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Many of you have seen this painting before. It is 30"x40" gallery wrapped canvas (staple-less) in acrylic. The first layer of paint is black, then I dry brushed a layer of acrylic pearl. The other paint which what poured, dribbled and flung also had a bit pearl acrylic blended in. I call this painting Considering Pearls. 
You can imagine the difficulty I have had in photographing this surface with all of the reflective paint. The image above was taken without a flash. On my computer it looks pretty good, but it is darker than the actual painting and the colors are not as vibrant. I also hand held my camera which is heavy, so I may not have been as still as I could have.
Now I have a new strong tripod and a flash diffuser. The photograph below was taken in the same location with the same natural light conditions. I used the white diffuser (there are also a green and a yellow) over the flash to spread that burst of light about. Clearly the tripod held the camera more steady than I could. The photograph below is the result:
These came out very different, although I still do not have the lighting right for these reflective paints. The diffuser seems to create a darker edge to these large canvases with that burst of light (although not glaring) towards the middle. The edge of this painting does have a bit more of the black appearing through the pearl, however it is not as pronounced as this shows it.
So an exact image this is not. I think it shows some of the details a lot better, however. Do you have ideas about photographing these highly reflective surfaces? Do you think I need to purchase a very expensive, adjustable flash for my camera or do you think a couple of lamps would do the trick to adjust aside from the camera?
I love working with these reflective products (including the heavy clear glazing), but I feel I do need to be able to photograph them better.
I do highly recommend a good tripod (even if you have a light camera). I also feel I will make very good use of this flash diffuser, although I wish it had of worked better for this particular painting. Maybe it is a matter of the size, so I will keep trying and keep sharing what I learn here. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions on this subject, though.
I also wanted to let you know I will be doing a very special Conversation soon with Dianne McNaughton from Cape Town, South Africa. She has some beautiful and exciting things to share with us. So stay tuned for an exciting first Conversation of 2009!
I have been really busy doing things other than being in my studio this week. You may have noticed in some of the comments I have mentioned I am hosting Thanksgiving for about 15 here next week. I am not so great with cleaning, so I am busy with such things.
I grabbed this shot of some canvases waiting on me for further tweaking...like glazing, signing, etc. I thought it was telling of my seemingly unorganized work methods.
Do you ever come across items you have not known about before and even have a difficult time locating on the web? This summer I needed some white acrylic while I was traveling. When I went to the local art supply shop, I found this brand. I have since tried to find it on the web but have not had luck with that. It is student grade acrylic, but I was really just piddling around. So I purchased this, new to me, brand A>2. If you ever find yourself wondering about this brand, I found it to be good. One of the things I like about the packaging is the opening for the paint to exit the tube is small. One of the things I do not like about the packaging is it is plastic!
Okay, so that is basically all I have today. I have to get back to my organizing for next week. Does having a group of people over for a meal take a lot of prep time for you?
Have a Beautiful Day!
Some of you may receive Robert Genn's twice weekly (Tuesday and Friday) newsletter known as The Painter's Keys. If you do, then you know today he spoke of glazing and gave a few keys helpful when using glaze. In this newsletter he speaks of applying a darker glaze over a lighter color to adjust the intensity or make some changes. He describes different methods you might consider when you wish to do this on your paintings. If you do not subscribe to Robert's newsletter, I think you might enjoy some of the topics he discusses. If you are interested in this one on glazing, I will be happy to forward it to you if you will email me.
Reading today's submission by Robert made me think of how I use glaze. I have shown you examples here on this blog and continue to glaze away. Robert, a realistic landscape artist, uses glazes to add depth while making subtle changes in color and I used clear glazes to give a depth and glass like appearance to my overall work. I have tried to photograph the results of my glazing technique, but it is difficult. Here I am showing the edge of the same painting in hopes you can get an idea of what I am doing.
Now many of you might wonder what in the world takes me so long to paint these very minimal works I create. The answer to that - the application of the glaze. Sometimes it takes me a long time to get the painting the way I want it, but more often than not it is the glazing which takes forever. In the case of the painting I am showing you the application of clear glaze took 4 to 6 weeks after I had the base painting done. But the build up of thin layers of clear acrylic brought a depth I can't show or even describe. I do urge you to try this sometime. Here is the recipe I use:
2 parts distilled water
3 parts soft gel (gloss)
Blend this together until smooth and allow it to sit for 24 hours (some may feel this is overkill, but it gives me peace of mind) to allow the bubbles to come to the surface and dissipate. Brush on prepared painting allowing each layer to completely dry before applying the next layer.
