Early this morning Watercolor on paper

After reading about artist Tim Saternow in the Winter 2012 issue of American artist Watercolor magazine, I really liked his cityscapes and wanted to try adding dips on my watercolors. Watercolor is a very technical and precise medium and I have a tendency to get very controlling with it and I though adding drips afterwards might be a good way to loosen up a bit. I will try that same technique on a watercolor portrait see how it works.
Here are a few pictures of the painting in progress.

After drawing on my paper, and adding bits of resist where I want the paper to stay white, I make an under painting with mostly yellow ocher and a bit of green

I add dark greys to the picture and define a few windows with washes.

I start removing the resist and softening a few edges. I keep on adding darks.

I add more definition, mostly to the cars in the foreground. Paint a few bright colors for the red lights and street lights.

Here the fun begins, I splash water, then water mixed with watercolors randomly and wait for the paint to move and dry.

I remove some of the stains where I think they show too much, and here is the final painting.

Here are some of the steps I took to make this painting:

A red acrylic under painting.

Drawing an outline with a pencil crayon.

Then I redraw my outlines with a thin brush and white acrylic paint.

I start to paint with contrasting colors, here white on the darkest areas.

Blue on orange areas, this will show later mostly on the edges.

Still painting with contrasting colors.

Here I add some reds where I see them on my reference picture.

Then yellow and oranges. I took that picture last summer in my backyard.

Still adding layers.

Here I add some white, diluted in medium to bring back some light.

adding more layers.

Hens and chicks, acrylic on canvas

The finished painting : Hens and Chicks

Here are some details of the textures and edges that might not show on a smaller picture.

Complex edges.

No artist name or title is visible and all the paintings are at the same price of 100 dollars . So this is a great mix of artist that could be well-known or just starting and people will choose what painting to buy only by looking at the work itself: a great idea!

So this year, my inspiration came from the pictures I took on my last trip to France. If you are interested in seeing more of them, click on the image below to go to the Red Bubble collection:

And here is the triptych with 3 small 8 x 8 inches canvas.

And here is a step by step review of the painting process:

I taped the 3 canvas together so I could work as if it was one.

Here is my pencil drawing.

I start with watercolors in bright hues with lots of water.

Working mainly with nuances of orange, red and green. I let the paint dry.

At this point I start adding acrylics on top of the watercolors.

Here I start adding pastels for texture and for experimenting with different colors.

I continue with layers of acrylics until I am satisfied with the result.

The finished painting

Hands drawing

It might have happened to you, you are at a life drawing class and feel relief because for the next pose you won’t see the model’s hands or feet, and even better not his face. Then start to wonder what is the point of avoiding difficulty and what would be the best way to improve that particular skill.

Hands in particular are one of the most expressive part of the body, essential to body language, so very important in life drawing. One of the best advice I read in a drawing book was to draw hands and feet as much as you can until you feel comfortable with it. Draw them everyday, and do so for a long time.

As I believe sometimes the best way to overcome a difficulty is just to practice,  I started trying to draw at least a few hands and a few feet watching television in the evening, either mine or my kids and I think I am starting to see improvement just after 2 weeks, at least I draw them with more confidence at the life drawing classes. Here is a selection of those hands and feet (click on the pictures to see a larger version) :

If you are like me you might feel like a kid in a candy store each time you visit an art supply store. It is tempting to think that because you will buy that new pencil, paint or gorgeous sketchbook you will be more motivated to practice or your artwork will get better. . I found that sometimes the supplies can matter and sometimes they don’t.

I found that for example when painting watercolors the quality of the paper and the quality of the paint will make a huge difference, perhaps because when painting with watercolors it can become very technical. I never had much success with the student quality papers for example, and am quite picky anyway with the professional quality papers.

