DEADFISH RISING

 will play at Studio UFO

Craig Ostrom- Guitars, Vocals:

Ryan  Morrison- Guitars, Vocals:

Michael Lanz- Drums, Vocals:

Dan Swan- Bass, Vocals 

During the Downtown Art Walk,

Friday 12/5, 6-10pm

Featured art will be new  Pastel Paintings,

by Trish Harding

www.studioufo.net

Dead Fish Rising, oil on canvas, by Trish Harding

photo by Ann Chaikin

click on image to see it all!

 GP, oil by Ann Chaikin

click on image to see the whole piece!

A Small group from Studio UFO painted “en plein air” yesterday overlooking the deconstruction of Georgia Pacific. 

When it was time for a critique it was mentioned that Ann’s painting was about the distress and the the inefficiency of the mill.  She used dark, nertral colors and shard like shapes to help tell how she felt about the whole thing, rather that what it actually looks like.  Here tree silhouettes looked more like a rubber hose or snake than cottonwood branches, which added to the feeling of used up, danger and a place you might not want to venture into.

Marilyn struggled with what she wanted her viewer to see from her painting.  After much thought and preparation she was able to convey what impacted her about the site.  Her shapes where symplified, the old buildings felt as if they were stacked containers ready to be loaded up and taken away.  It felt abandoned and inoperable!  Even the trees in the forground where symplified to look broken and stark.

I, on the other hand, come at urban landscapes from yet another angle.  I am interested in, what I call the “terrible beauty”.  To convey Georgia Pacific Paper Mill as an entity that has been a huge part of Bellingham’s recent history who’s time has come and gone.   GP was a champion employer for many families including my own.  GP offered medical coverage for those families, it helped to send many of my friends to college through “living wages” and provided a large tax base for our city.  It gave many workers job secutity and well-deserved pention options.  GP then grew old, glutonous, inefficient, unprofitable and impotent in the new technological world and started to resemble the dinosaur:  too large to maneuver and turn around to take another course of evolution.

The task that I set for myself in painting this “terrible beauty” is first to understand how I feel about it, conceptualize and then to paint it without cliche and without shallowness.  To give it it’s due respect, but to acknowledge that it’s time has come and now it must go and make room for the clean technologies or what Thomas Friedman calls the energy technology of “fuels from Heaven” as opposed to “fuels from Hell”.  To show the distress but to leave a little bit of its glory in the hay-day.  By focusing on the beautiful silhouettes of the cottonwood tree branches in the forground I tried to make my viewer stand back and ask the question, “What next?”  To make the viewer become part of the dialogue.

It is really exciting to see the bay for the first time now that the huge pole type building is gone and to start to see the tanks claiming victory as a Bellingham Icon that should, in my opinion, remain at all cost as a sculpural testiment to what “used to be”.

Every time I see the tallest tank, I imagine our beloved Ryan looking up and saying, “I bet I could climb that”!

Desperate Dinosaurs, oil painting by Trish Harding

I will be taking a small, hearty class outdoors to paint today.  There is frost on the roofs right now (7am) as I gaze out the window at my neighbors’ houses!   Burrrrrrr!  When you paint outdoors in Washington in November, the operative word is layer, layer, layer.  Or perhaps, Dickies, Carharts, and long johns.

We are going to be in the parking lot of Studio UFO because I want to capture more of the deconstruction of the Georgia Pacific Paper Mill Plant, which I have been painting for going on 4 years now.  In this painting, Desperate Dinosaurs, completed several years ago now, the Museum remains watching from on a hill above the industrial carnage of GP below.   Please note that the Museum (Old City Hall building) faced a similar fate but was saved from the wrecking ball by a ring of humans clasping hands.

I am finishing up a book right now that talks about Energy Technology meeting Internet Technology and the repercussions of that.  I think it is the most important and timely books out there and would highly recommend it.  Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman.  It is the new vision for America and the world. 

I am missing  Ryan and still trying to bridge the gaping hole that his death has left under my every step.  I wake up every morning with stinging eyes and thank my lucky stars for having had him for as long as I did and for my Tom and my sweet, sweet Molly.