This is also a good recipe to use to embed things between layers of glaze. I have actually seen paintings where items and paint appeared to float above the surface of the canvas when it was embedded in enough layers of clear glaze. Maybe I will try that next. :)
Normally, I have to have at least one painting going and be glazing others. Right now I have a real back up of those needing glaze, but that is the way it goes sometimes. So now you know what takes me so long to accomplish these paintings. The good side to it is I can have glazing going all the time and do not need a lot of time to slip in there and apply some glazes, nor do I have to "get in the groove" to do this.
So do you have techniques which take you a long time to accomplish? Do you find speed is important in your work? Do you obsess with details?
Have a Beautiful Day!
I thought it would be fun for you to see something different. So for a quick post today, here are the details...
Signature Canvas has this interesting canvas style on offer. It does not come inexpensively, however. If you receive the Empty Easel Newsletter, you can use a discount offer to purchase one of these fun canvases.
If you purchased one (or more) of these, how would you paint it? Would you use the indention as a painting and the exterior part of the canvas as a border for the painting or would the indention be part of a 3-D collage? But you might have another completely different idea.
Have a Wonderful Tuesday in Your Part of the World!
I want to share with you a book I completed reading yesterday. And if you have been reading this blog for a few months, then you have already heard about it.
Catching the Light is written by Susan Pope. You know Susan, she is our very own Sukipoet. I have to tell you this book was a real page turner for me. I just had to see what this young woman was going to choose for herself. She had so many obstacles to overcome, but behind it all she was drawn to her art. And Susan shows how she used her life to influence what she so loved doing. This book is so well written and draws you into the location and into the lives of the characters. In addition, an underlying message is how we come across people who influence so many parts of our life even after they have gone from it. I highly recommend you locate a copy of Catching the Light...I know it has become a treasure for me. And thank you so much, Suki, for such a beautiful gift and such a beautiful message. You are an inspiration in so many ways.
And I have something else for you to play with this weekend. You don't have anything else to do, right? Take a look at this image:
It looks like some people at MOMA, right? Well it is not! This is a sketch of mine...a lowly sketch you have already seen on this blog before. I used an online service called Dumpr where I uploaded this sketch to be placed in this setting! This kind of thing has been making its way around the blog world, so you probably have seen it on other blogs. My apologies to the blogger who made the recommendation, I can't remember the blog I first saw it.
One of the things I thought was so interesting is how you can use something like a sketch to get an idea of how that might translate into a larger painting. For example, I think this looks better as a painting than it does than a sketch...I had no idea it would translate that way.
Dumpr has some other fun things to play with on their site, too. Some of them you have to pay for, but these I am showing are free. One of the toys I have had great fun with is the Amazing Circles feature. See what a photograph of a red tulip translated into with that feature:
So now, here are a few fun things to do this weekend. I really hope you have so much fun and enjoy reading and playing with images...believe me, when you read Suki's book, you will want to get in there and do some serious creating!
Have Fun!
I did not plan to post today, but now I can't resist.
First of all, this is a little gift to you. I did a few of these when I was in Montana as bookmarks. You can print this and use it as a bookmark if you like. If you print it on watercolor paper it will be stable enough. I used Inktense Pencils for these little doodles.
Now, what I am so excited about... You might remember some months ago I asked if anyone knew of an easel which would expose the edges of a canvas and would turn to give access to not only the front of the canvas, but also the edges. I had seen these used on a BBC show called "Art School" several years ago. Well, I have found that easel! It is called the Windmill Easel! And that is just how it works, too! If you visit this site, you can see some videos and an explanation of how it works.
While I am not sure it is currently in my budget, I plan on exploring them further. Anyway, I feel very excited to have found this product. I had written Chelsea College of Art in London (as that is where the program was filmed), however I did not hear back from them. So this was a great treat for me.
Does anyone own one of these easels? Do you like it? Does it work as it is supposed to work? Do you think it looks like a good product? Would you like to own one?
Do you recognize this tiny little sample? If you do, then you may have purchased some Golden Soft Gel (Gloss). This is the product I use when I glaze. So it may not come as a surprise to you I recently purchased a gallon of this particular medium. But there is a story about this gallon of medium.
Art Supply Warehouse (the online supply shop I use) was having a great $1 sale on some items, so it was the time to place an order. I am also signed up for emails from them and they had sent me a great coupon to use. So I worked on my order which included a gallon of this medium.
