A MEDITATION FOR PAINTING

there is a wonder filled legend
about beginning in grace
man was not able to stand
firm and full
and the vessel broke and sparks fell everywhere into all things and
shells were formed around them. by our hallowing we are free to spark
…everywhere in tools, homes, food, clothing, movement, relationships, etc

a kind of radiance/light
an emanation/light, a freedom-with all the fear that comes along with freedom
something that fills our hearts with JOY
and GRATITUDE
no matter how we may judge
it is NOT our JOB
we are all seekers of joy, love, gratitude
we understand when this feeling nibbles at our toes
there is a jewish word for this joy at coming together shehechiyanu but what it means is sort of all that gratitude that brought us to this moment, this presence…
breathe in the joy of the canvas
breathe out the joy of creation
feel the gratitude inherent in the luxury of communicating in color

THE GRANULATED WASH

FIRM FOUNDATION!

Many painters in watercolours are aware that some colours occasionally dry unevenly-in a series of blobs of solid colour which gives a mottled effect-but few know exactly why! Nor do they know how to control the unevenness, that is to say, to cause it or avoid it at will. This is one of the most fascinating and least understood branches of watercolour technique. To those who are looking for extensions of power over the medium, the results will have all the wonder of the revelation of a deep secret.

Take a piece of heavy coarse grained paper such as arches 300 lb., mount on thick cardboard, and fix it firmly to a drawing board so that it will not warp in the slightest degree. An absolutely plane surface is essential.

First give it a wash of vermillion or pale orange, weakening towards the top of the paper. Leave till quite dry, mix a considerable quantity of cerulean blue in a palette tray–about twice as much as would be required for an ordinary flat wash.

Place the drawing board at a slope of about 15° with the table. Take a large wide brush capable of holding a deal of colour; charge it fully and draw it across the top of the paper so lightly that the hairs scarcely touch the paper. Add a brushful of water in the saucer and extend the wash by another stroke. Repeat the process as quickly as possible till the paper is completely covered.

Immediately after this is done lift the board to an angle of about 60°; when the wash begins to run down; then tilt the board in the opposite direction and the wash will run back. Do this several times and note how the pigment separates into solid spots leaving spaces of clean, or almost clean, paper between, while the water has separated from the pigment. When the pigment does not move with the water let the water drain off, place the board at the same angle as when the wash was painted, and leave to dry. You can assist the water draining from the paper with paper towels or elephant ear sponges. 

 

charcoal and watercolour

Charcoal used in conjunction with water-colour has its own particular characteristic charm. In the demonstration, of a simple sketch of apples, relating to the use of charcoal with water-colour, there are two vertical bands of red on the top left and top right, both being a pure wash of exactly the same tint. Note how much lighter the top left colour appears than the top right. The groundwork of the latter was prepared with a thin, soft piece of charcoal stick, applied lightly, and spread evenly on the drawing paper. It was then fixed with a liquid solution commonly known as “Fixativ “ in the art trade, with a spray diffuser (also sold in art stores) available with a variety of finishes. It is at once apparent that by fixing charcoal in advance, any colour that may be applied later is unable to disturb the line drawing, granulated surface, or shadow pattern beneath. By fixing the charcoal before applying any colour, the student is in a much better position for controlling the final touches of a picture.
The use of charcoal for cloud studies is an important help to a watercolour artist. Charcoal glides easily and quickly over almost every sort of drawing paper. Thus the elusive movements and continually changing shapes of clouds can be drawn with decisive rapidity by the painter without being too much concerned with any colour tints eventually used. In the two bottom paintings the necessary depth of charcoal was obtained and then fixed before painting. The deep rich tone of the highest clouds and adjoining sky in the bottom left sketch was easily arrived at with a fairly light-coloured wash over the dark-toned charcoal drawing. The same technique maybe used for middle and foreground. For architectural subjects charcoal is often a help, not only for accuracy in displaying architectural knowledge, but also for suggesting by reason of its crumbling surface, an atmosphere of antiquity.
It is important to remember when painting in watercolour on a prepared charcoal drawing that the colour should be much brighter and purer in tint than is usually the case when washed over a pencil drawing. The depth of tone or density of charcoal, tends to neutralize any bright colour washed over its surface.

