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Thanksgiving

by Bruce E Ulrich on 11/25/2009 6:59:49 PMComment on this

I have much to be thankful for this year, and it's good our national psyche created a day to help us remember to be grateful. I enjoy Thanksgiving the most of all the holidays, because it is about family, friends, food and feasting.

I want to say thank you to my collectors, my art groups and critique group friends; my wife and family for giving me the space and support to pursue creativity through painting. Also thanks to the galleries that show my painting and the other opportunities to place paintings in front of the public. Art is hard to appreciate and rarely sold when it is stored in the studio.

If you live in the Portland area and enjoy Italian food I am the featured artist in the Decarli Restaurant in Beaverton, a fine place to eat. They recently decided to have art work, and i am thankful to be the first artist they invited to show. I was able to feature 4 large abstracts and one mid sized piece. Autumn Reflections is one of the paintings.

48x48 Acrylic on Canvas

A final thank you to those who read and comment. Have a great Thanksgiving.

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Revisionist Thinking/Actions

by Bruce E Ulrich on 11/19/2009 5:29:41 PM1 Comment

Out of the Void v1,24x24 Acrylic on Canvas

Here is what I thought was my final version of Out of the Void but after a week or so of looking at it Idecided it need more pizazz.

Out of the Void v2

I think the color changes in the sky do that, what do you think?

Aside from painting last week I took new work to two of my galleries, Wy'east in Welches on Mt hood and to RiverSea Galleryin Astoria. If any reading this are at the mountain or the coast drop in a check out the paintings and say Bruce sent you.

Speaking of reading, the Robert Hughes book "Nothing if not Critical" a collection of his essays and reviews about artists and the art world is filled with great writing and thought provoking insights.

Thanks for looking and feel free to share this with a friend or leave a comment.

Bruce

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Busy Weekend

by Bruce E Ulrich on 11/11/2009 1:18:26 AM1 Comment

It was a very busy weekend of art activities for me. On Friday the 6th the Rental Sales Gallery of the Portland Art Museum, celebrated 50 years of growth with a Gala event in the grand Ball Room. here is a view of the party when I arrived.

The crowd is mainly member artists,gallery volunteers,patrons and museum staff. A beautiful coffee table book was published which tells the history of the gallery and has reproductions by over 100 of the gallery artists. This is the painting that I have in the book.

"Edge Incidents" 36x36 Acrylic on Canvas

Then on Saturday morning I had breakfast with family members at the Jory, the restaurant in the Allison Inn. They furnished the property with all original art by Oregon artists and I was fortunate to have 8 of my paintings purchased for their collection. After a leisurely meal we toured the spa; the men's lounge has two of my paintings and here are pics of me next to them.

with "Pleasure Trap"

with "Yellow Sky"

Sunday I enjoyed an Oyster and Wine tasting event. Different oysters and preparations with different wines. Raw, barbecued, and oyster stew made for a full afternoon if you liked oysters. I'll spare my readers from pictures of that happening.
As always thanks for looking, and feel free to leave a comment or share this post with a friend.
Bruce

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In the Flow

by Bruce E Ulrich on 11/5/2009 5:27:20 PMComment on this

I thought I'd share a painting that is still in the thinking it might be done stage. Last week I got back into my painting routine and began this 4'x4' canvas.

Autumn Reflections 48x48 Acrylic on canvas

I began the with palette knives and heavy body Utrecht paint and modeling paste so there is a lot of texture and surface variation, The first stages were hard edged bands of a warm pink and purple blues with yellow orange for accent. I liked the colors yet it was not working over all so on Monday I scumbled over everything with a mixture of white gesso and neutral gray. It changed the whole concept that began the process to one that reminded me of reflections in ponds. The initial layers added richness and depth while the subtle greens,blues and golds some how recall my thoughts about Monet and his garden paintings.

My photo was not able to capture the colors and metallic golds in this painting; if I still like it in a week or two it will be professionally imaged.

While this was drying I got back to working on a still life setups and small 6x6 size. The exercise builds eye-hand and color mixing skills and I strive to finish in 2 hours or less. These are like musical scales for painters, the bonus is sometimes you get a keeper. I 'll add those later,

As ever thanks for looking and feel free to share this with your friends, and or leave a comment.

Bruce

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