Emerging Artists at Tamarack

Fire Engine Red

We've just completed the long trip to Beckley, W.Va., to take paintings to the Dickirson Gallery at Tamarack for their upcoming "Emerging Artists" exhibition.

I've taken four pieces for inclusion, including my latest, "Fire Engine Red."

This one is a departure from my usual style. I wanted to make it bold and hard-edged -- a pop art or poster art look. I created the composition while playing with some reference photos and cropping them into squares.

The watercolor medium actually complicated matters in the case of this painting. You see, there are no red pigments that are truly staining enough to handle the kind of application I wanted to make. My goal was to soak the entire paper in vivid red (except for the yellow lettering and  the reflective highlights which would be preserved with masking fluid). Then I would mix up a deep black and paint over the red.

For this to work, the red has to stay in place when rewet with the black glaze(s). However most staining red-like pigments tend to be more rose-colored in hue, not appropriate for this subject matter.

I tested all the true reds I had (W&N's Winsor Red,  Maimeri Blu's Dragon Blood and Permanent Red Light, and DS's Quin Red) by making sample paint strips on scrap paper, allowing the paint to dry, and then lifting a line through the paint with a damp synthetic brush. First I decided that the Quin Red was too blue in tone to be useful. Of the others, none of them could withstand the lifting, even after I switched to a sable brush for a second test.

I also tried a couple of red mixes, but I didn't like the results. I wanted a deep, consistent red as the base.

I eventually decided that the Winsor Red was the most resilient of the samples and was the proper color. To increase its staying power I also decided to go with two separate glazes -- the first a wash of Perylene Maroon, and the second a strong dose of Winsor Red.

Once these two glazes were dry, I mixed a strong black and began working on the darks, but you can see the difficulties I encountered in the shaded areas -- the reds still wanted to lift when I would apply the greyed-down black, despite my best efforts with a light touch and a sable brush. So some areas are not as smooth as I would have hoped, but the overall effect still works I think.

I do think the exercise was a true test of my abilities -- this composition may look simple, but try it in watercolor, and you'll understand how complicated this kind of application can be.

The opening for the Emerging Artists show is next Sunday, Jan. 22, and the show will remain up through March 23. For more about Tamarack, visit their website at www.tamarackwv.com or visit the Dickirson Gallery's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tamaracks-David-L-Dickirson-Fine-Arts-Gallery. Photos of each show are posted in the Photo Gallery.

Merry Christmas!

I haven't begun to assemble my Christmas cards yet, but here's a snowy scene that will likely grace several of my cards this year. May your holidays be full of family, friends and good cheer!

Iris on Aquabord finished

I'll be honest. I've found this to be one of the more frustrating paintings I've ever undertaken. I never could get comfortable with the characteristics of Aquabord. I kept trying to tell myself that it was a phase, and that it would grow on me. After all, I had similar pangs of frustration when I first switched from Canson's Montval line of paper to Arches cotton-rag papers.

However, those frustrations when first using Arches faded quickly as I began to understand the potential locked within those cotton fibers.

I never reached that sense of promise with this painting. Perhaps I really am too set in my ways. And I have six more small pieces of Aquabord tucked in my desk drawer, so they'll have to utilized in some way eventually. Maybe I'm just not ready yet and another attempt will go better.

Rimmed in Rust

Rimmed in Rust

So here, finally, is the finished painting of the McCormick-Deering tractor I discussed in my last post. It's currently on display in Harrisonburg, Va, at VMRC as part of the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society Members Exhibition.

I had really liked this painting . . . until I saw it in on display in the show. Now I think it's too small. It's not quite 10x10, and in that long gallery with its high ceilings, it felt weak. I had to search to find it, in fact.

So, I think my solution will be to do a larger version during the winter. I like the idea, the composition, the colors...but I think it's got to be larger.

Aside from the size issues, there are many things that I still like about this painting, particularly the textures. In real life, this tractor is a rough beast, with layers and layers of paint covering its heavy frame.

I think I've accentuated those textures here. I used wet-into-wet techniques on the wheel, with pigments bleeding into one another to create the age spots and dominant highlight. For the gray-blue tractor body, there are many careful layers of paint, with lots of little dots in selected areas. I put my fine-pointed Loew-Cornell series 7020 brushes to good use on this painting.

Rust

I finished this painting a while ago, but I'm only now getting around to posting any images of it. It's currently hanging in the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society Show in Harrisonburg, Va., at the Park Gables Gallery at VMRC.

I've had this idea in mind for a few years. The old McCormick-Deering tractor is an outdoor display at the nearby Lost River Museum. I've painted the scene with the tractor twice before, but as more traditional landscape compositions.

However, I've always wanted to crop in more tightly on the tractor itself. I helped the group that sanded the tractor down and applied fresh paint prior to its dedication as a museum display, so the hands-on experience helped me appreciate the complexity of the tractor's assembly. There's incredible texture and weight in each individual component, and the shapes and colors are fascinating to explore.

So, years after first entertaining the idea, I've tried to break the composition down into a collection of shapes that entertain my eye, but is still recognizable as a steel-wheeled tractor.

Awards and cancellations

As it turns out, I'm not going to teach at Pinnacle this year because of a lack of signups....but I'm going to take a class instead, so the weekend will still be productive. I will learn about silk-screen printing, and I have all sorts of ideas for possible subjects.

I also have some belated updates on some exhibitions. I had two paintings included in the West Virginia Watercolor Society juried exhibition, Aqueous 2011, earlier this summer, juried by Roanoke, Va., artist Nancy Stark, and the original butterfly painting (Yellow Wings) won a merit award.

