by Diane: Update #1: My process in making a new painting goal

Clearing the way for an exciting new direction 

 is one of the best parts of exhibiting my paintings.

Studio before hanging my exhibit

 

Thirty paintings stacked against the wall

waited to be hung at Albany Public Library January 5 - February

Love seeing my work in a large space like the library! The spaciousness of the library gives me a different perspective in which to self-judge my direction!

With a good many of my paintings gone, I have room to clean and organize my work space. 

   For my quest to make a resolution  in addition to house cleaning, I watched the DVD Netflix documentary, "Monk with a Camera."  For me, an admirer of Buddhist philosophy, but with no plan of becoming Buddhist, a movie about a convert stimulated my questioning the psychological health of playing with art as I do.



Inspired by my 2002 painting
of a China /Tibet
 monk's studio, I am removing all
but the most necessary 
tools from my work space
to make a  relaxing,
 soothing, contemplative,
painting place.
 Easy to use while I continue
 as a care giver
the next two months.
 

        
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

"Monk with a Camera" is a 1914 documentary about the spiritual journey of photographer Nicholas Vreeland, the grandson of Vogue magazine editor, Diana Vreeland and Ambassador Frederich Vreeland. Nicholas rejected the life style of privilege that he was born to especially the glitz and expectations of high society.  Seeking the advise of the Dalai Lama, he moved to India where he in earnest studied at the Rato Dratsang Monastery.

      

        He worried that the more he took pictures, the more he would want to take them.  Making art would be intoxicatingly presumptuous of his importance. As a monk, in contrast to being a photographer, his identity was abandoned first by shaving his head of hair. Without hair on his head he felt in a sense naked of identity. He lived a sparse existence with only the most necessary things needed to live. He gave up his immaculate perfectly polished expensive shoes. After years of being a monk when charged with elitism because he was polishing his sandals like he used to polish his shoes showing off his elite superiority.  He explained the difference,"Polished sandals last longer." 

          As a monk if he spent his time taking pictures, he would be thinking as a photographer even without a camera in his hands.  If he was thinking like an artist photographer much of the time, his ego would be gratified so gretly that he would wipe away the humility of being a monk. In becomming a monk ones former identity is abandoned and individualism does not exist. Photography in addition would become an addiction.

      

         In my opinion being immersed in a pictorial art form is transforming  my values. I gradually  become resistant to advertisements. I do not desire most material things. The longer I have marketed my paintings for sale, the less my ego feels stroked by sales and more and more my art is about sharing my experience.

         Maybe I should take from Niki's first Buddhist teacher Kyonal Rato who at age 80 bought a chest full of windup music boxes in the shape of stuffed animals. He enjoyed orchestrating the play of these boxes to make a pretend musical show. And at more than 90 years of age he took child-like pleasure with his toys but kept them segregated from most of his life. His separating play just like the young Tibetan students at the monastery who played a board game on Mondays.  The China Tibetan Monks also were playing "football" (soccer). Buddhist Monks play. And  I feel confirmed in my art journey. Shouldn't I consider painting serious play fulfilling a basic human need to play?

 

       Another Netflix video "ADVANCED STYLE" by Ari Seth Cohen has one parallel philosophy - "Money cannot buy style."  The video exposes the under recognized fashion sense of individuality in seven women in their 60's through 90's. They embrace shopping to build outfits expressing themselves as art. They flourish showing they are better than the advertised merchandise trying to sell the latest fad to all.  They have found the zest of being alive and vibrant in the  same New York City that Nicki rejected.
         The ladies of "ADVANCED STYLE" celebrated the importance of being individuals while Nicholase Vreeland rejected the importance of the individual when he became a monk.
 

       Also pertinent to my considering a different direction for this period of care giving is a Great Courses selection, "THE SHAPE OF NATURE" of lectures by Professor Satyan L. Devados inwhich the most important concept is that form and function is interrelated.  For me as an artist, the design of my studio space is the form in which my art making is the function. 

       In my next update, I plan to share my self critic of my work at the library and hopefully show  progress in rearranging my studio. Maybe even new paintings.

 

 

by Diane Widler Wenzel: Sharing my paintings at the Corvallis Caring Place

 The Corvallis Caring Place residents and staff have shown so much appreciation that I continue to have the desire to make a good showing.
      To select paintings for the January through June exhibit, I lined up some by my family along with those of  local artists that were gifts, purchases or loans.  Most of these in the picture were selected to replace work that has been hanging in the north wing 1st floor for a year. I am thankful for being allowed me to share my collection that I do not have room to hang at home. Then when I am in the process of  hanging work, residents are eager to show me their art. I am happy these paintings add to life and joy and inspiration to so many.
Whenever I group my work or my collection together for a show, I make discoveries that please me. This time I discovered that I collect work that has a common theme. I favor subjects that are about light or the act of lighting. Rain Trueax's has chiaroscuro lighting from the bonfire.


