experiment
How’s that gallery show coming along? Or: Why I redid everything
The work for the gallery show is coming along. Yeah, I’m behind schedule. But, yes, I’m confident I’ll get it all done.
I’m working on a lot these days, so I haven’t updated as much as I’d have liked. I’m going to keep at it to get all the information up here.
The work for the show is going to made up of four separate series. The first, called “Reflections” is about personal development and evolution. It’s also loosely based on Tool’s Lateralus album which deals with the same themes.
Here’s the work I did for the Reflections series in August and September just before our baby boy Patrick arrived. I was ahead of schedule and had five out of what I thought would be twenty-two paintings I needed for the show.
The originals: ahead of schedule
And here’s the work I did for the Reflections series in November and December. I have four for what will be seventeen paintings.
The re-dos: behind schedule
Why do some of them look the same?
Because I can’t use any of the originals and had to redo them all.
Why?
Here’s the story.
Fade out
The week after Patrick was born, I did some tests because I knew the Dr. Martin’s dyes I used would fade in sunlight. I’ve known this for years, but figured someday I’d deal with it. In the summer, when I discovered UV protectant sprays, I was confident I didn’t have to worry about the fading. BTW, the UV spray I bought happens to have an ingredient that causes cancer. I used it outside. And before Patrick was born.
But it didn’t work.
I painted a canvas blue. I added some purple and some bleach to see how the sun would affect them. Then I sprayed half of it with the UV spray. Then I put a post-it on the canvas. Then I left it in the window. This would create:
- Half a canvas exposed to sun
- Half exposed to the sun, but protected by UV spray
- A little square that was not exposed to sun
If things went well, the little square and the protected half would be a rich, deep blue.
But they weren’t.
Both exposed sides faded.
No problem, I thought, I’ll just try a different UV spray. The kind that doesn’t have an ingredient that causes cancer.
Same problem.
The Fugitive
So I did some research online. Turns out the UV spray is known not to really work, and the Dr. Ph. Martin’s dye-based Radiant Watercolors are not lightfast. I learned that “lightfast” means “doesn’t fade.” I also learned that “like all aniline dye base colors, they are fugitive when exposed to direct sunlight over time.” Also that they “are primarily formulated for graphic arts work on paper surfaces intended for reproduction.”
F.
It’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up
So now the search was on. I had a lot of questions? Should I pay for frames and museum-quality UV glass? Should I paint the show in oils? Should I cancel the show? What other paint can I use?
With an intention to paint all the paintings in oils, which I had learned to use just a few months before in early in ’09 …
… I decided to try some inks and watercolors first. During my research, I learned that Dr. Martin’s makes Hydrus Watercolors. Which are lightfast. I also learned about India inks (surprise, they come in more colors than just black) and acrylic inks. All lightfast.
I also liquified some water-based oil paint.
In the lab
Then I set to experimenting.
You may be able to see that I exposed half of all these squares to sun with a lot of tiny post-its covering half of each square. I also added bleach to some, because that turns the dyes to white and I’ve become pretty dependent on that affect. Unfortunately it only works with dyes and only the red Hydrus watercolor.
The winner here in terms of being vibrant, translucent, the right hues, and lightfast were the Dr. Martin’s Hydrus. I was actually rooting for them because they were the most similar to the Dr. Martin’s dyes and (despite their disappointing tendency to go all “fugitive” on me) I’ve grown quite attached to those dyes. And spent a lot of money on them:
It works! Now, how do I use it?
So, now I test the color choices I have and how they all work together. The Hydrus watercolors are a little tougher to find than the dyes and I had to buy some from Dick Blick and some from Jerry’s Artorama. They come in either three sets of 12 bottles (least expensive at Dick Blick), or individual bottles (only at Jerry’s).
Looks pretty good.
I also did experiments with my splattering, with various effects and with the red options. There’s no “red” there’s magenta and an orangey-red.
But the only way I could know for sure if I could change to this type of paint forever was to do a painting.
Winner!
Which I liked. So we had a winner: Dr. Martin’s Hydrus watercolors. (Imagine you hear trumpets. Or the theme when people win on the Price is Right.)
It’s a different look, but one that lets me express what I want to express. In a twist that makes one believe in fate or subconscious influence, of the media I work in, watercolor is my most comfortable. So by switching to the watercolors from the dyes, I’m able to use all my watercolor rendering skills, in addition to all the skills of color and value manipulation I acquired using dyes. So even though this was intense – because it was happening at the same time that I was learning how to parent a two-week old, and with the clock ticking on my first solo gallery show – it will be for the best.
Back to the painting board
Now that I knew which old medium, but in many ways, brand-new medium (I had painted in watercolor, but never in this semi-abstract style) I was going to use to paint these twenty-two paintings, I had to decide which paintings to paint.
What would I do with the original reflections series? Paint over them with watercolor? Paint over them with oils? Redo them?
It all hurt my head.
And when could I tell anyone about this? (Aside from Trish who supported me through the whole thing)
I decided (I think this was Trish’s suggestion) to paint one of the images from the Reflections series that I hadn’t painted yet. Conceived as an eight piece series, I had only painted five.
[SinglePic not found]So that worked out. The energy/fire part was different than with the dyes. Probably the biggest change/challenge.
I then stopped by the gallery to finally measure everything to see how all the paintings would work in the space.
That’s how twenty-two became seventeen paintings. The space is a little different than I thought and we can only fit a smaller number of paintings.
This was good news. Because at this point, it’s taking a long time to finish these paintings.
