Art in the Making by Jenny Armitage

Georgia in the Morning (11 x 14)

Twixt Wind and Water

I thought after sculpting for half a decade, I’d developed a pretty thick skin about displaying and selling my artwork. But I’ve discovered that my sculpture calluses provide no protection whatsoever for my tender painting skin. Rejection and acceptance still matter more than they should.

I’m not sure why this is so. It may be because somewhere in the back of my brain I only consider paintings to be “real” art.  But I don’t think so. I’ve admired too much sculpture and photography to believe that.   It might be because it’s new to me, but I’m not sure it’s that either.  I don’t think I was ever this raw about sculpture or quilting shows. I think the answer is simply that there is a great deal more of me in my paintings than there is in my sculpture, quilts or photos. But whatever the reason, when I submit my paintings I itch as I’ve never itched over applications before.

Grandma Braids

But getting paintings hung in galleries, art shows, and art festivals requires submissions followed by (gasp) acceptances and rejections. I’ve just begun to put my toes in the water. My paintings now hang at Art in the Valley, where my sculpture has already littered the shelves for a few years now. And in addition to the Oregon State Fair this past August, I’ll have my paintings in at least two art fairs. Each of those acceptances mattered in a way sculpture acceptances haven’t mattered for years. Nor would I have considered any of these shows a big deal for sculpture. In fact, I’ve been in these fairs for years. But they mattered for paintings all the same.

In addition to art fairs I’ve begun applying to watercolor societies. Signature membership in watercolor societies is the entrance to watercolor society shows as their shows are often member only. I applied to the Watercolor Society of Oregon earlier this month. The three paintings shown in this post are the painting I submitted to them for active membership.  Yesterday the acceptance came. I’m very happy, ridiculously happy given the that the prize is membership dues, and the right to submit paintings to shows.

Hungry, Vegan, and Broke

Memorial Day Waterworks (17 x 19) $275

I spent yesterday talking with people and watching their reactions to my paintings at the Artisan Village, a part of the Oregon State Fair. Mostly, the paintings I, and my family like are the paintings other people like. Also, many people from Wilsonville were charmed by Memorial Day Waterworks because they recognize Town Center Park. The Annex Pub and the seascapes were also popular. There were some surprises though. One of them was Hungry, Vegan and Broke.

I painted the two young men in Hungry, Vegan, and Broke as a kind of private joke. I saw them in in downtown Portland in front of Powell’s Books. And while they were obviously hot and tired, they looked healthy and able bodied. Certainly they didn’t look like they’d been hungry anytime in the recent past. And the sign was so absurd: “Hungry, Vegan, and Broke.” I could translate that sign two ways: “We Are High Maintenance Choosy Beggars;” or, “Feed Us Because We Are Such Good Moral Young Men.”

I liked my little joke, and I loved the afternoon sun on their skin. But I the reactions of my family and friends to the painting were mixed. I didn’t even consider making a print or greeting card of the painting, and I hesitated to frame it for the fair, but I did.   At the last moment I made some magnets of it too.

Well, the joke is on me.  Almost everyone who sees this painting smiles, and this is the painting everyone wants a print of.  I have sold more Hungry, Vegan, and Broke magnets than magnets of any other painting. Today I’ll place it more prominately in the booth.  Right now it’s down low and half hidden by a table.

Grandma Braids

Today is my opening day at the Oregon State Fair’s Artisan Village. I’ll be demonstrating polymer clay sculpture all morning and working on a new Central City Painting all afternoon. I’m really looking forward to the chance to spend a few days painting.

I’ll be painting and sculpting there today through Tuesday. Today’s hours are 10 am to 9 pm. Saturday’s hours are the same. Sunday through Tuesday I’ll be there 11 am to 8 pm.

I’m spending the weekend selling my polymer clay animals and vases at the Silverton Festival of the Arts. Come see me if you are in the Salem/Portland metro area.It’s a nicely run show and Silverton is great place to spend the weekend whether there’s an art fair going on or not.

I’m busy putting together materials for my first art fair painting booth.  (I’ll be in the Artisan Village at the Oregon State Fair in late August and early September).  I will have a ten by twenty foot space to fill with paintings and sculpture.

I spent yesterday afternoon going over my paintings with a girl friend and deciding which ones to make into prints to sell at the fair.   I also quizzed friends, followers on Twitter, Facebook fans, and an on-line pen pal.  The results were all over the map. After much thinking and listening, here is the tentative list:

The Pumice Seekers

Memorial Day Waterworks

Ladder to the Past

Winter Morning Solitude

Twixt Wind and Water

Waterfall in Her Lap

Georgia in the Morning

Daddys Magnifying Glass

Her Own Little Fountain

The Pink Bucket

Grandma Braids

Winter Morning Solitude II

Hat and Shoulders

Splash Dance

Romantic Memories

Winter Sun

The prints will be roughly 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 and in a few cases 12 x 16. I’m not having any painting printed larger than the original.

I have chosen a different but overlapping group to make into 5 x 7 greeting cards. I’ll post that list when the cards are printed.

I have difficulty painting in public. I never paint my best or even close to my best with an audience. Even at the gallery where people wander in and out infrequently, I have a hard time with painting in company. I don’t blush or drop my brush. But I don’t concentrate as well as I do in private. And I make fundamental errors more frequently.

