Category: jurying process

June 27, 2016

Build a Painting, Part Two: All Hail the Imprimatura!

When making a painting, only one thing counts: what you do next.

Walter Darby Bannard

In Part One on how to “Build a Painting”, I began where most building projects begin, at the ground level. I described my intention and motivation to complete a painting based on Odin’s Ravens, exploring notions of memory, thought and desire. Then I shared the techniques and materials that I used to transform a wood panel into a ready-to-use paint surface.

Using a short-napped roller to give an even texture. — Adding the ground to the sealed panel.

Now that the panel has dried to a bright white, and the surface has a subtle texture from using the roller, it’s time to paint the imprimatura, the first paint layer. This very thin underpainting is applied to the white canvas, almost like a stain. It provides a middle tone that helps establish value relationships from dark to light and it also provides a layer for light to enter the painting and refract back out. Traditionally, earth colors like sienna, umber and ochre are used. However, in many of my landscape paintings, I use a cadmium red as the imprimatura; the warm orangy-red hue adds a complement to the greens of the land and the blue of the sky, making the painting luminous.

The cadmium red imprimatura imparts a glow in this older work, “Michigan Skyscape: Emmet County, Summer”.

In the current painting, I hope to capture a similar glow. So onward with the cadmium red, thinned with Gamsol Solvent. This is only a thin layer; don’t be fooled by its intensity. (Oftentimes, I take a cloth to wipe off some of the paint.) There is something very visceral in covering the surface with RED and I always feel gleeful at this step!

In my mind, I can envision the black birds against a background of yellow sky in a soft misty gray Nordic forest. Before I paint the background, I sketch the forest so that I know approximately where to paint the various hues.

The drawing on tracing paper to determine the background composition.

For this layer, I mix a string of grays, cadmium yellow, a touch of cobalt blue and white paint. In order to build a painting that is stable it is necessary to work the paint layers “fat over lean”, so I modified the paint with Gamsol and a small amount of linseed oil. And away I go!

Yellow and grey, with a smidge of cobalt blue at the top.

Still visible is that cadmium red peeking through. Can you see it there, particularly at the bottom? At this point, I am enamored of the painting; it reminds me of one of the Great Lakes. I toy with the idea of completing another version of this as an abstracted lake-scape painting, even going so far as fetching another canvas from my storeroom. In the end, I remind myself to stay on track! Still, it haunts me.

Remember my idea to incorporate the words, Minnin, Hugin and Munin in the background? Using clear contact paper, I cut out the letters to use them as a mask and place them on the dried paint surface. I’m almost ready for the next layer.

The words are cut from clear contact paper to serve as a mask.

Next Up: Painting the forest and punching up the yellow in the background.

This Week in the Studio

A gift comes my way in the form of this fantastic fish bone, complete with the tail still intact. I can already imagine how I am going to use it in one of my mixed media pieces. Thank you Leah for knowing I would want this treasure!

I attended the opening of the Michigan Fine Arts Competition at the Birmingham-Bloomfield Hills Art Center on Friday and was floored to discover that I had garnered the President’s Award. The funny thing is that in the past I had entered this particular piece of work in the annual exhibit and had the same artwork REJECTED! Go figure!

May 27, 2016

Stop, Drop, and Clean????

Space for the Spirit to breathe.

Rainer Maria Rilke

This past winter my sessions in the studio could best be described as a blitzkrieg affair, with me dashing in whenever possible, averaging only 3-4 hours per visit. Not ideal, I know, but I believe that you do as much as you can, when you can, and that by piano, piano, piano, things slowly get accomplished.

With this approach it meant that my time had to be maximized: visiting with office neighbors kept to a quick hello, eating with a sandwich in one hand, paint brush in another, getting down to work ASAP and, except for cleaning the brushes, not accomplishing much in the ways of house (er, studio) keeping. Oh, the occasional swoosh of the vacuum now and then, and emptying the trash every session, but not much to write home about unless you count a quick scrawl in the book shelf dust. With the conclusion of the winter/spring semester (and, yes, sigh, summer session is now underway) there’s the urge to do some late spring cleaning in the studio. Part of the that was the need to corral the clutter, and really clean the floor surrounding the easel (are those cracker crumbs at my feet? Oh, surely not confetti!?). Another part of urge to clean lies in the much-needed psychological lift I feel when I organize my surroundings. Like Rilke noted: “Space for the Spirit to breathe.”