In other cases the supplies can be irrelevant, here are a few striking examples:

http://www.w3sh.com/2011/09/14/creatif-des-portraits-ultra-realistes-aux-stylos-bic/ : Here you can see an amazing collection of portraits with stylo bic, a very basic pen popular and cheap in France

http://sepientia.com/2010/02/sculptures-inside-the-roll-out-of-toilet-paper/ : Here you can see little sculptures inside the roll of toilet paper

Amazing works of art made with chalk on the sidewalk  by Kurt Wenners : http://forum.xcitefun.net/great-3d-chalk-drawings-of-the-street-artist-kurt-wenners-t36428.html

And one of my favourites, Mark Zorn tape art video!

Farming Landscape, mixed media on canvas

Sometimes when starting a painting I have a clear idea of what I want it to look like when I am done, sometimes it is just a process of trial and error that will last until I am satisfied with the result. This painting is one of those. Here are some of the steps I took during the making of that mixed media landscape.

I prepare my canvas with an absorbent ground paste as I want to try to start my painting with gouaches.

Once the ground is dried, I draw a simple pencil outline, I made up a landscape from taking elements in 2 reference pictures and mixing them up.

I start with some washes of gouache.

I am spraying some alcohol to add texture to those washes.

I start layering acrylics with opposites colors, for example the yellow-orange fields are painted in blue, blue sky ion yellow, trees in red...

I add a wash of gouache on the sky area

I start to add washes of acrylic with local colors.

still adding washes of acrylics. The i work with dry pastels, fixing them with workable fixative.

Then I add layers of very diluted acrylics to get a wet look.

Still working by adding layers of acrylics and pastels, I don't like the barn anymore on that painting as I feel it looks too cliché and is not needed in the design, so I decide to paint over it

I paint only trees where the barn was, continue working on the layers of acrylic and pastels. I want to increase a bit the contrast and make the colors more vibrant

The final painting: Farming Landscape, mixed media on canvas ( 24 x 24 inches)

Deck the Walls : Fine Art Exhibition and Sale

If you leave in the North Vancouver area, our next open house is next Saturday, the 26th of  November: Live music, cookies, tea, apple cider, original art, it is going to going to be a fun event!

Les Cabines de la plage en Bretagne, mixed media on canvas

Sometimes when working on a painting or a drawing, artists can get so involved in the process that we don’t get a clear judgement of what we are actually making. That judgement can be too critical on something that looks good or we could also miss an obvious problem. The fact is when you look for too long at something , you don’t really see it anymore and when you get involved in details it becomes difficult to see the whole objectively.

Here are a few tips I used over the years to try to get a new perspective when working on a painting or a drawing, they allow me to see what I am working on with a fresh eye.

• TIME : Not the most convenient I must admit, but it might have happened to you : you found an old painting that you were ready to throw away just after finishing it and see it now, a few months or years later as not bad at all. When working on something we tend to focus on the struggles and might notice little details we dislike .Somebody looking at the painting for the first time might not see them. Sometimes, just taking a 15 minutes break and stop looking at the painting or drawing can help seeing it with a new eye.
• DISTANCE: Looking at the work from a distance also helps, you can also take a picture of the work in progress and look at it either on the screen of the camera or on your computer. I found that looking at your painting at the thumbnail scale helps a lot with composition and portrait drawing.
• MIRROR IMAGE: This is a very useful one, you can either look at a painting in a mirror or take a picture and make a mirror image on your computer.
• SURPRISE: Placing the painting/drawing in an area of your house where you might see it inadvertently can also be helpful.
• GREY SCALE : This one is good to see if you have enough tonal variety and contrast in your painting. I take a picture and make a grey scale version of it on my computer.
• COMPUTER: The computer can be helpful for more than mirror images, grey scale and scale. If you are familiar with your photo editing software you can try variations on your painting to see what directions are worth trying, you can play with adjusting brightness/contrast, vibrancy, color balance and variations of hues, adding textures etc etc….

