Stopping By: Art Harvest participant keeps finding new painting ideas and materials
“I do my morning drawings after the coffee and before breakfast,” said Brandenburg, whose sketches lead to figurative pieces and landscapes. She often depicts local subjects such as the Buchanan Cellers building and vintage industrial sites in the Granary District.
Her morning sketchbook is thick with figures, abstracts, cartoonish figures and writing, as well. “It’s an atomic habit,” she said.
“I put in 90 minutes of painting before I can do technology stuff.” After 90 minutes, she also needs to stretch, do yoga, work in her garden or do other physical movement.
Then, after lunch, she’s back to creative movement for another two hours or more.
After her morning sketching, she may do a small study with gouache or another type of paint. Or more. “I may do an endless number of studies,” she said. “I may do a drawing, a little painting, then maybe a larger study.”
She also makes sketches and studies as she researches subjects, including painters she admires. “I like to really explore stuff,” she said.
She’s finished several studies inspired by Picasso’s “Four Women Carrying Vessels,” for instance. While researching his classical period, she was struck by the “super-strong female” images.
That also led her to more studies of Greek Hydra paintings and other subjects, such as rising water.
Some of those paintings will be on display during the Art Harvest Studio Tour of Yamhill County, during which Brandenburg will be among artists showing in the Rose of Third Street, 516 N.E. Third St., downtown McMinnville.
Artists will display and sometimes demonstrate their work from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11 to 13. For $10, Art Harvest tourgoers can visit as many studios as they like; buttons are available from artists’ studios and several other businesses.
Brandenburg retired 2 1/2 years ago after more than 30 years working in addiction and mental health, first at Providence Healthcare Systems, then with the Hazelden Springbrook recovery program in Newberg.
She said she was “a mindfulness-based therapist” who encouraged people to “see beauty, be grateful, see how many things are positive.” Her artistic work follows those themes. “My intention is to calm and surprise, to quicken the spirit,” she said.
She started working at the Newberg clinic in the fall, coinciding with Art Harvest that year. As she toured studios, she asked artists about good places to live in Yamhill County. Many recommended McMinnville.
Brandenburg moved to McMinnville in 2003, after her son graduated from high school in Camas, Washington. “I wanted out of the Metro area,” she said.
She said she enjoys McMinnville and its “real people.” She particularly likes painting the industrial buildings and other scenes in the Granary District.
She grew up in a military family, moving frequently and spending six years in Germany. She said McMinnville reminds her of some of the small German towns she experienced; it’s both walkable and filled with all the things she needs — “a functioning town,” she called it.
It was in Germany that she started painting. She was about 10 when she created an oil painting of houses lining the streets of Butzbach. The piece hangs on the wall of her studio, located upstairs in her McMinnville home, where she lives with her husband, Chuck, and pup, Rusty.
The walls also show multiple photos of her daughter, who’s now 47, fewer of her son, 40, who’s more camera shy. “I’ve always painted and drew, before them, while they were growing up, since,” she said.
“Art is who I am. It’s how I filter the world,” she said.
Brandenburg has a degree in fine arts; her emphasis was on black and white photography. Now, she said, “I take pictures for reference. Photography is my note-taking method.” She also carries her sketchbook everywhere.
In addition to her degree, she has taken numerous workshops at the Sitka Center and other venues, in addition to painting hundreds of works of her own.
One of the meaningful workshops she’s taken was about solvent-free oil painting, taught by Kimberly Brooks. The method uses paint made with alternative materials, such as linseed and safflower, that don’t require harsh solvents.
Brandenburg appreciates finding more environmentally healthful ways to clean her brushes and create her art.
Besides, she said, “solvent-free oil painting has a kind of magical look to it,” she said.
Before she focused on oils, Brandenburg painted with watercolors — easier to do while raising children, she said.
“You can just sit down with watercolor. Oils take space and time,” she said. “You have to put stuff out and have time to paint; cleanup takes time.”
