Opportunities

I have been exploring the Web for what seems like a long time now (since about 1994) and the connections and opportunities for discovering art, and having your art discovered, still amaze me . A look at Google Analytics for my websites shows visitors from around the world - US, UK, Canada, Finland, India, Turkey, Australia, Austria, Syria, and others.
And I recently heard from an artist in Finland, Amalia, who had a show in New York City last month, and Jane, a photographer from the Isle of Mann, and I stay in touch with other members of the Watercolor Society of Oregon who are scattered across the state.

Rogue Photos

In case the Rogue paintings piqued your interest, here is a map photo tour of the Rogue River.

Rogue River Paintings

Today I added a group of paintings to my www.robrrobinson.com site that used different mediums - watercolor, acrylic, collage - and somewhat different styles. But hopefully they all exude a sense of place - the Rogue River in southwest Oregon. The paintings were inspired by whitewater rafting trips that I took on the Rogue with White Water Warehouse (I'm their webmaster). The river and its canyon are a beautiful place to boat, hike, take photos, sketch, and get ideas for paintings.

Everyday subjects

Riding along I-5 yesterday on the way to Eugene, several painting subjects appeared - a clump of blackberry canes, swirls of red and gray with splotches of leaves, a wintry look - oak trees on a foggy horizon - field stubble sticking up out of the silvery reflection of a mud puddle. All very everyday sights here this time of year, but interesting subjects along with many others if you look.

In Eugene, the Asian Festival had all sorts of sights of its own with the colorful market, tai chi demonstrations, belly dancing, many kinds of food and some colorful characters.

I got a chance to make paper from wheat straw and saw samples of many other types (cattail was my favorite), which made me think of all of the grasses out there that could be made into paper. An invasive plant called reed canary grass ought to be a very good candidate. My wheat straw paper below...

Driven to abstraction

It is interesting to see what appears to be a natural progression among many artists from representational artwork to the more abstract. Many masters during the past have gone that route - Picasso and Munch come immediately to mind.
You hear about the desire to paint "more loosely." To me it is more a matter of painting less tangible subjects - ideas, feelings - or focusing on the surface and medium - or working with design, color, texture, etc. I still paint more representationally when a sense of place or character is a major part of the subject.

Ideas, comments? Click on the comments link below.

Reactions to Art

Reactions to my artwork have frequently been surprising. What a person likes or sees in an artwork can be very unpredictable and comments tend to be interesting. They can range from the view on an abstract painting, "I could do that!" (made by someone who feels that she or he has no artistic talent) to the grandmother who cried when she saw the commissioned portrait of her granddaughter because she loved it so much.


One of the things that I like about abstract and non-representational paintings is that they tend to provoke thought and creativity within the viewer.

Oriental Handmade Paper Collage

A little more info on Oriental handmade papers (washi in Japan)…

The are a number of different styles, textures, thicknesses, and to some degree, color of papers available, though I tend to get white papers, or papers as neutral as possible, and add my own color using long-lasting watercolor or acrylic pigments. Very good information on the ingredients in washi and how the papers are made can be found at the site of the long-time papermaker, Awagami.

My collage below was made using very little paint and shows much of the original look and texture of the washi used to make it.

Painted Collage

Intersecting Strata

Years ago, I drove from north Georgia to Jackson, Mississippi to take a collage workshop from Gerald Brommer and it was well worth the trip. Jerry is an excellent and inspiring teacher and I have continued using his technique that he taught us to produce collages ever since.

I have come to call the resulting work “painted collage” to be more descriptive. “Mixed media” has always bothered me as being much too general (it really does not tell you what materials have been used) and there are so many kinds of collage. In this technique, paint is applied to washi, Oriental hand-made papers, either before or after gluing them in place (or both). Watercolor paints work very well and thinned acrylic paints do also. Sections of the washi, which comes in fairly large sheets, can be torn to leave more organic edges. It can be almost painful to tear the sheets since the papers are so beautifully made, but the results are worth it. Applying paint to the washi helps bring out the various textures within each type of paper. Layering the papers during the collage process can build a very rich surface, with colors and texture combining through the translucence of the paper.

Jerry Brommer continues to teach workshops on collage and on watercolor painting. I highly recommend his workshops as a means to explore design, color and texture in a way that tends to "loosen up" results for the artist. Jerry also has written many books, at least two of which are about collage. The technique mentioned above is described in a chapter of his book, Collage Techniques: A Guide for Artists and Illustrators.

Fat Tuesday

No post today.
Laissez les bon temps roulez...

02 - 04 - 08 - first post - Art and math

Composition and ratio - a place to start

Not the usual height to width ratio I use, but using the numbers in today's date (2/4) leads to something new, a little different. Wouldn 't want to try it with January 31st though. People tend to see different things in abstract art, but a painting in a wide format very easily becomes a landscape.