An undeniable advantage of a generous use of charcoal with watercolour is the manner and degree in which it helps to strengthen the whole picture, and to link together the component parts, either of buildings, figures or landscapes, by its recurring undertone of dark charcoal tint. As you experiment with watercolour, you may experience the piece “dying” as the color dries…if the composition warrants, try recusitating the work with charcoal. If need be, use the charcoal to highlight various sections of the composition. The purity of the colour washes contrast with marked effect when opposed to the tints washed over the more strongly prepared charcoal ground, preventing total loss!

UNFIXED CHARCOAL
This method requires more knowledge of the ultimate result of a painting, the charcoal being used without having been previously fixed with liquid solution. Provided that the charcoal drawing is sound in construction and not too solidly used, and that dense patches of black surfaces are avoided, colour can be washed over without obliterating the original charcoal drawing. A large square-shaped brush, if not less than half an inch wide, should be used when convenient, in preference to a small paint brush, which only tends to disturb beyond repair the charcoal beneath. For some purposes the unfixed charcoal method is more appropriate than the other, as for instance, in a landscape depicting early morning frost, the contours of trees, and other effects of nature can be shown better by the unfixed charcoal. It causes a sharply broken surface, giving a realistic impression of the sparkling, vibrant sensation generally associated with those early surprising frosts.

by ann philips

PARTICULARS OF ACCESSORIES

No painter of watercolours, however clever and resourceful, can afford to neglect the problems relating to impedimenta and accessories. What is the most suitable easel, paint box, or stretching apparatus? These and several other questions call for experimentation. In some cases the answer depends upon special individual requirements, is your work dry brush or wet on wet for example.
The best kind of easel, if any, may depend upon the method of painting adopted, do you prefer 15, 30 or 45 degree slant to the paper? The present writer regards any sort of easel as an intolerable nuisance and has not discovered anything better than a table, the floor or my favorite the beach beside the lake … because she generally paints in a very wet method that necessitates the keeping of the picture in a horizontal, or nearly horizontal, position.
The method of painting ought to determine the choice of any easel. For the drier methods the ordinary kinds, holding the picture almost upright, will do. For the wetter methods, an arrangement by which the picture can be held in a nearly horizontal position is essential. The drawing table, used by most black-and-white artists, or perhaps better, an architect’s drawing table, is eminently practical. For comparatively small work, and for sketching, there is an easel composed of a tripod surmounted by a movable holder enabling the angle of the picture to be changed at any moment. A visit to a few shops supplying artists’ and architects’ drawing requisites, or if that is impossible, the perusal of their web-sites, should settle the question.
In other cases, unfortunately, the choice depends upon the depth of the purse. Those who have no need to spare a little expense would do well to secure certain conveniences and appliances that always make for efficiency.
Perhaps the most important is a really satisfactory place for storing paper. The best arrangement we know is a chest with shallow drawers with hinged fronts, used by architects, and called flat files. Keep in mind metal is a better choice for the proper preservation of fine art works. It should be large and with sufficient drawers to take everything of the kind required, and to allow for division into blocks, tinted, hot pressed, not pressed, mounted paper, mat board, sketches, finished pictures and what-not (do minimize the what-not!). Mounts of various shapes, sizes, and patterns, with frames to match, should be regarded as necessities, because it often happens that a picture which turns out to be unsatisfactory on the scale originally intended, is transformed when cut down to another size and shape. And it is very helpful to look at the picture behind the mat at various stages of the work. Many a picture has been ruined by overlooking the possibilities inherent in editing the composition.
There is no excuse for the absence of a large T square and 4 white corners of mat board. Pictures in which houses, towers, and walls threaten to topple, and reflections take impossible directions are true signs of the amateur and can on occasion be cropped out!

The best kind of paint box is a never-ending topic for discussion. Here again the method of painting is bound to influence the choice. If one paints in large washes at a table there is little need for a box of any kind. A nest of white saucers and tubes of colour are more useful for all but the final touches.

