CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR!

I don't know where this expression originated but it seems to be appropriate for how I feel about the final results. The color didn't photograph very well and the odd dark shape in the lower right hand corner is the arm of my chair that I used to prop up the painting to photograph it. Still, I think I am on to something with this technique but I am not happy with this image. Her nose is too long, so it ruined the face for me. I think I removed too much of the ink. You can't see the effect of the bleach enough. This will probably see collage or gesso in the future. I think I will do the next one by totally covering the page with full strength ink and draw with a chalk pencil then bleach out leaving more of the ink behind. This painting is a full sheet. I think I will work on quarter sheets until I have the right combination.

Our branch library is closed for renovation, so I returned my books to the main library in downtown San Mateo. When I walked in there were arrows on the floor leading to a Friends of the Library 1/2 price sale. Well, I practically swooned! All the art books were marked $1 up to $3 and then they were sold at half of this ridiculously low price. I decided to be nice and leave a few books for other people. I paid a whopping $5.25 for my bag load of books which included a hard bound 1961 original edition of Faber Birren's "Creative Color". Signed copies of this book are going for $129 but, alas, no signature could be found. Since I already have this book, I will have to find a creative way to pass it on. Any ideas?

2ND BLEACH PAINTING EXPERIMENT

After completing the first bleach painting, I wondered what would happen if I used different dilutions of ink and bleach. That's what this painting is investigating. I let the computer do the hard work and broke the image down into 4 values, printed out the results and used that as my guide. I drew the shapes of the values in with a charcoal pencil and then painted away. This ink is decidedly blue when diluted. I let stage one dry, then went about bleaching out the ink areas. I diluted the bleach about 50/50 and it seemed to work. There was practically no odor, so this is a good discovery. I played around with a little stamping. I can't seem to help myself! I'm not sure if I took too much off or not. Tomorrow I will be sitting at Gallery Concord, so I will take my paints and put the color in. If you are in the area, stop by and say hi.

RUINED...WIPED OUT...RE-PAINTED!

Well, the glazing got away from me and I lost the light. Decided to use alcohol and wipe out the highlights. Bad idea. This is how you learn, the hard way! Well, the lifting was blotchy and the glazing had a seamless quality so the two didn't go together. I then decided to go more opaque and that finally killed the delicate glazed appearance that I liked in the beginning.

So now I can throw the thing away, go completely opaque or I can try and lift off much of the acrylic with alcohol. I opted for the last idea. The good news when you have ruined something is that what every you try next, it can't really harm anything. What a freeing feeling. I am intrigued with the idea that alcohol dissolves acrylic, so I wanted to see how this works. I put some alcohol in a dish and used a sponge roller to soak it up then I ran the roller over the painting a number of times. I took some paper towels and rubbed as much acrylic off as I could. This is the stage I took the first photo.

When the surface was dry, I reintroduced some charcoal. Next I brushed a coat of glazing medium over the surface, lifting the smeared charcoal in places. I worked back into the image with some additional glazing of a few colors, used a few stamps and then drew a little with a Japanese brush pen with permanent ink.

I like the final result. It is more mysterious, gritty and painterly than the first idea.

DAY 2 VARIATIONS WORKSHOP SLIDESHOW!

Here are the two demo paintings I painted today. One is on Tyvek and the other is traditional watercolor paper with some aluminum foil shapes, some acrylic medium resist and Dr. Martin's Hydrus liquid watercolor with GAC200 mixed in to adhere to the foil. You can make watercolor acrylic by adding acrylic medium to it.

Everyone was really into the assignments and did some fantastic work (as you can see in the slide show). Not everyone had their paintings at a finished stage, so I will be adding some more to the show tomorrow. Also, I am slow at learning names. I have left some names off for now and probably made a mistake or two assigning names to paintings. I was excited about the work and wanted to show it off tonight, but I will make additions and corrections to the slide show tomorrow. Be sure and check back! In the meantime, sit back and enjoy....

MINNESOTA "VARIATIONS" WORKSHOP DAY 1: SHAPE AND VALUE DRAWINGS

From San Diego, I flew to Minneapolis on Sunday. Today we started "Variations" workshop with 15 enthusiastic participants. Everyone is excited and working hard. I am seeing some great drawings and ideas emerging. Creating shape drawings in various modes fills the morning, then the afternoon is working on various value patterns for these drawings. Tomorrow starts the painting process. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. This is as much fun for me as it is for the workshop students. I will be doing a demo and then everyone will get to work. I will do my best to take some photographs to post tomorrow night.

Here are some variations and value patterns I created from one of my drawings to give you an idea of today's lesson. We are all working from the same image this week. Does she look familiar? I did a few paintings of this image the last few weeks as a warm up for the workshop.

YES, VIRGINIA, YOU CAN PAINT ON FOIL

Here is the final result of the painting I started the other day. The GAC 200 worked beautifully. I used Golden Liquid Acrylics diluted a little with water and then full strength in subsequent layers. I purchased the GAC 200 at an art supply store that carries all the Golden Acrylic products. It helped hold the acrylic to the foil. The fun part was brushing alcohol on the painting and rubbing some of the acrylic away, then glazing over. I also sprayed some on the background and the hair. I had a strong urge to add some of the oil pastels on top but decided to save that for my next painting. I also think I want to crumple the foil a bit before gluing it down. I got a little carried away with the neck. I wish I had brought the shoulders up higher. I have been reading a book on Modigliani and you can really see the influence.

RESURRECTION!

Today I decided to photograph my gesso transfer process for the new book. While I was covering up old, ugly paintings with white gesso, I decided to try an idea I had from the Brommer workshop. I covered another painting with red gesso with the intention to proceed with a collage on top. I think I need to re-photograph the transfer process because the photos are at awkward angles. I guess I need to put things on the floor and shoot down or stand on a ladder and shoot down.

There is something so liberating about resurrecting a piece of good paper with a bad painting on it from the scrap heap and turning it into a painting I like. By the time I finished, I'm not sure the red base influenced anything, but I had a great time working on it. I kept remembering Jerry Brommer's words of keep layering until you like what happens. There are a number of layers in play here. I also finally played around with a new product that was given to me as a gift by Kathy McChesney when I was teaching in Solano Beach. These water soluble oil pastels are called Portfolio (found in Michael's) and made by the people who bring us Crayola. It is a student grade product but WHAT FUN! Kathy does the most amazing paintings with them. I never figured out how to combine them with what I was doing until today.

I went to the website at www.portfolioseries.com and found some wonderful student work, and interesting projects by art teachers. One project, (under acrylic), was wooden chairs painted in the style of a famous artist. The kids did amazing work. Makes me want to create an entire set for myself. If you are looking for a dynamite way to create something exciting on a budget, check it out. Oh well, must stay on task Kudos to the talented kids and their dedicated, inspirational art teachers.