Archive for

August, 2009

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August 31, 2009 10:53 pm

Breakers

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by Jenny Armitage    in prints available,seascapes,sold
Breakers

Breakers SOLD

Dances With Fountains (7 x 10)

Dances With Fountains

I expected to sell prints, but not necessarily paintings at the Oregon State Fair. It isn’t exactly a traditional art venue. So I wasn’t surprised that I hadn’t sold a painting over the weekend. But surprise, surprise, I sold two framed originals today. “Fountain Dance” I blogged about when I painted it. It’s part of my Town Center Park “Splash” Series. Breakers is a little painting I did before beginning this blog.

You can purchase a print of either painting at Fine Art America.com

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August 29, 2009 8:02 am

The Joke’s On Me

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,shows,Uncategorized
Hungry, Vegan, and Broke

Hungry, Vegan, and Broke

Memorial Day Waterworks (17 x 19) $275

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.

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August 28, 2009 7:25 am

Opening Day at the Artisan Villiage

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by Jenny Armitage    in shows
Grandma Braids

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.

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August 18, 2009 8:13 pm

Which Century?

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by Jenny Armitage    in buildings and bridges,for sale,landscapes,Uncategorized
Which Century (11 x 13) $125.00

Which Century (11 x 13) $125.00

We recently visited Central City, Colorado.  Like many “ghost towns” across the country, tourism has kept the once bustling mining town alive.  When I was girl the historic downtown was wall to wall novelty and gift shops broken only by cheap restaurants.  Tourist straggled up and down the steep streets buying post cards of jackalopes, shiny cedar boxes and souvenir spoons.

Most of the novelty shops are gone now. Casinos dominate the downtown now. The streets are quiet because the tourists are mostly inside the casinos gambling. But unlike in the 1800s the gamblers are senior citizens bused in rather than rough neck miners. I find it an ironic return to the past. But I liked the bustling streets better.

I still like the old downtown, and I took many pictures for future paintings. This one is of the Coyote Creek Casino and the Century building. My question is which century, the 19th, the 20th or the 21st? All three centuries are mingled in the Victorian building with 20th century signs and air-conditioning, and 21st century computers.

The light cast lovely shadows on the century building, but the bright light flattened the casino. After some thought, I added some shadow to the casino. I think it works a little better particularly on the upper story.


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August 17, 2009 10:23 pm

Three Waiters

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,for sale,mistakes
Three Waiters (9 x 7) $125

Three Waiters (9 x 7) $125

Since becoming a painter of people, I’ve developed some sneaky ways of photographing strangers in public. One of them is to sit in a restaurant or on a park bench and pretend to be reviewing my pictures when I am actually taking pictures instead.  I took the photos I used for this painting in just that way.

I just had to take the photos because of  the way kitchen lights in the otherwise dark pub threw these waiters into relief.  They looked like they were on stage, yet the scene was intimate.  It reminded me of an Edward Hooper painting.  But I’m no Hooper, and I intended something much warmer than the world he painted.

It wasn’t easy. I tried a version of this painting almost a year ago and was unsatisfied with it.  As usual, the main problem was composition.  I included too much of the scene and destroyed much of both the intimacy and the light contrast I was trying to present.

Last Year's Waiters Painting

The First Waiters Painting

I like this new smaller version much better than last year’s version.

Once again I used a limited palate: phthalo blue, cobalt blue, burnt sienna, and raw sienna.  Because I was painting with limited supplies in Colorado, I only had one yellow.  If I had been painting at home I would have substituted a brighter yellow for the raw sienna.


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August 14, 2009 11:27 am

Silverton Art Festival

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by Jenny Armitage    in shows

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.

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August 12, 2009 10:20 pm

Missonary’s Window in Reflection or Almost Abstract

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by Jenny Armitage    in buildings and bridges,for sale
Missionary's Window in Reflection (9 x 12) $75.00

Missionarys Window in Reflection (9 x 12) $75.00

I love the warped reflections made by antique glass window so much that I was sorry to see our 1930′s living room windows replaced with energy efficient modern double paned glass.

But I can still enjoy the warped windows of the Mission Mill Museum. Here, reflected in the mill warehouse, is of the youngest of the three missionary houses moved to the Mill site after it became a museum. The painting is true to the shape and colors of the reflected of parsonage house, but not to the color of the Mill warehouse. In real life the mill and warehouse are brick red.

I painted it because the reflection made such a satisfying abstract design.


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August 10, 2009 9:08 pm

The Best Hot Pink or Playing Chicken with the Waves

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,for sale,prints available,seascapes
Retreat (9 x 12) $100

Retreat (9 x 12) $100

I haven’t been able to paint much recently, so I brought some things to play with at my mother’s.  I started with another winter wave painting because they are becoming easy and familiar.  This is my youngest daughter playing chicken with the surf.  I think in the end she got her feet wet. My reference photo included both girls, but for composition reasons I left my eldest out.

The palette is cobalt blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna and opera rose.  I rarely want anything as bright as hot pink, but when I do, Winsor and Newton’s Opera is a good choice.  It’s hotter than anything I can mix by diluting my reds.  It’s another quinacridone red, PR 122.  And like most of the quinacridones it’s light-fastness is rated II, very good but not excellent.  Also like the rest of the quinacridones its a very warm red.

The paint came to me by serendipity.  Dick Blick’s sent me a sample on the same day I saw it used to effect in small touches in a large foresty landscape.  I was painting a picture of a young woman with a hot pink plastic bucket.  I grabed the new paint and discovered I liked it.


Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com See more painting of little girls here: girls paintings

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August 9, 2009 5:19 pm

New Dawn in the Late Afternoon

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by Jenny Armitage    in for sale,marine,prints available
New Dawn in the Late Afternoon (8 x 10) $100

New Dawn in the Late Afternoon (8 x 10) $100

I painted this little picture while vacationing in Colorado.  Obviously I didn’t work plein air.  I used a photo I took last summer.  We love to walk along the Newport fishing docks in the afternoon when the boats are all in and the fishermen are cleaning up.

This is the New Dawn in dock.  I painted her because of the lovely reflections in the water.  But while I began it because of the reflections, I found I enjoyed the subtle shades of gray necessary to give the boat volume too, especially where the floats colored the shadows.

I painted the reflection and the parts of the boat reflected first beginning with the red boat side and the gold float.  Then I added first the lighter water background and than the darker reflections and waves in it.  The lighter water is cobalt blue in the foreground and cerulean blue in the distance.  I used burnt sienna to gray and darken and gray the blues. I used a little raw sienna to make the greens.

Then I painted in the dark rail, the lifesaver and the the floats to help me “see” the rest of the boats.  The rails are phthalo blue mixed with burnt sienna.  I used burn sienna and raw sienna for the floats and lifesaver.  The background came next to define the masts.

With that road map in hand, I set about adding all the various shades of gray.  For those I used all three blues grayed down with burn sienna.


Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.

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