Rose. 5x7. Acrylic on panel.
This little experimental gem will be at the art show too! It’s a wild rose, done in Julie Ford Oliver’s fracturing technique.
Showing posts with label knife painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knife painting. Show all posts
December 13, 2013
Saturday is the Last Day for the Art Show
All this week has been the “Beyond Rocks and Trees” Christmas Art Show. It wraps up Saturday at 5 pm. Last week, just before the show, I saw my black and white cat streaked with red! I examined her closely thinking she’d been hurt.... Nope. Paint. Christmas pointsettia paintings, not quite dry, coated with cat hair (I’d left them on my art table... silly me!). So I quickly painted another poinsettia for the show, this time in acrylic....
5x7 acrylic on panel.
November 28, 2013
Commission - just open! In time for Christmas :)
November 25, 2013
Poinsettias
I've been doing up a couple of smaller pieces for the upcoming Christmas Art Show ("Beyond Rocks and Trees") starting next week. Since many of my larger art pieces tend to be fairly detailed, I love painting the little ones with a looser, more impressionistic style. I have been working on painting with a knife - a painting knife, sometimes erroneously called a palette knife - to accomplish that. Here's the first poinsettia of the pair I painted this weekend:
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| Poinsettia #1 5x7 mixed media on canvas panel |
Here are some interesting points about poinsettias:
- The poinsettia is also known as the Mexican flame leaf or Christmas star.
- The “flowers” are actually large bunches of colored leaves. In order to insure its festive coloring, it is essential that the plant received no light at night between October and Christmas. The slightest exposure to light during this critical period will often prevent “flowering.”
- Poinsettias come in a variety of colors from red, salmon, and apricot to yellow, cream, and white. Red, of course, is the most popular.
- Poinsettias account for one-third of sales of all flowering potted plants every year. More than 65 million were sold last year!
- The poinsettia is actually a small tropical tree.
- Poinsettias are native to southern Mexico and Central America, where they may reach heights of 16 feet with leaves measuring up to eight inches across!
- The Aztecs used the poinsettia leaves to dye fabric for clothing and the sap for medicinal purposes.
- The poinsettia is NOT toxic to humans or animals. This misconception was spread by a 1919 urban legend of a two-year-old dying after consuming a poinsettia leaf.
April 30, 2008
Earth Month
I have always been a "green person", or thought I was a green person... at home certainly, but in the studio?
April is "Earth Month" at Aspen Grove Studio. Earth Day and Wildlife Week are celebrated this month, and I've expanded them all to a month long. In the past, I've had studio sales where I've upped the donation percentage to conservation organizations, had various sale themes and it is the last chance to buy artwork at the posted prices. Usually, on May 1st, the prices go up, although not every year.
But this year I decided to do something different. This year I made a significant change, a commitment even. And a personal one - that will change the way I make art. I have painted in acrylics and oils for many years: acrylics in the studio, and oils outside or with extreme ventilation. As an asthmatic, and an artist who has children and pets, I could not use mineral spirits or solvents in the house. Even the so-called odourless ones left us all with headaches though the windows were wide open. And as much as I didn't want to admit it - it even occasionally bothered me painting outdoors. So, I looked to alternatives, most notably using cooking oil for cleaning brushes (not for painting!). A solution, but not as easy as solvents, as you need to massage the oil into the brush and repeatedly wipe, dip, massage. Or else carry tons of brushes. Of course I LOVE acrylics in the studio, but outdoors they dried too fast - or I wasn't fast enough!
While I have always used painting knives for accents in a painting, I've never used them for the whole painting before. An internet search showed up very few artists who used this method. And a book I have by Kevin McPherson states that you can't get the range of marks that you can with a brush. Many artists have tried it and given up almost immediately because it felt too foreign, too clumsy and just too darn hard to give it a real run. What can I say, I can't turn down challenges like those, especially in the light of going solvent-free!
