Re-doing the fractured wc on canvas

With the planning for a class comes the re-thinking about how to do the demos and how to set up supply lists.

Fracturing wc on canvas with Peg Furlin was a LONG time ago and I won't be teaching the workshop until mid September. But now is a good time to start doing some of these again to "get in the mood" and to remember what I need to re-remember about doing this technique.

I have picked a simple form to incorporate into the painting. You don't need to do this. Peg does a lot of abstracting in her work (you can google her work online). But I like working with some recognizable objects in mine.

We are going to work on 12 x 12 canvas and so I prepared the canvas with a hearty scrub with water...and I mean SCRUB. Losing some of the sizing and thoroughly wetting the canvas before I put on pale wash triad of the color I plan to use in the painting. Remember, this is watercolor and this is not a wc canvas. Just an inexpensive gallery wrapped canvas. So the painting will use a lot of techniques that you use in Yupo painting.

It's good to let is dry thoroughly and then trace on your subject matter. So I'll post my next steps in a few days.

A watercolor ground example of Journal Cover

This a copy of a very interesting article I read today on Daniel Smith's catalog page. As you know I have been doing "journal covers" in collage and mixed media. I think this an alternative to that that really has a nice look to it. This example is by Cindy Briggs and Theresa Goesling. You can see more examples if you google Daniel Smith. Naturally it is partially a sales pitch for watercolor ground. You might alternate this by gluing watercolor paper onto your journal cover and leaving under weights overnight. Then after doing the painting, spray coat it with 4 or 5 coats of clear acrylic spray. Still I have purchased some of this ground and so I plan to experiment with this.


Let your imagination soar!

Enrich your travel experience by creating your own artful travel Journal. Our International travel experts, Cindy Briggs and Theresa Goesling share techniques and materials for their Mixed Media Journals. Follow these Step-by-Step instructions to create your own Journal Cover using Watercolor Ground.


Watercolor Ground on Arches Watercolor Book
Tape over canvas edges. Apply Watercolor Ground direct from the container with a brush in either a uniform or random pattern. Random brushstrokes were used here to create texture.


Watercolor Ground—2 to 3 layers
Paint 2 to 3 layers until you have complete coverage with the Water-color Ground. Allow to cure 24 to 72 hours before applying Watercolor or Acrylics.


Sketch & Paint
You can draw in pencil or go for it and draw in ink. A non-permanent Elegant Writer Pen was used for a wet messy look. A pencil was used to plan the design, then painted wet-in-wet with a limited complementary palette of Lunar Earth, Quinacridone Sienna, Naples Yellow, Cobalt Turquoise, Cobalt Teal and Permanent Brown.


Splatter & Typography
Using a mesh screen, put a some wet China White on top and blow through to create splatter. Typography was planned out on a separate sheet of paper with a stencil before deciding on final placement.

Finishing Touches
You can design your own stamp to identify the region, country and year for your journal. Don’t forget to sign your artwork before varnishing with Golden Archival Varnish. Use 2 coats gloss, then one coat matte for a nice finish.

America’s Best of Watercolor Artists, Theresa Goesling and Cindy Briggs take students to Europe to draw, paint, collage as they journal their travels. With a focus on design, they share their passion for painting and encourage an artful journey of discoveries. Goesling will also be featured in the upcoming Splash 13, for her “Layer it up” approach of transparent and opaque watercolors, The dynamic duo team teach Mixed Media—Creative Travel Journaling and Watermedia workshops at Daniel Smith.


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A new view of Lincoln

This a little dark of me standing beside a fairly new portrait of Lincoln at the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois on Saturday. I wanted you to see the scale of the painting.


I am sorry I didn't write down the artist's name but I think when I look through my info later I will probably find it. I even bought a mug with this image on it. The museum is highly modern and includes a lot of fascinating almost Disney-like presentations very well done! We were totally impressed and we recommend a visit here!

Our journey is winding down now as we head for northern Wisconsin and our summer cabin in Lac du Flambeau on Tuesday.

It may be awhile before I get into my studio there because my hubby plans a new ceiling for it and that requires me OUT of it while he works. But it will be nice when it is finally finished.



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A beautiful Day in Omaha

Yesterday in downtown Omaha.
Our friends there hosted a great picnic just outside the Union Pacific Museum at the old Carnegie Library.


Now we are headed to Kansas to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Museum.

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A Poem for Monday....