Normally, ASW gets the orders to my front door within 3 days or so. This time, because of the sale, it took a bit longer. When I received the order, however, guess what? There was not a gallon of Soft Gel Medium in Gloss included in the shipment! I was devastated, but emailed them to see if I misunderstood - thinking it might be arriving under separate cover. But I had read things correctly and they sent out the missing medium. Again, because of the sale, I had to wait longer than I normally would.
So while this was a long time arriving, actually getting it was no problem. ASW was very pleasant to work with, they were very kind about all of this and worked with me in the most professional way. I hope you have a source you like however, you might like to see what this particular company offers, if that is not the case. For me, their prices are good and as you can see they worked with me on this particular issue. So many times it is difficult to find companies who work with you so kindly when issues arise, so I really wanted to share this little story with you. While this is the way business should be conducted, it is not always done so.
Who is your favorite supply source? Do you order or use a local resource for your supplies?
I wish for you a wonderful weekend!
I also want to thank ASW and Golden Paint for the images used in today's post.
As many of you know, I like to travel and I have been known to move around a lot. Because of this, I have also tried to come up with ways to take materials with me and to create portable studios in various locations.
Recently, I talked about this new product from Derwent called Inktense. These are basically waterproof ink in pencil form. Waterproof, that is, once the mark has been wet and allowed to dry. I believe this is going to be my new travel companion. The other good news is they have expanded their color line to include a total of 71 colors, now.
I wanted to test this product quickly, so I did this doodle in my Moleskine watercolor sketchbook. I deliberately did this quickly and even used one of those Aquaflo fill-able watercolor brushes...which sometimes makes it difficult to get smooth application. If you allow the colors to dry, you can keep the colors very separate and even create layered washes which allow colors to show through other colors without blending them. But you can also blend them if you wet colors at the same time.
This is the other thing I have done with these pencils...now this is my intuition clicking in here. When I ordered these cards, I really wanted a variety of colors in just a swatch on these cards, but I couldn't get them done that way without a tremendous cost. So I ordered a better grade paper, used the pencils and created the color myself. Of course the ego and the more logical people who have heard of me doing this wonder what in the world am I thinking! :) In reality, it is kind of meditative to do this...well, mindless, anyway. LOL
So I do like these pencils, will continue to practice with them and use them for travel. While I am not a drawer in the traditional sense, I love color. And the color of these pencils are very intense if you are used to using watercolors. They really are more like ink. I think it will also be a great way to workout some thoughts for larger paintings. Well, sort of, you know how they take on a life of their own. The other thing I want to try is using them on various surfaces...
What new products have you found lately? Do you drive the people around you crazy with your art antics?
Absolutely Enjoy Your Day!
It is interesting that one of the reasons I prefer to work on deep, stretched canvas is because I do not want to have to deal with presentation once the work is completed. Now, how is that for laziness?
My woven pieces are a case in point. If you read this blog, you know I like doing these woven pieces with papers where I test various materials and techniques. As a matter of fact, I have been testing on rice paper because I know I will use these pieces for one thing or another.
So now I have a stack of woven pieces which are unmounted or unframed. I decided I was going to test out the Ampersand 3/4" Cradled Panels. If I had chosen the flat ones, then I would have been right back to where I began with how to present it...framing.
The weaving above I tried a ton of things. Babs had thought it would look good placed against a grass-cloth type backing. I also thought that texture might be nice. You can see, I worked on the string like appearance, but getting this thing right was brutal. After tons of trial and error, I ended up with this solid color over the texture I had worked with earlier. This particular wine hue does set off the weaving nicely, though.
This piece is one I did quite a while ago. I actually showed it as a WIP, but received so much encouragement to keep it as it appeared in the photograph. So I chose to do just that. The delicate gluing of this piece was very, very time consuming. It is quite fragile, but I also know glass over it would take away so much of the texture I worked hard to keep. So, I am just going to leave it this way. The cradled board behind it has many, many layers of glossy black paint and the edge of the cradling retains the clear wood (without paint).
I am not all that excited about these boards, but I am glad I tried them. They are fairly expensive, but they are very rigid and strong. I would like to find some other way to present these works on paper.
Do you struggle with having items framed? Do you find it cost prohibitive sometimes? I know I could not afford to pay for framing. Do you ever frame your work yourself? How do you deal with work you do on paper? Maybe I should be mounting these on canvases. What do you think? Do you think I should get into bookmaking? :)
I am going to share a bit more of what I have done with the PearlEx powder today, then will move on tomorrow to something else.
Here is what happened on some archival tissue paper I used under the rice paper I was working on. I often fold a sheet of this tissue to place under any absorb-able papers, because I never know what will happen with the ink. I have also used watercolor paper to do something similar.
