Fort Dodge Fine Arts Association Art in the Park 1975, me in the crowd with acrylic drip paintings and a watercolor collage of a Golden Eagle


On submitting ones self to the public, via the art in the park phenom, I have avoided this route since I tried it once in 1975 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Sponsored by the Fort Dodge Fine Art Association, and coordinated by the art museum where I worked, (Blanden Memorial Art Museum) this event was in its fledgling stages, held at Oleson Park with a large expanse of green, and a nice  band shell which provided a venue for performances of all kinds. Local bands, barbershop quartets and a womens chorus called Sweet Adelines would all take their turn providing free entertainment for the public. There was snow fence strung around the park, and the artists set up their  sales area in ten foot sections.   There were food tents and tables of church ladies bake sales, and activities for kids, in general a huge  festival of local talent. There was fairly good attendance that day but I didn't see many walking around with recently purchased art work. I had my paintings up and ready for sales, but got only odd looks and comments, while the guy next to me selling animals made out of clorox bottles was nearly sold out of his goods,  and after an hour or two, I realized that the community I lived in was not ready for art in the park, nor was I. I didn't sell a thing, and got more than a fair share of rude comment and arm chair art critic  behavior from a surprising number of people posing as SMART. I was dejected  rejected and angry by the end of a very exhausting day.  In the following years, nearly 15 actually, I ended up chairing that art in the park event, and it grew in quality and size over the years, then I left town for graduate school and I don't know what happened to this beast  but it was all in all a good experience.  I still don't like to make a public display of my self and am uncomfortable about my work being included in shows in the area, and when I am working plein air and someone comes into the work area to look closer or take my picture  I get sweaty and my heart races. I don't stick around long at opening receptions, just so I don't have to over hear comments about my work. You'd think I would be over myself at this age, after all these years, but some anxieties never go away entirely... still friends say I should go paint at the dockside quick paint in July, during the plein air festival, I plead a case of bad knees and arthritis which is partially true, but in a way I am relieved, still there is temptation in facing our fears and one day I might re visit this one.

Several images not posted before, I did a lot of studies, quick ones that seem crude to me right now... maybe my eye sight is getting worse, or maybe its the way I treat my brushes, or perhaps I just have bad coordination, each painting was done on a small  6" x8" panel, in less than 90 minutes, en plein air, the first at Kangaroo Lake in summer, the second painting at sunset at High Plateau Rd and the last as well, looking out my studio window on High Plateau Rd. as hug snowflakes descended.   I scanned this little panels directly without use of  a camera, just lay them on the glass and hit scan, I don't have photo shop so what you see is what you get with this method.  There are more panels but I need to go cook dinner and will blog more later...

On Drawing as  A Lifetime Activity

Horse Head in wax crayon by me at age 8, when I wanted a horse like this to be real, and standing out in the barn waiting for me.

I am taking a break from painting, just for the next few weeks, I am enrolled in a life drawing class at The Artists Guild in Sturgeon Bay WI, with the instructor Craig Blietz  and about 9 students, I am learning a lot in these three hour sessions about  anatomy, weight bearing muscles and light...not to mention the advantages of a light hand, using a knitting needle to sight the proportions of head to shoulders to hips, to knees. That was always something that I avoided, it drove me nuts, proportion.ugh.

 We are drawing from a model who has challenged us with some dramatic lighting and articulated poses. Everyone in the class brings  with them a fairly competent level of experience, but its the masterful words of our instructor that has us all marveling at how quickly time goes by, from doing 4  six minute poses to twenty minutes to forty, suddenly its 9pm and we are packing to go home. Craig has  encouraged us and challenged us simultaneously, at the end of each 3 hours session we walk around  looking at each others work, our errors and victories out there for all to assess.

My friend  artist Emmett Johns talked about the need to draw, and he keeps at it with life-drawing groups in New Mexico, and it was because of his urging that I decided I should get back in the ring and do this. I have not had a life drawing class for nearly 20 years, last  time with artist Loren Wiley at the West Bend Art Museum in the mid 1990's. Before that I had a semester at ISU with Brenda Jones, who had studied with Jules Kirschenbaum  at Drake University, the lineage is staggering really, when considering the background that Craig and other masters bring to the teaching experience.

It is getting harder for me to deal with the physical requirements, can I stand for more than 10 minutes, not really, can i climb the 30 some steps up to the drawing studio, not without some slow steady pausing every now and then, can I sit  with elevated arms drawing, sort of, but by the end of the night I was dropping my conte  crayon  every few minutes, and finding small relief in my Chinese drum movement to loosen the side ache that was reminding me I am not 40 any more. After our 4th session I may sign on at the drawing co-op, also run by the Artists Guild.  I am  so grateful to have landed in this community and can take advantage of these opportunities.