But I must learn to paint in public and soon. And what is more I must be able to talk about it while I do it, because this coming August I have agreed to demonstrate painting and sculpture at the Artisan’s Village in the Oregon State Fair.

It’s sculpture that got me into this. I’ve sculpted for seven years now and I’m quite comfortable doing it with an audience. For the last four years I have sculpted all day at just about every art fair I’ve been in. Only heat and fancy carpets stop me.

Last Christmas a representative from the Artisan Village saw me demonstrating at the Salem Saturday Market Christmas Show and asked if I would be willing to take a booth at the fair. This is plum. Commercial booths at the fair rent for several thousand dollars. Booths in the Atrisan Village rent for $75.00. The difference? The Village is a juried venue. The catch? —artists in the Village must demonstrate from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm.

Most artist share a booth and share demonstrating hours. But I know no one else who sculpts polymer clay. And besides, it’s an outdoor venue and the hotter it gets the hotter polymer clay gets until it becomes much to soft to sculpt. What to do?

Well, I was looking for a way to display my new watercolors so I talked myself and the director into both sculpture and painting. I am to sculpt in the cooler mornings and paint in the heat of the day. Switching mediums halfway through the day should help me keep my brain active too.

Now all I have to do is learn to paint in public. I spent this weekend learning. Saturday and Sunday I sold sculpture while painting watercolors. I tried to stick to easy subjects and to leave the detail work for later.

I will try my hand at painting in public again at The Salem Art Festival in July, and the Silverton Fine Arts Festival in mid August. At the end of August it’s show time.

Here are my three half finished paintings. With luck I’ll be posting the finished paintings later this week:

Dances with Fountains (in progress)

This is the beginning of another painting in my Splash series of the children playing at Town Center Park. I began by masking the boy and the fountains and painting the water in cobalt blue and burnt sienna. After lifting the first mask I masked the splashes on the boy and the high lights in the fountains. Then I added raw sienna to the palette and began painting the boy. I think I am going to need a real red to complete his skin. Then I will lift the mask and complete the detail work.

Boy with Umbrella (in progress)

This is a full size painting of the boy with the umbrella. The boy is mostly finished, but I want to add a second umbrella on the lower right. I didn’t have a reference photo for that at the show. But I have plenty of pictures of umbrellas in the same light to choose from here.

The painting is on hot pressed paper. The palate is cobalt blue, phthalo green, quinacridone deep red rose, yellow ocher and ceruleum blue.

Pumice Seekers II (in progress)

This is a much smaller version of a painting I did a few months ago of my husband and the girls looking for pumice stones at Crater Lake. Stephen loves the original and won’t let me sell it. But it’s too large for his office. I’m hoping to have this smaller office sized version finished in time for his birthday.

So far I’m using just three pigments: cobalt blue, yellow ocher and burnt sienna. The painting still needs a great deal more contrast.

In the meantime I’ll be preparing to sell sculpture and paint at the Salem Art Fair. I will be at the State Fair August 28th through September 1st in Booth 414 on the south side of the village next to the floral gardens. Wish me luck.

About a month or so ago the Titanic exhibit, or at least a small piece of it came to Salem. Stephen and I took the girls. It was a hot day and we were grateful to the sponsoring bank bank for providing us all with sunshades. And all of those great green and white umbrellas made the crowd rather picturesque. I puzzled the volunteers by photographing the crowd rather than the outside of the exhibit.

I think I will eventually do a back-lit painting of the line. But right now I have an upcoming art fair in Seattle (for my sculpture not my paintings) that’s taking up most of my time. Nevertheless I want to keep my brush hand in. These three little sketches are of a toddler ridding on his daddy’s shoulders and playing with one of those umbrellas.

Boy with Umbrella I (5 x 7) $20.00

He was having so much fun twirling that umbrella around and so happily oblivious to everything else that I was afraid he was going to bean his father with it. Come to think of it the father has slid of the paintings. None of the angles I liked showed the man’s head. When I included too much of his back and shoulders it looked like the boy was ridding the headless horseman.

Boy with Umbrella II (5 x 7) $20.00

I began the sketches because I liked the umbrella. I ended up doing three of them because I got carried away with the infinite variety of color in the boy’s hair and skin. Blue, yellow, red, brown, purple and orange. It’s all there.

Now that I look at the sketches I may make a full size painting out of one of these.

Boy with Umbrella III (5 x 7) $20.00

The palette was phthalo green, ceruleum blue, cadmium red, quinacridone deep red rose, yellow ocher.

These three sketches may be framed or used as postcards. Purchase all three for $50.00.

Because they are so small, I’ll mail these little sketches flat rather than in a tube. As always prices include postage within the continental United States.

Leafy Camel (6 x 4) polymerclay

When I started this blog, I intended to emulate the daily painting bloggers and create a painting a day. Alas, life gets in the way and some days the house, the husband, the children, the garden and friends take up too much time to allow for painting. Thank heavens they do. And I often want to do bigger projects than I can possibly paint in a day. So my actual practice has been more like a painting every other day.

Now the art fair season is upon me. This weekend I’ll be at the Wilsonville Festival of the Arts, selling, not my paintings, but my sculpture. And after this show I’ll need to start sculpting again if I’m going to meet my show commitments this summer and fall. And I always meet my art show commitments.

So this blog may slow to a painting every two to three days. But there will be more paintings. There will indeed. I can’t help it. I’m obsessed.