose may help to keep them cool.

A sleepy donkey waits for a customer in Petra.

Petra is also home to many working Arabian horses and the Brook Horse Hospital that ensures they are well cared for. This horse got away from it's owner and enjoyed a spirited gallop for about ten minutes. It was beautiful to watch.

Another gorgeous white animal. There may be a painting waiting in this one.

Baby camel and it's mum.

I love this picture.

So many camels.

Plants in Jordan

I didn't take many pictures of the plants in Jordan but here is one of my friends and me standing in front of some bouganvillia. It must need very little water to grow as it hardly ever rains in the Jordan Valley.

Geraniums are grown in olive oil cans just like in Greece. These were odd because they were soy oil. I wonder where the soy is grown.

This is a date palm flower. 

I was warned not to get the sap of this plant in my eyes. 

This is the tree outside the Women's Society building. In Arabic it is called something like "dom" and the berries are edible though pasty and bland.

After I taught some botanical illustration we cut a stencil from recycled x ray plastic and stenciled it with mud.

Here is the result!

A Crazy Fun Time Teaching Art

I just got back from Jordan where I organized two weeks of art workshops with the women of Safi Crafts Women's Society. We tried silk screen printing which was a disaster. Our light sensitive screens fried in the intense sun of the Jordan Valley. Stenciling and mud dyeing were much more successful and fun. I taught digital photography, botanical illustraion and drawing both from life and from photographs that we took.

What a crazy and wonderful time. I am having a hard time coming back down to earth. The snow here in Seattle yesterday didn't help!

Fatmeh holds a stencil cut from recylced x ray plastic.

Here are the mud dyed bags we made. We used tea and iron to get the grey.

You can read about the project at our new web site. http://web.mac.com/jeanbradbury/iWeb/Site/safi%20crafts.html

A Break in Spring

I'll be away from the studio for the next month, teaching art. If I get a chance I'll post some of the things we make. I'm going to refresh my silkscreen skills and try looking at the world in flat shapes for a change.

Hiding in White

How strange to carry on with daily life with one part of my brain while another part tries to come to terms with the things happening around the world this week. The heartbreaking news from Japan. The bravery and suffering in Libya. And I hide away in my studio taking solace in the peace of white paint and gentle shadows.

This painting is two feet square and is on canvas, so it is softly textured.

High Winds. Heavy Rain.

There is a high wind warning today. And continued heavy rain. For those in Seattle who are fed up, like me, you can look at the cherry blossom from my post on February 26th last year. I could use some of those right now. Hurry up please spring.
At least I am not tempted to get out into the garden and can spend my time painting.

Rabbit Study

I am so pleased with this little study. It is painted on clayboard so it is very shiny and smooth and I painted many layers of glaze to get the white super white and the shading very delicate. I don't think this glowing look translated to the computer. In real life it almost has the look of egg tempera. It is eight inches square. I'll hang it at Homegrown for sale though I will be sad to part with it. It has no narrative. Just pretty.

The Great Divide

I'm still working on chickens and I enjoy their round shapes. The rabbits are sweet but they are looking at the chicken as though she doesn't belong in their garden. I think she is wondering the same thing.

I indulged myself by painting some peonies, even though they aren't in season. I need them right now.

I'm a Driver. I'm a Winner.

Part of struggling with the winter blues is wanting to sleep a lot. It feels like I am surrounded by people who have more energy and ambition than me. They flutter around achieving things while I just want to curl up and wait for the spring bulbs to flower.

I have such empathy for chickens who try to fly and can't - but they try anyway. I think this painting is about that too. I'm not really sure what the narrative is. I will probably do more work on this but for now it sits in my studio while I work on other paintings. Slowly. I am a tortoise not a hare right now. Or a chicken.

This painting measures 18"x24" and is oil on panel.

Monumental Chicken

Another chicken. This one has a monumental quality, even though the painting is only 10 inches wide. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I think I was influenced by the recent Picasso show here in Seattle. So many of his shapes had strong shading and modeling, which surprised me. They were like paintings of sculptures.

This chicken ended up reminding me of art deco paintings like this Lawren Harris from 1929.

And this relief sculpture by Robert Garrison at Rockefeller Center.

More Colour in Winter!!!

Here is another inspiring video of art in Seattle. I have a hard time driving past this without causing an accident. You can see this mural by Weirdo at 2nd and Yesler in Pioneer Square. We're so lucky to have this in our city. Someone from the Aquarium hire this guy fast!

Playing With Change

Some winter days feel like a crawl on hands and knees through murky cold. I find my energy for painting very low. So this little movie about Seattle painter Fay Jones was like a tonic. There are so many inspiring images here.

I hurried up to the studio and painted these chickens who think they can fly. In a style that is more care free or "care less" than my usual. It turned out to be quite cheerful looking, but chickens are tragic figures for me too. I am thinking of this as a study for another painting that I am working on. And it is called "Things Are Going to Change. I Can Feel It", which is from a Beck song. Also not as cheerful as it might seem.

Thinking About Chickens

This little picture is only six inches wide. You can see it at Homegrown Sandwich Shop in Fremont. I wonder if it will quietly encourage folks to choose the vegetarian options. Sorry Ben!

See My Work in Enumclaw!

I hung a small show yesterday at the City Hall Gallery in Enumclaw. What a charming town to visit on a sunny day with Mount Rainier so close and beautiful. People there were very sweet. My work will be there through the month of February though I think the space is closed to the public on Tuesdays when court is in session. How strange it would feel to be on trial and have bunnies and weasels looking at you from the walls.

Bread and Roses

This is a difficult time of year for those of us who need warmth and light. I have been painting with reds and pinks lately to help to satisfy my craving for colour. I have enough warmth and food and light to function - but need something dazzling to give me energy. "Give us bread but give us roses". I was so excited to find these roses hiding in the sedum plants of an otherwise dormant garden.

I pull aside the browns and a treasure garden of pink roses waits for me.

And sometimes, when minature roses aren't enough to cheer my heart, the muffling clouds depart and reveal an evening like we had two days ago. As Henry and I stood on the roof deck, wrapped in blankets, I noticed neighbours coming out of their houses too, drawn by the extraordinary sunset.

Absinthe Dreams

I have finished my mural surrounding the projection screen at Cancan night club. I wish these pictures could convey the size. I didn't measure and am poor at guessing. I suppose it is about fifteen feet high. The plants are wormwood and anise.

Are these animals the visions of someone drinking absinthe? Emile Zola said that everything is a dream. (Tout n'est qu'un rêve)

I painted a quotation from Zola along the bottom of the screen "Je n'ai guere de soucis de beaute ni de perfection... Je n'ai souci que de vie, de lutte, de fievre. (I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity.) No wonder he needed a drink!