I know artists who have said that the fact that they can constantly and instantly see what’s on hand, and thus they don’t need to look through drawers and files to find anything, aids them in being more creative; they find both comfort and efficiency being surrounded by their “stuff”. However for me, my mind thinks better and my spirit feels calmer and I am more focused when my environment is somewhat organized.

Now please don’t think I’m a regular Clean Martine. When deeply involved in a studio project, organizing is not a priority. Once I’ve determined what color palette I’m using, and what brushes and tools are needed, I leave everything out within reach. Only once the artwork is done do I truly tidy the work area. While I clean and regroup, putting caps back on the paint tubes, returning pencils to the drawer, scouring out my coffee mug and errant eating utensils, my mind wonders and wanders. I daydream, plot and plan my next creative undertaking. It’s a lot like the feelings I get when doing the annual yard clean up at home before the garden gets planted.

Now as I am going into the summer season, I feel ready to give expression to the artistic seeds that have laid fallow all winter. My supplies are replenished, my brushes clean, my studio feels in harmony. In regards to my spring cleaning at home, please don’t ask. I just now found my missing shoe buried in a pile of sweaters and I swear I can hear mocking sounds coming from the closets!

This Week in the Studio

Happy to announce that work delivered for jurying in the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (DSWPS) latest show proved fruitful. I had two mixed media sculptures accepted into the exhibit, “Soliloquy”, June 10-30, at the Anton Art Center, 125 Macomb Place, Mount Clemens, MI 48043. Opening reception Saturday, June 11, 1 – 3 p.m. Then the works travel to Crooked Tree Art Center September 17-November 19! Huzzah!

February 26, 2016

I, the Juror

Remember that all is opinion.

Marcus Aurelius

Next week I take off my artist beret and replace it with my juror’s cap, as I once again adjudicate the spring exhibit for the Downriver Arts and Craft Guild. I will speak to the assembled membership, offer a quick critique for each of the pieces submitted, (a modest number easily covered in the time span allowed), and select a winner. Over the years, the event has trans-morphed in the Marty Arty Award, no prize money but bragging rights for the year. It’s a fun evening of repartee and storytelling and I enjoy the event immensely.

That’s not normally how things work when serving as a juror, especially when prize money is on the line! As the artist entering the competition has guidelines, oftentimes so does the juror. Sometimes the host organization will request that everyone has at least one piece selected, or cap the number of pieces chosen because of the size of the venue, or limited the number of awards one artist can receive.

Once the parameters are known, selecting the work can begin. I’ve heard it said that picking the strongest and eliminating the weakest is the easy part, and I have found that to be true, more or less. It’s the work that falls into “good” art category that offers the challenge. Among the many things I look for, here are 3 to consider:

Original and creative interpretations of the subject matter, without falling back on gimmicks. When I was member of the Colored Pencil Society of America, one juror summed it up this way: When everyone else is doing cats, you paint the rhino! And please, only use glitter if it is integral to the work.
In one word: Presentation, presentation, presentation. It hard to look at the work if the frame is askew or the picture has fallen down behind the mat. As an artist I’ve done the wham, bam, thank you ma’am approach and more often than not I end up more sorry than pleased. In a related note, I am always appreciative of mastery of media.
I experience a visceral reaction to the work. When work engages me on an emotional level, one that I keep going back to over and over again, I know that’s a keeper. Then I set aside my subjective reaction and concentrate on analyzing which of the principles and elements of design went into the work to make is successful.

Keep this in mind as well. Don’t think too much of whether or not a juror accepts your work; last time I checked we are only imperfect people passing judgment on other imperfect people. Seriously, don’t take any of this too seriously!

Now back on with the artist beret and an update for this week in the studio:

Will this painting never end?? Only 12″ x 12″, this self-portrait, and its companion piece, feels like it is taking FOREVER to complete. Yet, I think I see a light at the end of the paint tunnel and if the Muse is agreeable, I hope to begin the final act: cleaning up the Mondrian inspired background and redefining the hat and shadows therein. Finally, an oiling-out and then off to the photographer for documentation. See, almost done!

Going forward: I am in the process of prepping cradled wood panels for the next painting project, a multi-step procedure that begins with sealing the wood before adding the ground. Since it takes a couple of drying/curing days between every step, this will take a week and a half easily to complete. Stay tuned!