I have played around for the last couple of months with my knives - some of which I gave to my Opa (grandfather) for his birthday when I was nine. That was a LONG time ago and they are still as good as new! I have played around in oils and acrylics and while I still struggle for ways to create marks on the canvas like I used to, I must say I am hooked! The marks they DO make are very interesting and with practice I think they will be up to par with brushes. And in the mean time, one gets creative. Another thing I love about them, maybe even more than the lack of solvents, is the ease of clean-up! So easy, so fast - one wipe with an old rag and you are on to a new colour. No more washing brushes! Even though it was quite easy with brushes and acrylics - 2 tubs of water. One for the first rinse and one for the second, with the soap and water ritual saved for the end of the session. Now, I live in British Columbia, Canada, which has loads of fresh water - still. And it wasn't until I switched to painting with knives that I realized just how much water I was using! One painting may have been a week's worth of water for an entire family in Africa.
So, this past April, Earth Month, I have made a commitment to "go green" in my art. I now use metal knives (never plastic) which don't wear out (= less old brushes going to the landfill), no solvents (= no health problems for me, my loved ones or the planet), very little water (= none for cleaning, only for moistening the palette), and I use and re-used old rags for clean-up. I also now carry less equipment to the field, saving my back. And there are also no concerns over airport security with solvents, or worrying about where to find solvents once overseas.
I welcome your thoughts and experiences with knife painting!
April is "Earth Month" at Aspen Grove Studio. Earth Day and Wildlife Week are celebrated this month, and I've expanded them all to a month long. In the past, I've had studio sales where I've upped the donation percentage to conservation organizations, had various sale themes and it is the last chance to buy artwork at the posted prices. Usually, on May 1st, the prices go up, although not every year.
But this year I decided to do something different. This year I made a significant change, a commitment even. And a personal one - that will change the way I make art. I have painted in acrylics and oils for many years: acrylics in the studio, and oils outside or with extreme ventilation. As an asthmatic, and an artist who has children and pets, I could not use mineral spirits or solvents in the house. Even the so-called odourless ones left us all with headaches though the windows were wide open. And as much as I didn't want to admit it - it even occasionally bothered me painting outdoors. So, I looked to alternatives, most notably using cooking oil for cleaning brushes (not for painting!). A solution, but not as easy as solvents, as you need to massage the oil into the brush and repeatedly wipe, dip, massage. Or else carry tons of brushes. Of course I LOVE acrylics in the studio, but outdoors they dried too fast - or I wasn't fast enough!
While I have always used painting knives for accents in a painting, I've never used them for the whole painting before. An internet search showed up very few artists who used this method. And a book I have by Kevin McPherson states that you can't get the range of marks that you can with a brush. Many artists have tried it and given up almost immediately because it felt too foreign, too clumsy and just too darn hard to give it a real run. What can I say, I can't turn down challenges like those, especially in the light of going solvent-free!
I have played around for the last couple of months with my knives - some of which I gave to my Opa (grandfather) for his birthday when I was nine. That was a LONG time ago and they are still as good as new! I have played around in oils and acrylics and while I still struggle for ways to create marks on the canvas like I used to, I must say I am hooked! The marks they DO make are very interesting and with practice I think they will be up to par with brushes. And in the mean time, one gets creative. Another thing I love about them, maybe even more than the lack of solvents, is the ease of clean-up! So easy, so fast - one wipe with an old rag and you are on to a new colour. No more washing brushes! Even though it was quite easy with brushes and acrylics - 2 tubs of water. One for the first rinse and one for the second, with the soap and water ritual saved for the end of the session. Now, I live in British Columbia, Canada, which has loads of fresh water - still. And it wasn't until I switched to painting with knives that I realized just how much water I was using! One painting may have been a week's worth of water for an entire family in Africa.
So, this past April, Earth Month, I have made a commitment to "go green" in my art. I now use metal knives (never plastic) which don't wear out (= less old brushes going to the landfill), no solvents (= no health problems for me, my loved ones or the planet), very little water (= none for cleaning, only for moistening the palette), and I use and re-used old rags for clean-up. I also now carry less equipment to the field, saving my back. And there are also no concerns over airport security with solvents, or worrying about where to find solvents once overseas.
I welcome your thoughts and experiences with knife painting!
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