Founded in 1990, Gallery 114 has been a constant beacon of individuality and artistic freedom in Portland’s Pearl District.  Most member run, cooperative galleries are lucky to last two years before the infighting and squabling  tear them apart, so it is a testament to the member artists that the gallery has continued to be a vital part of Portland’s art scene.  The gallery has also avoided the complacency of some co-ops, and the work on view is consistently of high quality and relevant to our region. 

So, on to our favorite artist, Kimber Shiroma.  She is, of course, our favorite, because she works with us here at Utrecht, where she is known as the Queen of the Count, and the God of Galkyd, among other things.  I was lucky enough to see one of the Robert Motherwell’s series, “Elegy to the Spanish Republic”, while on a business trip to Philadelphia, and came back to Kimber’s show with the painting fresh in my mind.  Her work was impactive, to say the least.  Looking at her large scale paintings, one can see a continuity with the history of abstract expressionism, but she clearly adds to the tradition.  The addition of fabric and hair, which are glued to the surface of the canvas, are not readily visible from a distant viewing, and as you are drawn in there is a paradoxical attraction/repulsion that goes on.  They imply an underlying complexity to all things, something visceral and filamental about nature.  They are beautiful paintings, and, like humans and other living organisms, they are constructed of things that, when explored too closely or squeezed too tight, make one go yuck. 

E.B. White wrote a an essay after Charles Lindbergh’s successful flight across the Atlantic on the spirit of Me-Too-ism - the tendancy of individuals to claim some share of the success of another persons accomplishments.  Suddenly it was because of the Goodyear tires and Quaker oil that Lindbergh was able to accomplish his heroic flight.  With that in mind, I still have to admit that I was excited to see a huge, three page layout in the Sunday Oregonian that praised the accomplishment of artist Lucinda Parker upon her execution of a huge 10 foot by 40 foot painting commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission for the new performing arts center at the Lower Columbia College in Longview.   The reason for my excitement?  Well, it was because I sold her the canvas it was painted on!  Now, trust me, I take no credit for this tremendous work of art, but it is difficult not to want to crow - “hey, that’s our canvas!”  That Ms. Parker could create such a monumental work is a wonder in and of itself, considering that she herself is only about half as tall as the painting.  The work’s title, “Where Water Comes Together with Other Water” touches upon the theme of confluence, which many Portland artists have been thinking about lately.  This is, perhaps, Portland’s best contribution to the arts right now, the idea that here, things can come together, and that together we may solve some of our common challenges.  I encourge you to take a look at the full article in the Oregonian, written by D.K. Row.  Unfortunately the online article does not reproduce the terrific photos by Benjamin Brink, but they are in the January 6th Sunday publication.

If you are wanting to make an historically accurate copy of in Impressionist painting you will have a hard time finding the exact pigments in a modern art store. The Impressionists were quick to adopt the newest pigments of their time, many without concern as to the stability, or lightfastness, of the new products. Luckily, the majority of the new pigments that came out of the industrial revolution proved to be extremely lightfast, and many are still found on art store shelves today.

While it is possible to analyze the pigments present in a painting by removing a sample, an artist like Van Gogh left us detailed letters which often tell directly which pigments he chose. He wrote to his brother Theo in August of 1882, “Then, for oil painting, I now have everything which is absolutely necessary, and also a stock of paints, large tubes (which are much cheaper than the little ones); but you will understand that I limited myself to the simple colours in watercolour as well as in oil: ochre (red - yellow- brown), cobalt and Prussian blue, Naples yellow, sienna, black and white, completed with some smaller tubes of carmine, sepia, vermilion, ultramarine, gamboge.” Three years later he would write, “Cobalt - is a divine colour and there is nothing as fine for putting an atmosphere round things. Carmine is the red of wine and is warm and lively like wine. The same goes for emerald green too. It’s false economy to dispense with them, with those colours.Cadmium as well.” And contemporary artists will be happy to know that Vincent, too, complained about the high cost of pigments like cobalt blue, although he rightly recognized that, as a pigment, it was indispensible. Vermillion, gamboge, and emerald green are colors that are no longer found on the shelves of modern art stores, like Utrecht. Some of the pigments from the Impressionists era were dropped because of their toxicity, like Van Gogh’s favorite yellow, Chrome Yellow, which is lead chromate. Others, like emerald green, had the characteristics of turning dark when exposed to sulfur - an unavoidable element in modern, urban environments. The fact is that modern artists have a greater selection of pigments and paints to choose from, and that any artist from the past would be thrilled to have such a selection.

Please come by and see a preview show of paintings by recent PNCA graduates, Jan Madill and Teresa DiNapoli.  They will both be participating in the upcoming Senior Thesis exhibition at the college.

Ask any painter, and the one thing we all fear, dread and send up that big old river of denial is varnishing. It is the one sure fire way to completely ruin a painting and I can’t think of another aspect of fine art that provokes more stress and intimidation. The fact is that all paintings, whether oil or acrylic should be varnished. Many people think that acrylic doesn’t need a varnish, but the large polymer chains that make up an acrylic emulsion actually have an open, lacy structure that can easily trap dirt. In addition the softness of the acrylic resin is easily scratched, so it is important to protect the surface of the actual paint with a barrier layer that a conservator could remove and replace at some point in the future. Oil paintings need a protective coating for the same reason, but offer a greater challenge as oil paints can take months to technically “dry”.

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