Other works about light include a Nelson Sandgren print of  a man holding a sparkler on a very long rod. Also a reproduction of Lynn Powers watercolor portrait of  Pharaba gives me warm fuzzy feelings, I think come from the glowing eyes catching soft highlights.

In June when I will be changing these paintings I would like to share someone elses' not for sale collection.  If you have a couple ready to hang pieces that are not for sale and would like to hang them next week let me know because I am also making changes upstairs.
         Another exhibit  at the CCP January and February are 19 paintings  of mine hanging in the ground floor South Hall, an area changed every other month by the Corvallis Art Guild. From time to time I hang art with the Corvallis Art Guild.

by Diane Widler Wenzel: My daughter's artistic hanging maximizes the effect of my paintings

The light gray walls complement my color saturated paintings.
Accessories like flowers and pillows repeat the blues and yellows in my paintings.

Thank you my daughter, Nancy. I hope these paintings enrich your life.

Aiming for Plein Air Watercolor Paintings Displayable Without Glass

Experimental watercolor painting from the 70's  upon which I build my current direction

Last week in preparation for painting outdoors, the studio window view was the subject for trying some prototype palettes where I mix tube or pan colors with diluted Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish. This is a technique Professor Heidel introduced me to in a summer school class I took after graduation in the 70’s. I painted the picture of an adolescent dancer on the back of a 21 1/2” x 14” scrap piece of paneling covered with gesso.

This year now  approaching 75, I decided not to use glass and decided to incorporate some new products like absorbent ground for painting watercolors that can be displayed without glass.

The four window paintings soon became more than an experiment. Observations while painting the first painting (upper left), led me to seeing the similar shape of the brush bristles to the rhododendron buds. Then a neighbor pushing a stroller passed my view and I thought the child was a bud beginning to blossom. So I named the painting “Promising Blossoming”.

The second painting, “Creating by Cutting” is focused on telling what I am thinking in the painting process. In composing a painting I cut down my view to a few things or elements like colors shapes and lines.

 The third painting is “Connecting Releasing”.  Releasing balloons is joyous to me like letting go of control. When the painting was all but complete, I saw I could put a figure waving in the two windows across the way from me and the idea came to me of connecting and releasing as being important in the creative process. Releasing the critic while having little direction in mind, trusting the subconscious to take command while bravely putting down color and texture knowing the ideas will flow just as the theme evolved for this series of illustrating opposites in my creative process.

The fourth painting is “Taking and Sharing”, another title about opposites predominant in my painting process. I take ideas from nature and share them through my paintings.
Many more themes, colors and textures can be achieved with the beautiful transparencies and luscious buttery heavy body acrylic white or layers of absorbent ground. Especially advantageous to me is spending more time painting and less time cleaning glass. The finished piece is lighter weight making transporting and hanging shows easier.

There are some hurdles still remaining for me to overcome in learning to paint outdoors with watercolor thinned with acrylic paint mediums. The mediums can put a hard film over the paint in the palette rendering them unusable.  so I am trying to keep the watercolors separate from where I mix them with medium. Palette knife is an excellent way to move the pure watercolor to the mixing area where poured medium is mixed into it with a brush. Of all the pocket pan color palettes that I own, I selected two VanGogh palettes because each has a deep well in which the half pans sit.  I remove half the colors in each leaving deep wells for the medium.

Perhaps the best palette is the larger palette for tube colors because there is a trough at one end of  each of the five mixing areas where poured medium can be stored far from the pure watercolor.
When painting outdoors I will need a bottle for dilute medium and a bottle for water. I am nearly ready to paint outdoors.

Watercolor painting without glass without visible frame

 


A fresh coat of Golden absorbent ground on canvas boards. When it dries it is matt.



 

When adding acrylic medium to watercolor paint, the medium makes the paint dry hard so keeping the moist watercolors seperate is useful. Left over paint can be kept in a bag with a wet sponge. When painting outside the paint palette will go into an airtight box.



"From my Studio Window" is on a 14x 11 inch canvas board covered with

 Golden brand absorbent ground for watercolors.

