Messy March Paintings Drop

March 27 2016 4"x4" on Aquabord
Available on Daily Paint Works

Hello again! This is a bit of a sloppy post, but I would like to get it out of the way so that I can move forward with more posts once again. This is a conglomerate post of several others that I began, but didn't post. A little due to time, but honestly - mostly due to matters of the mind.

So- is this all I painted in March and April so far?? Honestly, no, but not too much more.  I've created one other "decent" painting, but it was for a gift I don't want to spoil accidentally. I've also done a couple more paintings outside, a couple of abstracts that really did not work, and some planning for a larger project.

March 20 & 21, 2016 8"x10" on Claybord

A piece donated for an art auction - my largest gouache piece so far.

March 10, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette:Prussian Blue, Peacock Blue, Permanent Green Deep, Chinese Orange +W

Available on Daily Paint Works

March 9, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette:Prussian Blue, Peacock Blue, Permanent Green Deep, Chinese Orange +W

Available on Daily Paint Works

After a series of still lifes, I was itching to do some abstract work while still practicing looking from life. I took a favorite blue shirt with colors like the aurora borealis, twisted it, and painted a section paying closer attention to the colors than to representing it perfectly. A fun project that needed repeated.

March 6, 2016 ~4" x 5.5" in Watercolor Sketchbook

Palette:Prussian Blue, Chinese Orange, Yellow Ochre

A few weekend, my husband and I took our first driving trip to go hiking. It was my first trip to Missouri's mountain, Tom Sauk Mountain! I thought I'd stop to paint a couple of times, but I ended up only painting once. This might be my first little plein air study! It was a beautiful view on a beautiful day.

March 5, 2016 4.25"x5.5" on Watercolor Paper

Palette:Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, B+W

March 4, 2016  4.5" x 5.5" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Flame Red, Juane Brilliant, Ultramarine Deep, W

March 1-3, 2016 6"x8" on Claybord

Palette: Peacock Blue, Flame Red, Permanent Yellow, Yellow Ochre, B+W

Citrus, Spices, and Glass

January 28, 2016 4"x4" on Aquabord

Palette: Juane Permanent, Carmine, Ultramarine Deep, Lemon Yellow, + W

Available on Daily Paint Works

This was a week filled with sleepy painting sessions. As a goal, I aimed to identify and focus on the major shapes and lines in each composition quickly. My apple was my quickest study yet at 20 minutes, and the other two below were great practice in painting glass. I'm hoping to have a sit-down with a glass subject sometime in the next few days to do better justice. Still, there is something appealing in the texture of these less-refined works. 

My favorite of the week was my grapefruit and lime still life, probably because I haven't been able to resist painting them on multiple occasions this month. Even though I painted it quite late on Thursday, the refreshing colors and the lime's strong citrus scent helped keep me awake until it was complete!

January 27, 2016 ~4"x4" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Ultramarine Deep, Lemon Yellow, Burnt Sienna + W

January 29, 2016 5.5"x8.5" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Peacock Blue, Prussian Blue, B+W

January 30, 2016 5.5"x7" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Deep, Yellow Ochre + W

First Experiences with Ampersand Claybord

When using oil paint, I prefer to paint on panel. My friend Candice Eira Hoffman Cramer, who is an amazing artist, taught me how to build birch panels when we were in college together and it has remained my favorite surface. Using gouache on paper has been great, but I adore the sturdy feel of painting on panel. You don’t have to worry about warping or taping down the paper to realize later you didn’t get quite a right angle. In researching using gouache on non-paper surfaces, I found Ampersand’s Claybord and new I had to give it a whirl.

January 11, 2016  4"x6" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna + W

My order for Claybord came in on Tuesday, when I had my second still life of a mochapot set up and I almost skipped a meeting for work so that I could paint right away!

January 12, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette:Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Peacock Blue, B+W

The experience of painting on Claybord is different from paper in a few ways. Claybord is an absorbent surface, but absorbs in a different manner to paper. While painting gouache on paper makes it easy to create a flat color washes, painting on Claybord shows each brushstroke much more clearly. The inside of the brushstroke seeps into the surface, while the edges remain raised.

Another difference is the way that the gouache reacts to additional layers. On paper, it is fairly easy to control how the color I am laying down mixes with the color on the sheet. On Claybord, trying the same technique kept causing me to pick up sections of the paint. It reminds me of when you are using a dry erase marker and trying to fill in a space only to keep erasing sections instead.

January 13, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette: Juane Brilliant No. 2, Carmine, Peacock Blue, Permanent Yellow, B+W

Painting available at Daily Paint Works

Nonetheless, the surface of the Claybord is beautiful and finding out how to paint on them feels like a delightful compulsion. I purchased a four pack of 4”x4”s and a three pack of 6”x8”s and plan to use them before I decide how I feel about continuing to use them long term. I also plan to try out Ampersand’s Aquabord to see how it compares.

Four Days of Citrus

I’m hoping this blog can be a reference point for me in the future to see the color combinations, but I was not expecting getting true-to-lfe photos to be so difficult! The colors are as close as I could swing it through the scan and color correction in photoshop, but I am not yet a whiz with technology. I bought a new phone with a fair camera last week, so I’m hoping that with regular practice my photography and editing will become better. For now, scanning still seems to work best (I’ll share one comparison below), even though it washes out the lighter hues.

These are the papers and gouache I have been using so far:

The gouache I have really loved. The Holbein 18 set can be bought on Dickblick here for $62 but I lucked out and found it on Amazon for around $35 in December. The watercolor paper I bought from my city’s Hobby Lobby, thinking of using it just to experiment, and it has been… not great. The 8”x8” pad has held up pretty good, but the smaller sizes of the same paper pill easily and have a less pleasant texture. I will be upgrading to a better paper next time, and I have a few of Ampersand's clayboards on their way to try out!

As a note of warning, when I needed to restock my white the only gouache my local Hobby Lobby carried was Plakkaatverf Designer Gouache. Maybe it works well for other uses, but for me it has mixed terribly with my other paints, and has a watery, sticky texture. I’ll be sticking with Holbein for now.

My last four paintings have all had a citrus focus. My groceries included a bag of grapefruits last week and I have loved the bright, juicy colors!

January 7, 2016 (AM) 8x8"

Palette: Juane Brilliant No. 2, Flame Red, Prussian Blue + W

January 8, 2016 (AM), 4"x6"

Palette: Juane Brilliant No. 2, Flame Red, Terre Verte, Permanent Yellow, B+W

January 9, 2016 (AM), 4"x6" (PHOTO)

Palette: Juane Brilliant No. 2, Flame Red, Terre Verte, Permanent Yellow Orange, B+W

January 9, 2016 (AM), 4"x6" (SCAN)

Palette: Juane Brilliant No. 2, Flame Red, Terre Verte, Permanent Yellow Orange, B+W

January 10, 2016 (AM), 6"x8"

Palette: Juane Brilliant No. 2, Carmine, Yellow Ochre, Permanent Green Deep, B+W