February 16, 2013

Happy Valentines Day!

After that, you'd think we have tons of flowers or candy to show you, but it looks like the only topical paintings come from Elaine T today. She starts us out with lovely roses and moves to an icy winter scene—to memorialize today's weather. After two weeks of sauna-like conditions in our studio, today was positively frigid. Just when we got used to dressing in summery layers, too!

And then we get to the subject of the day—couples. From baby and toddler diptychs to engaged couples, statuesque women and the boys of summer, we're all about people. Except when we're painting fruits, vegetables and ballpark food or butterflies and abstracts. Finishing up with Mark's get well card—in case you've overindulged on the chocolate hearts!

 

What's the art note today? Let's discuss color—blending, mingling, merging colors. It's one of the things watercolor does best. In fact, when done right, the water does half the work. But there's the catch—it has to be done right! Watercolor is basically pigment, paper and water. But it takes a lot of skill and artistry to know how to manipulate those three elements (especially the paint and water) to create a painting. Let's look at this example. Greeta has painted some simple fruit. How easy is that? Not even a background. Even so...the lush, shiny fruits...the sensual, light-drenched shadows...you can't take your eyes off these, can you?

 

 

 

I inserted it again so you can get a better look. Notice the sharp, clean edges on the highlights and how they add sparkle and shine. See how she's dropped rich deep color into wet shapes and let the colors softly mingle. Same for the shadows. Look how the colors chosen beautifully reflect the light hitting the fruit above, along with the color of the fruit itself. See the value changes and how they give dimension to round shapes and define the shadows. This one's worth examining closely to see how a fine artist handles three simple elements (paper, paint and water) and a simple subject to make lovely art you can lose yourself in.

 

See you next week!

 

 



February 9, 2013

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!

Happy painting and see you next week!

February 2, 2013

Happy Groundhog day! It may be snowy here, but it's beautiful, fluffy snow. No blizzard this year!

No video or showtime either. We were too busy listening to our guest speaker, Johannah Silva, from Winsor & Newton's Artist Outreach Program. And while we didn't do much painting today either, we do have pictures of homework exercises and some paintings from early in the class. So stay tuned to learn more about paint, media and the history of watercolor. It's fascinating! Following that, you'll see our paintings and at the very end, we have a link for you.

Johannah Silva, holding a painting done with cochineal beetles and Smalt

What an educational and fun-filled day it was! We learned about pigments—from early days when it came from natural sources like minerals (lapis and ochres and earth) and plants and animals (madder trees, cochineal beetles and urine from mango-fed-cows)—all the way to modern times when pigments are scientifically developed (and harder to pronounce—try quinacridone, dioxazine and pthalocyanine). We actually saw Johannah grind up a spoonful of black cochineal beetles and produce a beautiful strawberry color.

We talked about transparency, lightfastness and hues, learned about binders, discussed media and saw them in action. We learned about surfactants like honey and glycerine—in fact, Winsor & Newton got its start when they replaced honey with glycerine, making a transparent, consistent watercolor paint. We saw what we could do with gum arabic, oxgall, granulation and iridescent medium, aquapasto and masking fluid. And as our heads were spinning and our fingers itching to put all our newfound knowledge to practical use, there was more! We saw paint charts and got to play with all kinds of brushes (both natural and synthetic in a variety of shapes and sizes). It was mind-boggling (but in a good way).

And as if that wasn't enough, there were gifts! Johannah brought each of us a tube of W&N Lemon Yellow Artists Quality paint and a bottle of granulation medium. We'll be experimenting with those in weeks to come. Just watch us and see!

Johannah, thanks so much! So many beautiful colors—so much to learn and try.

Even the cochineal beetle paint water is beautiful!

Following are some of our color wheels, color plaids and complimentary color swatches. And that's not Indiana Jones--it's Ellen rapelling (sp?) down some of the loveliest dry-brush rocks around. There are botanical drawings, grandchildren, rich abstract plaids on a base of gum arabic and a masking-fluidless swimmer. As you can see, we're already big fans of W&N products!

Wow! You've made it this far—we think you deserve something for your trouble. One of the gifts Johannah gave us was a W&N brochure chock full of history, paint swatches and information about W&N media and other products. You can find all that information and more on W&N's website. Click here to visit Winsor & Newton—see if you don't want to start painting too—or at least you'll develop a new appreciation for the artists and purveyors of fine watercolors.

See you next week with some inspired new paintings!