by diana
October 3, 2011 in Methodology by diana
When: Sunday, November 6, 2011. 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where: ArtWorks, 201 -2nd Ave. S., Edmonds, WA 98020
Fee: Members $65 and Non-Members $90
by diana
October 2, 2011 in Process by diana
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Glaze Painting with Acrylics |
| Painting with glazes was the preferred method of the renaissance period, and is still a widely used technique across paint mediums and genres. The reason for this popularity is the incredible color vibranciesand depth gained through layered transparent layers. Essentially, the light penetrates layers of paint and bounces around, lighting the composition from within and bringing life to the work. Because it is a thin layer process, it requires some patience, but is so worth it! I first learned of this process as a freshman is college. I teach it the way I first learned it. Keep it simple, and let the students discover a few of the many potentials. So, gather some “scrubby” brushes and be prepared to move that paint around.
Step one is to create a value study under painting in burnt umber. This will serve as a monochromatic base upon which you will build your glazed painting. If you are painting from an image, reduce it to grayscale. My students use gessoed, stretched canvas or canvas board, but gessoed and sanded panel is by far the best support for the process, due to the smooth surface. If your composition includes water or big sky, you want a smooth surface to start. Begin with the darkest values, and using a blend of glazing medium and burnt umber paint in a mix of about 1:3. THATS RIGHT 1 part paint to 3 or 4 parts glazing medium. This mixture will be about the consistency of chocolate syrup. Now, I will tell you that in terms of glazes, this is a thick mixture. (In my own work, the mix is often 1 part paint in 10 parts medium.) For starting out, the 1:3 mix is sufficient to experience the process and is a bit less demanding. If you use a hair dryer you can complete the under painting of a simple composition (highly recommended) in a couple of hours. Save your ambition for the process on this one. So, get started glazing in burnt umber layers, building the depth of the dark areas, layer by layer, until you have a full value scale in your composition. You have about 10 minutes or 20 with a few drops of water added to the glaze, to work each layer before it starts to get tacky. Do not keep working a layer after it has become tacky. You must allow the paint to dry completely between layers. After a few layers, you will understand why I said a simple composition is best. It will take several layers to achieve the darkest values. Use single, primary color, glazes to build secondary and tertiary colors on the canvas. A few layers of ultramarine glaze over the darkest burnt umber areas will yield a warm, rich black. If you alternate the ultramarine layers with cadmium yellow or ochre, the result will be a nice foliage green. The transparency of layering makes the paint colors blend optically. For pastel ranges, use layers of zinc white, which is more transparent than titanium. I can not overemphasize the need to limit the use of white. In class I allow it, very sparingly, only in final layers for skin tones and highlights. Using white in early layers will create a dead, flat, effect which is the death of transparency, unless you plan to re layer color glazing. Now, I will say this: If you have a pale yellow vase in a sunny window composition, you can layer zinc white in early stages on the brightest surfaces. Your process will be one of bringing it forward and knocking it back, layer by layer, to achieve depth and surface molding. |
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by diana
October 2, 2011 in Process by diana
Over the years my studio has held a number of geographical locations, sometimes even occupying more than one location. I’d sooner live in the studio than not have one. The best possible situation for me is to have a home, separate from studio. It has about the same effect as separation of church and state, and is generally better for living a balanced life.
Working with mixed mediums adds dimensions to the challenges of being an artist. For me, the work space is the first place to minimize a few of the challenges. We can’t possibly do it all in one life time, so much the less likely to do it all well. Do more with less, is a good motto…borrowed from a friend.
My workspace
Stone, wood, clay, and plaster in 2 bays of the garage workshop. Painting and clean studio at the 3231 building. I gave up welding, except for my jeweler’s torch. Hot work is also in the garage. Shop surfaces include a large, long table of rough wood, about 7′x 3′, and a 15′ bench. Tool boxes are stored under and over the bench. Open gorilla shelving holds materials I use often. Two crates of stone occupy one corner, with several large boxes of rattan and gourds on top. A utility sink is near the interior door. A five drawer chest, and two smaller jeweler benches live just a few steps west. Downsizing to this from a 35 x 48 converted foaling barn was painful, but beneficial.
Time is a commodity
I paint more than sculpt, at the moment. I spend 6-8 hours 5 days a week as gallery manager and teacher so I can afford to work as an artist for what I hope is an equal amount of time. But, that means 12-16 hour day. 6-9 daily hours as an artist are divided between study, process, and marketing. Some weeks predominately creating, other times marketing, always learning and pondering. I do other things, of course. There is some cross-over, thankfully, which allows me to gather with friends and acquaintances for a drink or coffee, yammer about grandkids, art and opportunities, or engage in a heated debate about the price of eggs. (One day we will solve all the worlds ills, if we can just agree on how to go about it.)
by diana
September 27, 2011 in Arts & Culture, Human Interests, Influences, Process by diana
How do we know a person is ‘nice’? We know it when they DO the things ‘nice’ people do. Nice people do not seek destructive purposes or ends. Nice people aren’t always smiling and pleasant, but we tend to think of them that way. It’s hard to imagine someone who is scowling as being nice, isn’t it?
