Category Archives: Uncategorized

Woman’s Inconstancy

This Blog Entry was originally posted on May 11, 2009, because I was reading John Donne then. I clicked on “Publish,” thinking to add to my train of (literary) thought at the time, but it has brought it forward to today’s date. So, a little out of context, but……

Another poem by John Donne:

Woman’s Inconstancy

Now thou has lov’d me one whole day,

Tomorrrow when thou leav’st, what wilt thou say?

Wilt thou then antedate some new made vow?

Or say that now

We are not just those persons which we were?

Or, that oath made in reverential fear

Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear?

Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,

So lovers’ contracts, images of those,

Bind but till sleep, death’s image, them unloose?

Or, your own end to justify,

For having purpos’d change, and falsehood; you

Can have no way but falsehood to be true?

Vain lunatic, against these scapes I could

Dispute, and conquer, if I would

Which I abstain to do.

For by tomorrow, I may think so too.

Borders

Breakfast being revised

As I’ve posted recently, I’m revising old paintings I still have around, improving them without completely repainting them. Here I am in the process of painting a border around a painting I did in the 90s. It’s a picture of my daughter and her friend, Callie, eating breakfast in our dining room. This room (backdrop) has gone through revisions too and the rosemalled Schrank visible in the corner has moved. Now, I have Scandinavian-looking, built-in cupboards and a window seat at the end of the room. This painting did not originally have a border. There was a time when I was painting borders regularly. They add a storybook quality to a painting and visually augment the framing. I’ve had a very positive response from viewers. The thing is, as worthwhile as they are, they add a considerable number of hours to the creation process…(Also see how my studio reflects complete concentration on painting and none on organization — I’m so disciplined!)

Repainting the border

As you can see in the first photograph, I had originally painted the border a light blue with an off-white Celtic Knot design on it. Then, I decided it was too pale. I wanted to draw out the primary colors in the painting, like the dark blue trim of the tiles and the red, Scandinavian runner, so I repainted it with a cobalt blue mixture, all the while refining the Celtic knots. When I’d finished, I decided I still didn’t like it and repainted it a sort of lilac. I know that doesn’t sound appropriate, but I had done a smaller version of this painting, with the figures in a different position, as a hostess gift for my father’s cousin’s family (Olli Heikkinen) when we went to Finland in 2000. We stayed with them in Helskini. I loved the colors in the border of that one. See below.

Hostess Gift July 2000

The image of this painting is actually a photograph of a print I made of it before I went to Finland. The original was painted on an untempered masonite panel, rather than a canvas, so it is smoother and more watercoloresque. The colors aren’t as brilliant, but I’ve always loved it. One of the artists who give me positive feelings of coziness and comfort is Carl Larsson, who did many paintings of his family and home in Sweden. Those paintings have provided inspiration in the decoration of my kitchen and dining room. Anyway, as you can see, the border is rather lavender or periwinkle, so that is why I went in this direction after the cobalt border.

Here it is in its current manifestation:

Breakfast

Artemis and her Hounds

Artemis and her Hounds

I’ve been waiting for it to snow in southern Wisconsin, so I could finish this painting, the fourth in my Greek Myth series, of the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. My huntress has left the brilliant sunlight of Greece for northern climes and the peace of the snowy forest. Last Sunday I skied in fresh snow on the hills of Governor Dodge State Park, where this landscape is set. Today, I went skiing in Blue Mounds State Park in very warm weather. I didn’t need my Norwegian sweater, so Artemis can keep it a while longer.

Here is a poem about the north, written by someone who is also Finnish, and shares my love of the north woods.

Driving at Night

Up north, dashboard lights of the family car

gleam in memory, the radio

plays to itself as I drive

my father plied the highways

while my mother talked, she tried to hide

that low lilt, that Finnish brogue,

in the back seat, my sisters and I

our eyes always tied to the Big Dipper

I watch it still

on summer evenings, as the fireflies stream

above the ditches and moths smack

into the windshield and the wildlife’s

red eyes bore out from the dark forests

we flew by, then scattered like the last bit of star

light years before.

It’s like a different country, the past

we made wishes on unnamed falling stars

that I’ve forgotten, that maybe were granted

because I wished for love.

