PAINTING STYLES and a CHATTERBOX

A book that I read about, selling your art, encouraged artists to have just one style of painting in order to become more saleable. I could understand the reasoning behind this, but for me, I thought that it seemed a bit boring. I suppose I tend to have a different style for each of the different mediums that I use.
With encaustic wax, (as in the picture above), I tend to do landscapes or abstracts that are nearer to fantasy than reality. With pastels, I tend to portray animals and birds. With acrylics, I paint somewhat realistic pictures, especially my favourite; bluebell woods. With watercolour, I love to experiment with vast landscapes. With mosaics I just have fun, and enjoy the feel of turning tiles, glass and other oddments into pictures. Lastly with sketching, I enjoy capturing a memory on paper to bring home and have forever. Why would I want to limit myself to one style? Yes, a style emerges within each type of medium, but why would I want to lose the choice of waking up and thinking, " Yes, I feel like the freedom of encaustic wax today," or, "I feel like painting a place that I'd love to be walking through"?

I like having multifaceted artwork.

When I was small my next door neighbour used to, affectionately call me, "chatterbox", as I would follow him up and down, the low fence dividing the gardens, chatting to him non-stop, when he was trying to have a peaceful time gardening. If, " Your style is the way you talk in paint," then long may I continue to be a "CHATTERBOX!"

The Problem With Watercolour Painting

I do watercolour painting, (as in the moorland above), I love the feel of it, but find it much harder to get a good effect than with other types of paint. The thing I don't like, is that if you make a mistake, that's it , there is no going back. Also, you have to plan your picture in advance to leave all the areas of light that you want on the paper. I like acrylic paint because if you make a mistake, you wait for a minute and you can paint over it.

Watercolour has it's attractions though. It is rather fun not quite knowing what the paint is going to do when it spreads into wet paper, and also it's very useful for putting colour into line and wash.

I was looking at a book this week called, "Loosen Up Your Watercolours (Collins Artist's Studio)by Judi Whitton. It was very helpful as it was deigned to help you stop yourself "filling in " everything, which is my problem.

If you want a look at some of her pictures, you can have a look at her "Online Gallery" here.

How to Draw - Some Advice on Art

A quote by Howard Ikembo,
When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"

Why is it that just about every child freely enjoys painting or drawing , but if you say to a group of adults that they are about to paint or draw, a look of panic passes over their faces. Is it that they have become too worried that what they have on paper is not perfect? Or have they had unkind words spoken over their work in the past that has made them too afraid to try? I would think that it's a mixture of both.


"Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud." by Alex Osborn


I'd like to encourage everyone who hasn't painted for years, to get out a pencil or paintbrush and have some fun on paper. It doesn't matter if the end result isn't perfect, but you may end up with a wonderfully, happy picture like Reuben's one above.

A Squirrel in Pastel

If I paint animals or birds I often use pastels, like on the squirrel here. Maybe it's from my caveman roots, as ancient pictures of animals have been found on cave walls since prehistoric times, done in a pastel-like pigment or charcoal. There is something very satisfying about having a box full of chalk like pastels in different shades of every colour. I also like to have some pastels that look like pencils, which I use to add on fine details. A useful book for learning how to use pastels in a variety of ways, is ,"Beginner's Guide to Pastels", by Angela Gair. It covers, the best pastels, paper and equipment to use, expressive strokes, blending, layering, scumbling, feathering, and much more.

Lastly, my most IMPORTANT advice for using pastels, (so you don't have a dirty-faced embarrassing incident like I did once), is, "ALWAYS LOOK IN THE MIRROR, AT YOUR FACE, BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE, AFTER USING PASTELS!"

