Archive for

September, 2009

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September 29, 2009 8:10 pm

Turret and Cupola

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by Jenny Armitage    in buildings and bridges,for sale,prints available,techniques
Turret and Copula (11 x 14) $150

Turret and Copula (11 x 14) $150

Back to the Deepwood Estate but with a very different feel.  This is the west or backside of the house looking up at the turret and the tallest roof peak.  The afternoon sun brought the architectural details into graphic relief. I decided to play with the posterized nature of the light by pouring this painting.

Pouring watercolors is much like batik dyeing.  First I mask all the white areas of the painting.  Then I literally pour cups of paint across the paper.  After the first pour dries, I mask all the pastels and pour darker paint.  Then I mask the medium values and pour again with yet darker paint.   Once the painting is dry, I lift the mask and add the darkest values and the details.

In this case I used phthalo blue, deep red rose, and new gamgee for the first pout.  I tried to keep the yellow on the cupola.  In later pours I used only the deep red rose and two blues Phthalo and French ultramarine.  I saved the french ultramarine for the final pour.

I masked the sky after the first pour and overlaid it with cobalt blue when the mask was removed.  The details are all heavy purple and magenta mixtures of phthalo blue and deep red rose.


Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

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9:41 am

It’s Greener on the Other Side of the Porch

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by Jenny Armitage    in buildings and bridges,for sale,prints available,techniques
Its Greener on the Otherside (10 x 13) $125.00

Its Greener on the Other Side (10 x 13) $125.00

Built in 1894, The Deepwood Estate is a lovely example of Queen Anne architecture.  But to my mind, the gardens are even better.  There are four acres of these and they get better every year.  The indoor and outdoor Deepwood Estate meet on the front porch.  Steps from the porch lead to both the front and back gardens as well as the house and separate glassed-in porch.

Looking up at the porch from the front, I was struck by how the trees on the other side glowed in sun.

After cropping my reference photo to emphasize the the view of the backyard, I spent sometime correcting the photo’s perspective.  After transferring my sketch to the watercolor paper I built up from light to dark reserving the white paper where the sun hit the porch wall.

The palate was phthalo blue, a little cobalt blue, hansa yellow light, hansa yellow medium, and burnt sienna.  I tried to keep the porch shadows as blue as possible to emphasize the green and yellow of the view on the other side of the porch. And I exaggerated the porch shadows to increase the sense of depth and to show off the green and gold trees. I used the sienna very sparingly and only to gray down the blues and greens.


Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com

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September 23, 2009 8:34 pm

The Mill Reflects Upon Itself

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by Jenny Armitage    in buildings and bridges,for sale,prints available,techniques
The Mill Reflects Upon Itself (13 x 16) $200

The Mill Reflects Upon Itself (13 x 16) $200

I love the way old glass distorts reflections. This is the second painting of reflections in old glass I’ve done at the Mission Mill Museum.

The old woolen mill is well worth the visit. Most of the original equipment remains inside the mill house and the mill wheel and machinery remains operable. One of these days I’ll have to paint the whole building. It’s bright red and looks like a stack of buildings piled up like crates rather than a single structure. The effect is charming and oddly reminiscent of a child’s toy.

In the meantime I remain fascinated by the glass. Here, a dye house window reflects the mill itself. I love the abstract designs created in the window panes.

I created the siding with multiple washes of paint. I began by painting the shadows in french ultramarine blue. Then I washed all of the siding with with a mixture of deep red rose grayed down a little with phthalo green. Next came Da Vinci’s burnt sienna, followed by HWC’s burnt sienna. The first is really very orange and the second verges on red. I didn’t wash the highlights with the redder sienna. Then I washed the shadowed siding in burnt umber followed by cobalt blue. I like the resulting glow from all of those translucent layers of paint.

I used much the same process for the reflected mill, except that I didn’t use any burnt umber and the final layer of deep red rose.


Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

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September 21, 2009 7:27 pm

Breakers Below Yaquina Head I

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by Jenny Armitage    in for sale,prints available,seascapes
The Breakers Below Yaquina Head I (12 x 16) $175.00

The Breakers Below Yaquina Head I (12 x 16) $175.00

When the tide comes in, the tide pools below Yaquina Head disappear under white foam and the fireworks begin.   From the  gravely beach you can see the breakers at eye level.  Add sunshine through the clouds and the beautiful view becomes spectacular.  I wish I could paint the sound because that’s pretty spectacular too.

My palate was cerulean blue, cobalt blue, raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt umber and a hint of quinacridone deep red rose.  I scrubbed  and used some gouache chinese white where the spray hits the rocks.  Otherwise the whites are reserved paper.

The rocks are multiple layers of raw sienna, burnt sienna, phthalo blue and cobalt blue.

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com. See more seascapes at Fine Art America: seascapes paintings

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10:38 am

The Golden Dolphin

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by Jenny Armitage    in for sale,marine,techniques
The Golden Dolphin (8 x 10) $100

The Golden Dolphin (8 x 10) $100

Yes, I’m still playing around with photos from the Newport Fisherman’s Wharf.  I liked the way the reflected light from the bay danced across the hull of the white boat.

To paint the reflections I first masked to whitest of the highlights.  Then I washed the shadowed part of the hull with a very watery cerulean blue.  I used cerulean because of the way it granulates and spreads out across the water unevenly.  Then I lifted the lighter areas with a dry brush.  Finally I used a small brush to paint in the dark outlines.

The palate is larger than I usually employ.  There are three blues, phthalo, cobalt and cerulean.  The yellow is raw sienna.  The red is quinacridone deep red rose.  I used burnt sienna to gray the blues.


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September 20, 2009 9:46 am

Watercolor Society of Oregon

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,shows
Georgia in the Morning

Georgia in the Morning (11 x 14)

Twixt Wind and Water

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

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.

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September 15, 2009 4:40 pm

The Fisherman’s Wharf

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by Jenny Armitage    in for sale,marine,prints available,seascapes
The Helen McColl at Rest (10 x 15) $175.00

The Helen McColl at Rest (10 x 15) $175.00

One of our beach side pleasures is wondering the Newport’s history bay.   Art galleries, fish packing plants, and novelty shops, private museums, restaurants and taverns mix indiscriminately along the bay front.  But the best part of the bay is the fisherman’s wharf.

There is marina space for pleasure craft further down the road and across the bay.  But I prefer the fishing boats.  The yachts are are elegant under sail, but with their sails furled at port they look sad to me, like furniture under sheets.  And few people tour the boats.  The yachts are expensive and while not actually prohibited, visitors feel unwelcome.

The wharf remains full of life.  Maintaining a fishing boat is an endless task and someone, usually several someones are always busy there.  Tourists are smiled upon.  Some these outfits sell fish and crab right off the boat.  The sea lions chose the wharf piers for sunning too.  They know where to fish scraps are.

The shape of the fishing boats may be elegant, but the boats themselves are not.  Machinery, ropes, crates, boxes, tarps, crab pots, nets, buckets, barrels and other paraphernalia clutter the decks.  Unlike the yachts the boats are often brightly colored.  Fishing is a dangerous game and these men want to be visible.

We visit often enough that we remember many of the names.  The Miss Law, The Sandra Fey, The Suki, The Destiny, The Golden Dolphin, The Orca, and many others.  This is The Helen McColl.  She was at the end of the pier guarded by sea lions.  I took her picture because I liked her reflection and  the rust on her side, an unusual sight on the wharf.  She must have had a hard year.

I used primarily phthalo blue, cobalt blue, and burnt sienna. I used a hair of yellow ocher and made a couple high lights in white gouache. I painted the water and sky first, then alternated between the boat and her reflection making sure to use the same paint mix for each reflected part.