Painting outdoors, or Plein Air, will be invigorating and make me feel very alive and connected to my world.  Ryan would think it cool. 

Thanksgiving will be our first Holiday without his brilliant presence on this earth.  I think that all mankind will miss him a bit.

Trees at Baker, by Trish Harding, oil, 12″x 12″, $398

click on image to view the whole painting

BY POPULAR DEMAND!  DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN ABOUT OIL PAINTING FROM THE BEGINNING! 

OIL PAINTING CLASS, Trish Harding Instructor

• We will explore “oil paint” and how it works, mixing, compliments, using whites, set up, and equipment.  We will be doing exercises and create a painting.
• Suggested Supplies list:  oil paints, cad red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, cad yellow, yellow ochre, titanium white, zinc white, phthalo green, sap green.  Brushes: flat 14, filbert 8.  Solvent:   Oderless Mineral Spirits & container, paper towels.  Thinner:  Galkyd Gel.  Canvas:  stretched approx. 12”x14”.  Gessoed paper or board.  Please have this ready for class so we can get right to the exercises.

Two 4-hr. sessions, Friday 12/12, 12/19, 11am-3pm, $90

Fall Meeting Potluck and Painting Exchange

The next meeting will be November 16 at Studio UFO (Trish’s studio) in Bellingham. 

The board meeting will
begin at 10:00am.
The general meeting, potluck
and gift exchange
will begin at noon.
How the painting exchange works:
Each artist who wishes to participate in the painting exchange will bring a pastel painting that he/she has painted and that has been matted and wrapped in a plain brown bag or wrapping with no name or identification on it. During the Potluck, each artist will draw a number and find the number of the painting. They then open the painting to discover
who painted their ‘gift’.

Potluck: each artist please bring a salad or hot dish, and small plate of
hors d’oeuvres or a dessert.

 Trish Harding School of Art 301 W Holly StreetBellingham, WA 98225

www.studioufo.net or trish.harding@studioufo.net or www.studioufo.net

Trish Harding is the President of the Northwest Pastel Society!  For more information about joining the NPS go to www.nwps.org and download the application.

 Classes available at Studio UFO in December 08

Please note that there are neither refunds nor rollovers for classes or open studios!

OPEN STUDIO WEDNESDAYS Painting, Trish Harding instructor

• Open Studio Painting, any medium with personal instruction geared to “your project”.
• Join the UFO Group for a relaxed and focused all day painting session.
• Expect spirited presentations and lively critiques.

Four-5 hr sessions, Wednesdays, 12/3, 12/10, 12/17, 12/24 , 10am-3pm, $152

OR One 5 hr session @ $45 each.   You must specify dates__________________

OPEN STUDIO THURSDAYS Painting, Trish Harding instructor

• Paint in any medium with personal instruction geared to “your project”.
• Join the UFO Group for a relaxed and focused all day painting session.
• Expect spirited presentations and lively critiques.

Three-5 hr sessions, Thursdays, 10am-3pm, 12/4, 12/11, 12/18, , 10am-3pm, $114

OR One 5 hr session @ $45 each.  You must specify dates___________________

OIL PAINTING CLASS, Trish Harding Instructor

• We will explore “oil paint” and how it works, mixing, compliments, using whites, set up, and equipment.  We will be doing exercises and create a painting.
• Suggested Supplies list:  oil paints, cad red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, cad yellow, yellow ochre, titanium white, zinc white, phthalo green, sap green.  Brushes: flat 14, filbert 8.  Solvent:   Oderless Mineral Spirits & container, paper towels.  Thinner:  Galkyd Gel.  Canvas:  stretched approx. 12”x14”.  Gessoed paper or board.  Please have this ready for class so we can get right to the exercises.