If, however, a box is in constant use, the question of tubes v. pans becomes important. To buy filled pans is open to one grave objection-the colour is almost certain to get dirty and mixed with some of the others, unless you utilize an exacto blade to remove pigment and place it onto a palette. A large brush charged with a dark colour accidentally thrust into a full pan of very moist pale colour will destroy the purity of the whole. Probably the most satisfactory plan is to buy empty whole pans, squeeze in a little color at a time, and clean them frequently. There is much to be said for large tubes containing certainly at least four times as much as the ordinary whole tubes. They are considerably cheaper, and small tubes encourage the suicidal tendency to be stingy-instead of generous. It has been said that half of being an artist is the mastery of cleaning up; this includes the paint source and brush!
A large supply of pure water (there is no more convenient receptacle than a huge bucket) is essential. It is sheer childishness to try to paint a clean picture with dirty water.

The havoc wrought by uneven paper justifies the possession of the best obtainable stretching apparatus. The usual method-that of damping the paper, laying it on a drawing board and pasting the edges is rarely satisfactory except for moderately thin paper and on a small scale. Often it peels off, stretches insufficiently, and cockles when painted on, or splits because it is overstrained. There are several kinds of stretching paper which can be negotiated in a few minutes with invariable success. All things considered, nothing can equal the staple gun and a hardy board.
To a prepared board, i.e. stapled or pasted on a wooden board, but it must be by hand; as the pressure of machine rollers takes all the character out of the surface of any good paper.
As with methods so with materials: personal investigation, if pursued with thoroughness and intelligence, is always more fruitful than the blind acceptance of the best advice! Find a method you enjoy, prepare the surface and then preserve the surface!

LAYING A WASH-LESSONS IN COLOR TOO!!!!

LAYING A WASH

Yummy colour washing evenly across the page, is a trick to practice and practice and practice. The colour in total control as it lays out where it is supposed to be. Go ahead and laugh out loud at the thought of such confidence and good fortune. Then engage an afternoon, a week, a month or however long it takes to command authority with laying a wash. Technical efficiency demands rigorous training here. Here are the simple steps to success:
1. Select a thick paper, soak it and mount it with tape onto a working surface or stretch and staple the paper to a wooden board.
2. Incline your board to 30 degrees.
3. Mix more than enough of the required colour.
4. Take a small sponge and dip into perfectly clean water. Squeeze about half of the water out. Pass the sponge lightly over the whole surface.
5. Choose an appropriate large wide fat flat brush. Fill the brush with the required colour. Using your entire arm, make your stroke along the top of the paper. Some of the colour will run down forming a long pool at the bottom of the stroke. Let the second stroke overlap the first by about a half of an inch. Continue the process until the surface is covered. The stronger the color the more difficult to handle. You will find different colors react differently. Rose madder genuine is certainly the easiest to lay an overall perfect wash. Make a note of what colors work the best for you. Your artist journal is a fun companion at any time.
GRADATED WASH
Your next step is to master the gradated wash. It also does not require any particular gift. Just follow this simple formula.
1. Mix a generous portion of cobalt blue-a smaller amount of colour is used with gradated washes.
2. Select a thick paper, incline your board to 30 degrees, sponge the paper as above.
3. Make your first full arm stroke.
4. Quickly, take a brush full of clean water and add it to the mixture for the second stroke.
5. Proceed in this way down the paper.

Here is an easy exercise:
FOR A MID-DAY SKY
Lay a wash of very pale vermilion grading to nothing. Let dry. Turn the paper around and lay a gradated wash of cobalt, of medium strength to pale, over the vermilion wash. Make sure the first wash is thoroughly dry before applying the second.
FOR AN AFTERGLOW
Lay a wash of yellowish orange gradating from strong to rather pale.
“All things that are worth doing in art are interesting and instructive when they are done. There is no law of art that consecrates dullness. The proof of a thing’s being right is that it has power to obey the heart, that it excites us, wins us, or helps us.” Ruskin
COLOR AND COLOR COMBINATIONS
Clarity of colour, is best achieved if you let it flow through you onto the paper. The infinite subtlety inherent in paint colours and color combinations has kept me entertained as television feeds some families!
Hue
Saturation
Value
Warm
Cool
Opacity
Translucence
Complementary
Secondary
Contrasting
Permanence
Tint
Tone
Nomenclature for colour is tricky. Color has altered a great deal. Language also corrupts colour nomenclature. For example referring to the differences in French and English vert emeraude is not emerald green but viridian. No artist can afford the expenditure of time, and the wastage of nervous energy due to any lack of knowledge of the latent powers of his materials. Winsor & Newton has now begun to label the paint tubes such as Ultramarine (Green shade) and making Winsor Blue available in either Red Shade or Green Shade. The point being, the painter’s business, as a craftsman, is to know the utmost his materials are capable of doing, and to develop the skill to exploit their characteristics qualities. Keep it simple – each brush stroke counts. Each colour counts. Colours they speak in relation to each other. If you are able to use 3 do not use 6.