This painting is currently for sale on-line through my Etsy shop. Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

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September 14, 2009 5:16 pm

Twixt Wind and Water II

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,for sale,prints available,seascapes,techniques
Twixt Wind and Water II (12 x 16) $225

Twixt Wind and Water II (12 x 16) $225

Twixt Wind and Water

Twixt Wind and Water

We spent last weekend on the beach.  I took enough photographs to have seacape material for some time to come.  While I was there I reworked Twixt Wind and Water.  Here is the result.  As you can see, I gave the painting considerably more sea-room to the left, so that she has something more to look into.

I began her hair with an under-painting of colbalt blue.  Then I used layers of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and cobalt blue to complete it.  Quidacrone deep red rose provides the accent color in the hair band.

Her jacket is cobalt blue and prussian blue mixed on the palate.

The sea began as phthalo blue and burnt sienna with reserved whites.  Then I changed my mind about much of the wave action and began experimenting with white gouache.  To cover strong colors, gouache must be laid on fairly heavily.  And even though I don’t use ultra white paper, gouache white is still bluer that the paper.  Also, as I discovered gouache will washback into transparent watercolor and vice versa.  Work a little gouache onto the paper and nothing painted there will ever be entirely transparent again.

The effect is interesting, but I think next time I’ll stick to transparent watercolors, unyielding to change though they may be. I like the translucency better.


Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com

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September 11, 2009 9:24 am

A Little Wind and Water

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by Jenny Armitage    in composition,figures,postcard,sold
A Little Wind and Water (5 x 7) SOLD

A Little Wind and Water (5 x 7) SOLD

Twixt Wind and Water

Twixt Wind and Water

Yet another little painting I did at the fair. This one is a smaller version of one of my favorite paintings, Twixt Wind and Water. The only thing I didn’t like about the original was the vertical format. I thought the painting would look better with more sea and waves to her left. So I played around with that idea in this smaller version. I do like the extension of the the sea, but I think I made a mistake in showing too much of her right side. If I do a full sized painting of this one again, I will keep the extended horizon but still crop-out most of her right shoulder.

Reference Photo

Reference Photo

As you can see, both paintings show a complete change in compositional thinking from when I took the reference photo. Taking the photo, my thoughts were all about the shape of her figure and the rock. But when I looked at the photo up close, I fell in love with the hair spilling out of her braid. That required some rethinking. Looking at the photo again, I’m tempted to include more of her body to increase the feeling of movement.

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September 10, 2009 10:37 am

Breakers at Seal Rock or Using all the White Techniques

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by Jenny Armitage    in for sale,prints available,seascapes,sold,techniques,unfinished
The Breakers at Seal Rock II (12 x 16) $125

The Breakers at Seal Rock II (12 x 16) $125

This is the second painting I’ve done of the tide coming in at Seal Rock Wayside.  The first was a little postcard sized painting I did while demonstrating at the fair.  That little painting sold immediately.  I liked it too, so when expanding it to a full sized painting I didn’t mess around with the composition much.  But I did want to get some more variety into the rocks and spray.

Like the previous painting, I began by reserving the whites with liquid mask while painting in the ocean and rocks. I used phthalo blue and burnt sienna for the ocean.

I used the same basic technique to lay down the rocks as I did with the first little painting.  I started with raw sienna and quinacridone gold.  Then I added burnt sienna and quinacridone deep red rose.  While the burnt sienna and deep red rose were still wet, I dropped in cobalt blue and phthalo blue.  Finally I added some heavy burnt sienna and some French Ultramarine.

Once the painting was dry,  I scrubbed the edges of the rock where the spay hit them with a stiff filbert brush to show how the waves obscured them.   Then I broke out the white gouache (an semi opaque white) and added more spray.  Over the dark painted rocks the gouache white looks gray.  I used the gouache primarily for the shelf of the biggest rock and the bases of the rocks on the shore side.  Finally I pulled out the razor and scratched in fine white lines where the water spilled over the rocks and little cuts for droplets of spray.  All four techniques work very differently, and each has a character of it’s own.  I like the variety that resulted from using them all.


Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.

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September 9, 2009 8:37 am

The Brothers and the Sea

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,postcard,seascapes,sold
The Brothers and the Sea (5 x 7) SOLD

The Brothers and the Sea (5 x 7) SOLD

This is another little painting I did at the state fair. I used yet another photo of the two brothers who were trying to give a log back the the sea. No sign of the log here, just companionship and beautiful afternoon light.

The palate is once again phthalo blue, raw sienna, and burnt sienna. Burnt sienna is more orange than it is red; so the paintings that I do with this trio tend to be earthy in feel with blue-grays and brown-oranges where one might expect there to be purples. Obviously there are no bright reds either. I find this a useful pallet for the Oregon coast as it makes very easy to reproduce the actual colors of the beach and ocean. On bright days the addition of cobalt blue helps to get the water as blue as it really is.

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September 8, 2009 9:41 am

Tourists in Central City

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by Jenny Armitage    in buildings and bridges,figures,for sale,Uncategorized
Central City Tourists (10.5 x 12) $100.00

Central City Tourists (10.5 x 12) $100.00

The odd part about visiting Central City, Colorado this summer was the empty streets. The Central City of my childhood was packed with tourists. The parking lots were still packed, so I can only surmise that the tourists are all in the new casinos. But the lack of people on the streets, gave me a field day for unobstructed photography on the steep narrow streets.

I chose this particular photo to work from because of the way the light lit up only the upper half of the street. That the scene showed the slant of the street so clearly was a plus.

Because half the charm of the city is the painted Victorian ladies I moved away from my usual earth tone pallete. The pallete here was phthalo blue, cobalt blue, quinacridone red, and quinacridone gold.


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September 7, 2009 10:19 am

A Gift For the Sea

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,postcard,seascapes,sold
A Gift For the Sea (5 x 7) $20.00

A Gift For the Sea (5 x 7) SOLD

This is another postcard sized painting I did while demonstrating at the fair. This particular one is yet another view of the two boys I had so much fun watching. They were trying to return a log to the sea. As the tide was coming in, it kept spitting it out. They were having a marvelous time.

The palette was my usual ocean foursome: cobalt blue, phthalo blue, raw sienna, and burnt sienna. The Northwest beaches here rarely show the ocean in bright colors. It’s a earth tone world on the Oregon beaches.

I reserved the figures and the whites with liquid mask before painting the ocean and beach. Notice that the crested waves in the foreground are greener than the waves in the background. When a wave crests you can see into the water from the side and here isn’t much sky reflected into it. Consequently it tends to look green rather than blue, like the edge of a glass pane. I used cobalt blue for the background waves and the greener phthalo blue mixed with a little raw sienna for the crested waves. I like the effect.

After the paint dried, I lifted the mask and added the figures. I was very careful to preserve the whites on the front of their swim trunks. The light was strong that afternoon and I wanted to keep it in the painting.

I added the reflections as I added the figures. I didn’t reserve space for them with mask, because painting them over the beach and water colors mimics the way they really look.

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September 6, 2009 10:59 am

Postcard Paintings I Did at the Fair

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by Jenny Armitage    in figures,postcard,seascapes,sold
Mommy and the Waves (5 x 7) SOLD

Mommy and the Waves (5 x 7) SOLD

Before demonstrating watercolor at the fair, I asked various other painters for advice. The message I heard loud and clear was never try to start or put the finishing touches on a painting while talking to the public. That’s good advice and I took it. But I found spending five days painting the middles of paintings unsatisfying and vaguely unsettling. So I also painted some little postcard sized paintings from start to finish too. Yesterday’s postcard sized painting was one of those. Here’s another one.

