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Painting
Mural PaintingThere are several key elements in the painting of murals. Materials, preparation and rendition are three vital components. Experimentation with several different materials will yield those that lend themselves to your style and approach. General preparation of surfaces and layout will insure a mural that is satisfactory and will last a long time. Rendition of your idea is a matter of following some basics of enlarging or projecting scenes to create a finished image that fits the space and is well proportioned. Materials used in murals vary almost as much as the scenes painted. Muralists seek out fine quality paints, those that can withstand contact by people or outdoor elements. Several things to be aware of in the area of paint longevity are the degree of light fastness and the amount of true pigment that is contained within. The stronger the pigment content, the longer the color will last. Preparation of the surface is essential to the success of a mural. Outdoor murals need to be painted on fresh, high quality, flat outdoor paint or gessoed walls. These surfaces grip the pigments set out in the mural. Indoor murals are often painted on flat wall paint or gesso. Layout and design are important because fine detail can be lost on large-scale works. Other than small areas of intense interest, fine detail can be swallowed by the size and power of the painting. Rendering an idea to a wall or the side of a building requires planning, attention to proportion and the careful transfer of design. There are a couple of tried and true ways to transfer your painting or drawing to the wall. The fast track and nearly foolproof way is to use a projector (see www.gagneinc.com and www.artograph.com). Care should be used to prevent exaggerated perspective, but with the image and all its colors flashed upon a wall or building, it is easier to get the painting transferred. Another way to transfer an image is by laying out a grid that corresponds in shape to the wall being adorned. Your design and the wall must be the same shape in order to make the scene transferable and successful. Begin by measuring the area that will be painted. Divide this measurement into a grid that can be transferred to the drawing or painting that you want on the wall. Many artists use clear acetate scribed in a grid and taped over the scene. The same grid, on a much larger scale, is then drawn onto the wall. With both grids done you will know the exact locations for all elements within the mural. Remember, too, that no single square or area will look like anything, but when viewed as a finished project, the squares will reveal the scene with clarity. So, if half of a square is red with narrow blue lines, it must be re-created on a large scale exactly like the small painting or drawing dictates. The adjacent squares, when done to scale, will help create the finished scene perfectly. And how do you paint the image? One of the quickest and most dramatic ways is to use an airbrush or spray gun. All aspects of the image transfer, from outlining to fill-in, can be done with the airbrush. In addition, shading and gradations are super easy with an airbrush--things that brush painters would have difficulty duplicating. If completing the entire project with an airbrush is a little daunting to you, consider using it for shading, lines, or special effects. Brushes and rollers, trowels and knives can be used to apply the paint. Select the tools you feel most comfortable with or expand your repertoire. When painting on unfinished walls, it is very helpful to prime and base-coat with at least two coats of paint before starting your mural. Several manufacturers make "toothy" painting compounds with a slightly dry surface that mimics the base of a fresco painting. Thickly brush this material onto a primed wall (indoors or outside), and then paint it for the look of an ancient mural. Weathering and shading can be added with tones of paint set on in light washes (or airbrushed) that make the mural look aged. Murals can be painted onto artists' canvas and then attached to walls later. This is especially helpful when the mural location is inside an unfinished home or in the middle of a bustling business office. If you can first create your scene on the canvas and then attach it to the wall in a separate procedure, you will have more time to work through challenges and to offer a great finished product created within a comfortable, private environment. Careful measurements are essential, since your work will need to fill a specific area without framing or other extensions. Adhesion can be accomplished with heavy duty wallpaper adhesive or other polymer adhesive, but should be applied to a sized or primed wall. Tip: Consider creating a few murals with simple imagery, basic coloration and sizes with which you feel comfortable. Success with these projects will catapult you on to other, more grand-scale works. There is great demand for artists who can take on the challenge of painting murals. A great group project: Divide a painting into a grid and transfer it to "tiles" of foam core. Distribute the tiles to different artists, allowing them to paint the areas drawn on the tiles in colors and methods of their choice. Collect, join and display the mural. This is a fun and creative project with astonishing results.
