Oregon Art Beat; #206; Sitka Center

Now I kind of have a rule for myself, another rule for myself that works really really well. I don't go back and make adjustments until I have paint everywhere on the painting. And that's because I might think this is too light, but how will I know until I have this painted so I can compare to it. And I may want some reflected blue somewhere, if I'm going to do the shatters blue, but how will I know unless I paint this here so I can compare the whole thing. So what I do, my painting stages are, I get the drawing done on the watercolor paper. Then I feel like I'm half done because I've been drawing and planning and thinking about colors, thinking about textures, thinking about what values, how dark things are going to be, how light things are going to be. Usually the first thing I put on doesn't end up being the right value because I have all this white paper. And so I can't compare it until I get this

dark stuff on. So then I just give myself permission to paint. I'm just going to cover the paper. Everywhere I think there's going to be paint is what I just get it covered. Then I go back and make my adjustments. Okay, we are going to kind of make, I think I'll use the same sort of a blue shatter that's in the example there. And I am going to use Cyrillian blue, I'm going to use a little bit of French ultramarine. French ultramarine is just a wonderful color that granulates so well. Maybe I'll even put a little fallow blue in it. I'm using my blues to make a color. That was a fire pot, imagine. Fallow blue, Cyrillian, fallow, ultramarine, this is cobalt. So I just have a little bit of all of them. But that's too blue so I'm going

to tone that blue down by adding a little Indian red. Indian red is a good color to use to tone things down. See how that just kind of dulled that a little bit. Oh, let's brighten it up just a little bit. Okay, good color, is that a good color? I'll just have to hope I mixed enough paint. This shatter is all in the shade, this is my shade color. Okay, so I am going to use the same color for every one of these pieces of wood on the shatter. But I want them all to look slightly different. So I'm only going to paint one panel of wood at a time. I'm going to paint this one and then I'm going to paint this one and I'm going to let those two dry. Then I'm going to paint this one and this one, kind of like a checkerboard. That way you'll get subtle changes

because of the way the paint granulates and the amount of water that you've used. And maybe this corner over here isn't quite the same color as this little petal of paint here. So you'll get variation, but you'll get a variation that blends together. And Darrell was talking about my little lines that I get between the shapes. By doing, if I painted the whole shatter, I wouldn't get a little line. But if I paint one area, let it dry, paint the one next to it, or it overlaps a little bit, they'll be a line. It'll be a darker spot, so it'll be a little bit of a line. So let's see what color this looks like. Well, that'll be fine. Now, I have cleaned up all the salt from right in this area. So I'm not worried about getting salt where I don't want it. Okay, so then, I'm using the 12. And your paintings

are smaller. You might want to use this a little bit smaller. Crash. But I'm just going to get a smooth wash, which means I'm going to... Like we walked, we worked with the smooth wash yesterday. I'm really just pulling that bubble paint in. Wow, right, pulling it right down. Okay. Yeah, I'm not really trying to paint. I'm adding to the bubble, so I want that to be smooth. But you're going to get a granulation, and you'll get a granulation just because of the... The heavier pigments will soak into the tooth of the paper. And I don't mind that this is going to kind of separate right there. You know, it kind of looks like the rain hidden, or it's dirtier there, or something, because this color is going to be the same as that. Okay, I'm doing a smooth wash in this area.

Do we even try and do a smooth wash on a smaller area? Because the ones we're going to be doing are real narrow panels. I don't know. You just won't have as much trouble or local faster. Yeah, right. It's a very fine print. You see, in big, smaller areas, you don't have to get, but you don't have to establish the bubble. Because you're going to cover the whole thing so fast that gravity will make that happen. Now, if I painted this one, it would just all blend together. So I'm going to come over here and do this one. And even the little pieces that will cross here are going to be the same color. Notice that I left, I have my little dots that are my little nails that hold us together,

but they're not in here. So you might want to add those to your drawings. Somebody pointed that out to me. Let me call this tree right. Yeah. It's the right. Let me get last night. We're going to lie here, isn't it? I got back the sale of it, not a while ago. Oh, my goodness. How was the traffic? The traffic was fine. Once I got out of the repair area there. It's just been an estate here, but you know, trying to find out the history of that. So they make you go to the other side of the window? Over here? Yeah. No, I'll pull I still have the same paint mixed up. This is all still wet. But some of it doesn't mean the sun, right? Some of this is in the sun. You can see some of it's in the sun, and so this whole shutter happens to be in the shade. So it'll be this color, and then I'll have to be careful over here

to decide which is in the sunlight and which is in the shade. So I did this one first because it was easier. So we're really using none of the salt here. Okay, now this is where I have to think. Like I can see this board right here, so I can see which I can see that here's another line I forgot. Right here, and then I came down in here, and this is, comes back down into there too. So I can see that most of this, that most of this particular one is in the shade. And then when I get to the sunlight, I'm going to stop.

And then I'll pick this back up in the sunlight or in the shade. The little piece that comes across, and then the little piece that comes across there. And here. And then I can flip over to this one, and it looks like it's in the shade too. There's no hope. What the straight lines? No, no, remember what a shadow is. What shadow is in what is it? We're saying if you're confused about where there's no hope for us. Oh, I just have to look at the, you know,

I just have to look at it. Yeah, they'll turn out. Now see, this in the salt area, we did the light first, and then the shadow. Now I'm doing the shadow first, and then the light. And so you'll be able to tell me which you like there. Do you like to do the shadow first, or do you like to do the light part first? And then this goes right into the bottom. Really, the best rule of thumb for using a hair dryer is not to use it until it shines on. Because if it's still shiny, there's a little bit of pigments of paint. Okay, that's good.

