tracyfeldmanartblog

Second in Series of Lancaster Central Park Pictures

2012-03-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

Library in Late Winter
Watercolor on Canvas
10 x 8"

Library in Late Winter -- This little watercolor on canvas is the second in a series of paintings I’ve done based on feedback I got about photos I posted on my blog. It’s of the winterberries against the Shuts Environmental Library on the grounds of the Lancaster County Park. In the 1700’s, the original owners of this federalist style farmhouse probably owned the land on which the county’s Central Park now sits. I believe the home was derelict for many years, and I am so glad that that instead of tearing it down, they turned it into the environmental house in 1991. You can see a distant side view of the same building in the background of my previous painting, “Oh, You Nut ... hatch.”

I’m also going to post it on my gallery on the Dailypaintworks site.

Hope you enjoy it.

Daily Painting -- Oh, You Nut ... hatch

2012-03-02T10:35:00.003-05:00

Oh, You Nut ... hatch
Watercolor on canvas
10 x 8"

Late this winter, I took a number of pictures while on a day out in Lancaster County, and I posted them on this blog and on my Facebook page. I asked people what they wanted me to paint some day. I got a number of responses about what people liked, and then promptly got too involved doing business-related things on the web to remember to do that. Yesterday, I was thinking, "What to paint today?", and I remembered my commitment. So I looked over the pictures people said that they liked, and this is the result.

This picture is of a white breasted nuthatch hanging from a pine limb at the Lancaster County Central Park. I love watching these natural acrobats zip up and down, and around and around a tree. They're easily distinguished from other small birds because they hang upside down as they quickly circumnavigate the tree to unearth bugs underneath the bark. I think this behavior of acrobatically arching away from the tree is their way of getting a general look around.

Shuts Enviromental Library
Lancaster County Central Park

For people who are interested in how I make compositional decisions when I paint -- particularly starting with photo references, I've provided the two photo references I used to create this piece. I'll share the process I went through with this little painting.

I looked over what people said they liked and thought would make interesting paintings. I also considered comments they offered. A couple of people liked the pictures of the nuthatch, but when looking at it, I agreed with one comment that said the background was dull. If you look at the photo of the nuthatch below, you'll see what I mean. The colors are dull and their values too close to that of the bird to be as eye catching as I wanted.

Original of nuthatch

I quickly realized that a logical alternative background would be one located within the Lancaster County Central Park where this nuthatch shot was actually taken.

I chose the long view of the park's environmental library (pictured above) as the new background because it was interesting, but also distant enough to remain secondary to the nuthatch in the painting. If you notice, I chose to paint building and its surroundings in softer focus, and with paler hues than the original to keep viewers focused on the bird. I also slightly altered where the little evergreen branch was in the foreground, and placed my signature in a way that visually linked the tree limb and the little branch. In so doing, I provided a visual path down the limb, along my signature, up the branch to the nuthatch.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions about this -- or future work. If you want to look into purchasing this piece, go to my gallery page on Dailypaintworks.com

Daily Painting -- Little Ball of Fur

2012-03-01T10:32:00.002-05:00

Little Ball of Fur - Watercolor on Canvas, 12 x 12"
I'm posting it as a "Buy It Now" option
on my Daily Paint Works Auction for $60

This painting started out as something else. I had an image of my nieces' black cat that we took on this wonderful cushion. However, as I painted it, the color I got wasn't a black I wanted, but it was a chocolate brown that I liked. So, I decided to go to make the animal that color. However, after a little while, the painting seemed to beg to morph into an image of a puppy.

It's strange. That doesn't often happen when I'm painting. Normally, I have a pretty clear image of what I want when I start a painting. But, this painting's "call" came to me made me remember hearing something various authors have talking about. Writers said that sometimes as the wrote, certain characters just forced them to change how they, or the story evolved. So, in the name of artistic flexibility, I lengthen a leg here, lighted an shadow there, added a highlight on the puppy's snout, and out came this cute little ball of fur. Enjoy.

Later today I'm posting it on my DPW gallery page as an experiment, I normally post works as part of an auction. However, I'm going to try the "buy it now" option and price it for $60.00 to see how that works.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions.

Daily Painting -- Hammers of the World, Unite!

