Local Color

Above: Victor demonstrates local color on February 14. 

Last week we finally started painting. The objective was to paint each object, background, etc. with the local color, which is essentially the middle color - so that we can add in the lights and the darks in glazes. You sort of feel like this is a paint by number project, and everything looks really basic and flat. 

To be honest, I can’t remember that much about the details of last week as I am backlogging...  although my general thought is that we didn’t get very far- I had one layer on most major things, and had started a second layer on the antlers in my still life. This is a very slow process, and yet, even our still life paintings seem so much larger and basic than a painting Van Eyck would have painted. 

I’ll use this entry to mention that an opportunity for creative change came up right at the beginning of the year. My hairdresser is opening up a new salon, called ‘Sei Bella’, and she mentioned that I should try to create some jewelry for her boutique/salon- these are huge on the east and west coasts, however, not so much in the midwest- hers will be one of the first of its kind in our area. 

Initially, I told her that I had no interest in making jewelry, but something made me re-think creating a few pieces. I started by going to Michaels, and then quickly learned that most of their things are junk, and started explorations at many of the nicer bead shops around town. 

Initially I was really, really excited about this endeavor, and I still am, however, creating jewelry is so much like creating paintings: you make a few good things, get a sense of grandeur- then the next month or so of creating leads to several open projects and many late nights. You decide the pieces you intially made are crap, and then you decide you NEED something like a jewelry kiln to make your own handcrafted silver charms. 

I have made a huge investment in this whole start up and just keep ordering more, as I find that when I am creating something I need this, that, or the other in order to complete the piece, or make it just a bit more special. I would love to elaborate more on what I am doing, but lack the time now to write about it all- I’m finding all sorts of crazy things like Karen Hill Tribe Silver and artisan made charms. (I’m finding a lot on etsy.) 

The good news is that one of the students in my class- Doug Weaver, makes jewelry as well- although he fabricates his own pieces, which is a much higher level than what I am doing. Doug has given me a tip or two on finishing things and such, and showed me last week how to make my own jump rings. This is the great thing about being around other students of art, is that you feed each other ideas, help, and inspiration. Christina, who is working on the still life with me, has given me tips as well... she is the one who got us the red velvet (material, not cake) and she brought me some batting I needed on Tuesday for a jewelry box Alex plans to make for my charms. 

Conservation Efforts

The day we met the head of painting conservation at SLAM was really exciting for me, and probably two other people in the class.


An older, very nice gentleman named Paul Haner, who is the head of the department of Conservation at SLAM met with the class about how he treats paintings that are damaged. He showed us several pieces that he had been working on, or was in the process of working on. 


Without writing too much about it here were my impressions: 


1. Fixing someone else's paintings in a basement with no sunlight would  not be my idea of a great career. It takes someone really patient to do that. 


2. Will I go back to my old ways of painting? - which means using an acrylic gesso on a nicely stretched canvas, and then painting with my new medium which I concocted  with the help of Victor. By the way, it IS a secret recipe. 


I have thought long and hard about #2 as I paint through the Van Eyck and one thought keeps going through my head, and that thought is this: "I can't paint like this".... or "this is not the kind of painter I am". I like to draw, and correct and then paint over the corrections, and leave the initial marks there showing through in the final results. I think it is really that simple. 


Which causes me to pause and say, "WTF am I doing here again in this class?" 


You know what? I'm not really sure. The facts though are this: 


1. I love going there and being there. 


2. I really like interacting with the people there. 


3. In relation to #2, I am learning a few things from Doug about my newest obsession which is jewelry. Today, I practiced making jump rings on dowel rods, and annealing and bringing down the gauge of my sterling wire. This is really the kind of thing that is turning me on right now... learning about something totally new, and hands on.


4. I mainly love painting, and any type of painting I feel is good for me. The Van Eyck technique may not be my perfect fit, but I still love paint. Again, very simple. 

Hans Mielich- (German- 1516-1573): Portrait of a woman. This was in the care of the conservator, and he had worked on this piece. It will go back on the floor of the museum in 2013. Exciting to see! 

Portrait of a Man by Hans Mielich: sorry for the glare...taken with the i phone. This piece was completely bowed and Paul said that a special frame had to be made to accommodate the paintings happy state of curviness. I wish Alex had been with me to see these, and the workshop because I think he would have been interested in the wood supports and the solutions for framing the fixed pieces. 

I find it very odd that the portrait is done relatively well, and the background of green drapery is rather contrived. Also, the fur collar seems weird ... but that's just me. 

A painting by some guy named: "Guy"-1943. The cracking was so bad around the edges and everywhere, I have no idea what Paul would do with something like this....No, thank you, I'll do my own work and hope it doesn't crack someday. 

My Heart Belongs to Fo Kwan

Last week we all worked diligently for two days on 'hatching and cross-hatching' our contour drawings. Was this super-fun? I would say, um....'no'- in general I got the feeling that this was just a lot of hard work and the question was: 'for what?' and someone said he didn't understand why we couldn't just paint. 

