Dear painters, art aficionados, and art explorers everywhere. I would never have guessed this journal would keep my interest for so long! Join me as I learn about the processes of painting, drawing and at times, the history of art.
My website is: terirobusstudio.com

2.15.2024

A Valentine's Day Adventure


My Valentine's Day painting and snowshoeing adventure 
happened because the day dawned sunny,
not too cold, and windless. I have said that I am a fair-weather painter
and even though it was not 70° out, I did consider it "fair weather" because of
all the sun and no wind!!

The other thing I wanted to do besides paint outside on this lovely day was
to try out my electric socks that Santa brought me for xmas. Ever since our dog mushing days in Fairbanks, my feet have been very sensitive to the cold.

Eaglecrest ski area on Douglas Island, is a vast playground and with
all the snow we have had, I thought it might be a good place to find a winter scene to paint.

Near the lodge in the upper parking area, there was a x-country ski trail (?) that had not been used for several snowfalls, so I trekked uphill on that trail to find a spot to set up.
Once I found a good place, I trekked back to the car, got my pack
and headed up.

 

ready to paint standing in my snowshoes

I realized that my skinny tripod legs might sink down too deep in the snow! 
But I tested it and it held while I snapped my pochade box onto the tripod.



The first thing I saw as I surveyed the scene was a Ptarmigan! 
So white! even against the snow ... and moving very slowly because it saw me.

Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus)
Alaska State Bird





The shadows and the sparkly snow were really enticing. I think the temperature was about 30° and the sun was at my back. I could block the sun with my body so my colors weren't washed out on my painting and palette. I'd forgotten to bring my umbrella.

My set up was pretty near the bunny hill
and it must have been a school learn-to-ski day, 
because there were recess-like playground shouts 
and happy voices echoing through the air. 

Another voice I heard echoing in the valley was
the cry of a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis alascensis).


 first painting - 5 x 7


My painting went well ... so well that I was finished with this small one in about an hour.
Since I had another panel, & I was still not too cold,
I decided to try another painting.

I had to work fast because I didn't want to 
have the sun go down while I was there, or get cold. In a situation like this, 
painting as quickly as I could and concentrating
on just the big shapes with no detail 
helps me to not make the painting too tight. 

 Have you heard the saying "think slow & paint fast"?

I feel like I did accomplish that; 
For me, I got a nice representation of the feeling of being up there
in the snow with the Ptarmigan and hawk.

2nd painting - 8 x 10

The electric socks helped me to stay standing on the snow for nearly two hours. But I learned I should move around a bit more, even with the socks on (they are so neat, there's an app on my phone to turn the heat up or down!).

So here are the two paintings. I took pictures of them outside today (another nice day!).

Ptarmigan Country
oil on linen mounted on Mulitmedia artboard



Eaglecrest Valentine
oil on Masonite




Thank you for reading about my 🩷Valentine's Day adventure! 
Please let me know if you have any questions.

Happy painting and creating! 


♥♡♥

🎨

1.26.2024

Blogiversary Guest Artist!


My graphite drawing of Matt's carved Cormorant


16 years ago today I started this blog, knowing nothing about blogging. 
But I bumbled along, kept going because I just love my art journey
 and this seems to be a good way to keep track of it. 
(Except for the fact that a few of my posts from early days
seem to be gone ... ?)

I decided to publish my January blogiversary posts as a guest interview. 
Last year I interviewed Cristine Crooks. You can see that post HERE.

This year my wood-worker, wood-carver husband has agreed to an interview!
Find your fav beverage and get comfy for this ...

Matt with his traditional Dowitcher decoy


He made the Pelagic Cormorant (below) and it is SO lovely. 
I try to remember to do a small drawing of each of his carvings 
(pic at the top of the page).




Here are a couple photos of Matt's carvings and
different stages of work.

Mew Gull in-progress

Removing wood from a Raven

Surf Scoter decoy with keel



Q. What is/are your medium(s)?  

A. The primary material in my bird carvings is, of course, wood. I favor red cedar because it is naturally weather resistant and that was important for the hunting decoys I started out making. It's also soft and easy to shape, fairly light, and takes glue and paint well. I've split and milled pieces from logs but most often I buy planks at the lumberyard and laminate them to get the size of block I need for a particular piece.  Alder is my second choice because it has a consistent density so is easy to carve; I can sometimes find suitable pieces in the wake of the crews that trim under the powerlines around town.  Yellow cedar is another rot-resistant wood but it has variable density and is a challenge to carve. All of these are local wood species, which ties into my effort to use resources found in Southeast Alaska. Basswood and tupelo are wonderful for carving but I don't really want to get into using (or shipping) wood from other regions.

Oh, and I use acrylic paints over a primer layer to color my birds; it forms what is essentially a protective layer of plastic around the carving, and then I finish with a layer of paste wax, which lends a nice sheen as well as a bit more protection.



