11/11/2021

Guest Blogger Master Painter Jess Anderson

 

Meadowlake Studios

Guest Blogger Jess Anderson is not only a master painter, he is a great teacher.  In this guest post he walks us through step by step his process painting “Don’t Be A Chicken”.

Jess Anderson

I hope all of you are doing well.  The rainy season has hit, here in Oregon, and it’s come a bit early.  Usually, it waits until Halloween night.  The kids always seem to have to go Trick-or-Treating in the rain.  I’ve spent a lot of time the past few weeks getting things on the place ready for that season.  You know, new roof on the barn, poured a concrete floor in it too, cut up all the limbs that fell on my garage last winter…. You know, just the ordinary stuff.  I have all of my volatile plants inside the greenhouse now, safe from freezing.  It was time to go back to the studio and do what I love better.

 


The reference photos came from a fine photographer named Steve Carn.  Steve is an incredible photographer and I’m so pleased that he has offered to help me with reference material.  He is from northern Utah and shot these photos in Glacier National Park, at a place called “Goat Lick”.  It seems when the goats need salt or other minerals, this is the place to go.  The stuff leeches out of the rock layers.  It’s their health food store, furnished by Mother Nature herself. 

I have a number of these wonderful people who have helped me a lot with reference material.  I would love to be up there on the mountain myself, but sometimes that stays a dream for longer than we want.  He and I have some trips planned up there in the future.

 

I really enjoyed doing this painting.  I went back and used my acrylics once again.  I haven’t used them since last year and didn’t want to lose my edge, the one I took a while figuring out.  I started off only going to use them for my under painting, but ended up just finishing it all in acrylics.  I’ve entitled this one, “Don’t Be a Chicken”.  It just seems to me that one young one is taunting the other.  I hope you enjoy my journey on this painting.

 


I drew this layout directly onto the canvas.  It’s something I don’t normally do.  Don’t ask me why I did this time.

It’s simple because I have done so much drawing in my life that I know most of it will be done with my brush.

 










I started with my background using mainly a middle tone but filling in the strongest shadows.

A good contrast is something I always try to put into my work.





 

 

 

As you can see, there is absolutely no detail used at this point, just values giving me a shape to work with.  This is where a sense of composition is so very important.

 








 

 

A soft glaze to warm it up and I’ve started doing my detail work.  There are a million little rocks, and little detail parts of all the larger ones.  It’s a most important part to make this work.

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

 

Using strong value changes will give me that contrast that I’m looking for.  It also gives my composition the depth it needs.

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

The rocks break away from the massive rock formation in small pieces.  This is so good for the composition too.  It keeps it from getting boring so that the eyes have many different

Things to ingest.

 

 

 




 

 

 

Now that my background is blocked in I start laying in the basic color I want to work on with the goat.

 





 

 

As I get that back color on the goat I start giving it shape with texture.  There is a lot of texture on these guys.  To me, texture and contrast are some of the most important things to put into the painting.  Who wants to look at a slick haired goat, anyway!

 




 

 

 

With most of the work done on the nanny I’ve started on the upper kid.  They are able to climb on things like this at such a young age.  It’s important to learn this as their lives are focused around it.

 



 

 


 

 

 

One baby down and the bottom one to go.  He looks reluctant to climb on these rough rocks.  Must be his sister up above taunting him to go ahead and climb.  Once he’s blocked in I will then work all over the painting.  A little detain here, some highlights there, a little more deepening of the shadows.  You spend a lot of time at this stage.  There are a million little brush strokes on this.  I’ve used a very limited palette on this, something I like.  I will try to do more like that in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the finished painting.


 




“Don’t Be A Chicken”   acrylics on canvas   24”x12”  Framed  

https://www.jessanderson.com/

    

Here is a photo of the painting inside its frame.  I really like the way this frame finished it off. I hope you are all having a wonderful day!  Mine will get better soon! 

People ask me….”How long did it take you to do this.”  It is probably the most asked question ever asked of an artist.  I have found that this is the best answer.  I got my first set of oils when I was 11.  I am now 74 and have painted my whole life.  So, that being said, it has taken me 63 years to do this.  I hope you enjoyed this.  I certainly loved doing it.   JESS

11/07/2021

Sculptor Blythe Eastmen

 One of my favorite artist is clay sculptor Blythe Eastman Blythe Eastman  .  She showed with me at my studio in 2009.  We, Meadowlake Studios, filmed her for an Arts Alive show.  For one reason or another the show got stuck then forgotten in the editing bay. 
 


 

In 2019 when we were doing Arts Alive shows of some of Art Harvest Studio Tour artists I ran across Blythe's show files. Her work is fantastic.  She is able to capture complex yet subtle animal gesture with an elegant minimalist approach.  Her show need to be finished.  We posted on Arts Alive in 2019.

