ICONOCLASTIC ARTISTS...HOW TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

I have fallen into a pattern most days. I try to read for about a half hour in the morning before I get out of bed. Reading often acts like a sleeping pill at night, but I can focus better in the morning. Right now I am excited about this book "Iconoclast", which is someone who is an original thinker. I also check my e-mails on my computer while I eat breakfast. I signed up for this Artist A Day service. Each morning there is a new artist to check out. Many times I am not too taken with the art but today I was blown away. Talk about an iconic thinker! This guy does amazing things with a sheet of typing paper. Click on the blog title and it links to his website. He also works with bigger pieces of paper....much bigger. I always love when things link up unexpectantly, like the book and the Artist A day website.

In the afternoon I went to a terrific demo and hands on session sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society, with a representative of Atelier Interactive Acrylics by Chroma. I have been very curious about them and actualy bought a trial set but was waiting for this session to figure out how they work. They are in competition with Golden's Open Acrylics but I think these are more versatile. They are highly saturated and thick bodied but can be diluted with just water to a spray bottle consistency without loosing the acrylic bond! One set of paints can be used for the entire gamet of viscosity. You also can rewet the paint after it has dried and you can speed up the drying time as well as slow it down dramatically.

I have been wanting to try mono-printing for a long time but after reading the books on this process, I didn't want to invest in the various paints that it required. I thought slow drying acrylics might just do the job. So, that is what I played with this afternoon. I painted the image (guess who) on a piece of glass and then placed the paper on top. The first image was slightly marred because I used a brayer on the back of the paper and you can see the uneven marks. I repainted the glass and this time just rubbed the back of the paper with my hand. This print looks like a woodcut. The eyes are startling. I like the effect. There was still lots of paint on the glass, so I sprayed it with the unlocking solution (how you rewet dried paint) and got the last print. I think this one will look interesting with lines drawn on top. I am going to explore this technique further. Lots of fun and always a surprise when you pull of the paper. Isn't it nice that art is always full of surprises!