Okay, now I'm using the same mixed paint. And I'm just, yeah, just because I can't help it, I'll probably overlap just a teeny tiny bit. And that'll create a little darker wine along the edge. See, there it is. My original print. Oh, I see a dark one. Well, I bet I didn't know it was there. See, it's another one of those surprises that just happen when you're not planning it. But

it's the same color value, but it looks like the boards are older, because they're not exactly the same the way they dry will be just a little bit different. Now, if I just paint as a whole shatter one color, just one color, you wouldn't have that subtle, you wouldn't have the subtle differences. So I think it's worth doing it in stages. Well, you know, I'm sort of compulsive. So I would probably do every board, yes. Or if you're doing a shatter, yeah. But sometimes I'll glaze over the whole thing. If I get a little too far off, you know, a little too much variety, then I'll glaze over the whole thing. And that unifies them. But I didn't mix enough paint, because if I didn't, I had to go back

and mix. Actually, you would have a lot of variety. You would have a lot of variety, and you would be, you'd get way too much chance. So I mixed enough paint. It may dry, and I have to add water to it, but it's a big step ahead. I don't know where the edge is, but I don't want, I didn't want. I'm going to step over here, for balance I wanted. I knew that. So it probably will come somewhere just barely into this one board. If it comes out of the edge, I'd like my engines to come and meet them. I don't have to say one more,

less than two quarters. I don't have to say one more, less than two quarters. But now I'm going to clean this up, until I do these crossbars. Because there's a lot of variety in the trash. So I can actually look at them. And you're using the exact same color for the crossbars. Because I figured the shutters were made, then they were all painted the same color. You know, look at them. They're just enough different. They have plenty of variety. You know, you put the back of your hand

down and stuff. It will be cool. I want them to look like I wanted them to stick around. But as we said, you shouldn't have things like that. I'm going to do that for my next class. I'm just going to do it for my next class. I'm going to do that for my next class. I'm going to do that for my next class. Just labels. In my studio, I have six big tables up there. And I have a little classroom. In my studio. And I have six tables. So I really want it for people. They're one. They say, yeah, we'll see it. No, no, can't. Yeah, it's for people. It's a guest house. So it's a little

too bad for them. Early activities. Is where I have six tables. And the rest of it is my hotel. You should find your hotel. Yes. We're going to look for you. I can't say you were in your hotel room before your 60s. Well, I can't use that little bit of play with the light. And I guess I feel that way about this. So then, so then I could do some of this area here at the point and stuff. And I could just do this thing to get a play. But I'm going to add a little bit more. I'm going to add just a little bit more. Oh, just to get a little bit. White somebody. Got a bowl of my only shot, right?

No, you're great. Actually, just take a few steps back and then come on and go. Okay. That's great. Could you do it one more time and then we're in between? Okay. Okay. Okay, here we go. Through. Okay. Well, that's so fast. Okay. One last time.

Okay. Although you know what, you. Okay. Oh, I could feel that when that was. Okay, Nelson, you're on your own. Okay, don't keep. Well, if you just want to tell me a little bit kind of in general about this sort of outdoor artwork that you've incorporated and then specifically kind of the story of this piece right here. Well, the outdoor artwork that is integrated throughout the campus grew out of the Hirsch sculpture garden. That's where we first started locating work in

the campus, purchased significant work and integrated it into the landscape. That was in honor of the Harold Hirsch, who actually you might say is part of the founding, one of the founding fathers in a HELP organized Sitka Center. As we did that, we realized that it would be best if throughout the campus there was artwork and it just felt like a natural part of the place. And so we've endeavored to do that as you walk through the campus, you experience the work. And almost all of the work has been made here at the center. This poll was created through the initiative of one of our students in carving who said, be great if we had a cedar pole here. And suggested that the person who was teaching that workshop be the designer and the lead carver on it. So that's what happened

is this gentleman commissioned this poll to be carved and worked with the lead carver, Jay Havik, who designed the pole and then came down and over a two and a half year period led a group of eight to ten carvers carving on. And the piece and teaching them the various hand -edged techniques and went through a whole lot of work to help them understand what the forums were all about and where the history of the whole kind of carving. And after two and a half years they were able to complete it and we got some more funding to help set the foundation for the pole and get it installed in time for dedication of this whole part of the campus. So it's pretty exciting and perfect timing for what was going on at Sitka.

Well, what maybe we couldn't have planned as well as it happened is that when you, the building of this part of the campus was an orientation so that when you arrived at the campus you knew where to go to do business to get you a workshop all that. And from the parking lot this piece speaks to you from there from a hundred feet away you see it and it seems in perfect scale to the buildings. That just worked that way and we did choose the place but until it was in place we didn't know it looked as good as it does from that location. So it really draws people into this part which is kind of the active part of the campus so it worked perfectly. Was there any other specific piece you thought was a real important

one or? Well, I guess I would say in a way the stones are like the artwork they have a presence and they draw you to this place and let you relax here and then you start to notice the artwork and some of the other elements and the architecture which we're really pleased with the way this part of the campus worked really well with the existing buildings. And the way it all held together in the end is a vision of the architects and of us here working together with them to make it all fit together. We're in the shadow.

The one that was in there is the name tag. Mrs. Cue is the name tag. The color pencil thing is really nice to use on the white table. What was that sticker she said? Let it dry? Yeah,

let it dry. If I were to start with it. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know

what to do. But I think I'm trying to stick the wood there, trying to look out the window. It's a trick we use. It's

kind of expensive, but it's not what you think about. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know

what to do. I don't know what to do. Actually, it's real. It's like an illustration. It's a portrait of a backyard that some friends wanted. I don't know what to do.