2012-02-29T09:37:00.000-05:00

Hammers of the World, Unite!
Still Life, Watercolor on Canvas
12 x 12"

I did this daily painting to enter into one Dailypaintworks.com painting challenges. The challenge was called, "You Know the Drill". The tried was to create a still-life using things that you found in your shop. I loved that idea because in my family I am the handy one. I shop in home improvement stores like some women shop for shoes, so I had lots of "subjects" from which to choose. When I spotted these hammers, the image of them in an arch in the strong light on our wooden floors popped into my head because I knew how much deep shadows would add to the image. I quickly realized that my normal 10 x 8" format would not do it for this topics, so I chose a square, 12 x 12" format.

When I did the sketch for the piece, and noticed how the cup hook looked like a sickle, the title for the piece also popped into my head: Hammers of the World, Unite! It appeals to my "reality with a twist" sensibilities.

A number of artists wrote me with questions about the process of doing watercolor on canvas, and their questions prompted me to experiment with the way I approached this piece. For instance, a couple of people asked how I prepared the canvas to work; others asked about how I handled glazing (painting in layers) since paint lifts so much more easily from the gessoed surface of canvas than it does from the more-absorbent watercolor paper.

My first experiment involved playing with how I prepared the painting surface. I normally don't do anything, but this time I used a Kirkland wet wipe on part of the surface to see how that later affected how well the watercolor stayed on the surface. I noticed that while the wipe was great for lifting the watercolor sketch lines, where I used it sometimes did seem cause my watercolors to have a harder time grabbing the surface than normal. Thus, in the future, I won't be routinely wiping down the surface with a wet wipe before starting to paint.

Another experiment I did when working on this piece dealt with glazing (creating layers) on the painted surface. For that, I went to one of my the watercolor instruction books, Building Brilliant Watercolors by Judy Treman. Judy creates beautiful, dramatic watercolors in a somewhat unusual way: she created an underpainting in purples before adding local color to her pieces. While doing a value underpainting is a classic technique in oils, it is not standard in watercolors where people need to worry about their colors getting muddied if their under-colors lift when glazes of other colors are placed on top of them. Treman's works, however, don't have the problem because purple tends to be so staining. Thus, the layers of purple underpainting tend to stay put as she glazes the final colors over her underpainting. Treman's "trick" for doing this involves not only the use of staining purples, but assuring the underpainting is dry throughly before she begins her final glazes. The neat thing about the color is that after the final colors are glazed over her purple under paintings, the purple "disappears" -- but the values established by the purples remain.

When I finished my research, and got down to painting, I started out by doing what she suggested. I created pools of purples of varying intensities and temperatures each in their own bowl, then I used them to create an underpainting for this piece. However, I adjusted how I applied the underpainting colors because I realized that I the color's normal staining properties wouldn't make them stick more to a gessoed surface. Thus, I tried out something I suggested to one of the people who had written me in response to a piece I wrote for Empty Easel. This woman wanted to know how to create glazes/layers in a watercolor on canvas. I suggested to her that dipping one's brush in a little matte acrylic glaze (along with the water and the paint) might both help the under-layers of color be less vulnerable to lifting when other colors were worked on top of them without also interfering with ability of the later glazes of watercolor to adhere to the canvas. I told her I'd experiment to see what I discovered. This piece is the result. I used my various purples (with matte acrylic graze) to create an underpainting. I then grazed, and lifted, and glazed again and again over the underpainting until I got the image I wanted. The intensity of the underpainting was maintained, so I'd say this experiment was a success.

I'm entering the piece in the Challenge today, and it will be available in my Dailypaintworks Gallery for auction. I'm going to make the starting bid $35 (instead of my normal $25 or $15) because it's a larger piece. I'd love to hear your comments, questions, suggestions.

Daily Painting: The Dark Side of Sweets

2012-02-27T14:33:00.000-05:00

Dark Side of Sweets, watercolor on canvas,
10 x 8"

This piece was done in response to a painting challenge on the Dailypaintworks.com website. The challenge was to do a picture of something yummy that you might want to eat before you finished the work. I loved the idea of that, but as a compulsive over-eater, sweets are something I've given up eating because I know they could trigger a bout of over eating sweets, and savories, or whatever was around. People in my program warn against eating such things by reminding ourselves that for us, "One bite is too many, and 1000 is too few. Thus, when I think of candy, etc., this dark side of enjoying them helps me not choose (no matter how yummy the sweet looks) to avoid that first dangerous bite.

That idea gave me the concept for the piece: presenting candy mostly cast in shadow, so their "dark side" was featured.

I'm also including this piece in this week's auction on in my Gallery on the Website. Check out my Gallery, and bid on it if you want to. I'd love to hear your feedback on this piece.