Learn to Paint Abstracts, and Encaustic Fun

I read a very interesting book this week called, "Abstracts (Collins Learn to Paint)", by Laura Reiter. I don't do many abstracts and was interested to see what they were all about. I found the "Working With Collage" chapter helpful.
The nearest I usually get to doing abstracts is using encaustic waxes, on a day that I don't feel like doing a traditional picture. I cover my food warmer with glossy junk mail, (I always knew that there had to be a use for it), then I put my card on the food warmer. Next, I drip wax from the encaustic iron onto the card and blow the melted wax around with my hairdryer. It is incredibly therapeutic! Occasionally I try to direct the wax into a dramatic sky, but sometimes, just like a very young child, I see what I think it looks like and then add a few details. It's the sort of thing that everybody should do at least once in their life.

A quote by William Baziotes,
"Each painting has it's own way of evolving. When the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself."

A Pastel Parrot and a Happy Memory

Once we were with a small group in Spain. To advertise a local event taking place, we were doing balloon modelling in the local Plaza, and then giving them away to children. Lots of children were coming up asking for particular things to be made. The translator, (who shall remain nameless), usually rather good at translating, said that the children were asking for parrots. Parrots were duly made, but it became obvious that lots of the children were walking off with their parrots, looking surprised, disappointed and then puzzled. Eventually, the translator realised ,that he had misunderstood, the local dialect, and in fact the boys were asking for swords! This explained the disappointed looking boys we'd seen. They had asked for a sword and we had given them a parrot! We changed over to making swords, which was a lot easier. Later we laughed and laughed at our mistake, and the bemused look on the boy's faces. When we returned home, I drew this parrot, in pastels, to remind us of that funny occasion.

Acrylic Art Painting - Free Online Lesson - Bluebell Wood

Work on a canvas covered board or acrylic paper. Do a rough sketch, showing where you want the trees and paths to be, until you like the composition.

To stop your paint from drying too quickly and save washing up your palette, put several layers of wet kitchen roll in a container. Then put some grease proof paper/baking parchment on top. If you put your paint on this you can stop your paint from drying out too fast, and just throw the paint-covered paper away at the end.

Paint the sky onto the backgound. Make sure that you are happy with it, as it is hard to change easily once you put trees on.















Next, mark in where you want the grass to be. Make it dark, as this will give you some dark background colour.















Paint in your trees, using a variey of shades, to give them a textured appearance. Make sure that you have worked out where your light source will be coming from.















Keep checking your painting against your view, or photograph.



















Add in some bushes on the horizon, and the leaves on the trees that are going to be in the distance.















Add in some more leaves, the path and start to define the grass in the foreground.















Add in more grass and some shadows.















Paint on your Bluebells, remembering that they are larger in the foreground. Maybe add a tiny silhouette of a deer in the distance.















Finally, put on your last highlights and touches. This painting will have a nice texture. If you have done it on canvas board, you will only need a frame, not glass.

A THOUGHT FOR SUNDAY

Genesis 1 v 27 - "So God created man in His own image........"

A quote by Leonardo da Vinci,

"The painter's mind is a copy of the divine mind, since it operates freely in creating the many kinds of animals, plants, fruits, landscapes, countrysides, ruins and awe-inspiring places."

An Encaustic Storm , Painted in Wax

A quote by Plutarch,

Painting

is

silent

poetry.

A Page From My sketchbook - Greece

A quote from Tintoretto,

"You can never do too much drawing."

I don't buy souvenirs when we go on holiday. I take along my small sketchbook and do a drawing. Sometimes, I use watercolour pastels too. I end up with a book of wonderful memories to look at from time to time. Some are good, some are not so good, but to me, they all evoke a feeling from where we were. Today's sketch is from a water sports holiday in Greece. In the mornings all the boats, for people to use, were lined up along the water's edge. Whilst my husband windsurfed, I sat myself on a sun lounger and drew these wonderful boats that vanished into the distance. What a lovely memory for this grey and wet day in Tadley.

An Artist's Thought for Sunday

A quote from Michelangelo,

"The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection."