Aura -available in digital print
We all know people who are not nice. But, we can love people who are not ‘nice’. We can love people we know will not love us in return. We can continue to be ‘nice’ in the face of adversity, and we can subdue the forces of hatred only by refusal to submit to uncaring. It’s not as difficult as one might think, to love someone who does not return the sentiment, if we do not expect others to behave in kind. It’s one thing to hope for it, but quite another to expect it.
It is possible to love everyone, genuinely. It is possible to be kind to everyone. Loving kindness does not imply trust or intimacy. Nobody can steal what you have freely given, abuse or even deny it. Others may refuse what you offer, freely. Again, if it is offered without expectation we do not succumb to feelings of rejection or anxiety when our love is refused.
Angel Kissing Dragon
If am man is dying of thirst in the desert, he has no interest in anything, other than a drink. If a person has suffered some loss… a job, a loved one, etc., they may not be in a place to accept loving kindness. Many people are suspicious of it, and inherently distrustful of anyone who offers such caring. Do not let this stop you from being a loving and caring person! Recognize this tendency as a result of a long term shortage. People distrust what is unfamiliar to them. They may feel threatened by what is, essentially, unknown. You can feel love and be kind without forcing it on people.
Whole Music & Art Class Project Image
Everyone has a right to learn in the time and manner and place of their own choosing. It is certain that we will learn, and grow, if we live. We can not raise another persons’ awareness without their express consent. We can not teach anyone anything unless they agree to three things: 1) to learn and 2) to learn from (specific indivudal/s) and 3) to learn in the time and place that the lesson is available. No matter how much you may want to help others, you can not do so unless or until they are ready and willing. It is the universal no fault agreement. There is no fault on you, or on another person, if that agreement is not reached at a specific time and place. It is the hieght of arrogance to assume that we are tooled or equipped to save another person, or that we might fix what is not broken to begin with. People who hate are not broken. The people they hate not broken. People are only divided by, or in, how they perceive things.
Many people never realize they are not the victim of their own emotions, but the source of all the feelings they experience. It is important to know that every thought generates emotion, that emotion is energy IN motion… not a static sensation that resides only within us. What we think about things determines how we feel about them, not the other way around. We can change how we feel by changing how we think. Not only for ourselves, but everyone within the area of influence. A single person can enter a crowded room and completely change the ‘mood’ of the crowd, effectively managing the flow of emotion (energy in motion) within the room, for better or worse.
When a ‘nice’ person enters a room full of angry gossips, the sniping tends to come to a grinding halt. There may be some attempt to draw the nice person into the group mindset, but unless the nice person agrees to join in, the group dynamic must shift in the direction of the ‘nice’ influence. Funny, how that works. It’s the no fault universal agreement, again. The angry gossips are not willing to accept, the nice person is not willing to change, neutral ground is established, for a time.
When a nice person comes into contact with an unrestrained angry mob, there is no neutral ground and a mood shift is unlikely. The emotions of the angry mob prevail as energy in motion, sweeping up everything in the path like a tidal wave. In water there is wisdom, however. If we recognize the pattern and influence, we can (B*) avoid the situation, (A*) bring sufficient force to reverse the tide, or (C*) surf.
Everything in the universe, including people, performs the same vital function: to transform and transmute energy from one form to another. Whether by eating, osmosis, exposure, exchange, birth, death, breathing, using fossil fuels, creating this or that from this or that, or what have you… it all serves this purpose in some way. The process is the purpose, and the way. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!
*** Essentially there are three choices in any circumstance or situation. (A)Positive, (B) Negative, and (C) Neutral. Positive would be assertive, taking action, causal, and/or acceptance. Negative would be passive, inaction, refusal, avoidance. Neutral is the middle path and central pillar. This is when we make lemonade from life’s lemons, and float or surf on angry mobs without becoming part of the angry mob. It can be a bit tricky to learn to recognize each of these three influences in any given situation or moment, but all three are always present, and always available. Mastering the use of these infuences is, perhaps, the ultimate achievement. It has been done, by a few people, or saints and saviors, in each century.
by diana
September 25, 2011 in Arts & Culture, Communications, Influences, Process, Visual Art, VIsual Languages by diana
Q. What is a visual language?
Well, that depends on who you talk to. For techno geeks, it’s a mark up code. For visual artists, however, it’s a unique language made up of shapes, colors, symbols, glyphs, composition… literally every design element in the work. It’s the artists’ personal communication mode. Needless to say, some are fairly easy to read, others are not. An artist might well choose to make their language specific to a particular type of viewer. For example, if the “target” audience is blue collar workers, the artist would select design elements in the subject and composition which blue collar workers can identify and relate to. Another artist might tailor the language for romantics, or for a highly educated audience.
