Day 25 - 30/30 Challenge - Workshop w/Robert Kogge part 2

Here's what I did with my day. 

I started the larger version of Monhegan Keeper's Quarters late on Saturday and worked on it all day today – building the color and getting the structure right. Only at the end of the day did I start applying the ink washes.

I really love how you can simultaneously work on the smallest of details with the colored pencil and yet retain the soft focus created by the texture of the canvas. 

There's a lot more work to do on it! 

I'm looking forward to finishing it and entering it in The Art Guild’s next exhibit - 

Home on the Range – Landscapes we love.

This technique, colored pencil and ink on canvas, was developed by Robert Kogge, an artist from New Jersey. I first took his class at the Art Student League a few years ago. If you can't get to New York to take the class, you find it online at Craftsy.

Day 24 - Jan 2015 Challenge - Workshop Weekend

Lighthouse Keeper’s Quarters, Monhegan

Sketch, colored pencil on canvas.

I haven't forgotten about the challenge and I feel genuinely guilty for missing the last two weeks. I did a couple of things but didn't post - I've been that busy - BUT I'm going to a workshop this weekend at The Art Guild. 
It's called Colored Pencil and Ink on Canvas with Robert Kogge. I took the workshop several years ago at the Art Students League, but I'm taking it again to sort of refresh my memory.
This is the working sketch I did. Because there is a bit of prep and explaining about the process Robert has his students work on a small piece to get the feel for the canvas and the ink washes. (I'll explain more tomorrow.)

Tip of the Day - Golden Absorbent Ground

That Leslie Saeta is sneaky. Sneaky in a good way. Sneaky in a way that forces me to write down a  technique I've been developing (though I know I'm not the first to explore it). I've done two paintings this way, and it's still a work in progress.

The Product

First it involves GOLDEN Absorbent Ground. 
Though it is an acrylic gesso-like product, it has a porous quality. You can use watercolor or acrylics (in a watercolor consistency) on it. Watercolors do retain their solubility and so the finished painting should either be framed under glass or sealed with a polycrylic (more on that later).

(I should give a little credit at this point. Several years ago, I watched [an amazing] artist Bennett Vadnais at Chelsea Mansion in Muttontown demo a plein air acrylic technique with Golden Absorbent Ground & other Golden products. In this particular demo, he used the acrylic like watercolor. I immediately went down to Utrecht and bought some.)

Bennett Vadnais, demo at Chelsea Mansion, Muttontown, March 2011

My Process 

This is the subject. The creek at Sunken Meadow State Park

Wooden panel - lots of companies make them in various sizes.

I paint three coats of the ground on the cradled wooden panel.

It is recommended to put a gesso ground down first when painting on a surface such as wood or masonite, though I confess, I haven't done that. I have sanded the board a little with rough grade sandpaper.

Then I just sketch right on it with pencil. Draw lightly because you can dent the surface (not a BIG deal, because you can fill back in). If you have trouble erasing, you can just paint over the area with a little of the ground.

Now, you can  proceed to painting as usual. The paint does stay where you put it more than on paper, but you can blend for longer periods of time. You can lift out color very easily without harming the surface. The pigment doesn't really flow like on paper. If you really mess up, and the paint has stained the area, let it dry and paint over the mistake with the ground. (You can also paint over any pencil lines (or whatever) you don't like showing, then paint the spot with watercolor.)

I continued to build depth in the foreground grasses with watercolor and colored pencils. The colored pencil sets up a little bit of a resist to the watercolor, so I can really push into the overlapping layers of grasses.

Finishing up

To finish and seal, I'll share a technique that my friend (and fabulous artist and teacher) Lois Levy told me about. 

First, I sprayed with Krylon (or similar) Matt Finish. Follow the instructions. Hold a few inches away, spray in a back and forth motion, cover, but don't make the surface wet (like a puddle). Be sure to do outside or in a well ventilated room. Let it dry for at least an hour or two. Lois likes to wait overnight. I was pushier.

From Lois: "Once this is done (I do it twice with appropriate dry time between each spraying) you are now ready to proceed with varnishing with a brush since the pigments are totally sealed in with the spray varnish. I use Minwax Polycrylic {Note: I used Benjamin Moore} water based varnish (see can image below).I brush it once gently horizontally, let it dry overnight then once vertically. Let it dry."

Note: DO NOT SHAKE the can, you must stir gently to use otherwise you will have a milky white finish due to air bubbles !!  Gently brush on one coat in one direction and then when dry apply second coat in other direction. Done!"