Oops -- about comments & responses

2012-02-27T08:17:00.001-05:00

I am still learning how to blog, and I want to apologize if it looked as if I wasn't responding to the comments posted. They can forwarded to my email, and I'd been responding to them, and assumed that my response would automatically get posted on my blog. WRONG.

Fortunately, one of my sisters pointed out gently that I hadn't been seeming to respond to comments, and that helped me realize what was going on. (Thank you, again, my sweet sis.)

So, I have found and reposted my responses.

"Daily Painting" 5 -- Lovey Dovey

2012-02-22T16:13:00.000-05:00

Lovey Dovey
Watercolor on Canvas
10 x 8"

As you can probably tell, I painted this little still-life from life on the run-up to Valentine's Day. It contains the bag I used to give my husband his little Valentine's gift. A heart shaped container that housed a previous year's gift and a wonderful, ceramic craftsman-style trivet given to us by friends one Christmas (I think because the think of us as love birds.) I placed them all on a tablecloth we have in our kitchen because the old-fashioned lightness of the design was consistent with this old-fashioned homage to V day.
Hope you enjoy.

Even though it's not Valentines anymore, I'm including it in the auction this week on my Gallery on the Daily PaintWorks Website. Check out the Gallery, and bid on it if you want to. I'd love to hear your feedback, and if you want, I can do a tutorial on using these watercolor crayons to create paintings.

"Daily" Painting 4 -- Mmm ... Spicy!

2012-02-22T07:30:00.000-05:00

Mmm ... Spicy
Watercolor on canvas
10 x 8"

This little still-life plays with how to create the feeling of depth in the picture plane when there in very little physical distance. I chose the topic when thinking about our niece-in-law's mother. Aparna's mom, Kappu, is a great cook of Indian food and a wonderfully generous hostess. Whenever we visit them in Toronto, we can always count Kappu serving us great food, no matter how busy she is. She knew I also enjoy cooking for others, so she asked me if I cooked much Indian food. I had to admit that I didn't know how to do that.

In response, she made up a beautiful-designed packet of individually wrapped spices typically used in Indian cooking. I was told that she hoped it would inspire me to have the courage to try some Indian dishes. They did, but I found the look of her spice grouping so appealing that I could never really bring myself to use the actual spices she gave me. Instead I just move them from one container to the next, so I can look at them and think of my creative, lovely Canadian/ Indian friend.

I chose to place my spicy still life on wonderful table runner I have because the cloth feels exotic and its colors compliment the spices. I also liked the challenge playing with how not to have the complicated design of the cloth totally overwhelm the main subject of the piece.

I'm also including this piece in this week's auction on in my Gallery on the Daily PaintWorks Website. Check out my Gallery, and bid on it if you want to. I'd love to hear your feedback on this piece.

"Daily" Painting 3 -- Loneliness of a Whiny Goose

2012-02-21T12:43:00.002-05:00

Loneliness of a Whiny Goose
watercolor on canvas
10 x 8"

This small painting is a type of a watercolor on canvas, but I used artist grade watercolor crayons to paint him. I saw him on a trip we took to Charlestown, MD, on the Delmarva peninsula. He's a Toulouse goose. I'm very fond of this type of geese because their slightly tubby shape and white underside remind me of toddlers in diapers. That day, this guy's normal crew (OK flock) weren't with him, and the way he was squalking for attention and snacks so reminded me a whiny 2 year old that I knew I'd have to paint him some day. It still makes me smile when I see this image and I think of that day -- and that goose.

I used Caran D'Arche Neocolor II Aquarelle Artists Colors on this piece. They are artist-quality watercolor crayons from Switzerland. Finding these crayons was serendipitous. My sister Nancy (a hand-crafted jewelry maker) was scheduled visit us when we were in Ireland last year. Since she and I spend time making jewelry when Arny and I visit her, I had offered to show her oil painting when she visited me. She told me that she instead wanted us to work with this type of watercolor crayons.

Nancy had seen some jewelry pieces that incorporated designs with watercolor crayons and was intrigued by them for her own art. I, however, had never used watercolor crayons, didn't have them, and didn't know how to find them in Ireland. But, being a good sister and hostess, I spent a long time trying to find them, and going on websites to learn about how to use them. Unfortunately, we didn't work on them together because she didn't come, but it wasn't a waste because these crayons are a great add-on to my artistic toolbox.