The Human Element Anyone working in the colored pencil medium is eligible. Entries must feature, include or strongly suggest the presence of the human figure. Work will be accepted in 100% colored pencil or mixed media (including paint, collage, sculpture, etc.) with at least 75% colored pencil surface. Prizes total $2,500. For more info, visit www.dfac.org. Texas Watercolor Society This exhibition is open to all artists ages 18 or over. Works must be primarily watermedia on paper with a minimum image size of 10" x 14". Approximately $7,000 in cash, merchandise and purchase selections will be awarded. See www.texaswatercolorsociety.org or call 210.403.3830. Lowell Arts Festival The Arts League of Lowell will be hosting the first Lowell Arts Festival on June 10-11, 2006. It has issued a call for entries for a juried exhibit, and visual arts, crafts, jewelry and other media will be considered. The Festival will take place on the streets and in the parks of Lowell. For further info, visit www.lowellartsfestival.org or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Lowell Arts Festival, c/o Arts League of Lowell, P.O. Box 7134, Lowell, MA 01852.
New Digital Photo Holiday Cards and Postcards from StrathmoreWith Strathmore's new Digital Photo Holiday Cards and Postcards and easy-to-use online Design Center, you can now create and produce your own photo cards at home. Twenty glossy cards size 8.5" x 5.5" come in a pack with envelopes, and you can print on both sides! The ten perforated postcard sheets make 20 postcards, with 20 envelopes included. The free, easy-to-use online photo and design center lets you choose from six holiday designs and borders, plus place your digital photo, crop it, color adjust it and correctly position the image. Choose from six seasonal messages to print on the inside of the cards or type in your greeting on the postcards. The online print system is Windows 98+ compatible and requires Internet Explorer 5.5+. There are only three simple steps to produce your own photo holiday greeting cards or postcards:
See your retailer for the new Strathmore Digital Photo Holiday Cards and Postcards and get a head start on creating your holiday greetings! Note also the Digital Calendar Kit that when completed makes a great gift for grandparents and others; and the traditional line of Creative Cards with Red, Emerald, Gold or Silver deckle and more are available for your personal holiday or all-occasion design.
All About Canvas Fredrix was founded in 1868 by E.H. Friedrich. He was not only a businessman concerned with the sale of his product, but also a chemist, inventor, innovator and the first to create and sell artist canvas in America. While a lot has changed about the manufacturing of canvas since the 1800's, the products created by Fredrix are the same high quality first offered all those years ago. Originally called Friedrichs, the name was changed but not the mission. Quality, affordability and attention to the needs of today's artists still rule the way in which their business is conducted. Fredrix shops all over the world to find the finest artist grade cottons, linens and blends, which are all woven to their rigid specifications. Thousands of years before what we now know as artist canvas was available, cotton and linen (flax) were being used in many ways. For instance, the linen used to wrap mummies in the ancient tombs of Egypt was created over 6,000 years ago. It was part of their unique burial method and, along with the dry climate of the desert, preserved the linen. The Shroud of Turin, believed by some to be the shroud in which Jesus was wrapped after his death over 2,000 years ago, was also linen. These examples speak volumes of linen's archival qualities. Canvas is a term applied to tightly woven fabrics, usually cotton or linen, that are used for sails, tents and paintings. Only the highest quality canvas is used for the creation of artists' canvas in order that it maintain an archival correctness. Available in many textures, qualities and dimensions, it can be chosen for a specific effect such as extra smooth for portraiture or bold textured for impasto or perhaps a toothy surface to aid in the adhesion of collage work. Cotton has been cultivated for over 8,000 years. Approximately two months after the bloom, cotton bolls swell with fiber and are harvested, cleaned to remove seeds (used to render cotton seed oil), combed and spun into thread. The choicest fibers are spun into strands from the longest fiber, quality "staple," to insure the strength and uniformity of the woven fabric. Cotton fibers stretch more than linen and offer a more tightly stretched finished canvas with less straining. As the size of the finished stretched canvas increases, so should the weight of the canvas used. This extra thickness will make up for the loss of strength, as compared to linen. Cotton can be primed with either oil-based or acrylic grounds (acrylic gesso). Synthetic canvas has a certain appeal to artists whose work will be displayed out of doors. Synthetic fabrics stand up much better than cotton and linen when exposed to the elements and make the perfect ground for such works. They can be made by using yarns that are extruded into continuous filaments, but the best quality synthetic fabrics are made by spinning short fibers together to create threads of superior strength. This is the same method in which cotton and linen are spun. Synthetic canvas is also immune to bacteria, mildew and air pollution. Fredrix also offers a complete line of canvas that can be printed upon. This printable canvas is similar to artist canvas, but has an ink-receptive topcoat. Available in sizes from 8½" x 11" all the way up to 100-yard rolls for huge format printing, it can be used for lithographic printing, desktop inkjet printing, large and oversized format printing, serigraph printing, giclee printing and more. In the question of raw versus primed canvas, the use of raw affords the artist complete control of stretching and priming. It can also be used for leading-edge experimental works where the absorbent raw surface reacts more like paper than cloth. Primed