Next Carnelian exhibition mentioned in the press

A friend has managed to get the next Carnelian exhibition - at Michaelhouse Cafe, Cambridge in November - into the October edition of Cambridge Magazine, which is absolutely brilliant and really kind of her to go to the trouble.

It can be found on page 9 of the online version: Cambridge Magazine

No pressure, then! I better get moving....

However, I wasn't wasting time today. Had a great morning with Lyz Gardner - an Ely-based artist I first "met" on Facebook and then in person at Cambridge Open Studios. She paints landscapes with oil pastels. Her facebook page is here: Lyz Gardner

I have had that medium sitting in a cupboard for years and thought it would be good to try this medium out with someone who knows what they are doing. Back for another session with her next week, putting into practice all the techniques I learnt today. Fingers crossed I am successful - if so, it will be posted here at some stage. Nice to try out other medium and I want to see if I can mix these pastels with other medium as well - I hear a play session coming on....

Starting monochrome series

I have always liked Indian ink and the things you can do with it. This is probably why I ended up using acrylic ink, which reacts in a similar way when certain techniques are applied.

Having done many paintings in just acrylic ink, drawing with the dropper, I thought I'd try using black ink in combination.

Sunflowers are available at the moment and drawing with just yellow on white paper doesn't really work with my normal technique - not enough colour contrast. This is a combination of the two inks - don't know if it worked, but one always needs to do a little experimentation every so often....

I then thought it would be rather nice to do some monochrome pictures, foregoing my usual bright colours and just relying on the textures created by the inks.

After a few disasters (where I remembered too late that Indian ink is indelible - so if it looks quite good - leave it, don't fiddle and add more, because it doesn't work....) - I ended up with this one of sea holly. This is actually a combination of Winsor and Newton Indian ink and also their drawing ink. The former is an intense black and waterproof, the other is more subtle and not waterproof - the combination works well, giving me areas of more delicate pigment alongside intense areas.

This is a closeup of the flower head itself. I was really delighted with the textures achieved here. I wasn't sure how I was going to indicate the detail - with acrylic inks I mixed different colours together, but here I didn't have that option. Salt would give some texture, but I wanted more. So I transferred some of my rubbing alcohol into a small bottle with a dropper - combined the two products on to the wet ink and hey presto - a lovely texture. This is why it is always good to have some play time to experiment - you never know what you might come up with.

Think I am going to head upstairs again to try some more of these. I always feel that not everyone wants incredibly vibrant paintings (like my acrylic ink ones) so I want to get some different ones done for the Michaelhouse exhibition in November.

I have picked up some interesting things from the hedgerow whilst out on the dog walk - lots of berries/dried foliage available at the moment. Must remember to take secateurs next time, along with gloves and a bigger bag - love teasels, but they are pretty vicious on the fingers! Also found out that fresh cow parsley doesn't last - wilts almost immediately so will have to stick to sketching out on the fields or bringing home dried stems. However, angelica keeps going in the vase for days, so definitely going to try that in this series.

Discovering Underpainting for Pastels - Part 2

Just realised there was someone else I enjoyed watching on YouTube - so here is part 2:

Another lady I have found who does loose watery underpaintings for her pastel work is an Australian lady called Leesa Padget. I found a few videos on YouTube done by her. This was really useful, as you can see just how dribbly she gets the pastel when she wets it. The link to the one I found really useful is here : Leesa Padget 
She blocks out colour with soft pastel on her underpainting, but then wets all of it with alcohol. I asked her, on her YouTube site, a question about using the alcohol:
Leesa - great video, thank you. I occasionally use pastel and have heard of using alcohol for the underpainting, but never quite understood how to do it. Watching your video I think I can attempt this technique. I assumed that one washed the brush out each time one changed to a different area of colour, but you go from light to dark with the same pot - and also use this technique to "set" some pastel later on.

Her reply was this:
Hi Lynn, thanks for the lovely comment. As for the alcohol, you can reuse the same jar for quite a few paintings, the pastel particles will settle to the bottom after a while and as long as you don't disturb them the top part will be clean.

Great to know this, as I would have thought it could have been a pain if you had to wash out the brush every time - and although I have been able to obtain rubbing alcohol online, I haven't found it locally, so I want it to last as long as possible!

I am going to have to get upstairs and try some of these techniques. Only problem is that I can't fit a full size solid easel in my studio, as it is in the eaves and the roof is extremely low. For the underpainting techniques done by the artists mentioned on this and the previous blog, you need to have the paper/board upright, to encourage dribbles. However, I have just invested in a table one - not as brilliant, as I think standing up to do this technique frees you up, but needs must....

The only other thing coming up for me in the near future is a couple of sessions with an artist over near Ely, who I had conversed with on Facebook, but also went to her Open Studios in the summer. We have organised a couple of private workshops together - so that I can learn how to use oil pastels. She does amazing landscapes in just this medium and I would really like to know more about them. I have had some (both the basic Pentel and also the Sennelier ones) for a while, but never really used them to any great effect. Watch this space....