 Drawing has never come easy for me. I have known some people who had a natural gift for it, I did not, but it was a gift to have the compelling urge to pick up a crayon and make marks and that urge has never left me.  A few books saved from youth are evidence to that, with drawings of birds and rabbits and horse heads along with other scribbles of sun, trees and farm animals  littering the margins and front piece of  Childrens Book of Prayer and bird identification books.  So thanks to people like Craig and Loren and Brenda, and way back, my highschool art teacher Hildred Finson, and my mother  Doris Stidwell, who would draw for me during the church services just to keep me quiet.  My drawing gets more interesting if not improved in many ways because of them.

September 2012

A selection of a few unfinished paintings, started during the first week of September, I painted one afternoon with a friend at Waseda Farms, in their garden, in view of several barns, a coffee pot silo and a shed. Waseda Farms is just a short drive from my house, and has some wonderful  garden produce, grass fed beef and hogs-  they are generous and were willing to have us sitting around painting in the middle of their hard working gardeners

 This quick sketch was done one afternoon  late, at our farmstead on High Plateau Rd., the building is the granary, with the barn off to the left and an ancient arbor vita.

Windsor chairs seem to find their way into my world and I needed some ideas, painting the chair is a challenge and I am not sure I can do much with this.

This is another outbuilding on the property of Waseda Farms, and is also an unfinished image. I work on these small canvas panels, 6"x 8" doing very quick studies, with no goal in mind other than to see how much I can put into the panel without overworking it.

During the workshops with Emmett Johns, I went outside one day to paint, but the weather turned very wet and windy, with our class going in doors for nearly two days.   I also managed to find time to visit Hickey Brothers Fish place on Ridges Road, just off Lake MIchigan, the place has a lot of interesting stuff sitting around. I photographed  and started a study which I have yet to get back to. My energy level comes in waves, I have been distracted lately with the stuff of life,  I admire those I know who are able one way or another to do this every day, making a living from their own art work. I have the benefit of social security which helps, but am feeling a little discouraged, with no sales this year.  Still I go to area galleries and see red dots on paintings - someone somewhere is buying work.


So-----

Looking at Hickey Brothers Fish Market, near Baileys Harbor Yacht Club, I keep going back to this place, this road, so close to the lakeshore and the Ridges Sanctuary, this stretch of property near Lake MIchigan is becoming one of my favorite things about living in Door County,  very local, very much the product of lake culture, the buildings and old boat sitting here  have been painted and photographed countless times but never ceases to draw me in on a regular basis, and promises something new and different, if you look for it.

To answer my own question, posted previously this month - I have  proceeded to a final outcome, to work on both panels and double the size of the painting which I hope to submit for the exhibit THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND. The piece is informed  by awe for the wind and  my walks and photographs of White Cliff Fen and Forest Reserve, near Egg Harbor WI.  The exhibit opens November 10 - December 22  at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay WI. This is the second time I have been invited by the Door County Land Trust to participate in an art event under their sponsorship- I am always thrilled to be included in events like this.

First stages  of the diptych sometime in late June, when I decided to start a second painting to expand the picture.

Late July, the piece is nearing completion. Not an exact interpretation of the area but the influence is evident.  I  worked from a photograph, usually I do a smaller plein air study and return with it to my studio but I was not up to hauling gear and was more interested in getting a feeling for the walk, how did the forest feel to me, what had happened here,  why was I feeling an extreme sadness walking through this place? This  feeling of loss  hit me while I was painting it, weeks after I was there to observe. I sat quietly, looking at what I was sure was a young Beech tree and thought about the beech trees I once had on my property in West Bend WI, and how I loved those smooth gray trees, it was a grove of 14 trees until a storm hit in 1998.  I lost only two  but they were old, I could barely get my arms around any of them.  The city had built a sidewalk that curved to allow for the trees there, someone else loved Beech trees as much as I did. All those thoughts came back to me as I walked White Cliff.

Young Beech Tree- White Cliff Reserve

Moss growing where there once was tree, moss grows without roots- I just realized that after reading The Language of Flowers - a novel by Vanessa Diffenbach(Spelling?)

  I worked on the painting throughout the months of June and July, and found myself thinking about the forest fires in Colorado and then the forests I used to know in Australia, miles of  eucalyptus forest, sub tropical rain forest, trees like Davidson Plum and Firewheel, trees I once saw every day, drinking in the aroma of their mist in the hills near Byron Bay-trees I knew as a kid in Iowa.

