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JoAnn Pari-Mueller

This is my third year in the Open Studios Tour. I love peoples’ reactions to my country studio and my work. They have thoughtful questions and are genuinely interested in how some painting, calligraphy, pastel, or collage was created. One woman asked me if I’d be willing to paint a beaver and it led to being part of the Wetlands Conservancy Statewide Beaver Tales Exhibit. One of these beaver exhibits also led to my being asked to participate in a group show at the lovely Fairweather Gallery in Seaside, OR

Watercolors are my first love – I was introduced to them 8 years ago. I started calligraphy a year later and gradually started exploring pastels and collage, and recently, acrylics.

My two-year-old studio addition is a lovely space with big windows and skylights in a park-like setting with a wooded backdrop. It is full of my books and inspirational materials such as rocks, shells, feathers, and art objects collected from around the world. My two papillons, Daphne and Minerva, like to hang out there, too.

My mother is a painter a printmaker (age 96!). While growing up I was surrounded by art and artists. I was also a Portland Art Museum Docent (tour guide) for many years. Although I chose a career as a registered nurse I feel as though those art genes were just lying dormant – ready for exposure.

I love demonstrating various interesting art techniques in my studio and have added a few new techniques since last year – especially experimenting with beautiful natural plant materials and acrylic overlays.

During these past 8 years I have discovered that nothing is as exciting as seeing an idea come into existence. Flora and fauna provide endless inspiration that allow me to continue exploring the use of rich backgrounds, detailed subject matter, calligraphic words, and sometimes grids or elaborate borders.

It’s been fun talking with some of the artists on the tour. I love the beautiful color effects Anji Grainger achieves in her watercolors and wondered where she finds her inspirations and what she’s working for her visitors to see later this month, so I asked a few questions…

What projects are you currently working on?
I am currently working on a body of work exploring the world of raindrops. The series is called Pacific Northwest Raindrops.
If we look closely, there are many wonders to see inside a raindrop – its own little world so to speak – but actually it is a refraction of what is around us. In this painting series my goal is to give the viewer a look into the tiny world of raindrops and to create a feeling of magic and mystery. The challenges I face are accomplishing the combination of the exactness of a raindrop with the blurred and distorted effects that happen in the refraction process of a round and clear sphere. With watercolor as a fluid medium, it was very difficult to get sharp clear lines so it took many hours of working slowly to achieve my goals.

Is it (Art) your main business?
Yes. 4 years ago I quit my day job and began a full time career as an artist and instructor. It was a leap of faith and has taken many hours of hard work. This last year I made it past the earnings mark and had a great year supporting myself solely as a working single artist.

What art do you most identify with? What’s your favorite art work?
My work derives its inspiration from the magic and wonders of nature. I paint with the movement of nature and visualize the growing twists and turns of a twig or a leaf. I try to capture the stillness of an early morning walk in a field, along a river or in a forest. I also focus on detail whether it’s simply the blending or bleeding of two colors like one would see on a ripening peach or the finite lines and edges of a raindrop. My current explorations are in the discovery of how elements of nature and texture react in watercolor to leave beautiful patterns and surprises in unique patterns on the paper.

What research do you do before you start a project?
I familiarize myself with the subject as thoroughly as I can via research, sketches and practice paintings.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Paint was comes from within you. Don’t listen to naysayers who don’t understand your passion or your visions.

Anji Grainger
Blue Pansy Cottage Arts

Yesterday I was sweeping up the latest layer of scraps and threads from the studio floor and thinking about all the studio tidying that is happening in Studios all over Washington County right now. The Studio Tour just a little more than two weeks away and the participating artists are getting their spaces ready!

i got this note from Peg Falconer, tour organizer and book artist/calligrapher, sublime—

“Thank goodness for the Open Studio Tour; it forces me to clean up the clutter and make art. This is the state of the studio this morning…ACK.

The good news is that buried in the mess is a sketch for a collaborative project I participated in last January, led by local artist Shu-ju Wang. Fifty artists contributed their version of these words; Shu-ju printed them on to fabric, making prayer flags to hang or hand out on Inauguration Day. Once I find my table space, I am going to rework this as a card that will be available for the Tour!”

Good find, Peg! Back to work, I go. Wonder if I’ll find something that good buried in the pile of stuff on my work table…

Last week I paid a visit to the studio and home of painter Annie Salness. Her Cedar Mill home is warm and inviting with a great view across the valley and hills.  Annie greeted me and gave me a quick tour of the house, including their rooftop deck, before we got down to discussing her work and her studio. It was a perfect fall day and the views were grand in every direction.

Not many artists have a full size basketball court in their backyard! (Annie’s husband is a high school coach. )

Annie’s training and background are in biomedical illustration, a very precise and technical kind of art career that she set aside when her children were small. Recovering from a devastating stroke seven years ago, she turned to art once again, but art of a more personally fulfilling kind, painting the things she found beautiful and nourishing.  Her still life paintings of flowers and everyday items have a fresh, spontaneous energy. She finds a special satisfaction in having developed her own methods for painting glass objects to incorporate those elements of transparency and reflection and light into her compositions.   Here she shows me the paintings for her annual calendar, which will be for sale during the studio tour.

Visitors to her studio will get to see where she sets up her still life compositions and takes many photos, from slightly different angles.

Then she views the photos on her computer screen and crops and adjusts until she finds the shot she can use to paint from.

She’ll be doing demonstrations during the studio tour at 1 and 3.  This is Annie’s third year as part of the Washington County Artists Open Studios. She really enjoys sharing her studio and work and is looking forward to this year’s tour and hoping, as all of us are, for good weather!

To see more of Annie Salness’s work and find out about her classes and commissions, check out her website and blog:  http://anniesalness.com/

I went out to Hillsboro yesterday to the Affordable Art for Everyone show and the first person I saw was Patti Isaacs, one of the Washington County Studio Tour artists. I think Patti has been part of the tour for as long as I have and it was great to see her beautiful work yesterday—one of the downsides (maybe the only one) of being a part of the tour is that you don’t get to take the tour, so it’s been awhile since I’ve seen what Patti is doing.  In addition to her always beautiful painted silk work, she has a whole series of colorful paper works. I was especially enchanted by some block prints inspired by a trip to Japan.

The Affordable Art show was great! I got to see several old friends and meet some artists that were new to me. I really like shows where you can visit with the artists

I always think I should view art as a thing unto itself—its visual appeal, it’s deeper meaning and what feelings it inspires, but a part of me is also asking “Who made this? Why?” and “How.?”  The “how” is often the most mysterious. I’d love to visit Patti Isaacs’ studio and learn more about how she makes all those lovely things I saw yesterday.  I met a new-to-me artist yesterday who creates haunting, intriguing images on aluminum. He tried explaining how it was done, but I really wanted to see the process. I tried to talk him into participating in the studio tour next year—I think he’s interested.

Our studio tour is fast approaching.  Come on out October 21 and 22 and meet the artists and take that rare opportunity to get a view of where and why and how the art is made.  We’ll be ready!