Painting for a themed exhibit

Normally I paint based upon inspiring things I have seen or places I have visited. I have thousands of photographs I have taken that I combine and morth to recreate a feeling I experienced or a vision that I think will draw others into my work. Lately I have decided to enter some socially themed exhibits and have found this way outside my comfort zone. Instead of starting with inspiration I start with someone elses concept and try to find something I share that fits the theme.

This feels much like being in school trying to answer an assignment; not something that makes the juices flow. Often I abandon the exhibit when nothing comes. Sometimes I can play around with ideas long enough until something that does inspire me finally arrives. Do you have techniques you use for these themed exhibits?

"Celebrate" (shown below) is the final work I created in response to the "Cupcakes for Claudia" exhibit in support of the courageous journeys of those coping with cancer.  The reception for the exhibit will be held on April 16th, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm.

Self Critique

You have no doubt read or heard about many approaches to critiquing your own work. Some include looking at the painting in a mirror, standing at a distance, putting the piece away and looking at it in a few weeks. All of these are attempts to have you look at your art in a more objective fashion. They can also force you to stop painting to assess, which may save you from overworking, a big danger for those of us who work in watercolor.

I have found that photographing my work as I go is a tremendous help to me. I generally photograph after each painting session on larger works. Writing down your thoughts about what you see in the photograph is also very helpful in forcing you to be objective. I note what I like and what is not quite working. This approach seems to help me see where I need to increase or decrease value changes or adjust the color. I am always surprised when I look at my photographed work, sometimes in a positive way and sometimes not. Either way I know I end up with a better painting in the end. This approach may help you; give it a try.

Here is a sample self-critique: Heading to Market (Comalaca, Guatemala)

I loved the soft shading I had achieved in the photograph taken in Comalaca. Because I was not feeling

well and wanted to rest, I had stayed on the bus while everyone else went into the market. After I

started to feel better I spent some time photographing Guatemalans as the went to and returned from

the market. I was sitting in the bus taking photos through the windows, but I was interested in natural

gestures and body shapes in these photographs, not posed vacation photos. This photo, like many of the

others I took that day, were rather out of focus and distorted because of the bus windows, which were

far from clean, but I found this actually helped me be more creative in my painting.

I wanted to achieve a soft edged painting, which meant I had to work very wet‐into‐wet to allow edges

to blend into the next shape. Although I spent a moderate amount of time deciding how to place

the woman in the frame of the painting to make an interesting scene, I also decided to play with new pigments that I thought would granulate and make interesting soft textures. 

I had just gotten some paint from Daniel Smith, including free tubes I had never tried before, so I had to

experiment to see how each behaved. I tested which granulated and which were opaque. The colors I

chose to use in the watercolor painting are listed here. The colors I used the most were:

• DS French Ochre
• DS Roasted French Ochre
• Holbein Manganese Blue
• DS Cobalt Blue
• DS French Ultramarine
• DS Ultramarine Turquoise( in the sweater)

For her face I used:

• DS Deep Scarlet (the very lights skin tones (like in her hand – I used only this pigment with great deal of water to make it very light)
• Holbein Manganese Blue (in the most shaded areas where I wanted the blue granulation)
• DS Rich Green Gold (in the highlights on her cheek and chin)
• A very small amount of the following colors were used as very pale washes to add pale tints of color.
• Rose of Ultramarine 
• Phthalo Blue

In the far background I used some Vivianite Genuine, however I felt I got better grays mixing my own so I did not use this in the balance of the painting. This is a lot more pigments than I normally use, but I felt they allowed me to get some great variations that I wanted in this painting.

Keep Painting

Guatemalan Family, acrylic and watercolor,  20" X 28" image

Guatemalan Family

fluid acrylic and watercolor

20" X 28" image
28" X 35" brushed golden frame

$1200
 

 

Frequently when working in watermedia the paint has a mind of its own.  It runs around the paper doing all kinds of things you haven't planned.  Normally this is just what watermedia artists love in the finished work because the appearance is something you can't achieve with other media.  However, other times the paint does things that seem overwhelming.  This blog describes such an accident that would have made me stop the painting when I first started to use watercolor.

The slideshow below shows a portion of a recent painting of a Guatemalan Family where the fluid acrylic yellow ochre background ran across the woman's wrist and across the waist of the standing woman.  The acrylic dried so quickly I was only able to wash it off the standing woman's waist, but not off the wrist.   The acrylic had absorbed into the cold press watercolor paper within s few seconds.   I feared I had a disaster on my hands. 

Since I had just started the painting I considered stopping and starting over, then thought I might as well keep painting and see what happens. 

At the time of the first photograph in the slideshow I had put a pale flesh colored wash over her face and her arm to see whether it had any affect on the yellow ochre acrylic run across her wrist.   You can see the run was still very obvious.

I decided to let the paper dry thoroughly and then continue to paint the woman's dark skin tones and clothing to see whether it covered the acrylic run.  All of this was done in transparent watercolor since that was my desired medium for the figures in the painting.

To my surprise, the transparent watercolor had covered most of the run.  It is only obvious on the right edge of the wrist.  See the second painting in the slideshow.

I knew the skirt of the standing woman would be dark blue, so I kept painting.  At the time of the third photograph only the light part of the skirt was complete, but the blouse of the standing woman was done.  The faint run of acrylic at the waist of that figure can no longer be seen.

In the last photograph, the dark skirt is complete and the yellow ochre acrylic is no longer obvious.

Its essential not to panic and try to scrub out the paint or paint back in too quickly.  The result will be to damage the paper and then the eye will be drawn to the damaged paper and an overworked spot will always standout.