Generally speaking, an artist is not considered “mature” until a unique but consistently interesting visual vocabulary is developed and evident in the work. Mastery of the medium alone, is not enough. Technical proficiency takes second place to voice and vision for the vast majority of savy art lovers, collecttors, and critics. Why? Because the truth is that anyone can learn to paint with technical proficiency, given the willingness to study and practice. Talent has nothing to do with technical proficiency. But, talent is required to “create” something that is timely, timeless, sets a mood, or is memorable. The same is true of photography, acting, music, dance… what makes it art is the soul or spirit imparted by the artist/s and shared by the viewer.
by diana
September 23, 2011 in Arts & Culture, Communications, Human Interests, Influences, Politics, Visual Art by diana
moral dillemma
What happens when you separate church and state? First, you don’t have to. The two are like oil and water. They don’t really go together. The state or governance operates independent of religion and morality. A great many people confuse morality with religion. As muxh as religion clammers for power relentlessly, you can see how church is at odds with the politicians.
Law and morality… oh, wait! Law and morality dont go together anymore, either. But, then, how the heck can anybody get justice? Well, we don’t. All anybody really gets is the black and white letter of the law. The soul of it, morality, has been segregated. We are a people governed by laws which are not driven by morality of any kind; where truth is held to be self evident, but not sacred.
The same can be said of art. Some time ago, a campaign was launched against the morality code for good art. It has been determined that “it’s all good.” The question is, by whom? That was the question which launched a thousand sins, to begin with. Who decides what is good? It’s not a question which can be answered in a court room of black and white letters, or in the venerable halls of the senate, or even on the cutting room floor in Hollywierd.
Good and bad are equated with right and wrong in the western culture. It’s not just good and bad. Its not just black and white. I
t’s good and evil, isn’t it? Bad art is thought to be evil, a concept handed down to us in the dark ages by (guess who) the church, and continues to be mandated by churches (at least, in this country.) It probably doesnt help our cause as artists that one of our best advocates was Larry Flint. Ground is won in this battle inch by inch, and the subtle shifts in public mindset are not always easily discernable. Majority rules, after all. That is sacred, if nothing else is, in this country. Popularity rules in the election, the mob rules in the legislature, the Lemmings rule the day.
I say it’s easier to separate church and state than it is to separate good and bad art, precisely because bad art isn’t evil… it’s just bad. Good art isnt always beautiful, and bad art isnt always ugly. It isnt subjective aesthetics, so the matter is out of the hands of the viewing public. Artists and people knowledgable about art determine what is good art, as it should be. There is no honor and no power in it. Bad art will still sell, and often better than good art. We need not fear the fashion police, the design demigods, or the gallery guru’s. We need not kill the critics, and we are ill advised to silence them, despite the fact that they stir up the Lemmings from time to time.
The moral of this foray is: That a thing is bad does not infer it is evil. That a thing is beautiful, does not infer that it is not evil. Wouldn’t it be nice if all things which were ultimately destructive and evil were also ugly and easily identified? But the truth is, the most insidious evils present as things which are, at least, highly desireable and very appropriate. That is today’s share.
by diana
August 1, 2011 in Uncategorized by diana
Welcome!
The old blog bit the dust. The new blog arises from the ashes. Sorry to have lost so much, but glad to have some sharp new digs. I will get the sidebar slider working, in due time, and have a nice display of images rolling.
So, for those who may not have seen the old blog, a brief refresher about this blog:
The plan is to address visual languages, from basic premises for the lay persons to advanced principles for the seasoned artist or art lover. I am going to share information, great discoveries, and my whole whacked out sense of wonder. People seem to find it amusing, at least… and enlightening, at best.
There is a pathetic shortage of information made available to the general public about how to “read” art. Small wonder, then, that many people do not understand art. I have been confronted by angry gallery visitors more times than I can count, who look at art with a sneer because they feel as if someone is having sport with them. Typical comments are, “My 3 year old paints like that.” or “I don’t now much about art, but I know what I like.” These comments often elicit a haughty raised eyebrow from gallery reps. Nothing is gained by the prevailing ‘if I have to explain, you wouldnt understand’ mindset.
So, I will hope that some who happen by will also share with us, amuse us, and enlighten us. There is no more genuine way to care for someone… unless, of course, you are immortalizing them in stone. 
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