Today, we remember our Groundhog day blizzard of a few years ago and our thoughts go out to our East Coast brethren. Here, it's bright and sunny, albeit cold with snowy, icy pavements. Can't complain, though!
Can't complain about our morning painting, either. There were some truly breathtaking paintings today, from the blues of Hawaiian waters and Greco/Roman skies to lettuce fields, people, Montrose Harbor and door wreaths. We saw children, street lights sparkling on snowy trees, rich plaids—and even dried apricots.
Unfortunately, you won't get to see all of them in our scrolling showtime list. Elaine O. had new glasses today (apparently, her old glasses were a bit nondescript—two people hadn't even realized she wore them!) but she may need to get them re-checked. Seems she missed taking photos of Greeta's grandson and Geraldine's exploration of complimentary colors. Sorry about that! Next week for sure.
Meanwhile, our exploration of paint media continues, inspired by last week's guest, Johannah Silva from Winsor & Newton's Artist Outreach program. The medium of the day? Gum Arabic. Yes, Ken's been working with it for nearly a year, but now Elaine O is interested too. See below to find out more about gum arabic and see a head-to-head paint-off—quite literally!
But first, enjoy our art circle.
As promised, it's time to talk about Gum Arabic, Medium of the Day.
First of all, what it it? It's actually an organic substance made from sap from acacia trees. Gum arabic is already used in watercolors as a binder. But if you can't get enough in your paint, you can buy more in separate bottles. You add a little to your paint wash or your paint water (it's best not to use full strength straight from the bottle as it will crack and become brittle) to obtain the following effects:
- slow the drying time of your paint
- increase transparency and gloss, making colors more brilliant and luminous
- reduce staining and make paint easy to lift
Look above at Ken's last three plaids and Elaine O's diptych, all of which use gum arabic. Ken's been pre-wetting his paper with a gum arabic solution for nearly a year now. His colors are definitely deeper and richer than without. He's also added it to his paint and found the paint "moves differently".
Elaine O is experimenting with gum arabic too. She's doing a side-by-side paint-off—same subject, same paints applied in the same way at the same intensity. Only difference? the baby to the right is painted with gum arabic. The paper was pre-wet and a slightly diluted coat of gum arabic was floated on one half. From there on, everything is the same. Notice the deeper colors? the more distinct brush strokes? More blooming, less blending. That side also took longer to dry and, if you look at the side view below, you'll notice a varnish-like gloss to the gum arabic side. It seems to occur most prominently at edges.
Keep watching to see how the experiment progresses, get our opinion of the medium and how (or if) we plan to keep using it.
 |
| Notice the gloss on the upper baby? Gum arabic! |
No comments:
Post a Comment