News and Interesting Tidbits

RETURN TO PLEIN AIR

In the last five years I have been primarily a studio painter after several decades of painting outdoors, a tradition referred to in a french language phrase en plein air. It was rather easy to justify a move to the studio. First, it was more practical and a good deal easier to move to a more comfortable setting. Gone was the heat, changing weather, sweat in my eyes, bugs, poison ivy and other challenges of the outdoor painter. I would never be surrounded by cows or chewed on by a horse or fall in the mud on a slick riverbank! In the studio I had much more time to play with different techniques. The stop watch was not ticking on me in any way. It was easy to think that I was the boss and master of my artistic destiny.

Lately though I have been experiencing a change of heart. What was "freedom" felt more like a prison. The studio, my awful cramped space to work in, was far from inspiring. Most artists I have come to believe work in make do spaces like mine. I looked at the digital photos I was working from and they seemed flat and listless. I felt that way myself. I began to think nostalgically about my days out in a field somewhere, lugging my gear into an unknown horizon. I thought about all that honest sweat and toil that I had eagerly heaped upon myself with an almost monastic devotion. I recalled the 99 degree days when I wrapped a wet wash cloth over my head under my wide brimmed hat. I was flat out tough then. What had happened to me? Like an aging James Bond, I longed for a new assignment and to feel that excitement again.

I am back outdoors again! As anticipated it has been a challenge to face the elements once more. I am gaining new facility with my Judson Guerilla box easel set up. My energy level and stamina are slowly but steadily improving. More importantly I am enjoying the experience more and more. It is wonderful to hear the sounds of summer, the droning of the cicadas, the twittering of birds, the quiet rustle of a dragonflies wings. I watched a hawk, harassed by some blackbirds, and some Killdeers skating nimbly across a barren field. All these small sights and dramas of nature nourish my senses in a deep and satisfying way. They inspire me to look more intently and to describe the landscape in a new way. I want to make each painting like a poem, with a bit left out and with a bit of mystery for the viewer to react to. It feels great to be excited about painting again!

UPCOMING SHOW AT LIZBETH GALLERY

Don't miss this exciting opening - October 3rd, 2008.

CLEAN COLOR EVERYTIME

This nw product from master pastellist Mary Ann Cherry is sure to be a hit under the Christmas tree of any pastel artist. The Cherry Pastel Cleaner gently cleans your dirty pastels and leaves them fresh as new in just a few minutes. A box of dirty pastels can really hinder your painting and waste precious creative time as well. Mary Ann spent several years finding the right motor to create just the right amount of vibration to clean but not damage the many types of pastels in use today. Check out this nifty invention at Mary Ann's website and make your pastel world cleaner and brighter!

NEW EXPERIMENTS WITH PASTEL AND ACRYLIC

I have struggled in the past with tube acrylic paints. They seem thick and opaque, hard to brush and hard to manage. The color seems either very loud or dull. A few months ago I stumbled on to a new way to use acrylic and am getting much better results now. I am using pastel technique and putting my experience with pigments to good use. I start by putting a sanded surface on a standard stretched canvas using aluminum oxide grit and acrylic matte medium. The sanded surface gives the pastel something to grip to as I work through this method. Next I block in my painting with pastel using broad strokes. Then comes the magic trick. Using matte medium I liquefy the pastel turning it into beautiful transparent acrylic paint. Unlike tube acrylics my pastels are 100% pigment with very little else added so the color is very powerful like using 100 octane gas in your car! I use squares of one inch foam to apply the matte medium in a broad loose manner. The liquefied pastel is several values darker than the dry pastel so you learn to adjust your color accordingly. I continue to add dry pastel and liquefy building up layers of rich transparent color glazes. Later in the process if I want opaque effects I will use a bit of tube acrylic paint. I like the cheap craft store brand Delta Ceramcoat as it is more liquid and dries completely matte. Sometimes I dip a brush into the matte medium and directly into some dry artist pigment. There is a lot of room for experimenting. It is a lot of fun too! Contact me if you would like to know more about this fun hybrid method.

THE KING OF COLOR

One enjoyable facet of being involved in art is finding all sorts of interesting people along the journey. Email brings me in contact with artists all over the country and even from abroad. Email friends connect me with other great people. Lately I had the opportunity to chat with a fellow who probably knows more about color than anyone on the planet. His name is Robert Doak and artists who are meticulous oil painters know about his wonderful hand mixed oil paints that he has produced for many years. Robert has made tons of pastels too over the years and one had thousands of colors in his pastel palette. I feel privileged to have spoken to Robert and to be able to try out his wonderful dry pigments. I look forward to trying out more colors and to pass on the results to fellow artists in the form of the richest colored pastels available. Thanks Robert! And thanks to Angela for telling me about him!