Upcoming Classes @ Multnomah Arts Center: REGISTER NOW

Young Artists—Drawing & Painting 

Action! Brushstrokes! Beautiful lines, gorgeous colors, wild shapes, and interesting composition! Learn about all of these as we experiment with paint and pastels, and try out techniques such as painting, drawing, and printmaking. Create amazing faces, places, flowers, fish, abstractions, and more. 

Ages 6 - 8
1079555  Tu.  3:30 - 4:30 pm   Oct. 3 - 31   $73 [5 classes] 

1079558  Tu.  3:30 - 4:30 pm   Nov. 7 - Dec. 5   $73 [5 classes]  

Ages 9 - 13
1079556  Tu.  4:45 - 6:15 pm   Oct. 3 - 31   $100 [5 classes] 
1079557  Tu.  4:45 - 6:15 pm   Nov. 7 - Dec. 5   $100 [5 classes]  

The History of Fashion— Design & Drawing     

Where and how does a fashion designer get their ideas? Look at clothes across time and cultures to inspire designs. Learn how fashion designers express their ideas, and explore the connections between historical events and clothing over the course of history. Through a variety of art explorations, students will try their hand at fashion sketching and clothing and fabric design. Working from lots of resources, explore sources of inspiration—from history and from today’s influences—and the importance of design elements such as color, line, and composition in visual presentations.

Ages 9 - 14
1079553  Wed.  4 - 5:30 pm Oct. 4 - Nov. 1   $100 [5 classes]
1079554  Wed.  4 - 5:30 pm Nov. 8 - Dec. 6   $100 [5 classes] 

Saturday Workshops

Drawing & Painting— Three Layer Painting   
Ages 8 - 13
In this fun and creative workshop, learn about color mixing, line, pattern, composition, and paint application as we create vivid original paintings in three layers.

FAMILY Parents/guardians are welcome to register with their child.
1080532  Sat.  1 - 3:30 pm Oct. 14   $33 [1 class]

Drawing & Painting— Fabulous Faces    
Ages 8 - 13
Learn several different ways to successfully draw and paint great looking faces. Experiment with different methods and materials to create vivid and beautiful pieces of face-based art. Think wild and crazy and highly original.

FAMILY Parents/guardians are welcome to register with their child.
1080533  Sat.  1 - 3:30 pm Nov. 4   $33 [1 class]

To register,
please drop by the office or call

(503) 823-2787.
You may also register online by going to
Portland Parks & Recreation

B is for Background

One of my greatest challenges is deciding how to begin a painting. Sometimes its easy - I start with an idea,  a line or a patch of color, and just go. Other times I struggle to find my direction. Lately, I find that building on a background can create good results and allow me to really let my love of color take center stage.

This approach started a while ago when I found an early canvas in my collection of "not suitable for seeing" stash. There were lots of great colors, but the image seemed beyond help. As I looked at the work, I realized that the oripalette of strong hot colors just called out for some cools to balance - and I began to paint over it.

The painting that resulted has become a favorite, and I have used this method - either by painting a new background, or overpainting something else has had good effect several times. In fact, each of the paintings I have in the Instructors Show at Multnomah Art Center were painted in this way. I like knowing that I that the painting on top is hiding another story, and letting just little bits of the past influence the present.

By starting on a painted background in this way, it is easy to select a limited palette, and all that lies beneath offers a subtle texture to the finished work.

Each of these painting is 18x24 acrylic on canvas.

On Painting in Series

In the Red Room Variation 2

Having now completed four paintings in this series, and working on the design for number five, a whole new set of problems begins to arise. How do I continue in a theme, using several "givens" yet create variety and maintain interest (my own and the viewers)?

On the list of things to do to work in series is ANALYSIS. As I work on this project I keep coming back to the need to analyze everything I am doing. I need to carefully analyze the botanical shapes of real flowers in order to work toward abstraction. I need to analyze the images that actually take shape my canvas for line quality, color, texture, feeling and style, and, because this is a series, visual consistency.  Very challenging. Very interesting.


The deeper I go in the series, the more important it becomes to plan ahead. I sketch frequently and try lots of variations before I move to the canvas. However, in spite of the careful planning, I am reminded constantly that paint does not behave like a pen, so the results are not necessarily what I start out to create. So, now I am learning to add more detail and pay more attention to the sketches I prepare and analyze all the things I want to accomplish in the piece: the shapes - are they big enough to paint as separate entities? Are they distinct from each other? Does it matter? The colors - I am working on a red background and limiting my palette so that I use the same paints in all the paintings. So, How do the colors play off the background? How do they work together?  Also, (and one of the best parts of the process) is discovering how the mixes from the limited palette create fabulous and harmonious results.

The big picture:  With now four pieces in the series, I need to compare how the shapes and colors and composition of each new piece works with the existing paintings as part of a whole. I also find that as I complete a new piece, I want to go back to the earlier piece to improve it with something new I have just learned. Variation 2 - above is still in process, but I now know what I need to do to complete it - that's progress.

So, to answer a question asked on this blog, has the process helped to narrow my focus? Absolutely, I know where I want to go, I feel more and more comfortable doing this work, because each repetition provides practice, skill building and a better understanding of how to put a painting together. But also, not at all, because the more I paint, the more I experiment, the more I analyze what I want to do, the broader my imaginings become - I keep seeing over the horizon to what's next ... we will see.

REGISTER NOW for Spring Break Art Workshop for Creative Kids

Painting in Abstract

               A workshop for creative kids who love to paint, or want to learn how

Painting • Creative Thinking • Art History

• Paint
• Consider how abstract artists combine line, shape, texture, design and vibrant color to bring their work to life.
• Discover how we can put these elements together to create works of art that are as much fun to makes as they are to look at.