Discovering Underpainting for Pastels

Last November I went to West Dean College for a course on pastel painting with Sarah Bee. She opened up my eyes to exciting posibilities with soft pastel - namely underpainting. Up until then I had just layered the pastel and painted on typical pastel paper that comes in a pad. I never particularly liked the colours that comes in the pad - this stems back to me being a watercolourist by nature - I just love seeing the white of the paper showing through. The other problem with layering pastels like this is that you have to really totally cover the paper, as that paper can fade in sunlight, thereby changing the whole character of your painting.

Sarah Bee has a really novel approach - that being painting on a very loose acrylic underpainting - and that is on top of a textured surface of clear gesso - in fact the placing of the texture is just as important as the rest of it. Well - searching the internet for information today, I came across an article that came out earlier in the year from Jackson's Art Blog. It was promoting Sarah Bee and the Pastel Society's exhibition at the Mall Galleries. I actually went to this exhibition (on the recommendation of Sarah, who said I would be amazed at what people were doing with pastel nowadays - she was right). At the exhibition was the painting she had done as a demonstration at our course! It was great, as I had never seen it finished. The link to the article is here: Jackson's Art Blog about Sarah Bee The painting she did for us was the last one ‘Warm Rocks and Cool Water at Haytor Quarry’.

Since then I have discovered a couple of other artists who do interesting underpaintings to their pastels. Karen Margulis is an American artist who I have mentioned before. She does underpaintings with a number of different mediums and she is very generous in describing how she does it, step by step. Here is a link to her website - all you need to do is type "underpainting" in the seach box on the right and an myriad of blog entries come up -all really interesting to read: Karen Margulis

In one of her blog entries, Karen mentions another American artist, called Richard McKinley. She had been on a course of his and found him inspirational in his approach to pastel painting. This blog entries, with lots of tips, can be found here: Richard McKinley

I discovered recently that he had done a DVD on underpainting - so I bought it and really enjoyed it. Obviously it only touched lightly on the finished painting, but what I want to do is not quite the same as him - I want to leave more of the underpainting showing, so this was the section I wanted to concentrate on. This DVD can be found here: Bold underpainting for lively pastel landscapes There is a certain amount of theory on this DVD, but I don't think there is any harm in going over this information every so often.

A few more for the sketchbook

I have been rather quiet since the Open Studios - catching up on all those things that needed doing, but were ignored while I was getting ready for the exhibition! Then of course holiday - but hopefully I'll get back to the drawing board soon.

However, I have done some sketching. One of the most interesting places I have been over the summer months was with a friend I sketch with occasionally. It is called Lyveden New Bield - a National Trust building in Northamptonshire - link here Lyveden New Bield It is an Elizabethan building that was never finished and so looks like ruins.

It was rather a complicated structure to draw - especially as it had no roof, so one could see through the unglazed windows to different areas. This is a pencil drawing of one facade - not brilliant, but I have never said I was good at buildings!

This was drawn from the same position as the previous one, but turning my stool to see another wing.

We then moved to the opposite side of the building to see what would have been the main entrance - although there had never been any steps leading up to it. This sketch was done with my Rotring Art Pen and wash.

Later on in the summer I went to Houghton Mill with the local art club. I have done this National Trust building before - and never again. It is extremely difficult to get a likeness due to the many angles/windows etc. So, while others decided to accept the challenge of the building, I went for a wander towards the meadow leading to the Hemingfords and sat down in the long grass by the river to sketch wild flowers.








You may have noticed that I have introduced colour into these sketches. Although I drew with the Rotring pen, I then added a watercolour wash. One of my fellow club members has introduced me to some amazing watercolours - really vibrant (which is, of course, what I love). I have been anti using block watercolours since the ones I have are really difficult to get enough pigment on to the brush. The brand (which I had never heard of before) was White Knight - link here White Knight watercolours When you unwrap the colours you are immediately aware that they are much more sticky than the normal pans - almost halfway between pan and tube in consistency. Anyway, I think these will feature much more in my sketching....

Don't know what this flower is, but there was quite a lot of it about and added some lovely colour to the area.

When I came back to meet up with the club members, I wanted to do another quick sketch - and found a swans feature lying on the ground. They are simple, but I just love the shape of feathers.

Another club location was Fen Drayton Lakes (an old gravel pit site, which has now been turned over to the public). I just sat and sketched this tiny island in the middle of the lake.

Last week the club met up at Holywell, down near the pub on the river front. Just along the road there are some really pretty cottages, some of them thatched. Attempted this one, but not very successfully. Thatched cottages are very quaint, but they have some really devilish angles!

Returning to opposite the pub, there is a lovely view looking along the river. Occasionally there were people on boats passing by - what a lovely way to spend a Friday morning, pottering along the river. Anyway, apart from them, there was only a few swans and other water birds around. Mind you, the pub landlord did ask whether the seal was around! Obviously not that day, as I saw quite a few fish near the bank and he said they disappear if the seal turns up - understandably....

Only did a couple of sketches that morning - then up to the pub garden for a pot of tea with other members and shared ideas etc with them - very enjoyable.