And, as you can see, I also used this ink wet tissue paper to mop up some of the excess powder.
Now, this is an image you saw yesterday, but I have done something with it...so I wanted to show you some basic steps:
And this is a part of one of the other images you saw in yesterday's post. Do you recognize it? I left a tad of yellow so you could see...
So I took these two and wove them together to get:
One of the things about these weavings is how they change the entire piece. This looks so different from either of the two pieces from which it was made. You can see each part, if you look closely. But the composition makes it appear very different. Do you agree with me weaving this paper makes it very different? Can you imagine some of these with a different weave than the basic straight over-under weave? This is not going to be my main work, but it is a technique which interests me and also is a way I can use some of these papers which are created in the studio...and I am not always using those oh, so expensive canvases all the time! :)
So yesterday was very busy for me, so I was not able to get to a lot in the studio, but this part basically came together for me. I think this one is positive for mounting.
I have heard rumblings that a lot of you are keeping busy with your art and your gardens on these beautiful spring days. While I love the garden, I am not a good gardener. I adore seeing all of your garden work, though...it is very inspirational. And thank you so much for taking the time to post comments here.
Today, I want to play catch up with images for you. It really gets to me when I do not have photographs to show you, so hear are a few to get things going on this blog again. Believe me, this is just blabbering....
This is a panel I painted with some of Golden's Micaceous Iron Oxide. That is all I have done...painted it. I like the reflective quality of this product and am sure I will feel inspired once I have the opportunity to spend time in my studio. Have you ever used this product? Do you like it? How did you use it?
What is this? It is the bottom of a cardboard soup cup (I used a double because the soup was so hot) I used to mix some paint for a new canvas. I just liked the way it looked and took a photo. Do you do things like that? Take photos of odd things which just strike you as interesting.
This is the canvas I was painting when I left my studio and mixed the above paint for. Over the last days, I have been thinking about what I might do with this one... Let's see if it works.
This is one of those panels I was testing on earlier. I don't think this is fun, but here is what you see, so far...acrylic paint, rice paper, gauze I used to paint some texture on another canvas, a blob of dried acrylic paint and some metal foil.
This is the metal foil a friend of mine sent me from Germany. See the jar on the right? That is the one I like the most. I seem to have a difficult time using metal foil, but I still like to play with it. Play is good, right?
So this is basically what I have for you today. I promise to do better tomorrow...really I do.
I want to thank you all for being so patient and kind with me over the last few days. My father is doing really, really well and all of my family thanks you all for your well wishes which worked perfectly. I am so humbled by the kindness of all of the artists who come here to comment and send me emails. You all are a part of a rare breed of people, and I am honored to call you friends.
Thank You So Much!
This weekend was one of painting and one of testing. If you remember last week I did a post showing a small painting on the Ampersand Aquabord. This particular product works very well. I also mentioned in the comments that Golden has a product known as Absorbent Ground which I had not tried, but owned a pot that I wanted to try. And try it, I did...
To use this product, you have to thin it with twenty percent (20%) water and paint it, thinly, on a gessoed surface. The directions said the thinner and more layers used the better the product. So here is what I did. I had some Ampersand Gessobord, so on one I painted 2 thin layers of the product allowing the first to dry before adding the second layer. The second layer was allowed to dry thoroughly before dropping paint on the surface. For this first piece, I sprayed the surface of the prepared board with distilled water and dropped thinned acrylic paint on the surface. As you can see, it clearly did NOT take up the paint in the way watercolor paper would or in a way the Ampersand Aquabord did.
This particular material handles in a very different way. It is a surface unlike paper or Aquaboard. If you are more of a traditional watercolor painter, it might work very well for you, though. If you are more of an experimental painter or abstract expressive painter with watery paint, you will get a very different result than the other two products. I have already began to change this particular piece...it was very difficult to look at even as a test!
The second Gessobord, I did three layers allowing for thorough drying between the layers. This time, I also sprayed the surface with distilled water, but I used acrylic ink rather than the watery paint. The intensity of the ink was more appealing to me, but the ink still sat on top of the surface more than I had wanted. Since a lot of it was just sitting on top, I tossed a bit of sand on the surface (I am not really a good tester, am I?) to get this result.
I liked the result of this okay. It is fine, but nothing to write home about. I, personally, still like the other surfaces better than the Absorbent Ground.
But, once all this had dried, I noticed my pot of Golden Pearl just hanging out nearby. So I picked up that and did a bit of dry brushing over the sandy surface. Granted this is not controlled at all, but I really liked the result.