On the grey scale subject:

A master of tonal Variety to me is Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867),  a grayscale version of the “The bather of Valpincon” or of the ” Le bain Turc” shows it well, an amazing array of subtle tonalities from black to white:

Le Bain Turc- Ingres

The bather of Valpincon- Ingres

Fields in Greens and Blues

Here is my lastest mixed media painting, on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, inspired by the pictures I took on my last trip to France. You can see those pictures by clicking on the image below on the FlickR set:

On a 24 x 24 inches canvas, I start with a yellow acrylic under painting, and am drawing a rough outline of my landscape.

I start with some washes of green acrylic that I spray with water.

Then I start applying layers of acrylic.

I work by layers adding more and more details to the painting.

Then I start to add some layers of liquid acrylic with lots of water, I sometimes spray with alcohol

Here some yellow liquid acrylic on the fields

I also add some pastels when the paint is dried to try different colors on the painting.

When I am done with the pastels I spray some fixative to be able to work with acrylics again.

I continue adding more layers of acrylic.

Adding more complexity to the painting, motifs in the fields, more colors...

The finished painting after adding more touches of red and orange.

“Honeymoon Letters is an informal, twice-weekly email newsletter that features the best art online available for sale in the form of cheap art prints. It is geared towards art-industry outsiders who simply want to find stunning art for their homes without having to deal with the usual BS art dealers try to pull.

It is written and curated by Whitney Zeldow, an art industry outsider herself.

Honeymoon Letters is free to all.”

Follow the link here http://www.honeymoonletters.com/ to learn more. The newsletter might change its focus in the future.I am copying the newsletter here with her authorization.

Anyway, after a Skype interview she wrote this feature about me which I quite like except for the title, because apparently I am boring and interesting simultaneously. I hope the balance is more in favor of the interesting…

Honeymoon Letters
Honeymoon Letters

Buzzing Trees

In my experience, whispered conversations (at night) and mutual hair-braiding are like the holy grail of friendships, usually reserved for young girls. I don’t want you, as an adult, to miss out, so I designed this newsletter so you can listen to a whispered reading while you follow along:

Please DON’T use headphones—adjust the volume so it’s quiet enough to be relaxing and loud enough for you to hear

* * *

Start Here

It’s not often I meet someone who is naturally subdued. It’s been about four years since my last. What I mean by naturally subdued is a person who has the ability to calm the people around them. It’s different than someone trying to be professional by acting reserved. It’s hard to notice, and sometimes you misinterpret them as boring, sober, quiet…. But I think they’re just subtle.

Sandrine (today’s artist) has a unique personal brand–she has subtle clarity. I’ve met all kinds of different artists, most of whose “brand” (if I ever chose to assign them one) is NOT subdued. There was…

Addicted To Button-Pushing…”Religion is stupid and the art industry is a conspiracy!”
Busy…3 jobs and no time to respond to pesky emails.
Well-meaning…Okay, so she’s a little crazy, but she means well and she TRIES.
King of False Masks…Who knew someone who spent eight (very patient) years getting a medical degree would also have the most volatile freak-out of any artist I contacted?
The British Reserve…Wait, was that a frown or a smile? I can never tell with those British people.

But none of these are subtle.

I like Sandrine’s style (subtle clarity) because it feels calm and sleepy. It reminds me of one of my college roommates–one that lived in the same room as me for a year, and every night when I was about to go to sleep, she would have these sleepy conversations with her boyfriend on the phone that were very…peaceful. I’ve never slept better in my life. The roommate–Isella–could never have had such peaceful conversations with her boyfriend if she didn’t have the clarity that boyfriends are meant to make your life pleasant, not increase the chaos by arguing.

So, what makes me think Sandrine is so cool-minded?

The easiest way to tell is to see how she reacts to the most controversial topic amongst artists: $MoNeY$. It all began a long time ago…

Sandrine Pelissier grew up in France five thousand miles away from where she lives now. She had a natural talent for drawing, and extremely supportive parents, a story I have heard repeatedly from talented painters.

“I always enjoyed drawing, and painting, and being creative in general,” she says.

