Student Work in 100 Drawings Class

I just wanted to share with you a sampling of the fabulous work being done by participants in my 100 Drawings on Cheap Paper class.  This is all student work, posted anonymously, so please don't post on Pinterest or elsewhere.  Just enjoy!

These are all on 9"x12" drawing paper.  This is a lesson in which we are using black and white only:

The following are for a lesson on Shapes:

 I am having a LOT of fun with this class seeing all the fabulous work.  I'm offering it again in September, and then again sometime in 2016. Meanwhile several of my workshops involve working in series, particularly Balancing Opposites in Gloucester, MA, in April; and Abstract Painting: Series as Process on Whidbey island starting May 31.

Coming up on Sunday night: another giveaway.

Acrylic Paint 101, Part 2 - Layering

OK, here is another video demo on the basics of acrlyic paints.

• Let your paints dry between layers.  
• Pay attention to transparency and opacity when layering.

 Here are a few pieces that rely heavily on layering transparent and opaque paints:

10"x10", acrylic, collage, and drawing media on panel

10"x10" acrylic, collage, and drawing media on panel

8"x8" acrylic, collage, and drawing media on panel

You will get plenty of practice with paint in my workshops.  Coming up next is:

Art and Soul in Portland, Oregon 

March 2 - 8

5 spaces left in Big Fat Art

4 spaces left in Working in Series
My other workshops are full, but you can get on a wait list.

In April I am teaching for the first time at Northeast Art Workshops in Gloucester, MA

Balancing Opposites: the Yin and Yang of Abstract Composition

April 15 - 17, three-day workshop

The Winner of the Golden Fluid Acrylic Set

Is....  Melanie on Salt Spring Island, BC.  Congratulations.  Now, Melanie, YOU have to e-mail me to give me a shipping address.  If I don't hear from you in a few days I will pick someone else, but I hope you do check in to read this. 

To answer some of your questions, for info on High Flow acrylics and Golden Open Acrylics, go to Golden's web site or see my Tutorials page.  For information on acrylic mediums, go to Golden's web site.  For other brands, go to the manufacturers' web sites or see Blick Art Materials' videos.  The Utrecht matte medium does come in smaller sizes than the gallon I use.  Other brands of matte medium tend to be more fluid.

You can gain a lot of information by just playing with your paints.  Ask a specific question, and then answer it yourself by trying it out.  Can I use a hair dryer on acrylic paints?  Try it.  Is this paint opaque?  Try painting over black stripes or a strong color with it.  Can I mix brands?  Can I mix mediums?  What happens if I add loads of glazing medium to my paint?  What happens if I add water?

Ultimately, you gain knowledge of your paints by using them a lot, but the above resources, plus your own time and curiosity, will contribute as well.  Thanks for all your comments!!

Acrylic Paint Basics and a GIVEAWAY

I get a lot of questions about the basic aspects of acrylic paint - fluids vs. heavy body, opacity and transparency, drying time, different brands, and more.  So I made a little video demonstrating some of the differences between fluid acrylics and heavy body acrylics, including some student-grad acrylics, which are sort of in-between.  I also demonstrate a couple of things about opacity.

Read all about Golden Fluid Acrylics here. Watch a video here.

See an informational video about Golden heavy body acrylics here.

Utrecht Artist Acrlyics, owned by Blick Art Materials now

Holbein Acrlyic

All of the above are available at Blick Art Materials and many other art stores.  See my Favorite Materials Page for other suppliers (link in right margin). 

OK, now here is the good part: I have a set of Golden Fluid Acrylics to GIVE AWAY.

This is the set I'm giving away: ten 1-oz bottles of Golden Fluid Acrylics

To qualify for entering in the giveaway (randomly chosen), please comment on this post and make sure you identify yourself uniquely (not just "mary", but "mary in Illinois".  I will post the winner on Monday, and the winner is responsible for contacting me with a mailing address.  This giveaway is not geographically limited.