Door County was hit hard last fall with wind, and during the winter, ice storms played a hand as well, adding weight to already weakened trees, the path was often punctuated by leviathans of maple and beech, uprooted, tentacles of root mass exposed to the elements, and large cauldrons of unearthed soil and rock, now make room for new layers of foliage, and cubby holes for a fox.  I find myself torn between my love of open spaces, long view vistas and an  attraction to water, contrast that to the closeness and temple-like  spaces of the woods.  Sometime back in the 1980's I was camped in a tipi in Iowa, and when a tornado came through,  we  held down the poles as the wind walked into the side, the heavier  door (eastside) pole,  of pine, was stuck into the ground an extra 6 inches after that wind left us, we were the only tipi left standing in what had been a tornado in north central Iowa, fast forward about ten years, I sat through devastation over ten years ago when I lived in West Bend WI, old-growth maple, my mother maple I called it,  twisted ten feet above the ground and came down on the neighbors garage- if it had fallen few inches to the north and I would have been hit  with its mass.  On the other side of the house, three huge ancient beech trees toppled from the roots.  I lost a lot that year, but rehabilitated my yard and my life and by the next year was living in Door County.

 detail  WIND TEMPLE


There is hope and encouragement on the heels of any  natural disaster, and that is where my  thoughts traveled while working on the paintings inspired  by White Cliff.

WORK IN PROGRESS PAINTINGS OF WINDFALL

To diptych or not to diptych, that is the question

I am working on a piece for an invitational exhibit at the Miller Art Museum, due in late October. This is for the Door County Land Trust exhibit, "This Land is Your Land" and there are a number of artists doing plein air pieces on site, celebrating  the amazing amount of land that has been set aside for the purpose of preservation and conservation throughout the county, land on which we can hike, meditate, photograph, bird watch, paint--------

I went to White Cliff reserve near Egg Harbor with painting gear and my camera. Steve and I had driven through this area last winter after an assault of ice and wind. On the day I returned last month, there was heat, humidity and a new crop of insects emerging from a recent rain. I was too tired to haul out the paint box, too daunted by the ache in my hip, although a recent shot of corticosteroid in the knee gave me confidence I could walk with my camera for twice as long as normal. So that is what I did. I shot photos of beech trees, images of fading wildflowers and followed a path for about forty minutes, finding trees uprooted from excess wind, or weight of ice and snow. I started thinking about the leviathans of maple now giving it up in the soil, exposed roots  leaving kettles of earth which  were now being overtaken by bracken and woodland flowers and new trees.  I photographed for about an hour, turned around and headed back to the road. 

A few weeks later I took time to review the images and was not impressed with the usual amount of green,  but intrigued with the  patterns of the trees still standing, the light filtering through it all, and the idea of worship. Wind has always driven me to anxiety over the years, and its aftermath  stands as witness to the power when fully unleashed, to re-make the world. The root balls took on an architectural  quality for me, and the idea of a temple emerged. There is the distance is yet to be seen, a Leopold bench, for observing quiet passages that were rendered in the moments after this tree came down. I will return to it again next season to view the progress.   And as for the painting, I will      return to that as well, finalize my intentions, and submit the work, in progress still.

There has been a hot wind today, locusts singing carried in with the staccato of chickadee off in the arbor vita, the ceiling  fan whirs and I can see clouds of grey on the western horizon, along with veils of new spiderwebs in the corners of the windows and walls of the farm house. Waiting for people to arrive to see Door PRize for Portraits and  connecting with the locals, that is what I have spent today doing.  I am also looking at a few paintings laying on the floor, drying,  I am trying to decide what needs to be done.

A SAMPLER OF THE DOOR PRIZE FOR PORTRAITS EXHIBIT

One of my favorites for this event was this painting by Emmett Johns,  friend and well known Wisconsin writer, Door County favorite Norb Blei

Graeme Reid of the Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend WI, reviewing his notes as he announced the Door Prize for Portraiture Best in Show

Portions of the party going on outside and in. 

Liz Maltman did this portrait of her friend Lynn Gilchrist

The party outside, includes Stephanie Trenchard and Karen De Noto and inside, Karen Overbeck and Paula with others unidentified. There were about 60-90 people in attendance.   The portrait above is titled THE HAT, by Chicago artist Ken Klopack.

BEST IN SHOW, ELENA, by Archelle "Buttons" Wolst

Archelle "Buttons "Wolst enjoying her win

                               Honorable Mention winner Mark Zelten of Green Bay celebrates after awards.

Me with Graeme Reid, artist Paula Swayden -Grebel of Plymouth WI and Craig Blietz, artist, of Door County.