On Mondays
by Marilyn Donnelly

On Mondays when the museums are closed
and a handful of guards
look the other way
or read their newspapers
all of the figures
step out of golden frames
to stroll the quiet halls
or visit among old friends.
Picasso's twisted ladies
rearrange themselves
to trade secrets
with the languid odalisques of Matisse
while sturdy Rembrandt men
shake the dust
from their velvet tams
and talk shop.
Voluptuous Renoir women
take their rosy children by the hand
to the water fountains
where they gossip
while eating Cezanne's luscious red apples.
Even Van Gogh
in his tattered yellow straw hat
seems almost happy
on Mondays when the museums are closed.

"On Mondays" by Marilyn Donnelly, from Coda. © Autumn House Press, 2010

I couldn't resist sharing the museum poem that came in Garrison Keillor's blog this morning. And also a photo I took before I left Florida this spring.
This is the entry way into a darling little cafe in Mt Dora. I can hardly wait to paint it!

We are continuing our cross country trip and right now are near Amana, Iowa.
We are heading toward Omaha today to spend a few days with friends. More adventures soon. Keep tuned.


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Traveling through Grand Rapids

The beauty of architecture.
The Meyer May home in Grand Rapids, Michigan really amazed us.


My hubby and I have been to many Frank Lloyd Wright homes and businesses but we have never seen one so painstakingly restored.
The dining room was especially beautiful.

Frankly I could never imagine living in one of these homes.
But is fun to see one so lovingly done. Rugs were woven, tile made, walls painted, and the entire roof removed and steel reinforcement put in! etc. Amazing!

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Journaling along the way

This a quick sketch that I did about a week ago coming from Bloomington, Indiana in the way to Indianapolis. It is a little winery called Oliver Winery.



Currently we are traveling through Iowa on our way to Nebraska.
More soon, I hope.

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Journal Covers Collaged

I showed these two journal book covers a post or so ago and at that time showed you how I made the strange spidery names for them online. You have to be on a computer to use that website (iPad won't open it). Probably a flash player or something involved.

Anyway the two journals were purchased at Office Depot (hard covers) and the covers backgrounds are canvas I cut out in the size to fit the covers. I did not glue it onto the books until the covers were done and I was happy with them. I used watercolors and fluid acrylics for colored places on them. I used injet transfer for Maddy's photo on the right side and I just glued on black and white injet photos on Alex's. I used acrylic medium for the glue. I think if you click on the image it will enlarge.

Both of these will be graduation gifts and their cards and checks will be tucked inside. I am thinking of photocopying a few idea pages from my Journaling book and putting them inside just to give them some ideas of outside-the-box ways that this journal could be used. I am going to suggest that if they want to collage in items like photos or tickets stubs, etc that first they glue two pages together to give the page more stability. Just using a glue stick I think. It would be cool to take yarn and a needle and sewing around the edges of some of the pages too...stuff like that. OR this could simply be a written journal. Alex is 18 and graduating from high school and Maddy is 22 and graduating from college.

Note: on Maddy's there is picture of Miss Piggy. She's my idol! (hahahaha).

I am now in the process of beginning to pack up my studio for the long and circuitous trip back to the north woods (from FL). Sigh. Happens every spring about this time. So my posts will be from my iPad as I travel along after May 3.

Collage/mixed media journal covers

As I mentioned in my previous blog...I am currently kind of "into" reading and trying out various kinds of multi media for journal covers.

This inside pages of this journal are already completed and it is a small landscape moleskin that I've worked on over a period of two years. All travel journal entries...mostly watercolor and ink. The journal cover is (like Julie's before me) done on a piece of artist canvas and finished off with a coat of acrylic medium. The slight figure you see ghosted near the center is actual a black and white photo of Marjorie Rawlins (who I mentioned in the previous post). Then I used maps, tickets, stamps, feathers, and stamping. All the color is fluid acrylic but watercolor could have been used if I had done the color before I put on the acrylic gel medium which resists watercolor.

Now...these are two journals side by side (left for Alex and right for Maddy) two of my grandkids graduating soon. The names I made with a fun website called "scribbler". When I finished the scribble art, I took a "screen shot" of the art and pulled if off onto the desktop. Then pulled it back into a blank Word document, printed it out and watercolored it and cut it out.

Click here for the scribbler site. Follow the simple directions.

The journals are bound journals (from Office Depot). I would have liked to do something hand made but there is not time for that right now. The white is again, canvas...such a nice textured background. I haven't glued anything down yet. I am in the process of going through old photographs and ephemera. Trying to decide what would look fun. Alex is 18 and Maddy is 22. Setting off on the journey of life.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

What a lovely day to visit a "cracker" Florida home. The author of The Yearing and Cross Creek lived just about an hour north of where I spend my winters in central Florida.

Cross Creek Florida is just north of Ocala.