Ta Da!!! The Finish!

The layering and varnishing really adds to the depth  and luminosity. 

I painted this for The Art Guild's 10x10 Fundraiser and it sold immediately. Everyone was fascinated that it is watercolor and NOT on paper. They think it's oil. I've been sharing my process with lots of people in the past week or two.

I still love the look and feel of watercolor on paper but I like the final product with this technique and the versatility it gives me. I look forward to working with and exploring this technique in the future. 

I hope you enjoyed the demo. Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Day 2 - 30/30 Challenge, Round 4

Nest 

9.5" x 9.5", watercolor and colored pencil on Arches Hot-Press paper.

This is another painting I finished up on Sunday for a show at The Art Guild for our long awaited Re-Opening at Elderfields. I'm still looking for a perfect title. "Nest" is so obvious, right? Suggestions welcome! (Please excuse the poor photo.)

This little nest is on the kitchen window sill at Elderfields. It simply appeared one day – this amazing little construction of mud and carefully chosen grasses and viney sticks. Then there was one egg, then four. But suddenly the robins abandoned it. A little sad.

I'm working on some other things - both painting and non-painting, so I'm not sure what to show you next. We'll be surprised together!

I'll be reminding you every day that I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop. Anything $35 and more is 15% off. (The mermaid has to buy some picture frames for that solo show, you know.) Please use the coupon code below...

2012 Great South Bay Music Festival Mermaid

2012 Great South Bay Music Festival Poster

(If you are interested in a copy, please contact me. There may be some printed copies available)

2012 rolled around and the organizer/producer of the festival wanted a NEW Mermaid and a new look for the poster. We wanted to do something a little different and new, but again, the problem is always that the image and look must be easily adaptable to the variety of sizes we need. 

This was a tough one - I had an entirely different idea and I really LOVED it (and still do). It's a little conceptual, but, to me, in the land of poster design, it wasn't that much of a stretch.

But that one didn't fly...so, back to the drawing board. We moved her around, re-proportioned the festival and the water, but he felt he need to see more people at the festival (making the festival itself more important). 

Some more sketching and we/I came up with a "cartouche" style (is that the right word?) that would stand alone with the name and date and the schedule and other info would go on an area outside the scene.

Oooh THAT mermaid's face is baaaaad. I REALLY liked the other mermaid, so I photoshopped her into this new look.

See? Much better.

With a few revisions - adding a banner at the top, adjusting the banner at the bottom and making it a little prettier and flowy-er. and here's the drawing on the 140lb hot press Arches watercolor paper.

It's sort of light. Can you see it? 

Here it is close up

I like to play with the mermaid's jewelry. Earrings, necklaces and bracelets are so much fun.

I want you to notice that there are NOT hoards of people at the festival.

I love that bird (common tern, for the curious).

This is 21" wide, by 14.5" high and most of those little teeny people are 3/4" high or less. 

Watercolor, colored pencil and ink marker on Arches 140lb hot press paper.

Finally coloring in! The best part. 

I like to borrow from the past mermaids and then add something new. This mermaid is playing the guitar that the 2011 one is riding through the sky.

And, just to cut to the chase, here's the finished piece. Hand lettered. I would like to point out the billions of people in this scene. Every time I showed him the progress he would say - "More people! I want people to know it's a festival! That it's a happening place!" O.M.G. This was a really intense piece.

I had to buy stronger reading glasses after this. 

There are some really fun little people in there - a strong man, a hula hooper, a guy on stilts...lots of people.

As usual I had to scan and piece together in photoshop.

More borrowing: In the finished poster I used the sky from the first painting and the braiding and corner pieces from the second. 

Overall, I think the mermaid in this one is my second most favorite. So far, which is your favorite?

Next up: Mermaid 2013.

Day 10 - 30/30 Marketing Your Art Challenge + Four Boats & Save The Mermaid Parade

Four Boats, Bernard Maine

Colored pencil and ink on canvas, 9"h x 11"w - framed in a lovely walnut frame 13.5"h x 16.5"w 

$350

Today's Challenge on Leslie Saeta's blog was to start researching galleries to sell your art.
This is more of an ongoing challenge - not really something you can really do in half-an-hour - but it plants the seed and she gives a really clear check list including gathering, names and addresses, websites and phone numbers, researching who already exhibits there.
I am looking forward to the day when I have a body of work big enough, and consistent enough to approach a gallery.
Looking forward to tomorrow's challenge.