A Happy Artist's Finished Mosaic

I was very pleased to finish my mosaic today, and am happy with the finished result. Actually, the truth is that I need to screw two hooks into the back to hang it, but that's easy. (Famous last words). I love to grout mosaics and to finally see the individual tiles come together as one picture. The grout covers the tiles with a powdery white surface and then there's the excitement of polishing the powder off to reveal the shiny image. It's a shame that a photo can't truly catch a picture, as the mirror tiles, (which just look black in the photo), have bursts of light, just like when you look at a sparkling sea.

A quote from Scott Adams,

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

My Mosaic One Stage On

I have got a stage further on my mosaic. All it needs now is the grouting. I added some mirror tiles, as the vast sea started looking a bit plain. They catch the light in an interesting way. I took out some of the blue tiles and added some darker ones, to try to lead the eye up to the cheerful lighthouse. I decided to glue on a lighter shade of blue for the sky. I think I'm quite pleased with the effect now, although it was a bit hard to photograph.

A quote from Claude Monet,

"It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly"

Mosaic in Progress

I spent a happy morning gluing pieces onto my mosaic picture. A nifty little tool I bought, to score the tile and then snap it, has helped considerably to fit pieces into awkward places. Safety glasses are a necessity though. I have glued the waves at the bottom, and am working upwards. I haven't glued the boat on yet as I keep wondering where to position it. I'll have to decide soon, so that I can put the rest of the sea on. The bottom of the boat is lovely, it came in a box of glass off cuts that I bought on eBay and is dichroic glass. Someone's pendant that went wrong I suspect. Well it certainly makes an interesting feature. Their loss, my gain and I love to recycle bits and pieces. Hopefully, I'll finish it this week and then I can do the lovely process of grouting, which makes the whole picture suddenly come together as one. If you fancy a go at mosaic, why not click the link at the side of this page, to see a book that explains all.

A Picture That Always Makes Me Smile - a Thought for Sunday.

When my son was about five he did this picture for a Sunday school mini-competition. He was delighted to win a giant size Mars Bar,(as did many of the entrants.) I have to say, it's value is worth much more than that to me. Not because it's my son who did it, although that obviously helps, but because whenever I look at it, it makes me smile. I always called it, "The Happy Shepherd," because the shepherd looks so jolly, pleased and totally in charge. Although two of the sheep look quite a long way off, on the second hill, you somehow know that the shepherd isn't worried and everything is going to be OK. Several years after my son did this picture he said to me, "I could do you a much better one now." How do you explain, to a young child,that it's value isn't in how well executed it is, but in what it expresses and how it makes you feel? Maybe we should remember when we do our own artwork, that although we want our pictures to be perfect, that isn't the whole of what makes paintings precious. It also makes me remember that even if we feel we are in a place in life that feels a bit risky, that the Good, Happy Shepherd is there and is in charge. That's something to smile about!

Mosaic - The World's Best Jigsaw Puzzle

We went to Hobbycraft in Reading today, to buy some more glue to get started on a mosaic. I was looking through the book, "Design Sourcebook Mosaics" and the pictures were so amazing that it inspired me to get going on one again. I love doing them. I call it "The world's best jigsaw puzzle," because not only do you get to put the pieces together, you also get to decide what the picture will be. I have some off cuts of shelving my husband made, to work on, and various tiles and glass pieces, I've gathered over the years, just sitting waiting to be made into a picture. I can't wait to begin. I'll put the photo up today of the first one I did a few years ago. It sits proudly on my kitchen wall. I don't think I cut the pieces as you are meant to though, because after getting fed up with trying to shape the tiles for the sunflowers, I put the yellow ones in a box, covered them with a plastic bag and smashed them with a hammer! A bit unorthodox, I suppose but, it worked.