These watercolor crayons can be used alone or with other watercolors, acrylics, and/or ink or markers. A wet brush turns a few swipes of a crayon into a color wash. Colors can be placed to create a varied, layered effect. They can be applied in a more impasto fashion, and they can even scraped to create more effects. Like with other watercolors on canvas, paintings made with watercolor crayons also need to be sprayed with clear acrylic to preserve and protect them.

I'm including my whiny little guy in an auction on in my Gallery on the Daily PaintWorks Website. Check out my Gallery, and bid on it if you want to. I'd love to hear your feedback, and if you want, I can do a tutorial on using these watercolor crayons to create paintings.

The Advantages of Producing Large Watercolors on Canvas

2012-02-15T19:30:00.000-05:00

Catching the Post-Season Sun -- watercolor on canvas, 28 x 40.5"

A few days ago, I said that I'd give some examples of large works that could be produced using watercolor on canvas.

Although it is possible to produce large watercolors on paper, I've always found that there are a few problems that arise when working on too large a scale that have to do with the nature of paper itself. First, paper of any kind is relatively soft, so if you reach over it when working, you run the risk of marring the it in a way that isn't easy to take back. For instance, if you push down too hard when you are drawing, lifting color, or erasing, from then on, you have created a spot that will grab on to more pigment than the flat areas (because water flows to the lowest point) -- whether you want that effect or not. And, since you tend to need to work essentially flat when doing any kind of wash or wet-in-wet work in watercolor (unless you are really fond of the drips of Jackson Pollock) it's hard for someone of my height (5'5+") to NOT lean over a piece that is that large while painting.

Comrades in Fishing -- watercolor on canvas, 32.5 x 42.5"

Another advantage of using canvas as a painting surface for a large watercolor is how much easier it is to frame the finished pieces. Watercolor paper is absorbent, soft, and thin and the paper tends to bleach in the sun. Thus regular watercolors need to be framed under glass or "acrylic glass" to protect the paper from harm, and the paint from water and sun. You also have figure out some way to keep the paper away from the "glass", as well as to provide a subsurface (like foam board of some sort) to fit under your watercolor paper. All of those things add significant cost and weight to the final piece.

The Gourmet Capital of Ireland -- watercolor on canvas, 24 x 36"

However, when you paint on a properly-prepared surface (with acrylic gesso, not oil-based gesso) and then later coat the finished piece with a clear acrylic spray, framing becomes much easier. You can present your watercolor as you would an oil painting: as is or with a frame (as I've done with both Catching the Post-Season Sun and The Gourmet Capital of Ireland) or unframed with a prepared edge (as I did with Comrades in Fishing.)

In the next week, I'll update my website with more information about these pieces for those who are interested in finding out more about them. If you have any questions or comments about this blog, or the pieces, I'll be happy to hear from you.

#2 Daily Painting: Evie ... now Evelyn, etc.

2012-02-01T10:24:00.000-05:00

Evie ... now Evelyn -- 8 x 10" watercolor on canvas

This is my second daily painting. It's also an 8 x 10" watercolor on canvas, and is called Evie ... now Evelyn.

Although I now normally paint oils, I'm starting out doing watercolors for my daily paintings because I exclusively painted in watercolor for years, and I miss the vibrancy that medium offers as the surface shines through the layers of largely transparent colors. I'm doing the watercolors on canvas, because painting on primed canvas offers a number of benefits over painting on paper. For instance, the steadiness of the substrate (canvas vs. paper), they don't have to be framed under glass to be protected from moisture and wear. Also, since my watercolors on canvas are coated with clear, gloss, acrylic spray -- which has UV-protective characteristics -- the image isn't as prone the fade as old-style watercolors when displayed in a sunny place. That said, I still feel it still is probably a good idea to not hang one of these paintings in a place where they will be in direct afternoon sun for long periods of time.

For the 17 plus years, I exclusively on watercolor, however, I only painted on paper, because no one believed it was impossible to paint on canvas. Then, Frederix developed an archival "watercolor canvas," and artists starting experimenting with it. I learned about the technique while checking out my local art association's (the Lancaster County Association of Art) class catalog, and I jumped at the opportunity to learn the technique. It was taught by a great teacher, named Karen Frattali. I so loved doing it that I quickly produced a number of really interesting large works in it. However, my exploration of watercolor on canvas was interrupted last year for a silly-seeming reason. We spent the academic year in Ireland (my husband was on sabbatical there), I couldn't find the clear coat acrylic paint I needed at my local DIY store. Thus, I decided to go back to painting exclusively in oils until I got home. I'm so grateful that someone encouraged me to do this daily painting project for myself, because it's so much easier to experiment when working on small pieces.