Marjorie (although not a native of FL) became a Floridian in the true sense of the word. She came in 1928. Her home and the grounds of the orchard and farm are now an historic State Park. The tours are interpreted by people who have grown up in this area and authentic stories that have been passed down are shared. It's a wonderful place to visit. Since I had taken the tour before...while my guests toured...I sketched with chickens and roosters scrambling around my feet! Her 1940 Oldsmobile is still parked in the carport.

Playing with Multi Media

I pulled out an old book of mine on creating artists journals in multi media and just had fun for a whole afternoon reading and paging through the wonderful ideas.

(The nice thing about being old is you forget what you have read and so you get to re-discover it all over again! Hahaha).

The author is Lynne Perrella.

I got to thinking about designing a journal cover on some sort of fabric (WAY WAY out of the box for me.)

I had some left over watercolor canvas from a previous project and so I designed a journal cover for my daughter, Julie (who likes to keep journals).

It is planned for a 9 x 9 inch journal but I haven't actually cut the canvas to that size yet. I had some fun with transferring a photo image to the canvas which came out sort of in "ghostly" way but interesting with the texture. It is a photo of Julie and of me and I am really ghostly in the background and she is recognizable. I like the idea that I may be some influence in her life but am in the background.

I coated the canvas lightly with acrylic polymer medium and then lay a inkjet black and white face down on it and using a credit card I firmly drew the card over the back of the inkjet several time and then peeled it up carefully. Black and white seems to work better . I sprayed the image lightly with acrylic varnish and let dry.

Then I just played around with ribbon, fluid acrylic, watercolor, ink, stamps etc and thinking of her and the things she loves like nature, plants, labyrinths, drawing, etc.

I plan to coat everything with the polymer medium at the end for durability. I am thinking that at a later date, I will use a spray-on glue to attach it to the front of the journal and then lay it under some heavy books overnight.

Florida Sketches

We have been highly "on the go" for the last week while my step daughter has been down here in Florida on a visit from Lodi, WI. On Monday of this week I did two little sketches.

The first one is of Racing's North Turn which is a fun bar/restaurant RIGHT on Daytona Beach. We visited and had cocktails there on the chairs facing the water and took time to go down and sit on the beach awhile (where I did the sketch). The salt air smelled so good. It was nice to say hi to the Atlantic Ocean again.

This cozy building is at DeLeon Springs State Park where you can put your feet into the "Fountain of Youth" and then go inside and make your own pancakes! There was a rather long wait to get in and so I set up a chair and did a little sketch.

Outside they were renting tubes (see 3 by the right side) so you could swim in the 30 foot deep pool made by damming up the spring...clear as a bell but only 72 degrees (uh oh). It costs $6 for a carful to get into the park and they have paddle boats to go out on the St. John's River and also a guided tour boat (pontoon). This is just about half an hour south of Daytona Beach. It's a great place to visit!

Ginny with Elizabeth Nelson

It has long been a dream to take Elizabeth's paper painting workshop.

This was taken Sunday March 11 on the final day of the 3 day workshop.

What a treat to get to work with her for 3 days. I highly recommend her workshops!

Paper Painting Workshop with Elizabeth Nelson

You have seen this little toucan before in Yupo paper. (I have become quite fond of him!). This time he is on 11 x 14 wrapped canvas with an acrylic painted background. He himself is made of hand-acrylic painted torn papers. When I think he is done, he'll be varnished.

This was my day one assignment (apples).

Again the background is acrylic (splattered) although this time on canvas board (11 x 14). If you could look closer you could see we use music paper, hand written notes, newspapers, rice papers, etc.

Most of Day one was spent preparing these papers! Printing, stamping, splattering, and using layer upon layer of analogous colors.

The subject is painted first and then the papers added afterwards.

This is one of Elizabeth's paintings...part of a show called The Ark which will showcase 50 of her paintings in April.

(More on that later.)

Her paintings are on wood and are about 3 x 4' .

Day 3 is on Sunday although I only stay for the morning as the Hawthorne Park Art show will be tomorrow afternoon.

If you are in the Leesburg area be sure to drop in. I'll have 5 pieces in the show...1-4. Hawthorne Park is 3 miles south of Leesburg. We had advertising in the Orlando Sentinel today.

Joan Stephens lily from Watercolor Workshop

This is the same watercolor subject painted by my friend Joan.

It's fun to see how different she interpreted the same subject.

Lian Zhen workshop: second painting

Lots more abstract Wednesday.

I had more difficulty relating to the compositional elements in this one.

Each of us placed our water lilies in different places in our compositions...both portrait and landscape.

This and previous one are half sheet of 140# cold press Arches wc paper.

