Water Street Art Gallery: demonstrations

Showing posts with label demonstrations. Show all posts

Monday, April 12, 2010

ANNE SPOON WILL DO THIRD THURSDAY DEMO FOR THE GALLERY

Our wonderfully talented Anne Spoon will conduct a still life demonstration Thursday evening, April 14, 6:30 pm, in the gallery classroom. You must not miss this treat. Her work is exquisite and her painting techniques well worth watching. Please join us and Anne in her first demonstraton at the gallery.

Also......Anne will be holding a two day workshop at the gallery in June, exact date to be announced. Come see her in action and sign up for the workshop.

posted by Dalsing

Thursday, January 21, 2010

MAKING PAPER, MAKING ART, HAVING FUN

THIRD THURSDAY DEMO.

We were fortunate to have Heidi de Contreras, gallery artist, demonstrate the process of paper making. Heidi takes it one step further and turns the result into beautiful art work.

For some of us, this was a new experience having not seen paper prepared this way before. Heidi started with a large bowl, assorted shredded papers, and hot water. Somewhere in the process, a food mixer came into play. She spoke of color and texture and how to achieve different effects.

We all got to try our hand at flattening the wet mixture into shapes and setting it to dry on newspaper. Much fun!

Heidi brought along examples of paper she had made previously and used one to demonstrate how she turns each into a work of art. Photos of the process are posted below.

If you were not there, you missed a great evening.

Posted by Dalsing

Friday, October 30, 2009

PAINTING DEMONSTRATION IN OIL

Water Street Art Gallery artist, Gail Booth, demonstrated her painting techniques and shared her philosophy of painting with a group of artists and fans on Thursday evening, October 29.

She talked about how she used her very large brushes and showed her palette layout and paint preferences to us.

It was a delightful presentation. Gail is an amazing artist and also funny and sweet and we love her.

Gail begins her landscape demonstration with a block in placing colors strategically to support the composition. Here Gail is using all transparent colors including Holbein's Transparent Orange, Alizarin Crimson and Thalo Violet to do her block in. First she uses a knife to transfer pure pigment to the canvas, then with very large filbert dipped into turps she spreads the wash on her canvas. Finally, Gail takes a cloth and wipes all over the surface to cover the entire canvas. She stresses that using tranparent colors allows the light to transfer through the layers of color and reflect back off the white of the canvas.

Gail used this glorious transparent orange to highlight and shine through the trees.

She adds definition to the composition, adding and adjusting values.

Gail turns to answer a question and we see the painting is nearing completion.

We were running a bit late so Gail ended her demo at this point in the painting. She will finish it in her studio and once completed, it will hang in our gallery for all of us to see. We will also post it on this blogsite.

EXCELLENT PRESENTATION.

THANK YOU, GAIL.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

FREE OIL PAINTING DEMO

Water Street Art Gallery artist Gail Booth will be demonstrating her technique for landscape painting. Gail does beautiful work using large brushes and juicy paint leaving distinct brush strokes.

Come enjoy this rare demonstration (Gail doesn't do this very often). Reservations not necessary.

Thursday, October 29
6:30 p.m.
16 South Water Street
Sapulpa

TIPS ON FREEZING OIL PAINT

In my oil painting classes, the issue of freezing the paint left over on your palette comes up often. I subscribe to an online newsletter written by Marion Boddy-Evans and this article is attributed to her. Pay particular attention to the latter portion that deals with freezing under water. QUESTION: FREEZING OIL PAINT.......... The tip about freezing of oil paints to preserve them between painting sessions, usually suggested as placing your entire palette in the freezer, in based on the fact that oil freezes are a very low temperature. (It's far lower than water.) Given the temperature a domestic freezer is usually set at, leftover oil paint put into it is unlikely to freeze because it doesn't get cold enough. I put the question to about freezing oil paint to Anne Marie Helmenstine PhD, About.com's Guide to Chemistry, who said: "The freezing point of linseed oil (the predominant oil in oil paints) is -20°C (-4°F). Most people set their freezers at 0°F, so oil paint will not freeze in most home freezers. "Oil paints work better when applied at cold or even freezing temperatures, but the paintings themselves are embrittled at low temperatures, especially if the humidity is low. It's fine to store your oils in the freezer if you're taking a break. The cold temperature will slow the rate of oxidation and evaporation, preserving the paint. But once you start a canvas, it's better for the painting to maintain it at a room temperature that's cool but non-freezing, otherwise the painting may become brittle." An article in issue no 12 of Golden's Just Paint by a "scientist who specializes in coatings" says this about freezing oil paints: "Oils also become more brittle when cold, but embrittlement occurs at temperatures below freezing. ...significant drops in temperature from 23°C down to below freezing at very low humidity can create stresses in a fairly young 13 year old oil paint film that will exceed its breaking point."1 The tip about submerging leftover oil paint in water to preserve it, is a centuries-old one. In a book on color published by the National Gallery in London, David Bomford (Associate Director for Collections at the J Paul Gerry museum in Los Angeles) and Ashok Roy (director of Scientific Research at the National Gallery in London) write: "...by early Renaissance times professional supplies of pigments existed ... Prepared oil paints were kept in the studio under water to prevent them from drying out."2 Of course traditional use doesn't always match modern scientific knowledge. Asked about submerging oil paint under water, Anne Marie said: "Exposing an oil painting to water or high humidity is damaging because it can disrupt the cross-linking of polymers, leading to a loss of adhesion (which is naturally poor because linseed oil is not a strong adhesive). "I would not recommend storing paint or a palette under water, since high humidity inhibits polymer cross-linking, weakening the paint. If the paint is sealed, this serves no purpose except perhaps to prevent rapid temperature swings. If the paint is not sealed, the high humidity can be damaging. Exposure to alkaline conditions may also increase the degree of yellowing over that which would naturally occur." And to quote from Just Paint again: "There are also chemical reactions that can break the polymer chains in oils. The most common is chemical reaction with water. This reaction is usually slow, but it gets much faster if the paint film is exposed to humid air under alkaline conditions. This becomes a problem if the paint is formulated with alkaline pigments or if it is applied over an alkaline surface."1 So although there's anecdotal evidence from oil painters who've put their oil paints under water and not seen any issues, and it's a practice with a long tradition, it isn't sound on a chemical level. But freezing oil paints, that's fine if you've a large enough freezer. Personally, I think I'll stick to using my freezer for ice cream. posted by Dalsing

RUSSIAN ARTIST TO SPEAK AT WATER STREET ART GALLERY

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Monday, April 12, 2010

ANNE SPOON WILL DO THIRD THURSDAY DEMO FOR THE GALLERY