When the night was nearly over, Suzanne caught us, the host and hostess winding down for the evening in the coolness of it all.

 Honorable Mention was given to Suzanne Rose for her portrait of daughter Delilah titled DEAR ONE.
my apologies for the reflection in the image

Door Prize for Portraiture third Annual Invitational Exhibition

DOOR PRIZE FOR PORTRAITURE  THIRD ANNUAL INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
June 29-July 29 2012

This exhibit opened at my art space/studio/gallery/farmhouse on the evening of June 28, one of the hottest days of the month and we have no a/c. Worried about labels curling off the wall, people fainting from heat, food going bad from sitting out too long, I had a lot on my mind for a few hours. One thing I did not have to concern myself with - the show. It went up like a dream, 21 works from artists who I have known for some time, witnessing their growth and  efforts at meeting new challenges, some of the people in this exhibit are very old friends, some are new. All of them are talented individuals who Steve and I wanted to honor. I get to play out my fantasy curator-ship and since we seldom entertain, the evening is our once a year bash for friends and artists.  I  felt looked like I stepped out of the shower,  the heat/humidity index was brutal while we were greeting guests, maybe 70-90 people arrived and filled the airy space with lots of talk, renewals  after a long season away, several confessed that this event, still in it's infancy really, is one of their favorite art events of the season. Steve poured wine outside, tables set up and plenty of soda, water, raspberry tea and inside, tables piled high with some delish  delights from Top Shelf Catering and Town Hall Bakery, my catering friend Linda Hegner and some new friends including an artist named Arnie who has a gallery up by Ellison Bay. 21 artists responded to our invitation last fall, to submit a portrait. Included  were some returning artists and some newbies; Sharon Auberle, Cal Bonnivier, Lori Beringer, Julia Van Roo Bresnahan,  Emmet Johns, Lynn Gilchrist, Liz Maltman, Rick Risch, Archelle Buttons WOlst, Tudy Ekman, Cynthia Wolfe, Mark Zelten, Randy Rasmussen, Shelby Keefe, Mary Ulm Mayhew, Stephanie Trenchard, Sarah Bradley, Tim Nyberg, Ken Klopack  Suzanne Rose and myself.  Winners were Archell "Buttons" Wolst for her portrait ELENA, and honorable mentions went to Mark Zelten for GIRL IN VIOLET SILK and Suzanne Rose for her photograph DEAR ONE.  Graeme Reid, Assistant Director of the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, WI was the awards  judge. He presented the standing room only crowd with his observations and commentary on the overall   quality of the show, describing his job as difficult, because the 21 artists presented their best work, the show was the creme de la creme. When awards were announced there was audible joy in the house,  and it was the moment that I had been working towards,  the moment when I can sit down and share a glass of wine, take my shoes off eventually, and savor the friendships, the talent and the beauty that surrounds me .

 YEAH, I got in the Hardy this year. I always tell myself its ok if I do not get into a juried show, its subjective, to appease a group of unknowns, who gather to determine the selection of an exhibit. Are we juried for our best efforts, or juried for the overall effect of the collective whole, the standard of the work may be pushed  higher if there are one or two works that carry the mark of excellence. I entered a small piece this year, having entered a large chicken painting last year, which was rejected from the Hardy Wall to Wall Salon. This year, my January Gray City View of Manitowoc made the cut. I am pleased to be included in this annual exhibit at the Francis Hardy Gallery - the painting was a brief exercise in studying the city view and skyline and the painting said I'M DONE after a quick 90 minutes. Knowing when to walk away is important I guess. Still I see other work that embodies the hours of devotional work which many  have presented, and I am humbled by the talent and discipline I see in their work.  Thank you Hardy Gallery.

TRALA ITS MAY

Well this blog page has a new look and its time to negotiate another learning curve. ah well. I have two paintings ready to go to framer and then to possible exhibits, one at the Hardy, their annual juried  floor to ceiling show, (has it been a year?) and the Ridges exhibit which is in late June through July, early August. I was not happy with my studies for the Ridges, but finally sat down and got out a painting of the range light station, the local icon, beacon of light,  in Baileys Harbor, as portrayed above. The day I went with my gear it was sunny but chilly, then I did some photos there a few weeks later and this painting is a result of several visits, 2 small studies and a photo image on the lap top,  I was happy with the light in this, shadows were long and dark. Reading the Ridges exhibit  will be at the Door Community Auditorium and will feature area artists invited to submit their impressions, at the Link Gallery opening on July 1 with a special reception. I was in this exhibit a few years ago when I did a painting of networked tree branches and a winter wren, this painting is quite different from the Winter Wren. I do not define myself as a landscape artist or a plein air painter, but these labels apply within a larger definition of my inquiring eye.