Q. Where are you from, and does that affect how and what you create?

A. I grew up in Rockland County, New York which was rural when I was born and had morphed into a suburb of New York City by the time I left for grad school in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1974. I was vaguely aware of bird decoys but had nothing directly to do with them; I think the main effect is that when I became interested in carving decoys after we moved to Juneau in 1991 I focused initially on the work and styles of prominent historic East Coast decoy makers.  I've since learned about and grown to admire the work of early decoy carvers on the West Coast and am still expanding my horizons as I learn about Mississippi Valley carvers.



Q. What brought you to working the way you work?

A. Once I began learning about decoys it became evident that the best of the old carvings, the ones that showed artistic skill, had been bought up by wealthy art collectors during a craze dating to the mid-'60s, and when pieces became available they were selling at extraordinarily high prices. It struck me as ironic that most of the people who had acquired these birds had little affinity for their original purpose, and unfortunate that those carvings would never be accessible for those interested in how they were intended to be used. Knowing that I'd never be able to own one of the classic originals I decided to make my own to the best of my ability. I also decided to carve my decoys by hand, mostly to see if I could make a decent quality bird in the same way that the old-timers did.  This self-imposed rule of using no power tools after bandsawing a rough blank and drilling the eye holes is still my way of doing things in my shop. 


Q. Who are your most important artistic influences? 

A. First of all, my grandfather, Hugo Robus (1885 - 1964), a painter and sculptor. Although as a kid I didn't pay all that much attention to him or his work, he demonstrated that being an artist was a worthwhile endeavor (I think he'd be quite surprised that I've gravitated to the art world to the extent I have!).  

In terms of my carving, old-time East Coast decoy makers such as Elmer Crowell (MA), "Shang" Wheeler (CT), Charles Sumner Bunn (NY (work formerly attributed to Wm. Bowman)), Harry Shourdes (NJ), and a crowd of other carvers who incorporated a good sense of form into their working decoys.


QWhat is the most difficult or challenging aspect of your work? 

A. There are three aspects to carving birds that are particularly taxing. The first is symmetry; it's no good to carve only one side of the bird perfectly - the other side must be carved to match! There have been many times when I've been pleased with how a detail or area on a carving has turned out only to face the challenge that it needs to be mirrored perfectly on the opposite side. 

The second big challenge is to represent a soft, fluffy, air-filled surface (i.e., feathers) with a hard material such as wood - there is not a perfect answer, but having the proper contours and colors helps. 

Finally, I am pulled between a desire to be free and impressionistic with my carving and painting and a tendency towards realism springing from my career as a wildlife biologist. 


Q. Does your art help you in other areas of your life?

A. Being retired, I think it's really valuable to have something to do each day, and in addition to the house-related chores it's good to have work waiting for me in my shop, whether it be carving a bird or maintaining and sharpening tools, etc. It's a great thing to be able to spend time doing something I really enjoy and it's also great that it keeps me occupied.

Q. Has your style changed over time? 

A. Yes, in at least two ways. At first, knowing that carving is subtractive and that once material is removed it cannot be replaced, it's difficult to remove enough wood - one is constantly afraid of ruining the piece by lopping off too much. As a result I know that my first Scaup decoy bodies had rather the look of loaves of bread - flat sides with small rounded corners up to a barely rounded back!  It takes awhile to develop the confidence needed to remove enough material to reveal the contours of a bird's outer surface, and the birds I carve now are much curve-ier.

Secondly, I've progressed over time from a strict adherence to waterfowl species to a greater variety of other bird families. I began carving decoys because I wanted to hunt waterfowl and didn't really want to buy plastic factory decoys; besides, there was an allure to making and using my own. After carving a puddle duck rig of Mallards and then a sea duck rig of Scoters I realized I didn't need additional hunting decoys but still wanted to carve, so I progressed to 'confidence decoys' such as gulls and herons and then began carving shorebird decoys (solely decorative - hunting of most shorebirds was banned in 1914) and eventually based on requests I've expanded into carving hummingbirds, warblers, kingfishers & Steller's Jays, loons, cormorants, Great Blue Herons and even a few birds of prey.

However, a consistent theme throughout my work is to craft a piece that is an accurate representation of the form and behavior of a particular bird species without laboring over a photographic level of detail; my carvings spring from a working decoy origin, and working decoys were tools meant to represent birds with 'just enough' detail to make them believable.


Q. How can we find you and your work online?

A.  I have some of my carved birds shown on a Facebook page called

After experimenting with selling in a retail setting I've fallen back to carving birds 
on commission only 
(people want the bird they want, not the one your've already carved!).


Thank you Matthew!
I appreciate all the time and thought you went through for this interview! 

Matt and I go into our respective studios 
coming out now and then ask each other for advice on this or that, and I agree that having projects you love to do, and challenge you - are
good for the psyche! (retired or not)



Whimbrel


My drawing of another of Matt's
whimbrel carvings
 


Thank you very much for reading my studio journal. 
I will relay any questions you might have for Matt.

If you haven't been to my website, where you can find original paintings, 
here is the link:


🎨

Happy Painting (& carving!)



1.04.2024

Welcome the New Year - 2024!