But in France at the time, passion was not all that mattered. “When I was growing up in France the economy was really bad,” she recalls. “You had lots of pressure to have a job where you could have an income.” And her parents, “They encouraged me but they were worried because at the time unemployment was so high. They encouraged me to do art, but not specifically having a job in ‘art’.”

Her childhood played an important role in how she, later, thought about selling work: “I don’t want to have the way I feel about my art depending on the sales. Because the sales…I cannot control it. And I’m trying to detach myself from it and be more happy with my own progression. There is no shame in trying to make a living selling your art, but for me, now, the question is more to not let something I don’t have control over [since a lot of it depends on the right time, right place] influence the way I feel about my work.”

So, basically, selling art IS important to her, but because sales can be so arbitrary, she tries to not let it affect her. Not being able to sell a piece of art is like not being able to find a job in a poor economy. You can’t really worry it’s a sign you’re a bad worker because even the best workers are unemployed.

The point is, her perspective is clear, not because she’s been thinking about it a lot but because something in her gut (influenced by her childhood) is telling her what is right.

By the way, this is a trend I’m noticing. Artists who grew up in a situation where money and art were constantly in tension develop very clear, less ignorant, ideals. The artists with the worst perspectives are the ones who spend too much time thinking about money and lack experiences like Sandrine’s…they become absurd.

Moving on…

Remember what I said about my roommate Isella? She was relaxing to listen to because there was an unwavering clarity in her voice and attitude that said “peaceful relationships are the only ones worth having.”

Sandrine has that same thing, which makes her enjoyable to be around.

And then comes the important question: Why should you care? Why should you care that Sandrine’s subtle clarity makes her reasonable and pleasant?

…Because YOU reap the rewards.

I didn’t care about Isella’s relationship with her boyfriend. I cared that I slept well.

So, let’s set up a hypothetical so you can see the benefits of dealing with an artist who is cool and confident.

What do you imagine it would be like if an artist, somehow, convinced you to visit his studio? Do you imagine that one second the artist will be sucking up to you, making you feel like you HAVE to buy a piece, then the next (when you ask for something that’s not in the plan) he’ll get really paranoid that you’re trying to take advantage of him? Or maybe you imagine him talking about abstract art concepts and painting techniques, forgetting the person he’s talking to isn’t an art professional?

These are my illogical fears. Or maybe they’re logical. I don’t know.

The point is, these are the actions of a confused, conflicted artist. Not Sandrine.

In fact, Sandrine uses her studio visits to get to know the people who are attracted to her work, whether they buy or not. I imagine her being very calm, allowing for long silences and encouraging visitors to touch the work. And instead of paranoia, she insists that interested buyers take home three of their favorite pieces, so they can test out each one to see which fits best.

I have a couple other examples of Sandrine being able to put herself in her customer’s shoes, but I get nauseous when I say too many positive things about a person in a row.

Positivity overload reminds me of those disgusting Toastmasters meetings, which, by the way, last time I went to one of those things some random woman (in a “positive” manner) scolded me for asking if I was allowed to curse or at least make fun of people in a friendly way. She said, “I think you’ll find, with enough time, that your speeches will be much better if you keep them positive and professional.”

Really? ‘Cause the only time I had a wildly successful speech was when I went on an un-rehearsed rant about my track coach at the end-of-the-year banquet. How many times have YOUR talks about sunshine and rainbows gotten you huge laughs and standing ovations from complete strangers? NEVER!

Okay, okay. I’m calm.

Just…

It’s rare to find a person that makes you feel calm. The majority of us are nervous freaks, including myself.

Maybe this isn’t interesting to you, but I still feel like I struck gold a little bit.

It’s not about her art…it’s about her. That’s what this newsletter is all about, finding the unique characteristics of each artist so us regular folks can finally relate to them.

Thank you for listening and reading along,
Whitney

*click to enlarge or buy*

*click to enlarge or buy*

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