Two 4-hr. sessions, Friday 12/12, 12/19, 11am-3pm, $90

________________________________________________________________________

Upcoming Shows

Also, see the video on You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8viKwu4tYJA

DECEMBER DOWNTOWN GALLERY WALK

New Pastel Paintings by Trish Harding

During the Downtown Art Walk

Friday December 5, 6-9pm

Studio UFO, 301 W Holly St. Suite M-4 ____________________________________________________________Ongoing art shows

Mi Shoes 1315 Railroad Ave 360-715-2046

             Trish Harding-Acrylic Paintings

Harley Davidson Store 1419 N State St 671-7575

             Trish Harding, Drawings & Paintings

Wild Buffalo, 208 W. Holly Street

             Trish Harding, Oil, acrylic & watercolor & pastel paintings “Musicians at Work”

DIS, 1315 Cornwall Ave

Gini Bunnell, recent, oil paintings

STERLING REAL ESTATE, 2620 N Harbor Loop Dr. Suite 17, 360 756-0021

                 Marilyn Brown, recent oil paintings

Mount Baker Gallery, Cornwall Ave

             Trish Harding, 3 panels of Double Triptych, Stitched and selected other oil paintings. Featuring Kelsey Bates and Joy Olney

MORASH CHIROPRACTIC, 1300 W Holly Street, Suite A, 360 715-1981

              Trish Harding, recent oil & acrylics

La Vie En Rose, Holly St

              Vikki Jackson Featuring new acrylics 

Classes offered at Whatcom Community College, Trish Harding instructor, to register call 647-3277.1.      

Clothed Figure Drawing, Thurs,  6:30pm-9pm

Pastel Painting, Thurs, 6:30-9pm  

You can see more of Trish Harding’s paintings at the Blue Horse Gallery, located next door to Studio UFO. 

Light on High Bank at Woodstock, oil painting by Trish Harding 

click on image to view entire painting

Ryan would be hard at work early this morning, probably emailing me or calling to tell me some really great news about his beloved Jennifer, had it not been for the fall.  He would probably say something like she placed really well in a time trial or she is standing next to him and is the most beautiful thing his eyes have ever seen, or as he sometimes referred to her, in context of her prowess and determination at the Velodrome, “She is such a ‘bad-ass’!  The guys at the track sit up and take note!  ‘Cuz, here comes Juice Mama!” 

I grew up on Lummi Island and we used to shuck oysters right on the rocks at Point Migley (Although, I’m not so sure we were supposed to!)  You penetrate the shell at the side with the oyster knife and cut the tenacious muscle  and as you pry the wavy layers of hard shells apart the glistening oyster shows itself: delicate, jiggling, transluscent, oyster-white; seeming to provide its own light source from within.  I glance out the window past the neightbors house and through the tree tops, now devoid of most of its leaves as Winter quickly approaches.  As I write this I study the oyster-white sky that is so familiar to me and that which I have attempted for years to capture in some of my plein air paintings.  These skies are different now, no less beautiful, but different just the same; as is everything since The Fall.  I miss you, my Ryan, and I am filled with deep empathy for every mother in the whole world that has lost their beloved son.  To you that have I offer these words.  Unfortunately I don’t know the author.

     “My grief lies all within, And these external manners of lament Are merely shadows to the unseen grief that swells with silence in the tortured soul”

Ryan prods me on to go live this Oyster-white day to the fullest. 

     Tom used to tell Ryan he should rest more, not go so much and so fast and so hard.  Each time he heard this warning Ryan would answer, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”.

This morning, again, I could have laid in bed all day with a broken heart, but I heard his words.  Ryan got me out of bed today… again, and ready to live this day.  I will sleep when I’m dead, too, but not right now.  Ryan taught me the importance of living each day with wonder and joy.  So here I go again so greatful for all the lessons he has taught me.  After all we are all only guaranteed one beautiful day at a time.

            Studio UFO         Blue Horse Gallery      City of Bellingham

Blue Horse Gallery PAPO Show 2008

 3rd Annual Downtown Bellingham Plein Air Paint Out Name______________________________________________________________ Address____________________________________________________________ City____________________________________State_______Zip____________ Hm ph___________________________cell ph____________________________ Email________________________________________________________(required)  Entry #1Title ___________________________________________________________________ Medium___________________________Framed Size________________________ Price_____________________________  Entry #2Title___________________________________________________________________ Medium__________________________Framed Size________________________ Price____________________________ Drop off signature_____________________________________________________BHG & PAPO has the right to use photos of work for publicity of the show & event.   

Pick up signature______________________________________date____________

3rd Annual Downtown Bellingham Plein Air Paint Out