canvas, when coated with acrylic or oil primer, is ideal for oil work. Acrylic painting may only be painted over acrylic primed surfaces. Oil and acrylic paint can be painted on both cotton and linen canvases. Primers used are sometimes called "grounds." Defined as a material that prepares the surface upon which paint will adhere, ground means acrylic gesso or titanium dioxide for oil work. Primers contain both sizing and ground properties. Sizing seals the support, while ground provides a surface to paint on. Acrylic gesso is an acrylic primer and animal skin glue followed by oil-based ground is an oil paint primer. Canvas (cotton) pads and panels (fiber board with canvas glued to the face) as well as mounted canvas ovals and circles are also available in a variety of sizes. Fredrix recently introduced Watercolor Artist Canvas, which is a revolutionary new watercolor surface; Archival Canvas Board, a professional grade painting support; and Oil Primed Linen Boards made with hand-primed pure Belgian linen. The stretcher bars used are made with unique interlocking corners developed by E. H. Friedrich. They were developed to insure squaring and strength and have changed little since their invention. SPF kiln-dried lumber, which is precision molded in knot-free lengths, is cut to size by computer-driven milling machines. The result is a consistently perfect product, one any artist can trust to endure. The last thing to consider when stretching canvas is the size of the stretcher bar. When paintings surpass sizes in the range of 24" x 36", thicker stretchers and cross braces should be considered. The stretching process can bend stretchers longer than those. Gallery wrapped canvas also looks better when thicker stretchers are used. Gallery wrap is created when the fastening is done on the back side rather than the outside edges of the canvas. These are great for artists who want to continue their images around the edges and thereby forgo framing. Check out the variety of materials available at an art material supplier near you. There are dozens of choices in texture, size and thickness of pre-stretched canvases or you can opt to create your own unique sizes and shapes. Visit www.fredrixartistcanvas.com, where you can see the fine line of products offered.
Bird Friends in the WinterAutumn and winter are great times of the year to watch birds and to help them through the coming cold weather. The food and water that are plentiful during all other times of the year become harder for birds to find. But you can do simple and rewarding things that will really help, such as creating a natural bird habitat in almost any location. All it takes is a little attention to the needs of our feathered friends and a little time. The food that birds love can be anything from seeds and nuts to fruit, berries and suet. Suet is actually the white fat from beef and is often given away by the butcher at your local supermarket. Just ask him and he might give you a few trimmings. From these you can create nutritious food cakes for birds of all types--with a little assistance from Mom or Dad. To create a suet cake, first cook slowly the white fat from beef trimmings until it is a liquid. Remove the liquid to a pan to cool slightly. To this fat, add bird seed and stir. The mixture is ready to shape into cakes when it is thick with seeds. Spoon the seeds and fat into muffin tins or other shapes from which the cakes can be easily removed. Store in the freezer or refrigerator until needed. You can also add oatmeal to the mix to make it even richer, or add chopped dried fruits. Birds love the variety and added nutrition of a mixture of ingredients. Also, you can cut up fruits like bananas, oranges, lemons and grapefruit, or lay out pieces of grape or peach bits. The birds will flock in for the energy of the sugar and the nutrition of the fat. When you get ready to offer the seed cakes, you have several serving options. You can lay them on an old plate, above the height where predators such as cats roam. You can also hang the cakes in mesh bags like those that vegetables come in at the grocery store. The bags can be hung on limbs of trees where it is safe for birds to perch to eat their goodies. Water is essential for birds no matter what the time of year. To help them get enough liquid, keep a plate of water on your porch or in the back yard. To prevent birds from injuring their feet, lay twigs or small limbs across the plate. If the water should freeze, the twigs will keep them off the ice and prevent injury. Watching birds is a great way to learn about their flight, habits and to watch them mature and have families. Birds are also great art subjects because they have many colors and shapes. Set up a feeder or water station and see who comes to visit! Potter ExhibitionBeatrix Potter in America is at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA, through Dec. 4. This exhibit features original book art by Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and includes preliminary drawings and studies for her book illustrations from 1902 to 1930. Natural history paintings, illustrated letters, sketches, family photos, and first editions are drawn from private American collections as well as the Cotsen Children's Library (Princeton) and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Nearly half of these works have never been reproduced and several pieces have never been seen in public. Call 413.658.1100. Program Supported by CrayolaA national survey commissioned by Crayola has revealed that a third of 1,000 kids who participated would erase violence from the world, if possible. Crayola fielded the survey to give kids a voice in deciding where the company should direct its Erase It! Fund donation and the opportunity to draw what was on their minds. As a result, $100,000 was donated to Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) to support its anti-violence education programs in more than 1,500 schools across the country. Nearly 150 drawings/artworks were selected to appear on a mosaic mural unveiled at the Central Park Zoo by actress Amber Tamblyn and students from SAVE's New York Chapter.