The topic of today's painting is dear to my heart. She's my niece by marriage. The image is from a photo her parents took around 30 years ago when they were on sabbatical in France. When they sent the photo to us, we immediately framed it - but unfortunately directly under glass. I so loved the image that we periodically would take it out and display it again for a while (despite the fact that she hadn't looked that way in years.) A few years ago we got some great old photos of my husbands family, so I decided to take out that picture, but re-frame it to go with the other photos we got. To my horror, moisture had welded the photo to the glass, so removing it to re-frame it was no longer possible. My niece, who now has two little girls of her own, saw it and asked me to send her a copy of it, but because I couldn't remove it from the frame, I had to tell her "no," and I felt bad. Thus, it is not surprising that when I decided to do this daily painting project, one of the first images I wanted to paint was this one. I call it Evie ... now Evelyn because at around the time this picture was taken, my niece decided that she was too big a girl to go by the name of Evie, but that name still holds a place in my heart since that's what we called her when I first met and came love her.

If people are interested, tell me and I'll post some of the large watercolors on canvas I've done so you can get a better idea of what big works in this media can look like. Also, I'm thinking of doing painting tutorial(s)/tip(s) on watercolor on canvas -- comments/questions?

Day 1 of Tracy's Daily Painting Project

2012-01-31T14:40:00.000-05:00

Welsh Landscape 1 -- watercolor on canvas 10 x 8" (20.3 x 25cm)

Before I started doing this painting project, I reviewed lots of other artist's work to get a better idea of where I wanted to go with this, and how I wanted to handle things. I saw a lot of great work, and realized, when looking at different people's sites, I came to understand

that there are many ways to do daily painting "right."

For instance, some painters truly clearly felt compelled to produce a painting each day. Others were comfortable, instead to commit to creating a fixed number of paintings a week. Some restricted themselves to working only from life. Others also looked to photo reference and/or their own imaginations for inspiration. Some marketed their work on one source, and other's took a broader marketing approach. Some limited themselves to 30 minutes or less to paint: , others didn't.

No matter what their commitments about how they would work, the daily painters had something really important that united them: a belief that submitting themselves to the discipline of producing work so consistently over a long period of time would help them grow as artists.

Craig Nelson, the author of one of my favorite painting boos, 60 Minutes To Better Painting, called doing this giving yourself "brush mileage." Like Nelson encouraged his readers to do, daily painters see these little daily paintings as serving a purpose different from their larger, finished work. The process used to produce them is at least as important as the look of the finished works themselves. I love that idea.

I look forward to using this year to increase my observational, painting, and composition skills as each painting increases my own personal brush mileage. However, I'm following the folk who produce 3 to (ideally) 5 new paintings a week. I'm not committing myself to a set time to do the work because I accept that working quickly is a skill that I'm still in the process of learning. I am, however, going to restrict the size of these pieces I produce. The works I create must be able to fit in one of the USPS priority mail boxes. Doing that will make shipping more affordable for buyers and myself. Thus, none of the pieces will be larger 12 x 14" (30 x 35 cm), and most will be smaller. For instance, today piece is 8 x 10. Finally, I'm planning to produce work in a variety of media because that is something I've always loved to do, and I've been restricting almost exclusively to oil painting in the last year.

Although I really like the idea of working from life, I'm going to be one of those folk who uses a variety of inspirations for my paintings. I'm doing this because I have all types of photo references, etc. that I've gathered over the years that I would have loved to tackle. Now, I have an excuse to do that, and I'm thrilled. That being said, I'm going to do at least one painting a week from life also because since I normally do paint from photo references, I know can use practice working from life.

Today's painting, Welsh Landscape 1, is based on a watercolor sketch I did years ago when we first visited Wales. Wales holds a special place in my heart because an English travel agent tried to discourage my husband and me from visiting there -- dismissing the Welsh as unfriendly and strange. As Americans, my husband and I decided that we wanted to make up our own minds, and we are so glad that we did. We found the people to be warm and friendly, and much of the landscape beautiful and dramatic. For that reason, my earlier sketch held a special place in my heart. However, I had just starting to paint, so the materials I used weren't as archival as I use now, and I'm thrilled by the opportunity to revisit the topic. I'll probably revisit again later in the year as my skills doing fast, small works grows.

I'd love your feedback on this piece and on the way I've decided to approach my own daily painting project.