I know it is difficult to see the pearl effect here, but I thought being able to see the difference would help. Photographing those more reflective paints is a real bear!
So what experiments have you done recently? Are you willing to share the techniques? Do you think it is good to share this kind of thing or do you feel it is something an artist should keep to themselves? How do you feel about sharing just bits and pieces like this...not really art, but tests or how mediums and materials react with each other? And is this kind of blogging unfair to other professions such as writers or workshop instructors?
I look forward to hearing from you...
Have a Very Beautiful Day!
This is something I did on a whim a little while back. I had actually forgotten about it until my daughter asked if she might have it for her little cottage at school. I used acrylics to paint on raw, unstretched cotton canvas. The photo below shows it tacked to the wall of her cottage.
I did not even have a photograph of this piece, so she sent this to me. I can't remember the size of the canvas, but my memory is something like 36" x 72".
I rolled out this raw canvas onto the grass one summer day, then pulled out the acrylics and watered them down...some a bit like watercolors, some with little blobs of paint floating in watery paint and some a bit thicker than watercolors. I also pulled out a spray bottle and began to splash, spray, throw and sometimes brush paint on this raw canvas. The fibers took up the watery paint very much like watercolor paper. By using acrylics, I (supposedly) didn't have to worry about future damage to the canvas fibers as I would have if using oils. And of course, it dried quickly. I did this on a sunny day and just let it lay in the grass until it was totally dry. Then I rolled it up and forgot it until Elizabeth asked if she might have it.
This is a little closer detail shot of the canvas. At first Elizabeth thought it would make a good room divider (she lives in one room), but once she unrolled it in her space, she found it looked best just pinned to the wall.
Have you ever painted on raw canvas? Did you like the outcome? Would you like to give it a try, if you have not done it before? What surfaces do you like to paint upon?
Tomorrow, I have a lovely surprise to share.
Today I wanted to share with you one of the products I sometimes use in mixed media pieces. I used them a lot in my Horizon Series (check out Horizons 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 for examples) and with some of my earlier works. Recently I have not picked them up, but I thought I might use them again, soon. So have you ever used oil sticks? They are basically oil paint in stick form. The finish dries hard like oil paint, but they work more like oil pastels.
This painting is my chili pepper :) The background is acrylics, but the red, yellows, greens, blues, purples, etc. are done with the oil sticks...all the blurry, smeary parts. I apply these and then use my fingers to blend them they way I would like. There are several methods of application, but this is the way I am most comfortable working with them. I try to stay away from some art products due to my asthma, so this is a compromise for me.
Several companies make this product. I am particularly fond of the Sennelier brand, however Windsor and Newton and Shiva also make a similar product. You might also find some other brands, but these are the ones I know about. The range of colors has become very wide.
Here are a few of the ones I have. The one which is third from the left is actually a blending stick. As you see, I have tried using it, however found my fingers to be better for me. 
Sennelier makes these in several sizes which I find helpful. Here you see me holding one of the largest ones. While I am not a small woman, I have very small hands, so that gives you an idea of the size of this red oil stick...it fits nicely in the palm of my hand.These form a skin you need to peel off before getting to the soft oil paint. Now some of you creative people might find these "skins" to be useful in some collage work, so that might be another idea. But once you get to that soft layer you will find a very creamy product to work with. Like oil paint, these take some time to cure, but the results can be very appealing. I basically use Master's Brush Cleaner to clean up this product from my hands...yes, I know it is a bit harsh, but for me better than other solvents.
So tell me if you have had experiences with oil sticks. Do you like them?
Another product I have recently read about is waterproof ink in pencil form! It goes on like pencil, however when water is added to it you have ink. So it is like using watercolor pencils, but it is waterproof once dried on the surface! Have you ever used these? Do you like them? Do you have any other recommendations? Maybe the liquid pencil product?
Recently, Elis also was showing some of her favorite tools on her blog. You might like to visit her to see what she has been up to, as well. And if you do not know Elis' art, you are going to be in for a real adventure!
Have a Beautiful Day!
You can imagine the difficulty I have had in photographing this surface with all of the reflective paint. The image above was taken without a flash. On my computer it looks pretty good, but it is darker than the actual painting and the colors are not as vibrant. I also hand held my camera which is heavy, so I may not have been as still as I could have.
These came out very different, although I still do not have the lighting right for these reflective paints. The diffuser seems to create a darker edge to these large canvases with that burst of light (although not glaring) towards the middle. The edge of this painting does have a bit more of the black appearing through the pearl, however it is not as pronounced as this shows it.
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