Reaffirm, renew, invent and explore

  Now is the time to find new ways, look for better places and explore unforeseen options in order to maintain sanity and redefine to save our art careers.  Many things will never be the same (for some, sadly, more than others) but new opportunities will present themselves as we struggle to make sense of the constant changes. My brick and mortar gallery is closed and will not reopen anytime soon. All effort and time is now being focused on launching an online gallery for my website. We are working out the details to make it easy to peruse and purchase with confidence. The new gallery will be offering the highest quality canvas prints of my most popular paintings. They will be stretched, gallery wrapped and coated with a satin finish true to the originals. In fact, they can easily be mistaken for originals. the quality is exquisite!

Center Panel 40x30

This is "Center Panel" one of the many images that you will be able to choose from the new online gallery. Also available will be greeting cards, my two coffee/end table books, puzzles and a fist full of other cool stuff that will be added as we expand this new venue. Soft launch should be sometime next week! I am looking forward to sharing this new adventure and hearing any comments that you have. Stay healthy and happy.......Don

Pastoral Dreams

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Breakthrough 48x60

 Pastoral Dreams is a three person show opening on September 20th showing thru October 3rd at Ventana Fine Art on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am pleased  to be one of the selected artists represented by this great gallery. I will be showing with Natasha Isenhour and Barry McCuan. A reception will be held on September 20th from 5-7 p.m. I am looking forward to a fun packed evening!

Sky Light 36x36

 I will have a total of 16 paintings available for this show including the five shown here.

Bluff Trilogy 30x40

If you happen to be flipping through the pages of a current issue of  "Fine art Connoisseur", the "Santa Fean" or "Southwest Art" you my see one of the ads or reviews for this show.

Early Rise 36x48

Spring Creek 48x36

"Spring Creek" has already been sold! It's exciting to see them go before the show opens!

Ventana Gallery

I am excited to announce that my art will be represented by the prestigious Ventana Gallery located on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I gained acceptance into this  gallery early in February and recently shipped three of my newest paintings that will be hanging with the likes of John Nieto and Rebecca Tobey! You can check it all out at http://ventanafineart.com/

Early Start 40x30

Restoration Complete 30x40

Spring Creek 48x36

These are the paintings that are now on display and may be purchased from the Ventana Gallery!

Summer "Pop Up" Gallery

 Well, it is official. We will again be occupying the lower corner space in the historic Hastings Building for our "839 pop-up Gallery" in downtown Port Townsend.. This is an awesome space. It has fairly good light, high ceilings and the art shows very well. I am again partnering with Jim Jacobson another local artist who works with oils and creates popular local and marine scenes.





We will be moving in the first of April and staying through the summer. I am looking forward to meeting all kinds of fun and exciting people and talking about art.  And, hopefully, we will be shipping a few paintings to new locations around the country.

The eyes of the beholder

Last Spring I had cataract surgery on both eyes. Because the actual surgery only takes about ten minutes and is "relatively" painless, I decided not to have the anesthesia during the left eye procedure so that I could remember the experience. As I lay there during the process trying to squelch my panic I focused on the almost painful bright light and the image I was seeing/experiencing. I thought, wow, this would make a great abstract painting so I began to make mental notes of exact colors and tried to find shapes in all the brightness. As soon as I was wheeled to the recovery room I found a scrap of paper and scratched a few notes before the memory began to turn fuzzy. When I got back to my studio I chose an 18"x18" stretched canvas, dug out my notes and proceeded  in my attempt to capture the shapes and colors from my experience. On my next trip to the doctor who performed the surgery I carted my painting along with me. He was amazed that I followed through with such a bizarre undertaking and was so enamored with the work that he purchased it that very day! They convinced me to try the right eye with a small amount of the anesthesia and I felt certain that I could make another painting to compare to the left eye. Well, guess what? Whatever the drug is that they use works even in small doses, I couldn't remember ----!

"Cataract" 18x18 acrylic  on canvas

This is the finished painting. I am happy with the result and it does bring back the experience. I am disappointed that I was not able to recall enough detail from the right eye surgery because I was really looking forward to comparing the two paintings.



May in Olympia

Nine of my newest works will be showing during the month of May at the Childhood's End Gallery in Olympia, Washington. My art will be featured along with that of four other artists.

 

 

"Meet Me for Lunch" 24"x24"

Check out their website at www.childhoods-end-gallery.com. The exhibit will be up through May 31st. If you are in the area stop in and have a look at this great gallery!

Art talk

I will be giving an art talk and doing a quick demonstration of my painting process at the Blue Whole Gallery in Sequim Tuesday, the 18th (tonight) at 6:00 p.m.  Everybody welcome! Should be fun!

January workshop

 We are beginning a new and event filled year and I am excited to be doing painting workshops again. The classes will be held at my studio overlooking the bay here in downtown Port Townsend. My studio will comfortably accommodate from ten to twelve students. These smaller classes allow for personal attention to each student and good visibility for the demonstrations.  New this year is a kit I put together providing the canvases and brushes we will be using which should make it easier for everyone to obtain more uniform results while learning the process. The kit will be included in the price for registration.  It consists of 2 black gesso primed canvases (one 14"x18" and  one 12"x16") and 3 quality Daniel Smith brushes (3/4, 1/2 and 1/4) also I will personally sign one of my coffee table books for the kit. The January class will be held on Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th from 10:00 a.m. to  4:00 p.m. The registration fee will be $250.00 for the 2 day class.  For more information or to sign up for the class please email me at www.don@dontiller.com or phone 360.379.5450.


