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

[View with PicLens]

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

[View with PicLens]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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