Fine Day Out in Lancaster County

2012-01-29T12:20:00.002-05:00

We have been having January thaw weather -- blue sky & clouds and temperatures topping out in the high 40's (about 8 or 9 C). We finally decided to take advantage of it, so yesterday we attended a winter birding program at Lancaster County Central Park.

It was great and we were so charmed by seeing things like snow drops (that shouldn't be out for about a month at least) that we decided to continue the fun by taking a ride.

Arny asked where I wanted to go. At first, I said north, and then I looked at the clouds moving in and said, let's just follow the sun. He thought it was a great idea, and we had a wonderful couple of hours drifting through the county, choosing each new turn after consulting the sky. If our direction of travel started to move us into clouds, we turned towards the most sunny place.

What we saw on our ride reminded us of how beautiful our county is even in the more-subtly-hued times of winter. By the end of the trip, we were pleased and surprised to find that our drift had led to one of our favorite natural places, Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, and that it already had a large population of swans and geese.

Check out a selection of the photos we took below and
tell me which ones you think I should use as subjects for my "painting a day" project.

Fox Sparrow on Christmas Tree

Sparrow on Feeder

Nuthatch on Pine

Chickadee Hanging From Feeder

Winterberries

January Snow Drops

Seed Pods in the Sun

See

Dried Grasses Glowing in the Sun

Winter "flowers"

Sycamore Against a Winter Sky

A Spiral of Swans, Middle Creek WLMA

Middle Creek Swans & Geese in Late Day Sun

Swans Trough Late Day Trees

Thanks for the head's-up about spelling errors, etc.!

2012-01-27T09:32:00.001-05:00

I am not a naturally good speller nor a great typist (or proof-reader if the truth be known.) Thus, I am one of those people for whom the invention of the spell-checker was a remarkable boon. However, that great tool alone can't protect me from all errors in my posts, but fortunately, lovely people also have my back. They point out my error(s), so I have the opportunity to correct them. I welcome those corrections, so if you notice an error, I'd love to hear about it so I can correct it as soon as possible. I even value hearing other's opinion's on what I post, and am happy to update my blog if I think that what was pointed out is of value.

For instance, this morning my younger sister and pointed out an error that I've fixed with my last post. And, a couple of people posted about my first tutorial, and pointed out problems with using black tape to give the sides of one's paintings a more-finished edge. I thought I had made it clear in the post that it was a quick and easy thing to do, but one that wasn't a professional-looking as either painting the sides of the painting black or just continuing the image on to the sides. After reading their shares, I realized that wasn't as clear in my post as it should have been. Thank you both for altering me to that.

The first person who wrote lives in a warm and damp place, and she pointed out that duct tape in such weather can eventually loose it's grip and then fall off. Not only does loose tape look unsightly, but the getting the tape residue off the side might be hard. I thought about what she said, and I realized that freezing and very dry weather also undermine the integrity of the glue on duct tape. So, dear readers heed her warning, black duct tape does eventually lose it's grip, and unless you plan on replacing that tape with MORE duct tape, it may be difficult to get the tape residue off the side.

The second person to point out a problem with the duct tape is an artist of long standing who also worked in a gallery setting. Using black duct tape on paintings was a particular peeve of her's as a gallery person because she saw the problems it caused to restore the painting to a presentable condition when it did come undone. She thought that using such materials should even be discouraged even in a student setting because doing such things can lead to lazy/poor work practices that would haunt them all their lives as artists. For instance, she said that sometimes she got works in her gallery were the artist was demanding as much as $15,000 for work that incorporated duct tape. Seeing duct tape on works now is a reason for her not to show the work.

I was so impressed with their reasoning that I want to state clearly here that using black duct tape has lots of problems (even if it is so easy and fast to do.) Thus, it should be avoided in most situations. In fact, I was so impressed by their reasoning that you might notice that my little "painting a day" canvases all have black sides painted with acrylic paint.

As I said, if you have any comments (or corrections) about this post, I'd love to hear them.

Art musings, art tip, and a "painting a day"

2012-01-25T12:15:00.000-05:00

5 little canvases prepared for week 1 of PAD
(note black painted sides)

Since coming back to the States (from Ireland) in August, I've been in landing mode: getting the house back into shape, sitting in on a painting course, and (of course) starting this blog. However, the Fall was dominated by my painting in class, and on my own in the class studio when classes weren't on. It was great. I got lots of "brush mileage", but not doing much from the professional development arena. For instance, I hadn't arranged to have a show of the work I produced in Ireland.