As in the boat painting just before this, the technique involved spraying drying paper with a sprayer..pouring or dropping 3 basic wcs onto the wet paper and moving them with your fingers or with blowing the paint. All background is "brushless". We all used Graham (honey) watercolors in 3 primary colors. He prefers Hansa yellow, Prussian blue, and either Quin Rose or Pyrrol red. (Graham can be found at Dick Blick.) Pyrrol has an orange leaning while Quin Rose has a cooler, bluer cast.

After everything dries then the brush work begins...flats and rounds. Painting the flowers wet on dry and then negative painting around the lily pads. I used a blend of red/blue on the left bottom corner that I am not sure is working. I may wash this down to a lighter level as it is nice color but too dark for a corner of a painting. So I have some tweaking to do on it.

In all the workshop was great fun. And I'll post a few more photos of the teacher applying his techniques soon. Right now I am busy typing the Fine Art booklet for our art show here at Hawthorne park, hosting company which includes two grandsons, and keeping up with my drawing class which will draw to a close next Tuesday.

A day with a Chinese Painter

"A beautiful painting depicts the harmony between nature and imagination."
Lian Quan Zhen

Monday and Tuesday I spent painting this painting in Sarasota, Fl with Lian Zhen. What a happy time. Here is my first painting.




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Drawing Class continues

Trying to get my "homework" done is quite a challenge with all the distractions here in Florida!

For week two class I completed the eggs (as posted in beginning stage). Lucina felt the pencil was better than the ink (I think) only because the dark dark background in the ink draws your eye away from the egg. That can be fixed. She also like my use of texture in the background. I did a rubbing over a rubber stamp.

Also this ink egg needed more "darks" in obvious places. I found the ink cross- hatching to be tedious and would never attempt something this large in ink again! The egg is about 8" x 10".

I am busy now working on some one and two point perspective for Class 3 homework. Challenging also. More on that later.

I am into getting some framing done now for upcoming shows. As you know I whine about that periodically.

But as I read recently on Robert Genn's blog:

There is a deeper reason to express ourselves: just as the author's "journey" is complete when his words are read and possibly taken to heart. For the visual artist, merely creating anything is not the end. Without the creation being enjoyed, shared, observed, it would be like an orator standing in an empty room talking to himself! Betty Billups,

So I am working at how to display a wc on canvas that is not stretched. Now there is challenge. I probably will think twice about doing an un-stretched canvas again. But the arches wc canvas comes in a book of canvas sheets and it was a more economical way to teach the fractured wc on canvas technique. Any idea about that? I am thinking of using a spray glue and glueing to a foam core backing. But am worried about it leaking through the canvas and spoiling the painting. I don't want to get into buying stretcher bars. I could stretch it over another canvas I suppose? Hmmm.

Yupo Demo for Jan 23 Florida class....

It's fun to re-visit a medium you have come to enjoy so much. This is done on a half sheet of translucent Yupo paper with white paper behind it.

One of the positives about the see-through paper is you can do a drawing and then lay it on top and trace so easily. Although this toucan was a pretty easy drawing...I like the objects in Yupo paintings to be fairly simple with lots of empty spaces for me to play and experiment in.

This is a demo I am doing for my Hawthorne Park friends for Monday's class. I am not done...it's so much fun to add and subtract some of the textures in the background.

And it is fun to pick a subject that has bright interesting colors. I am an avid fan of George James and I'll be showing the class about half an hour of the first of his 3 part series called "Mastering Yupo: Techniques for Synthetic Paper." You can find those wonderful foam rollers he uses at WalMart for about $2.50.

Fracturing Clematis

Clematis: (noun) a climbing plant of the buttercup family that bears white, pink, or purple flowers and feathery seeds.

Tip: When you put away paintings that seem to "have no future" be sure to tape the original photo references (if there is one) to the back.

I am in the process of a BIG New Year's cleaning of my studio. My experiment with this watercolor might never have happened without the reference photos...and it has been such fun. After Peg Furlin's workshop (fracturing wc on canvas) I decided to try the technique on regular wc paper.

The downside of this is the inability to be able to get back completely to white as you can with canvas. But I took the painting to the sink and used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sponge to it and took the painting down to a pale image of it's former self. I let it try overnight. (Left it on homosote board and I did not need to tape it down or staple it and it helps to soak out the moisture. It dried quite flat.)

Then I measured my imaginary mat (just as I did on canvas) and proceeded to draw fracturing lines lightly with pencil. The process of figuring out how to show the flowers and enjoy the fracturing and keeping a center of interest is challenging. I think as I critique it...I may need more of a third contrasting color in the painting which is mostly shades of rose and green. There is some purple in the painting which does not show very well in the indoor lighting. So this painting may not be done. Anyone have any suggestions. I think this is a very feasible way to re-do a painting that has fallen flat for some other reason.