ANTICIPATING SUMMER

Its April, hmmm, looks like May but feels like March right now, on the lake side of the peninsula. The flocks of swans have come and gone, and each morning I step outside, walk with the dog to the shore of Kangaroo Lake and have a look at what might be going on there, a small gathering of divers, the bufflehead merganser types. I wonder if they'll stick around. Also, I am wondering why I haven't been a more regular blogger lately. I finished painting my gray frozen views of ice and snow, then in mid March buds started to swell on the lilac bushes, temperatures lured me outside, I went to the Ridges to paint the Range Light Station; I have been asked to be in an exhibit this summer called Reading the Ridges, which is a repeat of an exhibit they did at a space in the Gibraltar School Auditorium gallery space called The Link 2 years ago - I spent months preparing for it. This year I have spent months thinking about it and not doing much painting, so off to the Ridges I went again last week with my camera and last month, with my 6"x 8" pochade and folding chair, a warm day in March. So far I have two studies done, but keep thinking of entering older work that references the forest floor pathways i painted a year ago. I know others who go out with their gear all the time, painting in cold, in fog, in wind, I can't do that. I am happy if I can just pull up the side of the road and look at the view, let alone pack in gear to some off the road spot that might hold a treasure, but I just can't get to it because I am feeling some pain and weakening in the knees and hip joints, it is becoming harder to do the things I wanted to do at this stage of my life, but I got out and I walked, I shot images, I painted images, I went back home a few hours later feeling righteous and full of purpose, than I got achey and low. Now the sun is out again after a few days of gray and rain, wind and fog. I have had enough of that stuff, I want flowers and color and I want to feel myself walk without wincing, there are meds for that, but I am noticing that I don't think about it if I am looking at a canvas, sitting there painting what is in front of me- bring on spring and warmer weather, bring on the flies and mozzies and give me my bottle of Aleve and I will be there ready to fulfill my obligations, and hopefully have a painting I liked doing, for Reading the Ridges exhibit this summer, and the Land trust exhibit this fall at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, and while I am at it, I should do a portrait for my upcoming Door Prize for Portraits opening at my place Chez Cheryl Art Space in late June. There is a lot going on this summer, Door Prize for Portraits, Art by Diane Foster from west central Iowa,in August, and in September I have two workshops I am offering with artist instructor Emmett Johns, doing plein air painting for three days, followed by Chicago artist Ken Klopack, for three days painting the interior, exploring the figure in the interior space. There is also the garden to tend, and the chickens to feed and the dog to walk, the lake calls to us to put the canoe in- the county starts to fill up with seasonal tourists and residence and summer workers. Chez Cheryl Art Space will be open and ready for it's close-up.

January Grey

Today is Australia Day, and for the third year in a row, I am not observing it in Australia. I miss the color and sultry currents that filled my senses there. The flora and fauna and the sounds of it all permeated my thoughts, and spilled out to the canvas and journal for years. But in Wisconsin there is another current blowing, the water froze further out in the harbor of Baileys this year, and the geese stuck around but were further out as well, but today its barely freezing, still very cloudy and that Wisconsin grey has numbed my paint box, this is obvious if you look at the last three painting studies I posted today. The snow is dingy and shallow, with patches of ice lurking in criminal corners, waiting for someone to take a misstep.

These three little paintings are record of the work I pursued this month after a 3 month hiatus from painting. After the fall workshop with Bonnie Paruch, painting plein air nocturnes, and the two days painting with Mary Ulm Mayhew in mid September, I found myself in a lull. Not from lack in the workshops, just too many distractions. Holidays came and went, I scolded myself for not painting, went to several critiques, entered a few paintings in an exhibit at the Miller Art Museum SPIRIT OF THE SEASON exhibit with the Door County Art League. (old work) and then the Peninsula School of Art had their Janaury SALON, which offered up hundreds of art works by area artists, a big show, a good party and a few people I know even sold work there. I put three works in that show, and had good comments from people whose opinions I respect. One of the paintings I will have to photograph and post soon, it is full of color, and I realize it is a cousin of a painting I did in Australia, and it was made last summer at the height of rural color, flowers and birds everywhere, a celebration of color is hanging in the wings for me right now. Its all about painting snow, but we have none. Not yet anyway.

Working on a 6"x8" panel on a small pochade, mounted on a tripod. I never paint buildings, architecture is daunting.

Small Plein Air painting of the area across from the Maritime Museum in Manitowac WI.