Thus, when Franklin and Marshall College's Fall Semester ended, I decided to forgo sitting in on a Spring class as an act of commitment to once again doing more to get myself better known as an artist. For instance, we didn't do our normal traveling on my husband's break from college. Instead, we stayed in town so I could work with my graphic artist sister, Danni, to created this blog. She also helped me get over some of my fear and loathing about updating my website. She was great, and I feel more grounded, but as we all know that feeling only lasts as long as we keep doing what helped us feel better.

If you didn't notice, that's an art tip: if you are like me, techno classes you take (or help you get) will only move you to a better place in the long run if you choose to use the use the things you learned. Otherwise, in my experience the term use it or lose it will be the rule of the day. I know this is true for me because I've taken great business of art workshops that our local art college, PA College of Art and Design, make available to folk in the arts community as part of their Lancaster Artist Initiative program. I left each class stoked to do what I learned about, but fear led to my putting things off long enough that I never got comfortable with doing the new things I learned.

Tomorrow, I'm going to start talking about something else I'm doing to keep my focus on the work -- while working on the business part of art. I'm exploring the "painting a day" movement. It will push me to do work each week day. It also will push me to explore using e-bay or other marketing tools. Wish me luck.

I'd love to hear your input (thoughts/advice) on the painting a day program, eBay or whatever.

I've got a tutorial on EmptyEasel

2012-01-17T08:59:00.001-05:00

I've always loved the site, EmptyEasel. It's a great resource for those interested in painting and those interested in finding ways to market the work they make. I loved looking at the tutorials that people in the art community make sharing things they have learned that have helped them as they grow as artists. I thought it would be great to become part of their art community, so I submitted the first tutorial I produced for my new art blog, and Dan (the EmptyEasel man) accepted it. Click here to check it out. So cool!

2012-01-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

Hey, Everyone,

I've been thinking about participating in one of those sites that challenges on to do small paintings on a regular basis. I've looked at the "painting a day" sites, and they seem good in many ways, but I was wondering if anyone knows about any good painting a week sites. It still would improve my "brush mileage", and give help me challenge my creativity and compositional/color skills. Does anyone out there have any suggestions of sites they like, or they've found useful?

Paying Attention to The Sides to Get A Step Ahead: 5 tips for Making This Easier.

2012-01-10T14:41:00.000-05:00

Unfinished sides

If you paint on canvas -- either in acrylics, oils, or watercolor -- you probably have noticed that your unframed paintings look much better from the front than they; do from the side. The raw canvas looks startlingly white against the painted front. Worse yet, during the painting process, bits of the colors that you used on your painting get on the sides and create a “design” element that is jarring against your carefully planned and executed front. Throughout this post, I’ve included some examples of works where I did and didn’t “pay attention to the sides” to help you envision what I’m writing about.

In the past, what the sides looked like didn’t matter as much because everyone assumed that a finished painting was a framed painting. Framing works is still great, but having to find frames that fit and really complement your work adds a layer of complication and expense. Today we have more options that can save us time and money, and will allow even our unframed works to feel more finished and professional.

Here are 5 tips to do just that:

The quickest way to make your paintings’ sides look more finished is to use black duct tape (it’s called Gaffer’s tape in Ireland & England) to cover your canvas’ sides. Ideally, you'd do this before you start painting, but you can use this technique on a finished painting whose sides you left white. Its downside is that the tape I’m recommending here isn’t acid-free -- which upsets some collectors, and museum folk, but it’s a good choice for studies and in works you're planning on showing in your home or more casual settings. Several things to keep in mind when doing this:

Black sides

You don’t have to use one continuous piece of tape, but the fewer seams you have, the better.
Your tape should be somewhat wider than the side of your canvas so you can wrap the tape over the canvas’ back edge. However, don’t overlap the canvas’ face -- or the tape will interfere with your painting’s look and, if you later choose to remove the tape, leave a jarring white place on the painting itself.
Finally, to ensure the tape looks its best: use a hospital fold (like you do when you are stretching a canvas) on the corners; make sure to press the tape down firmly; and be diligent as you paint to clean off any stray paint that gets on the tape.