These are the items included in the kit

Wet paint / Dry paint

Ahhhh....Studio tour is over and I can get back to using it for the purpose of making art.  I use the Golden brand fluid acrylics in most of my art because they have very good permanence and stability and work well for my layering and glazing process.  One thing that I have had to adapt to since I started using acrylics is the fact that some of the colors which I mix and apply to the canvas appear much darker when they are completely dry.  The blues and greens are especially challenging.  here is an example of a green that I was painting with.  I applied a layer on the canvas and let it dry then I dipped in to the same mix and applied a brushstroke of wet paint over the dry color and you can see the difference. 

 

The challenge is to remember to mix the color I want to use at least one shade lighter than what I think I will need.  It sounds kind of unhandy but I have become accustomed to it now and hardly ever think twice about it.  I will post a picture of the finished painting soon!

 

 

The Amazon venture

I along with many other people received the email from Amazon announcing the launch of their fine art store, Amazon Art, a marketplace that gives customers direct access to more than 40,000 works of fine art from over 150 galleries and dealers.  At launch, Amazon Art showcased artworks from more than 4,500 artists. The store is one of the largest online collections of original and limited edition artwork for purchase directly from galleries and dealers.   I feel very privileged to be a part of this venture!  Amazon selected galleries worldwide of all sizes, including the Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery in Bellevue which lucky for me is one that represents my art!  So.., if you venture to www.amazon.com/art and look up Don Tiller or The Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery you will find my art for sale on the new Amazon art store!  here is an image of one of the paintings listed.

Open Gate 40"x60"

 

I like that Amazon lets you see the painting hanging next  to a chair so that you can visualize the actual size.  sometimes dimensions can be confusing and this certainly helps to see it in the proper perspective.

Wet Paint! Buy it Now!

I am frequently asked about my recent work and where it can be appraised and purchased.  Most of my new paintings are committed to future shows or have other destinations.  So I came up with the idea of a "first chance" offer to buy one of my latest paintings through my website store. http://www.dontiller.com/store.php 

Every Monday a freshly painted original 11"x14" acrylic on canvas will be added to the store.  It will be available for only seven days and will either be sold or replaced with a new painting the following Monday!  Here is your chance to purchase my newest painting fresh off the easel.

 

Pictured below is the painting that will be offered for this week.  In July we celebrate our Independence and I believe that  John Deere and Coca Cola are the two most iconic brands in the United States.  This is my depiction of a little John Deere gamboling about the fields working to keep the world supplied with food.

 

Buy it now!  at   The "Wet Paint" store

 

 

Time to Draw

Well, we managed to squeeze in a few more outdoor drawing sessions.  these two sketches are the most recent.  The Bishop Victorian Hotel was sketched while sitting across the street in a parking lot.  It was a beautiful evening and we were early for our Saturday date night  movie so we decided to get out the camp chairs and do a quick sketch while we waited.  Everything went well until someone parked right in front of where we were sitting cutting off our view completely.  Oh well, it was about time for the movie to start anyway and the sketches were near completion. 

 

The boatyard sketch was completed today, the fourth of July!  Earlier in the day we did an eight mile bike ride up the Larry Scott Trail, enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch on a sunny beach and ended up in the boatyard about 4:00 p.m.  We parked our chairs in the shade of  the traveling boat lift  and spent about an hour sketching the "Paul Johnson" one of many boats in the yard waiting for paint and repairs. A fun day..........!

I really do enjoy the outdoor drawing sessions and plan to keep the momentum going for the rest of the summer. The choices for cool locations to draw or paint are endless!  Just do it!

Plein Air Convention and Expo

Wow!  We just returned from the 2nd annual Plein Air Convention and Expo  held in Monterey, California.  We had a great time taking in all the marketing seminars and most of the artist demos.  We packed light and didn't take our painting supplies but we really enjoyed watching all the outdoor painting.  It was fun to watch the artists pick a location and a subject and then proceed to make a great painting within an hour or two. It was pretty windy and I felt very intimidated by all the talent but I managed to sit still long enough to do a quick sketch of Fisherman's Wharf.

Here are a few of  my convention highlights!

This is one of my favorite painters, Ken Auster doing one of his demonstrations onstage.  This picture was taken from the huge screens they had on either side of the stage.  Very easy to watch.

This is Ken's finished painting.  He paints large (love it) and completed this San Francisco trolley car scene in less than an hour.  Impressive to watch!

This is Russian painter Alexey Steele drawing a likeness of another great painter Scott Christensen.  Alexey is very animated and great fun to watch.  He will keep you fixated with his accented commentary.

John Crump, Another of my favorite painters is shown here painting on the windy beach.  He also paints larger than most of the others so naturally I am interested!

This is John's finished painting that he created for his demonstration the day before.  This 24"x48" painting was executed in about an hour. Amazing!  I missed his demo but sought him out on the beach and got to talk to him in person.  Great guy!

This is Don Demers doing a demo on the beach.  He is a great Maritime painter and always draws a huge crowd.

And there were plein air painters everywhere!  They came from all over the world to be here for this event.  Spectacular!

Random Thought 2...... pursuing perfection

After a couple days of creating on the computer instead of the canvas I have given some thought to the idea of  "perfection."   Salvador Dali said:  "Have no fear of perfection, you will never reach it!"  but then Oscar Wilde thinks: "It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection."  o.k, but I kind of like Michelangelo's quote:  "The true work of art is but a shadow of divine perfection"...  and alas, I think some truth lies in this comment by Gustave Flaubert:  "Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything."  What do I think?  Well.......My conviction is that pursuing perfection is my noble goal but the ability to really  #%$*  things up in the pursuit of it seems to be my gift...........