Next up in this "series" (not sure if it is a series yet) is a video about layering and drying time.  Let me know if there are particular topics you would like me to cover in "Acrylic Paint 101".  Think Basics, not fancy techniques but stuff about the paint itself.

Good luck!

Encaustic on Paper

I had another Wax Day the other week, with Jeri MacDonald (as soon as she gets her web site updated, I will post a link).  I love working with encaustic on paper.  This is 300# hot press watercolor paper, Arches, I believe.  We both work with encaustic medium, a few colors, oil stick or pigment stick, and a bit of oil paint. Here are a few of my 5"x5" pieces:

The pattern of circles on the left is incised with a stylus while the wax is warm.  Incised lines on the right, the dark ones, are rubbed with oil paint.

This one is probably not finished, well, definitely not finished. Not sure where it will go next.

The color in these that looks like Qinacridone Gold (an acrylic color) is Alizarin Orange.  I have it in encaustic paint and oil paint.

Out Takes from a Series

My last few posts have been about series I'm working on now:  the black and white pieces, and the neutrals.  For the most part I ALWAYS work in series; I always start with the idea that I will do multiple pieces exploring similar issues, whether it's color, technique, a certain combination of visual elements, or other set of parameters.  It is obvious to me, and perfectly acceptable, that not all the pieces I do come to a satisfactory conclusion.  Here are a few out takes, or I'll call them works in progress, from the neutral pieces I demonstrated in the last  post:

I may need to paint over more of this.  Letting it think a while.

This one is starting to look a little fussy to me.

I like the gestural, raw quality of the paint strokes in this one.

This one might be done, but I'm letting it sit a while before I decide.

Actually, this one is definitely done.  Love the minimal quality.

 Meanwhile, I still have the black and white series going, and started some 20"x20" pieces in addition to the 12"x12"s. 

Table full of Black and White Pieces in progress

Many of you know from my workshops that I emphasize working in series, or working in quantity, or at least working on several pieces at once.  It helps you let go of the preciousness of the individual piece, and explore an idea more deeply.  I am offering a one-day working specifically on Working In Series at Art and Soul in Portland this March.  Check it out here.  In my longer workshops we work on whatever the topic is, but always in multiples. 

Some New Work in Nuetrals

I've been experimenting with layering acrylic paint and scraping through, creating texture and line with a minimum of colors.  You can see some pieces I did about a year ago here.  Mostly I've done these pieces as technique demonstrations, but thought I'd try to take it a bit further.  Here is a video on some of the techniques I'm using:

And a few of the finished works:

You can see the whole collection at Jane Davies Art Gallery.  And learn the techniques at my workshops in Gloucester, Whidbey Island,  Rhinebeck (OMEGA), and Dillman's Bay Resort in Wisconsin.

Happy New Year!

Have you made art goals or plans for 2015? Do they include making bad art?  Or allowing yourself just to play without concern for a finished product?  Giving yourself time and materials to explore without goals?  How are your art goals framed?  What do you count as "success"?  What constitutes a "good" day in the studio?  What would be your ultimate ideal art day?

My bench mark of success in the studio is showing up and making marks.  Really.  If I show up and put some marks on a surface, it counts as a good day.  Whether good art or finished art shows up is another matter, and doesn't enter into this particular equation.  In art making, quantity breeds quality.  This is the basis of my 100 Drawings class, which has just got underway (another iteration starting in September), and it seems to be the case in my own art practice.  It's a working hypothesis anyway.

I posted last week about the black and white pieces I'm doing. They are really about mark-making, getting variety in the quality of marks.  I began another dozen of them today, and plan to keep working on them for a while to explore this non-color vocabulary.

Here is a video of me working on these black and white marks:

And these are some of the pieces at various stages of the process.  They are in no particular order, except the first and second images are the same piece.

Thanks for visiting!  Don't forget to play.