11/05/2021

Photographer Marilyn Affolter

 Marilyn Affolter, an extraordinary photographer, who lived in Amity for many years. She owns the Marilyn Afflolter Fine Art Gallery & Gift Shop on NE Even Street in McMinnville.  This past yea she moved to the Oregon coast. Lucky for us she also took her camera and her fantastic photographer’s eye.  Marilyn is publishing a 2022 calendar of her photos of the Oregon Coast.



Oregon Coast 2022 Calendar
Check out Marilyn’s Gallery, pick up a calendar and consider some of the terrific art.  

Marilyn Affolter Gallery
Fine Art Gallery & Gift Shop
325 NE Evans St
McMinnville, Oregon, 97128
Fri & Sat  11am - 4 pm      Marilyn Affolter Website


11/03/2021

It has been a long, long two years

Life was looking good the Fall of 2019.  The annual Arts Alliance of Yamhill County  sponsored Art Harvest Studio Tour  was great.  Driving around Yamhill County with the 2019 Fall colors is pure joy. We were fortunate to interview and film several of the Tour artists. We went to their studios and learned a lot about different art mediums. 

Master Painter Jess Anderson

We visited Master Painter Jess Anderson at the studio just outside of Sheridan, Oregon. 
 
 
Felt Artist Jennifer Bencharsky
 
 
We visited Jennifer Bencharsky who does beautiful felt work and lives in Newberg which is on the other side of the County. 
 
As the Tour does, it gave us an excuse to travel from one side of beautiful Yamhill County  to the other and see some fantastic art and meet and talk with many great talented artists. You can see those at Arts Alive: Art Harvest Studio Tour on Youtube.

 You all know what happened in 2020 and this year 2021.  The Art Harvest Studio Tour cancelled both years. All of the Arts seemed to go into a stress induced shock and a kind of hibernation. For Liz and I at Meadowlake Studios the Arts Alive video interviews were shut down.  At least we hope it is hibernation because there are signs the Arts are beginning to wake up and roam around the landscape again. 

One art exception to hibernation might be writing and writers.  Literary journals expanded across the internet.  I guess for many writers the social isolation was a fantastic excuse to finish that novel, write short stories, work on a movie script, and scratch out some poems.  

Unfortunately with our video productions stymied, with my Poetry On Demand events at art and wine gatherings cancelled, going out to crowded restaurants for dinner or out to clubs to hear music was impossible, I went into a personal hibernation, which I'm finally beginning to wake.  

I really missed the Poetry On Demand events. During McMinnville and Newberg downtown association wine and art nights, we set up a table in a busy wine tasting bar, sat behind our manual typewriters, wrote poems as topics were given to us under pressure to finish while the people were sipping wine or having dinner.  It was wonderful to hand a freshly typed poem to the person who had given the topic and see their reaction to the poem they had prompted. The past two years I missed that stress and creativity.  One good thing. We did publish a collection of our 2018 and 2019 Poetry On Demand poems.

I've been off and on with this blog over the years. I have excuses. Now in late Fall 2021 as I am beginning to stir from my almost two year long stupor, shaking off the stress, emerging lean and hungry, I will try to pick up this blog which I've neglected.

10/07/2019

Art's Alive 2019 Art Harvest Studio Show

Recently Meadowlake Studio began producing Art's Alive. Arts Alive was a long time studio TV show on McMinnville Community Media sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County. Host Lynda Phillippi retired 4 years ago. Arts Alliance asked us to begin to produce and continue the show's highlighting the arts and culture in our area. We decided to begin by visiting several 2019 Art Harvest Studio Tour artists. For this show we visited with Kathleen Buck, BJB Hickerson, Eve DellaValle, and Natalia Novikoff.
Here is the show on our Arts Alive Youtube channel.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lVmEoA8cQ8 

7/13/2019

After a nice rest we return

We have had a good four year rest. Now we're back. There will be Arts Alive videos about the artists and culture in our sweet piece of the the world. There will be writing and poetry adventures. And there will be the random information or observation which attacks our interest. 
 





We are always forming and changing shape

11/08/2015

Our Excellent Art Harvest Studio Tour Adventure: Chris Stubbs

Chris Stubbs studio
It was a beautiful sunny morning.  The winding road past mansions and vineyards on the was up to Chris Stubbs house is a wonderful part of Yamhill County.  Her studio is at one end of a large house.  Stepping across a landscaped water way make you feel as if you are stepping into an enchanted place.  Well yes you are.  Lining the walls of her studio are her sensitive water color paintings.  When one of her portraits looks out at you, there is the feeling that it is not only you who is being looked at.


The flowers, the lily, the iris, the daffodils all float with color and calm.