Egg-stra, Egg-stra

I'm slowly progressing on this little still life of brown eggs. I really love the shape of eggs and the multiplicity of potential colors in all the shadows and highlights that gave each egg its form. It's a very complicated challenge when you really, really study an egg.

This is the first time I've attempted brown eggs in a watercolor, and I also muddled myself at the onset by thinking too much about technique. I've recently finished Mary Whyte's latest instructional book on figure and portrait painting, and I'm in awe of her methods, especially her bold use of wet-into-wet techniques early in the painting process. So I thought I'd try to emulate...but this was not the right time or subject.

I'm still too tentative and I don't have a good sense of the amount of water in the mix. Too much water, and you end up with a weak tint that, when dry, pushes the pigment to the edges. You can still see such a result with the unfinished egg in the upper right -- that rough edge is where all my pigment ended up after being pushed there by the excess water.

So, I rethought the process and resumed my slow steady glazes. They are applied thinly. Then I soften the edges, and then I hit the wet area with a hair dryer to keep the pigments in position. I mix another glaze and repeat...over and over. There might be 20 or layers in the largest egg, for instance. I lose count pretty quickly. But it's the method I'm used to, and it allows me to stay ahead of the medium.

I want to get bolder with wet-into-wet techniques, but I've got to practice more first.

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.