leslie rosenberg art blog

keeping a sense of wonder alive...

2012-01-26T09:39:00.000-08:00

postcards from PORTLAND

not finished yet.......

What’s cooking in my studio -- This painting of a home in California, is in progress. (it may take me a few more weeks to finish at the pace I work at) What an incredible space with the entire two story open air wall out to the garden -- ah only in california! Which reminds me, the SUN is shining in Portland today WOW. That means I have no excuse to run.

The sunshine is skipping along the floor!

Sun is dribbling in through the window panes!!

In portland tonight...

Tonight Brad Cloepfil is speaking at the Portland Museum of Art. He is a wonderful crazy local architect that has gotten quite famous and now has a second studio in New York. He is on my list of ‘people I admire’ because he gets to say things like, “Allied Works is still an atelier...”

Have you heard anyone use that word lately?

It’s a french 17th century term for a workshop used by an artist and here he is at work...

brewery blocks

2012-01-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

Brewery blocks c.1864- 2012 acrylic on canvas 11x 14"

This is a view of the Blitz-Weinhard Brewery which is in the Pearl District. This Brewery operated from1864 -1999 and was renovated during the reconstruction and birth of the Pearl District. This simple brick building used to have a major presence on Burnside because of its size. Now surrounded by taller geometric glass, steel, and concrete towers, the entire character of the building has shifted for me. I have fallen in love with the warm red bricks, the eccentric petite smoke stack, and the clumsy double-hung windows.

Heros of Beauty and Light

2012-01-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher c. 1664-1665 Oil on Canvas 18x16"
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
JOHANNES VERMEER

This painting is from a book that is on my wish list called VERMEER The Complete Works by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. .....Many of Vermeers works were of woman posed near a window with the light falling in on them and are described by Mr. Wheelock as depicting a quiet moment of contemplation - when one gazes outward but looks within, a window into an individual's spiritual nature. Ahhh what a truly extraordinary idea in today's 20th century blur of rush, rush, rush....His work is like a breath of fresh air to me. The colors and the detail are amazing. He is one of my heros.

a christmas carol.

2011-12-17T09:48:00.001-08:00

a christmas carol.

14x44 oil on canvas

In December ring

Every day the chimes;

Loud the gleemen sing

In the streets their merry rhymes.

Let us by the fire

Ever higher

Sing them till the night expire.

Shepherds at the grange,

Where the Babe was born,

Sang, with many a change,

Christmas carols until morn.

Let us by the fire

Ever higher

Sing them till the night expire!

These good people sang

Songs devout and sweet;

While the rafters rang,

There they stood with freezing feet.

Let us by the fire

Ever higher

Sing them till the night expire.

.....A CHRISTMAS CAROL. by Henry W. Longfellow

humility

2011-12-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

9"x11" acrylic on canvas

"The masters' works I look upon,
And I can see what they have done:
When looking upon this or that by me,
What I should have done is what I see." (1815)

"Seh ich die Werke der Meister an,
So seh ich das, was sie getan:
Betrachtich meine Siebensachen,
Seh ich, wa ich hatt sollen machen."

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ughhh......there are so many things I still need to learn. It seems like every small step forward is accompanied by 5 more new things I would like to do better next time. This painting was done several months ago and I can already see that I am now seeing it in a new way and that if I painted it again it would look different. Eventually, I want to add a lot more content to my work. Right now, they are mainly about capturing a 'mood', a place, and a time of day.

the requiem

2011-12-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished version of 'black friday'. I definitely like the finished surface of this board that is also good with watercolors as a medium. This is the first time I have painted something that is sad. My in-house critics were not so excited about that. However, I like the quietness and retrospection here. I think the dark colors and blue-green carpet lends to the somber mood. I am really drawn to the light coming from behind the girl's head and spilling down under the table and over the floor. For me this and her simple white nightgown represents something spiritual.

I wonder if others see this in the same way?

black friday

2011-11-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

black friday
okay so I didn't quite make my Thursday deadline this week - It was Thanksgiving after all. I really wanted to finish the painting I was working on last week that was on a smooth clay board but I finally decided to let it go. I hated the way the paint went on the surface. The canvas just didn't have any tooth in it to absorb the acrylics. So Instead I started on this painting which is on a watercolor board with a rough surface. I typically like to do initial pencil sketches before I start painting.

Beckoning

2011-11-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

8"x10" acrylic on board

The weather is turning cold here and the leaves are rapidly falling off of the trees. Winter will soon be here full on. I am already dreaming of summer. This painting was made on a plein aire panel ultra smooth blended polyflax cotton canvas. I have started working on another painting that is on a claybord, which is an ultra smooth clay surface. I am not liking it at all...I can't seem to maximize the transparent qualities of the acrylic paint and it requires many more layers to get the complex color changes that I am looking for. Hopefully, I can show you the results in the next post....but I am learning that all boards are not the same.

at the dock

2011-11-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

AT THE DOCK

24" X 36" ACRYLIC ON CANVAS

Edward Hopper said, "If I could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint."

PINK

2011-11-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

pink
8" x 10" ACRYLIC ON BOARD

quilting

2011-10-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

postcards from PORTLAND

QUILTING

30”x50” acrylic on canvas

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

TO CREATE A WARM COVER MADE OF LAYERS AND KEPT IN PLACE BY STITCHING PATTERNS OF COLOR TOGETHER....AS A LEISURE ACTIVITY.

I had just finished a modern quilting class in Multnomah Village and was experimenting with colors, hues, and patterns with paint. New to acrylics, I was amazed at how quickly the paint dries, it's transparency, and how you can layer the colors. These aren’t the quilts your grandmother made. Newly inspired by Kaffe Fassett’s designs, I wanted to play with some of the more simple patterns to see if color could inspire movement. This photo is from a studio workshop at Fibers in Motion.

the road not taken

2011-10-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

postcards from PORTLAND

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

11” X 14” acrylic on canvas

Thursday, October 20, 2011

AGAIN I WAS DRAWN TO THE LIGHTING HERE AND HOW TO CAPTURE THE SCENE OF A SUNNY DAY. THERE IS SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS AND ROMANTIC FOR ME ABOUT A SCENIC ROADWAY. IT BRINGS WITH IT THE POSSIBILITY OF ADVENTURE. I LIVE ALONG SKYLINE ROAD AND WE LOVE TO TAKE LONG BIKE RIDES THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE. IF YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR THE BEST SCENIC BIKE ROUTE IN PORTLAND - LOOK NO FURTHER. SKYLINE IS ONE OF THE FIVE BEST RIDES.
two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both
and be one traveler, long I stood, and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;
then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim
because It was grassy and wanted wear, though as for that the passing there
had worn them really about the same,
and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black.
oh, I marked the first for another day!
yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
by ROBERT FROST

mountain views

2011-10-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

postcards from PORTLAND

Thursday, October 13, 2011

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN

36” X 36” acrylic on canvas

blog 1. LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN IS ONE OF THE FIRST PAINTINGS I DID THIS YEAR. FOR ME, IT CAPTURES THE BEAUTY AND SERENITY OF THE MOUNTAINS ON A SUMMER DAY. OREGON CAN BE A PRETTY TOUGH PLACE TO LIVE WHEN IT IS RAINING (WHICH IS MOST OF THE TIME). THIS PIECE WAS PAINTED IN JANUARY AND I WAS IN DESPERATE NEED OF THE SUN BY THEN. YOU COULD SAY THIS IS ART THERAPY FOR ME. WHEN I CAN'T HOP ON AN AIRPLANE TO GET AWAY, I PULL OUT MY PAINT BRUSH......