–Sheila Packa

Artemis and her Hounds, Oil on Canvas, 22×28, Sold

Orpheus and Euridice

I didn’t retouch Orpheus and Eurydice, but I did write a sonnet about them:

Orpheus and Eurydice

In myth, a man could claim from death the one

he loved, could find the entrance to the place,

spelunk its spacious, hallways woebegone,

Cerberus quell with serenade, retrace

his steps and charm the beasts, flatter Hades

in his lair with a voice so soulful sweet

and mien so comely, naiads, dryads, ladies

fair, languished ‘bout. Yet how this feat

resolved in naught is cautionary, the stuff

of tales: Eurydice lost by a backward glance

as Orpheus led the way. It’s like enough

his turning round was nothing but mischance,

but when I think, I’m impelled to query,

“Was her walking behind him necessary?”

NBH

Orpheus and Eurydice

More retouches

Oil painting of Odysseus and Circe, modern dress

Odysseus and Circe retouched

On the Salesman and the Farm Wife, I softened the contrast of the grass against the gravel on the road at the back of the painting. I touched up the pigs almost all of them and repainted the grass. Last year, I painted down to the wire for the Artsbuild Show 2011 and submitted the painting still wet. I wasn’t quite satisfied though and always intended to go back to it. I also intensified the contrast of the sun shining on the Salesman’s hair, worked on his coat a bit and darkened the frame of the doors. I didn’t touch the Farm Wife. I still think she’s perfectly lovely, like a French model…..in an American farmhouse. Go figure!

But it’s myth, right? So anything can happen.

The Salesman and the Farm Wife, aka Odysseus and Circe, Oil on Canvas, 12×24, 12×24, $1200 USD

Some retouches

No Frigate like a Book

In preparation for being the featured artist at Longbranch Gallery (Mineral Point) in December 2011, I retouched some paintings, improving edges, heightening or diminishing contrast, or just changing things that bugged me. On No Frigate like a Book, I softened the edges of her upper arms, her shoulder on the right, the back of the chair and repainted the shine on her hair. I also gave the pages of the book a bit of sepia tone, though you can’t tell at all in the picture. I immediately liked it better, because the areas of greatest contrast and interest were enhanced. The parts I wanted to draw less attention to, even though they were well lit, like her upper arms, now have softer edges. It’s a better painting now.

Girl with Pug retouched

On Girl with Pug, again featuring my beloved model, Anna, I softened the shadowed side of her sleeve to make it recede more. It’s not the way it actually was. The old, muslin fabric of the blouse became whiter where it doubled at the crease. In reality, it looked quite bright on the underside of her arm, but it always bothered me. So, I changed it.

No Frigate Like a Book, Oil on Canvas, 20×24, $1000 USD

Girl with Pug, Oil on Canvas, 11×14, $425 USD

Faux Bois Bench II

Sculpted Bark

The second step in making Faux Bois is pressing the concrete mixture into the wire armature. You can see three steps in the pictures in this Blog entry. On the right side of the bench above and in the picture below, you’ll see one coat of concrete.

Concrete forced through wire armature

I began with the supporting legs and the back.

Second coat of concrete on Faux Bois Bench

Second coat, beginnings of bark

I didn’t immediately cover the entire bench with concrete, because I wanted to keep it from getting too heavy to lift. I was working in my garage here in early October, with winter coming on, heating the space with an electric heater, using daylight, when it was available, and reflector lights, when it wasn’t. The heaviest part of the bench will be the seat, so I left that concrete free for the moment. After the initial layer of concrete had cured, I began laying on a second coat. You can see a sort of Red Pine look on the right cross-support. In the top picture, I’ve decided I wanted Ash bark instead.

At this point, I have the entire bench covered in concrete. It is sitting in a corner of my garage for the time being. I’m hoping I can arrange a better (read warmer and brighter) place to work on it over the winter, but if I can’t, it will simply live in my garage until spring.

Portrait of Jessica Hanson

Jessica Hanson

The daughter of my close friends, Josephine and Steve Ristau Hanson, graduated from high school in the spring of 2011. Jessica is an accomplished young woman, who plays both piano and viola, writes creatively, knits, rows, and is addicted to reading. She is now attending my (as well as Josie’s and Steve’s) Alma Mater, St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. I did this portrait of her as a surprise gift before her Graduation Recital and Dinner on June 18. It gratified me enormously how much they all liked it.

Here are some actual photos of the occasion

Steve Hanson, Jessica Hanson, Josephine Ristau

Jessica and her proud parents

The Ristau Clan, Jess Slaek and Marie Pauls