Northwest Impressions: Visions of Life and Land

Opening November 6, 2014, at Brian Marki Fine Art in Portland, Northwest Impressions will feature my paintings along with the works of fellow Portland artists Scott Gellatly and Eric Bowman.

All three of us do plein air painting as well as studio work, and I am pleased to be in a show with these two terrific painters who are also my friends.

Pictured below are some of the paintings I'll be delivering to the show.

Unknown Melody in B, 6x6" oil on board by Aimee Erickson

"I will even watch after you and not turn back," 

12x24" oil on muslin board by Aimee Erickson

The Oregon Guitar Quartet Rehearsing the Allegro from Bach's Concerto in C,

24x30" oil on canvas by Aimee Erickson

IN STILLNESS/IN MOTION: solo exhibition

I'm excited to announce the opening of a solo exhibition hosted by First Presbyterian Church in downtown Portland. I wanted to do a series of smaller unframed works on painted boards, partly to save the expense of framing (and make these more affordable) and partly for the constraints of using solid-color boards and incorporating the color into each picture. The subjects are all women who work at local establishments, engaged in various tasks, mostly food preparation. The staff at Baker & Spice  and Verde Cocina were terrifically cooperative in letting me be in their space to take pictures (thanks, favorite eateries!). 

The opening is September 15 from 11:30 to one pm. The First Thursday reception is October 3 from five to eight pm.  The address is 1200 SW Alder Street in Portland. The show is open from September 15 to November 3; gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 9-4, and Saturdays from 9-1. 

The titles are listed BELOW each image; sizes listed are approximate. You can click on images to view them larger. 

 Barista III, 12x12"

 The Manicurist, 10.5 x 11"

 Bartender, 12x12"

 Pedicure, 9x12"

 Barista IV, 11x11"

 Barista II, 12x12"

 Layer Cake, 12x12"

 Market, 11x11"

 Dividing and Measuring, 12x12"

 A Refill, 9x12"

 Front Counter, 34x50"(click image to view)

 Barista V, 5x5"

 Waiting, 12x12"

 Order to Go, 11x11"

 Barista I, 12x12"

 Baker I, 12x12"

 Rolling Pastry Dough, 12x12"

Making Tortillas I, 12x12"

First Place at the Carmel Art Festival!!

I got back a couple of weeks ago from the paint-out in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and I am excited to share the paintings I did there and tell how things went. This was my second paint-out and I had to sit down when I saw the ribbons:  I won First Place, Honorable Mention, and then later when the votes had been tallied, I also won People's Choice.  The whole show was really strong and included so many paintings that were beautifully executed--it was an honor just to be a part of it.  And to think that none of these paintings existed 48 hours earlier! It's inspiring.
On the Festival's website you can see all the paintings entered this year.
Plein Air Magazine covered the event in their online edition.
 Last fall I painted in the Hood River paint-out and found that I liked the focused intensity that comes with being part of an event, as well as the association with other artists. So I applied to participate in the Carmel Art Festival. I grew up in Sunnyvale, not that far from Carmel, and knew it was a beautiful place, though I had never painted there.  I figured it would be a fun trip. When I was accepted and read the list of participating artists, I woke up to the fact that this was a bigger deal than I'd realized. I would be painting alongside the likes of Randall Sexton and Paul Kratter, whom I've admired for years!
Carmel was a complete surprise. Maybe I hadn't been there before, after all. I thought you had to go to the Caribbean to find beaches like that. And the trees were all perfectly pruned, no artistic editing necessary.
All the artists checked in and got canvases stamped on Wednesday evening, and then we had till Friday evening to paint. I went to Monterey both days.

Down to Cannery Row, 16x16. Sold. This painting won First Prize in the whole show,  and People's Choice, which means it will be on the posters promoting next year's event.
 Aimee Erickson Carmel Art Festival Paint-out plein air first place

Monterey Boat Launch, 16x16. sold. This painting was awarded an honorable mention.

Monterey Boat Launch in its early stage. I was painting down by the Coast Guard pier and the weather was pretty gray. I borrowed this easel setup from my friend Marty--it's an Open Box M and is a lot lighter than the French easel I've been using for the past decade. 

Here's one of the Monterey harbor (sold) that I did in the afternoon. I really wanted to include those distant hills--those are really a part of my California.

Having my picture taken...remembering to breathe...
aimee erickson carmel art festival paint-out plein air first place

 On Sunday morning they have a bonus round where you get two hours to make a painting. It's called the Quick Draw and it starts at nine--except what I didn't know is that you can check in as early as 8:30 and then go set up! So at 8:55 I was sitting there on a park bench with Anton Pavlenko, having a coffee, when Joaquin Turner passed by, saying he was late and had only just checked in. Oh well! I checked in, crossed the street and did my painting.

Here's my painting of the festival tents in downtown Carmel.  Carmel Art Festival, 8x10

Carmel Art Festival, 8x10. sold. (Quick Draw)

This is a little study I did prior to the event. It's a view from 17-mile Drive. I was getting my eyes used to the landscape.

This one was a warmup too, at Point Lobos

Using a grid to approach color

Here's a project from the advanced color "theory" class (it's really more about color practice at this point). We are using a grid to break an image down so we can approach it square by square, color by color, without getting distracted by the objects in the picture.



First step is to choose a small image and grid it into no more than 10x12. Draw a corresponding grid of one-inch squares on a painting support (I am using large color swatches from Yolo Colorhouse that I picked up at Scrap).


Fill in the squares. If there's a lot happening, make a mix that averages the contents of the square. Some squares, not too many, can be broken down using a straight line.


This one is almost all filled in. I'm leaving it like this.
I made a second example and took it one step further:








All squares blocked in.


Some scraping is necessary so I can change and add color that I left out on the first pass. It's good practice to leave things out. A common beginner error is to want to put in every single visible thing. Editing lets the viewer's brain have more fun seeing more than what's there.


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Green the buffet!

As part of the redecorating of Verde Cocina's upstairs dining room, I painted the buffet. It was dark gray against a dark brown wall--not a stunning combination.


Before....
And after:






Here also is a little painting that will eventually hang over it with a lot of other cool stuff (and yes I stole from Mr. Cornwell--and didn't improve on his work, either!)

Improving an old painting

Shaffer Gallery invited me to come and be the artist at Saturday Art Live a couple of weeks ago. (I'll be doing it again on Dec. 22.) There was live music and refreshments and friendly people...rather an improvement on working alone! I took an old still-life painting that had some nice things going on but wasn't working overall. Took out the pitcher and put in a vase. Better I think...

Hood River Paint-Out

Hood River Sunshine. 12x16.  My first painting of the weekend.

Mt. Hood and Summer Blooms. 8x10. I decided to try it again, since the day had progressed and the light had flattened out.

Old Trailer and Barns, 8x10

Mt. Hood and Valley at Dusk. 8x10. The sign on the gate at Panorama Point says it closes at dusk, but lucky for me nobody locked the gate. I got to watch the sunset over the whole world.

Sakura Ridge Pears. 6x6. SOLD We painted at this lovely farm on a south-facing slope.

Truck and Chickens at Sakura Ridge. 5x7 SOLD

Pear Orchard & Mt. Hood. 12x16

Columbia River Gorge, Morning. 8x10. This was on the fourth day.

Backlit Aspens. 12x16. Day two at the Mills place.Such a beautiful piece of land, it was not hard to find something to paint.

Some of these paintings are on display and for sale at Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River through September. I have the others--contact me if you're interested.