In my head I've been trying to answer this question. I think that firstly, the drawing underneath solves some problems without paint. The brown marker we are using builds up a slight bit of darker tone thus laying the foundation for subsequent layers. Secondly, my opinion is that we are becoming more familiar with the still life before laying down paint, which is always good. 

On Thursday I arrived early to class to find two other students there already working- and here I thought I would be the first. Apparently, there are some dedicated people here. Some had even worked on their drawings over the weekend and were almost finished. By class end on Thursday, once again I stayed later than most everyone and had my drawing finished and was ready to put on my single layer of Verdaccio- (black, white, and yellow ochre). 

I stayed late with Fo Kwan and Christina, who is working with me on the rabbit still-life. Christina is a little behind, and Victor urged her to finish with Verdaccio before next class period. I would have never chosen her composition, however, now I really like it... she has the rabbit slightly to the right side of the canvas looking to the right, which seems compositionally wrong, but I think it works. I feel that Mary is looking down, with the rabbit at the animal skull and somehow it is funky and grounded in a way- and it seems almost like they are pleading to the skull. 

                                      Above: Victor does Verdaccio. 

Christina's drawing

My drawing- Brown Marker- Cross Hatching

Matt Piersons ridiculously awesome drawing- check out the right side of the animal skull. 

The Rabbits Foot

I had two large impressions from today that I am jotting down while I put some things on the stove for dinner: 


1. There is some serious talent in Victors class. 


and...


2. I have a very lucky life. 




Today the objective was to render a contour drawing of our still life that we set up on Tuesday and also to  transfer this drawing to our gessoed boards by the next class which is on Tuesday, Feb. 7th. I stayed later last class to do my preliminary drawing or sketch, then started on my real drawing as well, with the assumption that I would be a little ahead of the game and would have everything generally in place, and have my cropping frame and such in the right place so I would have a second and better look today. In my mind, this always allows you to make changes that you see the second time around. 


In 2 1/2 hours time, pretty much everyone had a contour drawing done, and most of them looked pretty awesome, and I'm not saying this lightly. I'm a little aghast....yes, meaning a little frightened. Now, maybe my drawing is a bit more accurate, and I may be trying too hard to get everything in just the right place...but still- some of the guys from the guy section are whipping out some seriously cool renderings of a ridiculously huge animal skull. And, they are a little too nonchalant about the whole thing as well. 


Furthermore, I liked pretty much everything else that I saw today. Even one of the persnickety older women had a relatively likable drawing. And, I had assumed that from what I saw from the actual still life, it would not be that great or dynamic. 


I left too late, closer to 2:10 to catch the school bus back to the commuter lot, and still didn't have everything nailed down the way I wanted, which begs the question: "should I go back over the weekend once more to get the drawing the way I want it....?" I think the box is a little off...


Secondly, after chatting with another student about personal things, I felt really lucky about my life choices. Without saying much about the other student, I feel like I am in a very comfortable place as I sit here contemplating whether we really should have leftovers... versus the turkey meatballs from Whole Foods that I would prefer while sipping a Schlafly Kolsh. My life in my early childhood was bad. From then on though, I would say that I happened upon some pretty marvelous things, and no, I'm not as 'successful' as I would like, but I have my priorities straight and the hub supports everything I do, and we are comfortable. There are many who are not. Also, I feel our choices in doing things in a certain order...school first....then kids...has been right for us, and good, and yet I know this is not how life always works. I could have run into trouble several times from not being as careful as I would be now, but did not. Things have come to me relatively easily and I've had lots of support, love, abundance, and 'luck' if you like to call it that.;) 


Maybe this is the reason for the rabbit as well.... 


Guys side still life: 

Rabbits

The first week of class I made it over to Chesterfield Arts so that Nicole could 'help me', (which really means she did it all herself while I watched) create a banner for my etsy website store that I am in the process of starting. For months now, there has been a ceramic rabbit that was left on the ceramic shelves at CA by a child of about seven or eight. It's just a rabbit head and Nicole told me that it exploded from the body and the child never picked it up. From the moment I saw it, I wanted it to draw or paint, or just to have... so I stole it after she gave me permission. 

I wanted to put this in my still life with the Buddah, a statue of the Virgin Mary, some stones I use for creativity and inspiration, and some oranges. Come to find out, the rabbit really fits in... 

Quoted directly from the most reliable source on the internet (Wikipedia): 

Rabbits are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth, and have long been associated with spring and Easter as the Easter Bunny. The species' role as a prey animal also lends itself as a symbol of innocence, another Easter connotation.

Additionally, rabbits are often used as symbols of playful sexuality, which also relates to the human perception of innocence, as well as its reputation as a prolific breeder.

See, I knew it was something like that, and subconsciously meant to include it the whole time in my conceptual process. 