Buoyed by the painting test and the reduced number of works I have to make, I decide to redo the “Reflections” series.
Success!
I start at the beginning with “Assumption”
I move onto “Patience” which I knew would be the turning point for finishing the paintings for the show. It would require the most patience (intentionally), detail, and time. Once that was past, I could work with increasing speed.
[SinglePic not found]Finally I re-painted “Triad.” This painting has the biggest difference in all the re-paints, in the change from the ‘smokey’ energy effect in the middle I had in the original “Triad” to the ‘fire/crystal’ effect I have here. I liked the ‘smokey’ effect a lot, but, as with the other two, I like the overall painting more than the original. The switch is painful but ultimately, beneficial.
[SinglePic not found]So, phew. I’m back where I was a few months back. Slightly better for the journey. I’ve got four paintings in this series now because the wall they go on in the gallery can only fit four. I may paint the remaining three and put them on another wall, but only if I find I have time after I’ve painted the other thirteen paintings.
Back on track
Next time, I’ll tell you about how I had a bit of a meltdown over the weekend of Jan. 23rd, resulting in a very productive week following. After that, in a series of posts over the next few weeks I’ll tell you how I decided to have a show, how I learned this style, how I chose the models I’ve worked with, how I got the show, and how I chose the subjects for the paintings in the show.
New watercolors, new board
For all you the new people coming from Twitter: welcome!
I’m in the middle of getting ready for a gallery show and I’m experiementing with some new media to use for the show. I’m trying this media because it will last longer and not fade.
Below you can see the results of me trying out the Dr. Marten’s Hydrus watercolors on something I found at Dick Blick (on 13th and Chestnut) called Aquaboard. I tried to find a link to Aquaboard to show you what I’m talking about, but couldn’t. I’ll look again. What I did find is potentially life-chaging for me. Apparently the magic primer that turns canvas into a medium for watercolor painting is available: http://www.dickblick.com/products/schmincke-aqua-primers/
This could save me a ton of money and open up new canvas shapes like 48 x 24 and ovals. I’m pretty excited. Got to try some of this soon. But – here’s the point of the post, my latest painting. it’s 11 x 14 on Aquaboard.
Managed to get a painting done
The boy is less than two weeks old, but he (and my wife) gave me some time to finish a painting.
It’s my first with Dr. Martin’s Hydrus watercolors. I’m trying them because they allow me to do some things that the dyes don’t. More details soon. I did some experiments with 5 different types of media until I decided to move forward with the Hydrus. I’ll post the experiments and notes about them here.
Here’s the painting: Stoya Noir
Here’s the color study I did for it
Experiments with different media side by side
Experiment 3
[SinglePic not found]Tomorrow, I’ll explain the motivation and objectives of the three experiments I did this year and what it all means for the future of my paintings
I’m an Oil Man
I’m an oil painter now. I never really thought I would be, but a couple of things happened to give me the opportunity and here’s my first oil painting in 15 years:
I’m thrilled with it. It’s much better than I thought it would be. In fact, I was so sure that I’d make a bad painting that I had to give myself a pep talk before painting it. I focused on the fact that no matter how bad it was, it’d be the best oil painting I had done in 15 years. It helped.
I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with the control I had in watercolors first then later with dyes and to give that up with a new medium was not something I was looking forward to. However I am enjoying the newness of it now.
I’ll write more soon about oil and the new options it gives me, how it makes it easier to show in a gallery, and my horror story of the last time I painted in oil. I started typing it all up, but it’s taking too long and I’ve waited long enough to post about this.
More soon
Experiment #2
So here’s dyes on untreated canvas. Trish and I stretched the canvas ourselves. I had to get a lesson from the super-helpful woman at Dick Blick on 13th and Chestnut, because I literally missed that day in school.
I can’t really explain what’s happening here. It was a very weird experience painting this way, I think I’ll do it again, but it’s certainly not a replacement for the Illustration boards I’ve been using. Last week’s experiment went well, so that’s promising. Next week is oils.
I really struggled with this, it behaved differently than anything I’ve ever worked with and I had no frame of reference. While it was completely disorienting, it was very exciting. The water stayed put when I painted it, except when it didn’t. For example, the dark purple in the middle? It started at the right edge of the figure. But I took a wet one-inch brush and dragged on the outside of the right of the figure and the water from that seeped into the dark purple. As time went on (not much time, maybe 20 minutes) the dark purple slowly migrated to the center, where you see it in the picture. That’s messed up. Without knowing any of this, Trish said that the painting looked like a ghost of my other paintings. Little did she know the dyes were haunted. Funnily enough the effect that’s in the picture (who knows what I’ll see tomorrow morning …) is one I’ve tried ot achieve for years and years. So even if I don’t use this medium again, it’s reignited my desire to create that effect.
I have some ideas on some small touches I can put on it to finish it off. I’m also tempted to try it again because I think there’s a real loose, free kind of style that I can use here. You’ll see later this year if I get to it.
Breakthrough
I tried painting on watercolor-treated canvas and it worked. Hard to explain but canvas just feels more like art than the boards. I’m tempted to paint everything I ever painted all over again.
Update: added photo
Quick thoughts: more forgiving than the board, less bleed, backgrounds are snappier, modeling (form shadow) is possible, but requires more sheparding, need to know what I’m going to do in advance, but room for improvisation when I’m more comfortable. Hair is potentially trickier, but could be due to the fact I worked so much smaller than I’m used to (about a quarter of the size).