Switzerland - A Page From My sketchbook

I was hoping to go out today, to take photos that I would be able to use as a basis for a collection of paintings of my local area. It has rained all day and been too dark for photos, so I gave up the idea. While pottering around doing other jobs, I came across my sketchbook. This time two years ago I was in Switzerland enjoying the beauties of a snow filled winter. I found it quite challenging working out how to portray snow, especially as the temperature was so cold and I had to take my gloves off to draw. I also discovered that no matter how remote you think you are, if you get out a sketchbook someone will appear out of nowhere wanting to see what you are doing. They usually appear when your picture is at it's worst! The memory of that beautiful place brightened up my dark and gloomy day in Tadley.

A Child's Eye View of Colour

A few years ago I was doing some voluntary work teaching art in a school. I was horrified to find that most 13 year olds seemed to be very hazy about which primary colours mixed together to make other colours. I therefore worked hard at teaching this carefully with some four and five year olds a little later. I took a little group around a table, took the primary colours and said. "I am going to show you some very, very special colours. With these three colours you can make any other colour in the whole world, apart from white, black and grey." They looked reasonably impressed. I then took some yellow and some orange and asked what they thought would happen if I mixed them. They weren't really too sure, although, as with most five year olds I had a whole variety of peculiar answers. I slowly mixed the yellow and red paint to reveal the answer. If I had pulled a rabbit out of a top hat I wouldn`t have got a more amazed reaction. All their eyes were wide open, and looked at me as if I had done something truly amazing. We went on to paint autumn trees with red, yellow and orange dotty leaves. During the following week a little boy, called Dan, came up to me and said, "Mrs Whittick, that art lesson was so wonderful, I dreamt about it this week."
I wish adults could retain that sense of wonder in colours, and the amazing things in this world around us. Let's get back to exploring colour, shape and texture with all the enjoyment and wonder of a child. I wish I could show you some of the art work that they did, but instead I'll put up autumn photos, I took, of trees in all their colourful glory at Winkworth Arboretum, owned by the National Trust.

But Is It Art? A Visit to the Tate Modern.

A very noble act occurred in December, after a works Christmas party, (that included a night at a hotel in London), my husband, "The Big G," offered me a visit to the Tate Modern. On entering, I was a bit concerned about how he would react to the art on offer, but hopeful that he might keep his voice low enough so that those around wouldn't hear him say, " I could have painted that!" I loved seeing the amazing work of Salvador Dali and was fascinated to see what else was on offer. We enjoyed trying out the sliding doors exhibit. These were a series of mirrored doors, in a row, that opened automatically. If you managed to stay in the middle of a set of doors without them opening, you saw yourself over and over again endlessly. How pleasant that is, depends on how much you like yourself I should think.

I also loved watching people go down the giant slides that went roughly from the top storey down to the bottom. The commentary on this said that the idea behind the piece was for the people to become part of the art work. People definitely became part of the construction. I thought it was a great idea and it looked tremendous fun. For all of us whose childhood didn't include those wonderful foam filled, ball-pooled play zones that are available now, it looked an amazing way to have a taste of them, BUT IS IT ART? I was left wondering if that made all the play zones and swimming pools with slides, art? Is it art because the the artist says it art and others agree with him? If the designer says that the Basingstoke Aquadrome Swimming Pool slides are art, does that make them art? Is it art because it was designed by an artist, or are all the other slides in England art too? Who decides? What do you think?

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, some pieces I loved, some I hated and all were thought provoking in some way. I should think that the artists would be happy with those reactions. I did think there must be a skill in persuading others that the way you have arranged a group of bricks is special in some way, or that the way a canvas has a slash in it is of tremendous importance.

By now you must be wondering how "The Big G" survived this immersion into the world of modern art. Well, his comment on leaving was, "I think they should sack the cleaners there, they've thrown out all the art and left the rubbish behind!"

I thought that was harsh as a sweeping statement on all the exhibits, but I must admit I did secretly agree that some left a bit to be desired. What do you think? Is "The Big G" like the boy who correctly shouted "The emperor has no clothes!" or is he just a cynic?

All pictures that I have uploaded onto this blog are the copyright of Sue Whittick and not to be used in any way without her permission.