 This is my first watercolor in which I mixed  my watercolor with diluted Liquitex gloss medium,

  1 part medium to 2 parts water.  Most of the paint was stable when brushing on the the medium to make the colors permanent, but  some darks smeared.. I suspect I didn't get as much medium in the dark colors that ran into the light colors.
 The watercolor mixed with dilute medium has the same quality as translucent watercolors with some advantages. Watercolor paints is  lighter weight and requires less space in a suitcase. Painting on a personally prepared absorbent ground means the water media can either remain transparent or  take on the appearance of other media.  Gouache white or acrylic white can be mixed in to make it more opaque.. Then more acrylics or oils can be built up over the watercolor. Finally the permanence of the surface does not require the protection of glass or Plexiglass.

I like the glassless presentation of watercolors. Gone are the distracting reflections and all the fuss with framing and cleaning the glass.

Diane Widler Wenzel Rotating Paintings in our Dining Area - a step in the painting processs

When I rotate paintings, I ask, "What if?"
Most of the work done on a painting is looking at it and making choices. Some choices are thought of before I roll back the table cloth and paint. I like to see the changes in season and lighting as they change the way the painting strikes me. Changing paintings can be a valentine to myself because it makes me feel good.

Happy Valentines enjoy rotating art

 
 

 


Several days after working on the color scheme of the large painting  I replaced the painting just to the left to an earlier painting with similar colors but different subject - Waterloo Park, Oregon.

What if I put a closeup of the foreground like the painting of Waterloo Park?   Maybe put the electric and phone wires in  with one bluebird on the wire and one scouting out a bird house? What if I increase the value contrast to have the same range in both paintings?  Instead of increasing the contrast, I could increase the misty atmosphere.  To make it my experience and feelings in a nostalgic painting I could put more animals we see out back.

The process of making the painting sentimental is fine with me as I also seek to hook a want to be rancher family to continue ranching.  Small farms within city limits is a good idea to uplift a neighborhood to be in closer contact with the earth and life values.

After two months when the ranch painting was facing the wall and I didn't look at it, I pulled it out thinking I might hang it up and think about it before deciding if I should take a new direction or continue to add more animals and details.

I decided to put it back against the wall and continue the series of abstracts from memories of snorkeling.

Part III: Diane Widler Wenzel on How I Hang the Pictures I Paint

A general description of a painting studio is a work place for painting fine art. I seldom work in my mostly storage for painting studio.

In Part III the bedroom storage studio contains a large selection of easy to find paintings. They are assessable whether I need them to hang in a gallery outside the home or for experimenting with   throughout my home. In the doorless clothes closet two storage bins are on wheels so I can pull them out to for the paintings on the sides and back.


The small studio work area gets messy but I know where my watercolors, acrilics, oils, brushes are more or less. Also some of my tools for hanging pictures are on the shelves below like the studfinder, hardware for aluminum frames, hooks and screw eyes. Sometimes the tape measurer is there or where I was last using it, but can most likely be found in the kitchen drawer which also contains the hammer, plyers, wire cutter and screw drivers. Behind the workbench not in the picture is a step stool which often is a neccessity in hanging pictures since I am short. The pictures on the wall with pictures is wall storage. The antique grade school first aid cabinet contains ceramic pieces and collage items.

The open  storage cabinet is also on wheels important for a small room. I have plenty of wall space for paintings and a bulletin board for notes on coming shows, inspiring quotes, and reproductions of favorite works by other artists.

The cabinet has doors that open to a top shelf with new and used sketch books. The middle shelf has my oils and some framing supplies. The lowest one holds a wooden box for hauling paintings currently filled with framed paintings under glass ready to take to the next venue.

 

 

The clothes closet is converted to storing two rolling open cabinets for storing paintings and other supplies. The metal shelves were purchased from a family who used it as a pantry. The top half has finished work of mine and other artists and below I sort whatever papers that are in process.

I feel blessed to have a husband who is not only supportive but provides for my life as an artist by building art stuff and giving me space in our home and time to paint. My working painting studio where I actually paint is any place on our property indoors or out where I can hang a painting and set up my painting stuff.  Often I look at a once finished painting and think of a new direction. So I haul out my paint brush and add a stroke or two of paint. Most often I paint on our patio or I roll back the tablecloth from the paint drop cloth underneith.

 

In conclusion to this three part series I hope to interest at least one person to be more adventurous. Fearless enough to ask what if and then follow their instincts.  Buying or making paintings, then starting to bravely pound hooks into their walls in places they hadn't considered as ideal.  Then leaving empty wall spaces to compliment their groupings of paintings. 

Being creative is natural, satisfying, challenging and never complete. The feeling when overcoming the frustration in learning to master a new skill is very much the feeling felt from being a fine arts painter with a rich creative development.  In addition, I have found that I can be a continuously prolific painter in a limited space.  The thinking behind collecting and hanging paintings can be just like the thinking process of a painter.