Happiest New Year to you!

It is time to continue work on a brand new painting
that I began at the end of December.

This was a pretty bouquet for our table.


 I wanted to turn it into a Christmas bouquet painting, or at
least, a winter bouquet painting.

This is my first sketch using the Art Graf 
water soluble graphite stick that I got as a
xmas gift from my dear artist friend, Timi 
(she also gave me some gouache paint tubes to experiment with!
... and I have begun doing that).

Using just a round paintbrush, wetted with water
 I scrubbed the graphite around.

This is about 9" x 6"


Here are the photos of my progress when I
remembered to take them.


You may have noticed that I switched the
position of the plate. Why? I just liked it.

(note to those who really look at things closely,
I did something different than just decide to
switch the plate ... I am curious if anyone
knows what happened. Let me know.)


 adding color





Still Life with Pomegranate
oil on Masonite
 12 1/4" x 7 3/8"






Thank you for checking into my studio journal. My plan
is to continue this journal/blog, so feel free to
pop in now and then.

all the best to you in this new year,

Teri  🎨



11.11.2023

Plein air painting at the Juneau Community Gardens

 Hi readers!

Summer zipped by and I got a few paintings done (both plein air and studio).
I am sharing today about the painting I finished when
my friend Patrick and I met at the Juneau Community Gardens in July. 
The gardens were growing well: garlic, flowers, rhubarb, carrots, etc.


You can't really tell but it was raining pretty steadily and hard so we were under
 shelter where the garden's events are held. Pretty sweet.



I narrowed my focus down to this scene with those bright lilies.



pochade box with painting and palette



Crimson Lilies 
(Juneau Community Garden)
7" x 9" as framed
oil on Multimedia Artboard



It has a 1/2" wood frame (made by MHRobus) stained 
with Danish fruitwood oil

I am very happy to say that this painting is featured in the
 Juneau Plein Rein Painters 2024 calendar - September! 
Pick one up if you can find one. They do sell out fast.
Check the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council Lobby shop and Davis Gallery(?).

Wow, I haven't done this blog for awhile! If you found it on my website menu, that
is great ... and if it found you (because you follow me on "Follow.it" - which i set up awhile ago) that is super good, and 
if it did find you and you have a few minutes, here is my website 
address to check out if you haven't been there, or haven't been there for awhile:


ps This painting will be up on my website soon!

Thank you so much for reading this!

Happy painting, happy collecting, and stay healthy and safe.

🎨

10.11.2023

Update to a past painting

 

Hi readers of this long lost Studio Journal!
I appreciate you checking in.

Things have been busy and I have not worked on this
for some time.
But I wanted to repost this one since I am publishing the painting to my
So from here on this was written in 2018. Enjoy!



Geez, I'm definitely not the best blogger
in the world.
I had to go back and correct some things on this blog
from past challenges
AND
I haven't posted about our Salon Challenge #6!

Which was:

We all found a poem which we thought
might inspire a painting and threw those into a hat.
Breakage, by Mary Oliver was chosen ... 

(side note, Barbara and I chose the SAME poem!!!!!)

So there were really 3 different poems in the hat.

It was my turn to choose parameters for the challenge
- which were:

                      1 - paint a non-objective abstract 
                                                        (cannot see recognizable "things" in the painting)
2 - unlimited palette
3 - unlimited size     

The poem, read out loud felt just right for me to use Cold Wax Medium with my oils,
and yes, layers - many layers.
 I learned a thing or two during this whole process. 
Moonsnails have a romantic name, and are quite pretty
but they are a predatory snail
eating mostly bivalves
such as clams, mussels and scallops. They drill a hole
and "suck out" the bivalve!


Drew some sketches to get in the mood.

I prepared my board with gesso mixed with Iridescent Gold acrylic

With the idea of a shell with whorls, I wrote the poem on my board in waxy pencil.

My palette (I think): aliz crimson, sap green, ultram blue, transp oxide red + white

 The following photos (I remembered!) are progress shots.



Thought I would try to save some words, but it didn't work.



 Tried again ...






 Arghhh ... and again
(I really wanted to have some of the writing showing thru ...)






The final below. 
After the reveal we were deciding on final viewing direction.
We came upon this and
I like it.

Edge of the Sea     
CWM & oil on panel prepared with gesso mixed with iridescent gold acrylic 
words applied with black wax pencil     
16 x 14 inches
with 3/4" frame 17 1/2" x 15 1/2"
wood frame is painted white


Thank you for checking this blog! 
I cannot thank you enough for your thoughts and words in
the comments at the end of the posts.

Feel free to check our other challenges, too, 
from the lists on the right side in the "blog archive" list.

I still have to post the most recent challenge: #7
and then we are on to our final challenge.

please
 stay
 tuned!

(Ok, that was from several years ago. I wanted to list this painting on my website, and thought it would be fun to have a link to the story of the painting for those who wanted to
investigate.)

Since that time I did begin and am still working on, my website. Please feel free to ask any questions about any painting you see there.

alll the best,
Teri