Autumn is here and you may have plans to travel in order to view, paint or photograph fall foliage bursting with shades of orange, gold, red or copper. Following is information on the homes/studios of a few premier artists to consider visiting as you plan your itinerary: Jackson Pollock and Lee KrasnerThe Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center is located at 830 Fireplace Road, East Hampton, NY, on Long Island. It was the home and studio of Jackson Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, two of America's foremost Abstract Expressionist painters. The home and studio, built as a farm during the late 1800's, operates as an educational and exhibition space managed by nearby Stony Brook University and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994. The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center is open May, September and October by appointment only. Guided tours are available Thursday, Friday and Saturday, on the hour from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Admission $10. Open June, July and August by appointment on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 11 a.m. Guided tour $10. General admission (no appointment required) 1 - 5 p.m., $5. Call (631)324-4929. Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe's Abiquiu Home and Studio is owned and operated by the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. Tours, by appointment only, run three days a week from April through December and book months in advance. But perseverance will reward you with glimpses into the lifestyle and landscape that was so important to this great American painter. Just to see the tumbled landscape that inspired so many of her works is worth the drive. Abiquiu is about 40 miles from Santa Fe and is not "on the way to any other destination." The Foundation recommends that reservations be made well in advance for 6 or fewer persons and suggests a $20 donation. Call 505.685.4539. If you want to see a wonderful retrospective collection of works by O'Keeffe, visit the Santa Fe Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. There are paintings from every era of her career and a wonderful chronicle of her life. It is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Sunday until 8 pm. Admission is $5 and a very well done audio tour is also available. Location: 217 Johnson Street; Call 505-995-0785. Thomas ColeJumping back into history, the home and studio of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of painting, is available for tour. Cedar Grove has galleries and a studio that contain his artwork and artifacts as well as those of other Hudson River School artists. Situated in the haunting beauty of the Hudson River Valley, The Thomas Cole National Historic Site is located at 218 Spring Street in the village of Catskill, NY, in the Hudson Valley. The main house and studio are open by guided tour offered Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm, starting the first Saturday in May and ending the last Sunday in October. Call 518-913-7465 for group and tour information. Also of interest to Hudson River School fans may be a visit to the sites that inspired these great paintings. Each year Cedar Grove offers guided hikes with themes relating to Thomas Cole, his contemporaries and 19th century American culture. The "Kindred Spirits" Hike is scheduled for October 16 at 9 a.m. and will visit some of the beautiful places that inspired this great painting by Asher B. Durand. Advance reservations and payment are necessary. Call 518-943-0652. There are many artists' studios and homes throughout the country. Investigate your favorite creative genius and see if there may be a tour of his or her dwelling and work area. The information shared during tours of such sites is quite different from reading it from a book. Being in the very environment that influenced greatness is always a grand experience.