2. The cheapest way to finish your painting's sides is to paint them black before starting your painting. Three things to keep in mind if you do this:

Acrylic paint is best to use for this, no matter what medium you’re using to create your work (acrylic, oils, or watercolor.) It dries quickly and cleans off easily. However, if your canvas is stapled on the side, first gesso the sides -- to prevent rust problems later.
Avoid letting the black paint get on the canvas front. If it does, wipe that paint off immediately to prevent a ridge line showing though your paint. A rag is OK with oils and acrylics, but if you’re planning to use watercolor on canvas, use a Mr. Clean Magic Sponge on the wet paint to ensure that all residue of the acrylic paint is off the canvas front.
Diligently clean off any stray paint that mars your black sides. Dry paint is harder to clean off, but if that happens sand the dry paint and carefully touch up the marred area with your black acrylic paint.

3. The most interesting way to finish your painting's side is to continue painting onto the work's sides (best done on wide gallery-stretched canvases.) Three things to keep in mind if you do this:

Painted sides

Don’t forget the bottom. It’s tricky to do this because your canvas sits on the bottom, so you might want to wait until the top is dried enough to flip the painting safely on the top edge so you can work on the bottom edge.
Use a sketchier painting style on the sides. The sides aren’t the star of your work, so viewers aren’t concentrating on them. Thus, you just need to have enough detail to have viewers’ eyes “fill in” what they expect as they scan from the front to the sides.
You can also choose to paint the sides of a narrow depth canvas, but it won’t look as good as if the sides are deep. Further, if the sides are stapled, like with the black-painted sides, you will need to first gesso the sides to prevent rust problems later.

4. Resist the temptation to skip using hanging hardware and bumpers when displaying your work with finished sides. The top of your canvas really isn’t designed to carry the weight of your painting over the long haul. Instead, place hangers on the canvas’ side bars (about a hand’s length down from the top.) Why should you place the bumpers on the on the bottom edges of your work? They help your work stay straight on the wall.

5. When using a shadow-box style of frame for your work, do finish your painting's sides in some way. Yes, the reveal won’t allow the viewers to see much of the edge, but finishing the edges still creates a more professional, finished look.

I’d love to hear any comments or further suggestions about this topic.

Happy Birthday to My Sista

2012-01-05T09:16:00.001-05:00

Tracy Birthday Tangle - by Danni O'Brien, CZT

This is a guest post, I'm Tracy's sister Danni and I'm here to help her with her blog and celebrate her milestone birthday. I want to say Happy Birthday to my sista Tracy and wish her much Laughter and Love on this special day.

I created a little birthday tangle to celebrate this wonderful day. We're having a party tonight and much laughter and frivolity will be had with 30 or so of her friends tonight. She's a popular gal!

p.s. "sista" is correct spelling in our little family!

Creating a portrait of a child

2012-01-03T15:45:00.001-05:00

Immersed in Her Own World

Sometimes people ask me how I choose my images. For me. it's a highly personal and evolutionary process.

For example, with "Immersed in Her Own World" I started out thinking about creating a toy landscape for a class I was sitting in on. The teacher wanted us to use toys to create somewhat disturbing images, but I had a general idea of creating a softer, gentler image. So, I visited with friends and got some wonderful pictures of their baby girl's favorite toys. But, I couldn't resist also snapping a number of images of the toy's adorable owner. Then, when I went to compose my landscape, her image wouldn't let me go, so the landscape evolved to include her. . . and then grew into a series exploring how children's experience of their toys differ from what grown-ups might expect.

Here's a poem I wrote while painting that captures why I chose image as part of my series:

Beloved child, fruit of my loins.

I awaited your arrival with such anticipation.

I envisioned sharing with you the things that brought me joy . . .

in my childhood, and during my child-like moments.

I so looked forward to experiencing anew the pleasure of those simple things

as I saw them through your eyes.

In our excitement, we who loved you, surrounded your little body with whirl of soft textures,

and pastel and jewel-toned offerings to show you, “you are loved.”

I never wondered if their number was more of a burden to you than a joy,

but then I saw you with your sweet little train,

so totally focused on that one bright thing,

and I doubted.

But moments later, my heart was calmed when you focused

your laser attention and love on another thing.

That became your world for a moment, and then another thing did,

and then me.

Sigh.

New Year, New Venture

2012-01-01T12:13:00.002-05:00

2012 is beginning a great way. My sister, Danni, is here visiting and helping me to begin my art posting adventure. Danni, a CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) and graphic designer working in the Ann Arbor, MI area. With her help, I know that my blog is going to take on a professional look it wouldn't have otherwise (Thanks, Danni), and we're going to use this week to help me get a comfort level with work on the blog that I never would have had otherwise. Am I a lucky gal or what!