For more on WVWS, visit the website http://www.wvwatercolorsociety.org/

"One Moment"

In late August, I sent the larger butterfly painting (Shall We Gather), and my recently completed portrait (One Moment) to the Randolph County Community Arts Center for their annual Gala Exhibition. Amazingly, my portrait won first place behind an amazing best-of-show work by Buckhannon artist Laurie Goldstein-Warren.

The Gala is a mixed-media show, including fiber, sculpture, and photography, so it's nice to see that  my watercolors can stand out among a wide range of styles. The juror for the show was Betty Carr. A list of participating artists can be found at the RCCAC site at http://randolpharts.org/exhibits/10th-annual-gala-juried-art-exhibition.html.

Next, I have a couple of new shows on the horizon. I have joined the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society, based in Harrisonburg, Va., and their member show begins this weekend at the wonderful gallery at the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. I have three paintings headed there.

Then, I've been invited back to Tamarack in January for their Emerging Artists show. Last January when I participated in the Architectonic show, I told myself it would be the only opportunity I would ever have to show in such a professional space. So I'm happy to be wrong and look forward to seeing where the journey takes me as I paint for the show this winter.

Scrub-a-dub-dub

So I've been daring, and I've scrubbed out the dominant fall on this iris and repainted it. I'm not sure that it's any better than the original version, but I think it matches the upper standards a little better now. I've decided that I don't like the glazing properties of Aquabord

I'm using staining colors so I thought I might be able to glaze from a technical standpoint, but it turns out that I didn't like the effect. I like the mottled results from flooding an area with mingled colors. That's how the upper standards were painted, and that's what I wanted to accomplish with the re-do of the fall.

However, in trying to get areas appropriately dark, I think I lost the mottled effect. But I still think it matches a little better. The first version felt highly finished, and really didn't look like watercolor anymore. It had the look of acrylic. I like the blemishes that indicate that watercolor was at work.

Class at Pinnacle

A view of my palette

I'm still working the Aquabord Iris (I've been trying out its advertised scrubbing properties) and I will post an update soon.

However, I also wanted to mention that I will be teaching at the Hardy County Extension Service's annual women's craft retreat in October. This will be the third year that I've participated as an instructor. The Retreat begins on Friday evening, Oct. 7 and will end at noon on Sunday, Oct. 9.

I can't figure out how to link to a pdf on Blogger, so I've posted the information form on my website for download. Go to my site to see the link: http://www.waitesrunstudios.com/2011_CraftRetreat.pdf

Getting the hang of it

I'm slowly getting the hang of Aquabord's characteristics in a wet-into-wet application. You can see the difference between the larger fall in the foreground and the upper petals (on irises the lower petals are called falls).

I had painted the fall first and was still struggling with the unfamiliar surface. Then I moved into the upper petals and there, in a smaller area, I started to get the hang of things. I then went back into the dominant fall to improve its look, but I'm not sure that I managed that.

One observation so far: the colors are definitely vivid. You can see the underlying layers of permanent rose in many areas, so there is a sense of depth, but I prefer the textures that developed in the upper sections resulting from a single mingled-color wash. The texture adds to the ruffled look that characterizes this particular bloom. Once the paint is down, it seems difficult to go back in and recapture that effect if you've lost it.

I'm tempted to wash out one area as an experiment, and then see if I can recapture the texture with a fresh application of paint. I'll keep you posted.

Iris on Aquabord

It feels as though summer is nearly over, and I have little painting progress to show for the last several weeks. In truth, I have two projects in the works, though my time for painting has been a little sporadic of late. 

I'll save the other project for another day, but here is my latest "Lunchtime Painting." Yes, yet another iris (easily my favorite flower), but the twist here is the surface on which I'm painting. It's not paper.

This is a 5"x7" piece of Ampersand Aquabord (formerly known as Claybord Textured). It's a a masonite board with a ground of kaolin clay on the surface. The company, and some other painters who regularly use the material, compare its painting qualities to cold-press paper, only lifting paint is much easier, they say.

I worked on the support in a workshop a few years ago and found it to be somewhat interesting. In the wake of that experience, I had purchased some small pieces of Aquabord. However, they've been  in a desk drawer ever since.

Given my painting doldrums, I decided to pull out  a piece and give it a try. And it's been a bit of a struggle so far.

I've been very much in the habit of developing these iris paintings with thin, watery glazes. The 300-pound Arches has been particularly well-suited for that kind of approach. But when I attempt the same procedure on the Aquabord, the outcome is very different.

First, the drying shift is deceptive. Normally, on paper, the paint looks very vibrant when wet and then lightens and loses some saturation as it dries. On this surface, the paint looks chalky and dull when wet, and then dries into more vibrant colors.

Second, it's difficult to soften edges and melt one color into the next because I don't have any feel for the hydrodynamics of the kaolin clay ground.

Finally, when things dry, there is a curious mottled effect that remains, often looking as though I had sprinkled a bit of clear water on the surface. I think it has to do with the textured nature of the ground. It's not unpleasant in this instance because of the texture of the flower's petals and falls, but it's unexpected.

So, it's been a learning experience thus far. I almost think that this surface demands more of a drybrush approach, or perhaps a very hard-edge, posterized style. Watery wet-into-wet seems to be problematic. But, I'll also admit that I'm a newbie, and I'm going to keep plugging along and experimenting on this project.

The watercolor painter I'm most aware of who is using Aquabord is Ali Cavanaugh, who has been featured in several of the national art magazines. She describes her painting process as "neo fresco secco," because she was inspired to paint on plaster surfaces, and then found Ampersand's product lines fit her needs. Her painting process is similar to that of egg tempera, using small overlapping strokes. To read more about her process, click here.

To see more of Ali's paintings, visit her website at: http://www.alicavanaugh.com/