COMBINATION OF COLOR
Start with three of the most vivid and brightest contrasting colours: alizarin crimson, French ultramarine and aeorolin. What happens when two of the colours are superimposed and what happens when 2 or 3 are mixed.
Three facts will occur even to the mildly observant. It is remarkable the depth of brilliance, range and variety with such simple means. Have fun. Are you surprised by the difference between the results by reversing the superimposition of any two colours. Blue on yellow gives a rather dark dull blue green; yellow on blue gives a light bright yellow green. Here the contrast is clear, as well as an indication of the composition of the pigment. What are usually called transparent colours are to some extent opaque-the term transparent is only relative-you will find that the more nearly opaque the pigment the more it influences the combination. When you’re ready do the same with other pigments. Simple memorization of the staining pigments will aid your facility with color. In short, staining watercolors are the winsor family blue, green and red, along with alizarin crimson. The opaques are Indian Red which is almost staining, Cerulean Blue which has a greenish tint to it, Yellow ocher, the cadmium family red, orange, and yellow and French ultramarine. Rose madder Genuine, heads the list of transparent and is my most loyal assistant, followed by aureolin, cobalt, viridian and burnt siena.
Recognition of these fundamental facts will give purpose and direction to any consequent investigations, which should continue in a perfectly orderly way, proceeding from the powerful and obvious to the subtle and refined. It need not be said that to attempt anything approaching exhaustive experiments into every conceivable combination would be absurd, because there would be no time left for painting. Before giving a few more experiments worthy of your investigation, read a little about these pigments. There is little doubt that at any stage of an artists’ development an hour of intelligent and methodical analysis will save hours of misadventures and accompanying disappointment. It is conversely true that the most efficient technical display may be an entire failure as a work of art, it is just as true that bungling and ignorance always tend to a decrease artistic value. The ideal balance for a picture is a combination of supreme conception and perfect technique. Good luck.
Gray aureolin, rose madder genuine and cobalt will create a cool gray
aureolin, cobalt and rose madder will create a warm gray
cobalt, rose madder and aureolin will create an even warmer gray

Shadows
Vermillion, French ultramarine with a little yellow ochre is sufficient to render any shadow.
Vermillion, French ultramarine, yellow ochre, and a little viridian will increase your range
Cerulean, and alizarin crimson
Yellow ochre, hookers and sepia

Darks
Winsor blue, winsor green and alizarin crimson are the darkest colors. Use them with a dry brush and keep them undiluted for the depths of dark. Alizarin crimson and winsor green is almost a black. A side note here is that for a quarter of a century my work went without black. With age, sorrow or sagacity I have occasionally allowed myself to slip into the trap of using a manufactured black such as ivory or mars. Burnt siena, French ultramarine and sepia can be used as secondary darks.

Warm darks
Winsor blue, winsor red or (winsor green or Indian red)
Winsor green, cadmium red, and a little alizarin crimson
French ultramarine, winsor green, and burnt siena
Winsor blue and Indian red
Ultramarine, winsor blue and one of the following (Indian red, cadmium red or alizarin crimson)
Brown
Aureolin, rose madder, with viridian or cadmium red
Indian red and aureolin
Alizarin crimson, aureolin, and viridian
For cooler browns use the winsor family
Green
Take a trip to New Zealand or Ireland, you figure it out! I find keeping greens alive is infinitely tricky. Here is a head start. Sap Green is the leader of the pack. Another difficult green to conquer is the green you see over and over in Venice. I have found that mixing winsor blue with burnt siena is useful. To solve the Irish green situation, cobalt green works very well.
Viridian and aureolin can be altered by the addition of (rose madder genuine, light red, cadmium red, Indian red or rose madder genuine and cobalt)
Winsor and aureolin (light red, cadmium red, Indian red, and alizarin crimson
Viridian and (rose madder genuine, light red, cadmium red or Indian red)
Winsor (cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium orange, and burnt siena)
Sap Green, winsor blue and winsor green and aureolin