Victor is really wondering why I am using this rabbit and thinks it won't work out for the traditional Van Eyck still life. He thinks it looks child like, and the color won't look right. Then again, I have to consider that that is his job - and he still treats me like a 'student'. 

Yesterday...

Yesterday was Tuesday and our goal was to bring in our still life objects, and if we wanted something personal, to bring those things in. I brought a lot of things in, and whittled them down quite a bit adjusting as necessary as I started drawing a small sketch. I had an undergraduate student bring in some velvet for me as she works for JoAnn Fabrics, which was helpful. I had my doubts that she would come through, considering at first she thought I was talking about cake when I asked her for some red velvet, but you have to trust someone sometime, and she did come through. 

Everyone mostly set up still life objects that are part of the department stash. Victor said that everyone needed to scale down quite a bit. 


The class divided into guys side and girls side right away with the guys creating a very masculine set up with a huge animal skull and blue fabrics. 


Sharon, V's grad assistant brought in something silver, some huge teapot or similar, but aside from her and myself, we were the only ones who brought something in. This is typical. 


We set up, contemplated, then Victor did power point on the techniques a little more, mostly on mediums and oils, such as poppy seed, linseed oil, etc. He pretty much lost everyone (though I could be wrong) when he started talking about mixing your own black oil. 


And now, I remember and I think everyone pretty much understands why I left these techniques and adopted my own version of medium (which is the standard- linseed oil, turp --but not turp- gamsol---and damar varnish ---that being 1/3rd amounts on everything) and used this mix on canvas. I still think that my paintings will hold up in comparison to the general populace of painters, esp. ones I know here in St. Louis -- which by the way I just learned that a very ...I'll say popular ...painter and contemporary uses just plain ol' epoxy resin from HOME DEPOT on heavily layered work.... tsk....tsk.... 


Back to the adopting my own techniques... I left the ones that Victor is teaching us because they are very in-depth and it is hard to understand the components of how everything goes together. Again, I could be completely wrong, but I think the class was so overwhelmed when they got back in the classroom (with 40 min. left in class to draw as Victor suggested) that most people just said "**** it" and left. 


I continued on with the preliminary sketch that I had started before power point, and started on the real drawing until 2 p.m. It took a long time to adjust and I did create a cropping frame and set that up in a stationary point on an easel. I taped my eye shut....yes, I did ... and lost some eyelashes as a result, I'm sure. 


I think people (students) are not really sure how to start and are maybe overwhelmed by the drawing/ or drawing the complicated still life set ups. Maybe they thought that 40 minutes just wasn't enough time. Some continued sanding and or gesso-ing their boards. For me though, I know what is next, which is nice, and there's always something that can be done in 40 minutes- even if it's just a preliminary sketch. I found out at least that my painting was going to go from horizontal orientation to vertical, which was completely unexpected, and that I had too many small objects and had to take many things out. I have several objects in my set up that will be extreme challenges.  

This Is Where Things Get Confusing

I am taking awesome notes in my little notebook and also on my laptop when Victor does power point. I really enjoy the laptop note taking as I am a fast typist, and also I didn't have this advantage when I went to school from 99- 01. 


Last Tuesday and Thursday was all about mixing gesso and priming our boards. I am going to try to put this more useful part in the blog so it is permanent: 


There are three boards we have prepared/or are in the process for preparing for the three techniques we are accomplishing: 




#1 board is for the Van Eyck painting


#2 board is for the Titian


#3 board is for the Rubens 




#1 board should only be primed with traditional gesso which is also called "Chalk Gesso"- the mixture for this is:


      1 cup titanium dioxide
      1 cup gypsum cement, and 
      1 part sizing. 
      The sizing being a 1:12 mixture of sizing and water. 




       THEN ADD 1-3 PARTS WATER. (yes...confusing) 


#2 board is a "1/2 absorbent ground": 


This mixture is a combination of 1 part boiled linseed oil to 5 parts traditional gesso- which you have already made as stated above. 




#3 board is a "non-absorbent ground" (and this is done on your board which has the canvas- which was adhered with rabbit skin glue mixture.) 




       1 part boiled linseed oil
       1 part turpenoid (Victor used Weber brand) 




mix these together in a container 


add to: 




       1 part gypsum powder 
       1 part titanium dioxide




this mix starts out as chunky and then you mix first with the mud knife (from Home Depot or similar) and then mix with the grinder or pestle to get all the chunks out. Add more of your boiled linseed oil and turpenoid as necessary to make a not too thin, not too thick paste. 






Board #1 needs at least three coats, maybe four. Boards 2 needs most likely three coats, and Board #3 needs 2, but more likely three coats. 




So far I have one coat on boards 2 and 3- as my mixture for #2 and #3 was too oily (and I knew it was, but the grad assistant told me to add too much boiled linseed oil to the traditional gesso mix- and I did it full well knowing that it was not dissolving properly) This is fine, however, because it will just take a few more weeks to dry and then I will re-mix and prime my #2 and #3 boards. :)