About the Painting
This painting was created after taking a class with Robert Kogge at the Art Student League, NYC. It's a really interesting technique that involves drawing with colored pencils on a clay-primed canvas. At certain points in the process you wash over your drawing with colored inks. when it dries, you continue to build up the color again. It is time consuming, but it really creates a unique illusion of depth and illumination. The photo reference is my own, taken in Bernard, Maine at the working dock and waterfront. Dozens of dingies in all shapes and sizes, wood, fiberglass and aluminum, line the docks on any given day, creating all sorts of interesting shapes shadows and reflections.
The painting has been shown at the Fire Island Lighthouse Annual Art Show 2010, The Monclair College, Robert Kogge Student Show, March/April 2011, and The Art Guild of Port Washington, Member Show 2011

Help Save the Mermaid Parade

And now a plug for one of my favorite events in NYC - The Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Superstorm/Hurricane Sandy was devastating to the Coney Island area. There was over four feet of ocean flowing through the museum, through the amusement parks, Nathans, and many other Brooklyn landmarks. They've been rebuilding as fast as they can, but it's expensive AND throwing one of the biggest and craziest parades in NYC is expensive too! With nearly a million people watching and participating in the parade, the financial boost to the neighborhood on the first weekend of the summer is key to the survival of hundreds of businesses.
If you live in the NY/NJ area - I highly recommend attending. It's like Mardi Gras meets the NYC Halloween Parade meets the Mummers meets the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Everyone is happy and dancing, there are hula hoops and glitter and pasties and endless imaginative costumes and floats. Not to mention thousands of mermaids and pirates, and sea (and space) creatures made of bubble wrap and solo cups.
Please, check out and give if you can to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade Kickstarter Program. I've provided a link to the site on the top right.

Thanks for looking!

Day 5 - 30/30 Marketing Your Art Challenge

Today's challenge on Leslie Saeta's blog is to make a collage of some of your work.
I chose to pick some old and some new pieces, some sketches and cards, but you can use anything really - I'll probably do one with some of my graphic design work soon.
It's really easy when you use ipiccy. You can choose from any number of layouts, switch stuff around add frames and effects, and when you're done, you can save it.
Here's mine for today:

From the top left to right:

• Row 1: Four boats, colored pencil on canvas; Blue Truck, North Fork, watercolor; Casa Pelligro, watercolor; After The Blizzard, watercolor; Fire Island Lighthouse, Sunset, oil pastel
• Row 2: Bayville Marsh, Oyster bBay, watercolor; Winter Vineyard, pastel; Evening, Greenport Boatyard, watercolor; Rescue Dogs, watercolor & colored pencil. This was a piece done after 9/11 and was part of the show at Society of Illustrators, NYC.; Mermaid for 2013 Great South Bay Music Festival, watercolor and colored pencil. This is for a festival in Patchogue, NY. Every year I do a new version of the mermaid.
• Row 3: Self Portrait with Carrots, watercolor & colored pencil; Osprey, pastel; Abandoned Farmhouse, watercolor; Coffee Pot Lighthouse, Orient Point, Sunset, pastel; Cat Bowl, acrylic on wooden bowl
• Row 4: Blue Kettle Still Life, colored pencil on canvas; Froggy Holiday, watercolor & colored pencil. This is one of the first Christmas cards I painted and sold.; Hidden Door, watercolor sketch
• Row 5: Lopas Point, Maine, watercolor; Ballerina Dress, acrylic on canvas. Painted as a custom piece for a friend's baby's room. Available on Etsy as a commissioned piece.; Winter, Yellow Farmstand, Orient, watercolor; Red House, Bass Harbor, watercolor; Yellow Still Life, watercolor.

Many of these pieces are available on Fine Art America, or at Greeting Card Universe, or on Etsy.

A Walk At Shu Swamp
Yesterday I took a little walk at Shu Swamp. It's a lovely little place in Mill Neck on Long Island, NY.

The light in the late afternoon, illuminating the millions of tiny leaves, is magical.

The skunk cabbage (and irises, not blooming yet) along the little brooks 

that snake through the property.

Ferny Fiddleheads

Is that a fairy behind that fern? Could be.

One of the huge tulip trees that came down in Hurricane Sandy.

Counted the rings - it was well over 150 years old.

Some of the tallest tulip trees in New York. 

Love looking up - makes me a little dizzy though.

And that's a snapping turtle (one of two) - he/she's HUGE! 

Yes, he is stalking the swan.

Great Blue Heron sculpture by F. Edwin Church.

Thanks for walking with me!