I think I took the reference photos on Lincoln City Beach, but it could be anywhere. What matters about this image is sun and sparkle contrasting with cool water. Also, I just love the way both mommy and daughter appear just a hair afraid of the waves, but they are right at the edge anyway.

I used phthalo blue, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and added little quinacridone deep red rose for the figures. The “sparkle” is reserved white created by splattering the page with liquid mask. I didn’t have a toothbrush to splatter with so I used a stiff filbert brush.

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September 5, 2009 8:44 am

Sgrafutto or Taking A Razor to my Painting

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by Jenny Armitage    in landscapes,postcard,seascapes,sold,techniques
Seal Rock Breakers I (5 x 7--damaged) SOLD
Seal Rock Breakers I (5 x 7–damaged) SOLD

Seal Rock Park is one of our favorite waysides on Highway 101. This little painting shows a small part of the view north from the headland looking down at a string of volcanic rocks ringing the shore.
Last winter I took a series of photos of the waves crashing against the rocks as the tide came in. The photos look good in black and white but strangely lifeless in color. The contrast between the black rocks and the white waves is almost too much for color. So I left the photos on the back burner. But earlier this week I decided to try a small close-up view just to get me started.

To solve the overly black rock problem, I decided to make the rocks a chocolate brown. I began with raw sienna, and layered burnt sienna over the top. Then, while the burnt sienna was still wet or in some cases damp, I dropped in phthalo blue and let it interact with the sienna on the page. The result is almost as dark as the black in my photos but much more alive.

As usual I saved the white paper for foam and breakers with rubber mask. But I had a hard time getting the mask fine enough to show the run off down the base of the rocks. So when I tore the paper a little removing it from the pad (left of signature), I decided it was a good time to experiment with sgrafutto. After all, what did I have to lose?

Sgrafutto is an Italian term. It means to scratch the surface of multiple layers of color to reveal the lower layers. It’s a good technique for fine detail. In this case I used a razor blade to scratch through the brown rock to reveal the white paper below. Dragging the tip of the razor perpendicular to the cutting edge worked best. Dragging it toward the cutting edge produced a line so fine it didn’t show.

Now that I’ve tried it, I like this technique and I’ll use it to show more water against rocks in the future. I might also use it to show highlights in brick and stone.

The other technique I used to detail the spray is lifting. I moistened the edges of the rocks where they met the masked spray and scrubbed them a little with the brush. Then I took a dry thirsty brush and lifted as much of the paint as I could along the edges of the rock. You can see the results in along the left hand side of the largest rock and at the base of the far right rock.

I like this little painting and I’ll use the same techniques to make some larger versions of it later. I have plenty of rocks and breakers to play with.

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September 2, 2009 3:59 pm

I Am Not Ruth Armitage

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by Jenny Armitage    in biography,portraits
Romantic Memories

Romantic Memories

I am not Ruth Armitage. Ruth Armitage also lives here in the upper Willamette Valley. And she also paints watercolors. She is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and a past president of the Watercolor Society of Oregon. Her work hangs in my favorite gallery in Salem. And yes, like me, she likes to paint figures. And in my opinion, she does fabulous work.

I knew these facts, and yet I was still not prepared for connection, when I displayed a large number of my watercolors at the Oregon State Fair. Apart from, “these are lovely,” and “are you the artist,” the most common comment was, “are you Ruth Armitage?” The second most common comment was, “are you related to Ruth?” Given Ruth’s stature in the Northwest art community, those were flattering questions.

But the woman who asked, “then why do you use her name” floored me. Jenny Armitage is my name. I place a prominent “J” before Armitage in my signature. And while I like her work, my paintings have not been influenced by Ruth’s. Nor, much as I admire her, do I want to be Ruth Armitage. I want my work recognized as my work.

[This week,  most common search phrase used to find this blog was, "are jenny and ruth armitage related."  The answer is no.  Neither are our husbands.  ---added 3-1-10.]

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