WHERE:  Multnomah Art Center
7688 SW Capitol Hway,  Portland, OR 97219   

WHEN: Tuesday March 27 and Thursday March 29,  9:30 am - noon

COST: $59 (includes all materials)

To Register or for more information, please,  Email tobi@synergenii.com

Space is limited so please sign up early

Exploring Variations: Finding Ideas

Evening in the City 

In the last post, the image, Koi, was painted with a deliberate plan. The painting is for my son and his wife. He asked for something that somehow "went with" a beautiful Japanese image of a large orange Koi fish.  It was  easy to find my inspiration for this piece - colors, layout and size were all "givens."

This painting, though clearly related to the last in style and composition, began with no plan except a desire to play around with a pallette knife. I am currently reading and working through Painting Abstracts, by Rolina Van Vliet, considering the images, techniques and approaches. As a result of what I am learning in the book, I knew I wanted to combine larger areas with smaller ones - but had no vision of where I was going (I hate that.) I started by using the palette knife to lay down a multicolor layer, experimenting with textures, and combining light and dark,colors. Ugly - but an interesting background.

I am still enthralled by the abstract trees I've been painting; I love the outlines and individually defined shapes. Oh, and also, I have a great fat new brush that holds lots of paint and creates wonderful texture. So, using the new brush, and laying colors directly from the tube, I began to paint a pattern of squares. Soon the trees appeared, (good, I thought that was to be the plan) and then they went away.  A city scene appeared ... at least to me.

I so often struggle with knowing what to paint, especially when I am on my own and not in a class. But today's project, in which I did not stop when I hated the results, and just kept on messing around to see what would appear, is a success.

Not because it is beautiful (is it? I can't tell yet, but I know it gives me that good feeling) but because I allowed it take its own shape and I learned in the process. This is the reason I believe it is important to work regularly, and as often as possible, and to work with no particular outcome in mind. I find it so much more difficult now that I am working in the abstract mode - because in my more realistic working past, I always could find a photo to guide me. This is different - a photo can contain some of what I want to appear - but a lot is now needing to be drawn from imagination and abstraction.

What do you think? What is the best way to build skills? What inspires you to just jump in and paint? How do you handle "artist's block?"

Goals for the New Year

Koi (for C and H) Acrylic on canvas 18"x24"

New Years Resolutions are a good idea. According to the book I am reading for book group, The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin, resolutions not only increase your productivity or decrease your thighs, setting and keeping resolutions can make you happier. I would be happy to be happier all the time. One way I can see that I would be happier  - is if I were a better painter.

So my resolution for this year - to constantly learn how to paint.

I have a strong start on this goal - beginning last summer when I picked up a paint brush to experiment with tempera paint I got at a garage sale. At the same garage sale, I bought, for a dime, the Watercolor Lesson-a-Day Calendar. These are tiny sketches to be painted and colored, of 365 paintings by dozens of artists and styles. I really enjoy looking at these images, and found myself sorting them into types - with consideration for how each was painted. I was looking for simple images, and ideas for paintings I, with my limited skills and ability, and especially, my young students, could try to paint.

I have written before about how I stumbled into abstract art in by seeking ways to teach, and by seeing with new eyes, the works of Klee and Kandinsky, Matisse and Miro.  Since summer, as I have been combining learning to use acrylic paint with my study of abstract art, I have learned a great deal. Not the least of which is  how much I need to know to become a better painter (as defined by my own criteria).

To accomplish this, my primary goals for the moment, until I discover what I need to know next, is to learn and improve technique  -the How-to's

• how to create texture with paint
• how to create better brush strokes
• to use paint like pastels - blend on the surface
• use a palette knife 
• create 'impressions' with paint
• learn to abstract 
• learn to be more impressionistic, trees, flowers, simple shapes to create  impression 
• ... abstract impressionism, expressionism

Based on my experience and the process of learning to paint,  I know I am doing some things right. I am taking classes in Dynamic Abstract painting at PCC.  I have befriended a helpful salesman at Aaron Brothers, where I buy my (steady stream of) art supplies. He is always willing to share a book recommendation or a bit of advice on paint, pigment, tools and materials. And, he figures out how to make the most of my coupons.

Another great resource has turned out to be the internet (what a surprise!). I have learned so much, and gotten so many cool ideas from videos that artists and teachers post of themselves painting and teaching on YouTube. And course, there are books. Amazon is richer for my growing collection.

The greatest teacher in this process has been practice. I feel as if I am learning to cook - trying new ingredients and recipes every day.  I have filled canvases and sketch pads and pastel sheets with color and images. I have generated quite a bit of work - even some that I am proud of. I can not express how much I gained from the Art Everyday for a Month challenge.  As a result of making art often - with no goal except learning from the process,  I can see progress, change, confidence and pleasure in what I am doing - so, I want to keep doing it.

Therefore, I have saved my last two resolutions/goals for last ...

I believe that for me to meet my goals, I need to to paint or draw or work digitally - at least 4 times a week, to build my skills, and expand my creative arena. To really be happy doing this, I need external motivation - I need to connect with other artists and teachers, anyone with the desire to learn to make art, or to share what they know. So, I want to:

• to teach my own classes, based on my own ideas, and 
• become part of a painting group - for a regular opportunity to meet, work, critique, share and learn with a group with common goals.

And one more thing, I also want to learn how to market art ... but first I want to make more of it ...

What are your goals as an artist? How will you meet them? Any ideas for me?

Happy New Year.