She added, “It’s a luxurious process to do oils.”
She uses oil paints on linen canvas. “No shortcuts. You can do layer after layer, usually dark first, then mid-tones and lights and glazes,” she said. “I love oil painting. There’s nothing like it.”
She said she also has tried acrylics, but doesn’t like them. “I’m anti-plastic,” she said. “It washes down the drain.”
Brandenburg said she is enjoying having more time to paint since she retired. She also likes having time to participate in activities such as Art Harvest.
“I like to meet people, and I love to explain what I do,” she said.
Her art speaks for itself, though.
“I’m not trying to be in-your-face messagey,” she said. “But there’s definitely meaning in my work.”
She enjoys juxtaposing opposites, she said. “I love fluidity and structure, the stability of architecture; your evil twin and your best self,” she said.
Photos of places she’s seen or visited often inspire her work. She also enjoys plein air painting when the opportunity arises, taking advantage of “the spark of being in the moment” during a day at the Oregon Coast or a trip to Orcas Island. “I painted daily” while in the San Juans, she said.
“I love the water,” she said. “It’s beautiful how it moves. It’s the source of life; it reflects light.”
She loves light, as well. “I’m interested in how the light falls on things,” she said. “I’m definitely drawn to morning or evening, low light.”
She added that she’s still developing her skill at depicting light and shadow. She is studying notan, the Japanese approach to the harmony between light and dark.
To challenge herself creatively, Brandenburg sets tasks for herself. Right now, she’s working on landscapes located within 1,000 feet of her home. That encourages her to see everything, as well as to depict her subject in paint.
“Of course, I’m not confined by my rules,” she said. “I can do whatever I want.”
Contact Starla Pointer at 503-687-1263 or spointer@newsregister.com.
Art tour continues through weekend
Sixty-three Yamhill County artists – painters, sculptors, jewelry makers and others who work with mixed media or other techniques — will demonstrate and sell their work during the annual Art Harvest Studio Tour.
Artists are:
Amity area – Dan Bowyer, Deb Conrad, Caitlin Eshleman, Dorothy Eshleman, BJB Hickerson, Joanne Licardo, Cristi Mason-Rivera, Natalia Novikoff, Ted Simon, Joshua Simonson, Steve Tyree, Toni Tyree, Scott Vinson and Daniel Willis.
McMinnville area – Michael Bittle, Britt Block, Catherine Borchert, Maggie Bowman, Christa Brandenburg, Candice Cameron, James Dowlen, Amber Joy Dutchuk, Debra Franciosi, Reetsie Fuller, Erin Hanson, Zach Hixson, Tabby Ivy, Phil Juttelstad, Andy Kerr, Rebecca Kiser, Kahlia Mae Knox, Ralph Kraft, Renee Lorenze, Sylla McClellan, Kim Palacios, Denny Patella, Terry Peasley, Joan Pechanec, Shannon Ray, Doug Roy, Kerrie Savage, Michael Schick, Bruce Ulrich and Larry Wheeler.
Newberg/Dundee/Carlton areas – Kathleen Buck, Gary Buhler, Karin Carter, Jeanne Cuddeford, John Cummings, Terry Emery, Kathleen Jones, KD Kahoot, Peter Leighton, Adele O’Neal, Rob Ramage, Donna Sires, Leslie Struxness, Christine Joy Swanson, Kathy Thompson, Tim Timmerman, Ken Trox, Penny Tucker, Linda Workman-Morelli.
The visual artists will open their studios or take part in group shows in central locations from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sundays, Oct. 11 to 13. Buttons will admit Art Harvest tourgoers to as many studios as they like for $10.
Buttons are available at participating artists’ studios or at Earth and Wood in Amity; Art Elements Gallery, Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce or Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg; or in McMinnville, at Artemis Fox Studio, Currents Gallery, The Merri Artist, Pacific Frame & Gallery or Velvet Monkey Tea Shop.
For more information, go to artharveststudiotour.org.
Comments