Blog Archives

And they're off!

22/2/2020

Home Game:
- Just the beginning of a new black/white acrylic this week on a 18x24" black canvas of moonlight on Stoyoma Mountain east of Merritt. Foreground of lake and trees happening next ...

Away Game:
Great start to the watercolour workshop yesterday morning with a quick 'head start' session. Thank you all for jumping in with such short notice. I hope it helped you feel more comfortable with starting on your own - get that paint wet :)

References for further study, if you are interested:

Colour; Travels Through the Paintbox by Victoria Finlay - a book on the history of each colour, which involves pirates, beetle juice, poisons, espionage, and other surprises.
- My go-to website for checking info on any watercolour topic. http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html The artist, Bruce MacEvoy, also seems to be a chemist and researcher - he actually tests paints and gives practical information on a range of watercolour topics.

Some tips (sent by email to the workshop participants):
- The textbook, Watercolour in 10 Steps by Patricia Seligman, is just for learning basic painting skills, not creating beautiful little artworks, so don't try for excellence, just improvement.
- Use real fruit whenever possible, rather than painting from the book's photos and sketches - recognizing the actual shapes and colours makes for better future paintings.
- Give an exercise a try or two, and think whether you see what Patricia was trying to teach you. Then move on to the next exercise. After the third one, go back and try the earlier ones again and see if your skills are improving. Repeat :)
- There is no magic, it's just practice. No 'practice makes perfect' either - 'perfect' is not part of learning to paint.
- Relax - if the painting does not work out, it's just a piece of paper.

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Next steps

18/2/2020

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Home Game:
- I'm still working on "Waiting 'til the Cows Come Home" - but where are the cows? I seem to be a little intimidated by adding them. Maybe next week...

- Maybe I work better under pressure - this black and white painting was done in 2 days because I wanted to send it home with my brother who was passing through from Vancouver to Saskatoon.

Away Game:
- The NVCAC is sponsoring 3 art magazine subscriptions for the Library in 2020 - Artists Magazine, Watercolour Artist, and Southwest Art. These are funded as a small part of the expenses for the sketch and watercolour courses. Back issues are already in the Library from previous subscriptions and, really, they never get stale :)

- The Watercolour for Serious Beginners course has 15 serious beginners registered! The paint kits will be ready to pick up on Thursday at the Courthouse for those who want to get a head start.

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step by step

8/2/2020

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Home Game:
- A little short on actual wet paint time this week :( Next week I will schedule it in so other stuff does not take over my art life.
- I dropped in on the Library Painters on Thursday (10am-2pm) - it is an open, free drop-in for artists to just bring their gear and project and paint with other artists. So great to see how the skills improve that way. Hmmm, I should join them next Thursday...
- I visited Hambleton Gallery in Kelowna, as I do whenever I can. Seeing high quality artwork in person keeps my 'artistic eye' tuned for professional level painting quality and skills.
- updated my website's Portfolio panels with more images, now I need to annotate them with names, sizes, media and prices.
- I have been working on photobooks of my art, since most are now unavailable to me (gifted, donated, or sold.) Now there is a 30% off sale if I can get them finished by Feb 12. There's a goal - and another project that keeps my hands away from actual paint.

Away Game:
- 10 people registered in the class now, so it is definitely a GO :)
- I shopped at Opus Art in Kelowna to get supplies for the class - brushes, paper, etc. Opus Art Store donated 15 of their cloth bags to hold the sets!
- More texts arrived - from Britain and New Zealand! 10 on hand now, only a few more to come.
- I am getting paint kits and palettes ready. I ordered more paint colours to make sure the palettes will be useful beyond the textbook exercises.

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Every little bit counts

2/2/2020

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Home Game:

"Reborn", watercolour on paper, 14x11" , matted and framed - ready for the show at the Courthouse Gallery. Need to think about pricing...
I tried some sketchbook practice - a nice pen sketch of the evergreens with lake and mountains. This was from observation through a big window, about 20 minutes.
Then, being inspired by the Opus Daily Practice ad, I painted it. Hmmm, I think I liked it better before. The sketchbook paper was hot pressed, so did not forgive my brush errors. I used a wet brush on the trees, when really they needed a dry brush technique to show the thin needles of trees trying to grow on rocks. Daily practice is a great idea to get my art brain working again.
I registered for an oil painting class in late March (3 Fridays) with Yvonne Reddick, so I can learn the palette knife painting technique. I love going to workshops, especially if they are specific technique rather than abstract painting or 'just-express-your-creativity.'
The new issue of Artists Magazine just arrived - yea!

Away Game:

"Watercolour for Serious Beginners" is approved and posted online and even has registrations already!
Opus - Daily Practice has started their February challenge. I might have to learn to do Instagram to see how that works. Or is that just "finding another way not to paint", as my wonderful artist-friend Bev Maize used to tease me.