Process

Brushes-only red sable is perfect but the new synthetics are good imitations and are reasonable in price. Finger painting can naturally suffice. Feel free to search out natural or man made objects with which to paint, but even the technical genius is stultified with inferior brushes. If you can afford a red sable wash brush you will understand there is nothing that holds an edge like a well cared for red sable wash brush. Think of it as an investment. Put lots of money in your brushes and protect them. Much of what is for sale at the moment is synthetic and a relatively good substitute. I still cannot emphasize enough what a superior brush can do. It will hold your color and deliver it to the paper without being stiff, without hesitation, and with speed of execution-the failsafe skill of an expert watercolourist. One mantra repeats, “each brush stroke counts”. Do not waste a brush stroke made by a poor brush. Do not let the crowded marketplace obscure your quest. Choose wisely your brushes and then keep them in painstakingly perfect condition. As an apprentice, I spent entire days just washing brushes until I felt that being an artist was all about cleaning up! Very early on, in the museum school, my fellow classmates shared a few hints:
Cleaning the brush takes time and lots of water. After you finish your cleaning, put your own saliva on the hairs and shape it into the original point or line. That will preserve the shape until the next time the brush is used.
Colours-transparent or opaque – Winsor&Newton are the standard and they have a student grade available for purchase, but many newer companies such as Daniel Smith are making a commendable attempt at producing a worthy product.
Paper- Arches
Canvas-Frederick
Accessories-
Water. In order for the painting to proceed swimmingly, use water accordingly. It is foolish, foolhardy and futile to work in watercolour and be stingy with water. The paper must be soaked in water and then stretched. The brushes must soak up water like a sponge. Clean your brushes constantly. When the water runs through them clear, turn them upside down to be sure the bristles are clean from top to bottom. The colour needs to be diluted with sufficient water for the statement. For the ultra purist water is the only accessory.
Brayers
Sponges-sea silk, sea wool, elephant ear
Razors
Gum Arabic in amber or light amber-natural gum collected from the acacia tree in North Africa or aqua pasto that is gum Arabic with silica added
Combs
Found objects- sticks, feathers, rocks
Flour
Glycerin
Misting bottles
Ox gall liquid made from the gall bladders of the ox this liquid is used to decrease surface tension and is an easy wetting agent before applying washes.
Airbrush bottles
Paper towel, tissue paper, and chamois cloth
Palette
Palette knife
Plexiglas or wood as a working surface otherwise stretch the paper or canvas on a wood frame
Masking fluid, Rubber cement, or art maskoid.
Salt
Tape
Water…plenty!
Winsor & Newton Mediums: lifting preparation, blending medium, texture medium, permanent masking medium, and iridescent medium. These mediums are to lend brilliance to the color and allow greater control. They prevent the color from being eaten by the paper by keeping the color on the surface; reduce drying time, and thickening the water so that it moves more slowly.
Your best tools will be time, confidence and a calm, even temper. Watercolours are often ruined in a New York second. You are invited to move on and begin again over and over and over. A dirty brush, an insufficient amount of colour prepared for a wash, or absence of some crucial tool can be ruinous. Perhaps worse it generates a disastrous state of exasperation.
Colour could take seven lifetimes to explore. I think it will be light that sustains us as our food supply dwindles. Cezanne, to draw from the simple genius, had a palette that included the following colors:
Brilliant Yellow, Naples Yellow, Chrome, Ocher, Raw Sienna, Vermillion, Red Ocher, Madder lake
Carmine lake, Burnt sienna, Veronese green, Viridian, Terre Verte, Cobalt, Ultramarine, Prussian Blue.
He would be HORRIFIED to see my palette-more like a hurricane of hues.

My favorites include: rose madder genuine, vermillion, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, auerolin, cobalt, cerulean, French ultramarine, sap, viridian, hookers green dark, gamboges, yellow ocher, raw umber.

It is terribly hard to narrow your palette. Try at first to narrow the choices of color. I know of artists who work in one color for years and then advance to two or three. Here are some good combinations to experiment with. Magenta and sap green are a wonderful working team. French ultramarine, vermillion and yellow ochre are a great combo, with the ability to render any shadow. Again, color is so rich, it is my suspicion we will grow to only require light and water. So ponder the spectrum and make your choices.

Introduction
When you paint, it can be painful or joyous, an invitation to the divine or a plethora or other possibilities. The point is to paint, it has been my journey, each day an empty canvas, inviting the creative process.. A search for beauty or an ephemeral glimpse of eternity is the addition that feeds this passion. There simply must be a mathematical or scientific formula for beauty or at least for the confluence when color flows and time disappears into work. Where your heart lies there also is your treasure. If your painting flows through your heart you will produce a treasure. Achieving a direct conduit from the heart, with precious little from the subconscious is the real trick. Materials and technique probably matter little after that. Renior was quoted as saying, “you come before nature with theories and Nature throws them to the ground.” It is awesome and terrifying to come before nature with total freedom. The freedom to be creative causes me to tremble, that nexus between creativity and destruction is my favorite precipice. Integral in that trembling is the knowledge that everything you do will be an abstraction. A painting of a duck, no matter how realistic, is not the duck. It is an extrapolation. I love moving beyond what is. Anthony Jansen once wrote that “Mimi painted with a boldness and freedom that surprised even herself.” May you also experience that feeling of exhilaration.
Attitude. Question your attitude. Are you happy with where you are working? Sit happy, stand happy, begin! What will you bring to your read of reality from abstraction to realism? Do you know when to stop? If you have a gift for painting, may that be your golden gift. If you work from photographs remember to first read reality and only then use the photograph as a reference. Remember also to work out the composition in black and white. Observe, feel, and go. Try 10 black and white studies. Enjoy. The ideal temperament is that which regards the task as a splendid adventure, to be pursued to the utmost limits with a joyful determination. Find a continual fascination in “seeing what will happen.” To the ardent inquiring mind, eager to travel beyond the recognized boundaries, the knowledge of infinite possibilities is not only thrilling but also inspirational. As you tap the creative vein each day, may the sun sink down and find you feeling “I have the yummy feeling of having done something with my life today.” Why paint? Art is the food that feeds the best minds. Use your paintbrushes to turn windmills, change and create. The world waits. It is what freedom is all about.

paper

Surface and Preserving the Surface

 

Preserve the surface my grandmother would urge me during the vicissitudes of life. Walking along the thousand selection of handmade paper at Tokyo Hands one realizes how many volumes could be written on the fine art of papermaking. Even more volumes could be produced on the sorting out of and dedication to one sort or another of paper. You will see that the nature of paper can handicap your desired results. Paper for watercolours is one of those exquisitely made products.

If you know how paper is made, you will understand about thickness, surface, and color. Covering all manufacturers is tedious, but experimenting is essential. My choice for paper is Arches. It is dependable, mould made, tub-sized using organic as opposed to animal gelatin and relatively unchanged in the thirty five years I have used it.

Thickness. Thin paper will cockle. You will experience what it is like to paint on the waves no matter how well you stretch the surface. There exists a variety of ways in which to describe the weight of the paper. Basically there is an English and European style of measuring the weight of the paper. This standard is based on ream (500 sheets of paper), for example a 22×30 ream of Arches 300, would weigh 300 pounds. In contrast the European method used is GM/M2 certainly a more exact formula rendering the size of the paper inconsequential. The translation of the formula means grams per square meter. During the last 25 years remarkable progress has been made in the technology of paper. It is really quite thrilling to approach the variety and spectrum available for today’s artists. You are also able to buy paper in blocks or sheets or rolls. Today manufacturers have even developed canvas for watercolours.

 

Surface. Decide if you want it rough or smooth. Both are used to splendid effects, but certainly the role of the surface requires many hours of good plain fun. Rough paper is referred to as Cold Press or Rough, lends texture and a certain depth to the color as it washes over it. Working with the texture enhances shadow and light and creates many a happy accident. Arches makes a duplex paper called (En-Tout-Cas) Lavis Fidelis Roll that is cold press on one side and hot press or smooth on the other. Smooth paper can be depended upon to render pure and unadulterated white when left blank, a certain comfort in some instances.

 

Paper on the market today is available in a broad range of whites. In order to conserve your time select a variety of white papers, experiment with your transparent colours, and make your selection of paper that works the best with your palette. Color of the paper will dramatically affect your work

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