Jane Seymour, Celebrity Keynote Speaker Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival 12th Annual International Exposition of Philadelphia Museum of Art
Airbrushing T-ShirtsYes, T-shirt airbrushing is still in vogue--on boardwalks, at fairs and festivals and in resort areas. The quality of the work and design ranges from simple to highly elaborate, all dependent upon the artist's ability, the sophistication of the audience, and the price of the finished T-shirt. To outfit yourself and learn how to airbrush T-shirts is fairly straightforward, but the mastering of T-shirt painting takes lots of practice and professional equipment. Following are some helpful hints for getting started in your pursuit of airbrushing T-shirts: The artist painting T-shirts prefers a bottom feed, dual-action, internal-mix airbrush, e.g. the Iwata BCS (see www.iwata-medea.com). This has jars that attach and hold a good volume of paint. The airbrush can be moved around in the painting process without the paint sloshing out of a color cup to make a mess or ruin artwork. The air source used must be able to supply at least a constant flow of 60 pounds of pressure (psi). This can be either a CO2 tank or a compressor of at least 1/2HP. The T-shirt painter works at a high pressure to be able to "push" the paint into the fabric. In your airbrush setup you can have one airbrush with many different jars, one for each color and one for cleaner; or you can have several airbrushes, one for each color; or a system such as Silentaire's Spectrum 2000 Color Changer, which allows you to dial up several different colors while using just one airbrush. (See www.silentaire.com for info on the Spectrum 2000 as well as a good selection of compressors.) Pre-reduced fabric paint is used to paint T-shirts. This paint is usually water-soluble and must be heat-set for permanency. When selecting your airbrush paint, work with a limited palette of colors. This should include red, yellow, blue, purple, aqua, brown, medium gray, black, white and, of course, hot pink. If you are going to mix a particular color, make sure you mix enough, because it will be difficult to match if you run out. Once you have your equipment and paint, you'll need to practice to become proficient. But don't begin practicing on T-shirts, because this can become costly. Start on paper such as newsprint, which is absorbent and gives you a surface that is somewhat similar to cotton fabric. Get used to doing the dagger stroke, which is the predominant freehand stroke used by T-shirt painters. This is a line that runs from thin to thick and back to thin and is achieved by manipulating the trigger of the airbrush (like rolling a marble back and forth with your finger): on/off, on/off.
Once you master the dagger stroke, move on to working on cotton fabric. Buy a few yards from your local fabric store and attach it to your wall, easel or drawing table (T-shirts are usually painted upright); and begin to practice painting on cotton. It's also important to master the airbrushing of different lettering styles. Most customers will want a name painted on their shirts. Try to master the alphabets of at least three different lettering styles, e.g., stick, letter, block, bulbous, punk or graffiti, etc. As you will see, freehand airbrushing has a soft appearance resulting from the overspray of the airbrush. To achieve a hard-edge line, you will need to use stencils made of 5 mil acetate or templates such as those by Artool. (See your retailer or www.artoolproducts.com for this extensive selection.) Most airbrush work is done with a combination of freehand and hard-edge lines. Paint on T-shirts made from 100% cotton and buy the type that is unsized so they do not require pre-washing. Invest in some convenient T-shirt boards to stretch the shirts over so that the fabric is taut with no dimples or folds to ensure smooth painting. These boards may be purchased or made from ¼" Masonite or foam board. The T-shirt board also prevents wet paint from bleeding from the front to the back of the shirt. The painter who is doing mass production will usually work on the wall with a wooden tray built to hold several T-shirt boards simultaneously. Others, depending on the availability of space or portability, will work on a sturdy easel. It's best to have an easel that will hold jars of paint in a tray about 32" from the floor. To heat-set the finished product for permanency and laundering, you can use a professional conveyor set at 120 degrees for 20 minutes, or a heat press set at 375 degrees for 30 seconds, or a conventional clothes iron set at the "cotton" setting for 2 minutes, or a heat gun used in a rotating motion for 30 seconds. Do NOT iron directly on the painted surface. Iron on the reverse side of the shirt or cover the painted area with butcher paper or brown Kraft paper and then iron on the paper. An attractive display of sample T-shirts and painted wares is important. And you don't have to limit yourself to just T-shirts. Sweatshirts, baseball caps, hoodies, license plate tags and children's clothing, etc., can become part of your unique offering. Be creative here! The T-shirt painter who does a large amount of airbrushing should take health and safety precautions when overspray is a factor. Be sure to work in an area with adequate ventilation and wear a good protective mask or respirator, particularly if working indoors. Airbrushing T-shirts can be lucrative as well as fun and has been a great summer job for many aspiring and professional artists or a full-time job for artists in year-round resort communities. Prices are determined by the complexity of the design, length of time to complete, economics of the geographical area, and the competition.
Katrina's Aftermath --The Times-Picayune has reported that the New Orleans Museum of Art has survived the hurricane without significant damage. Several personnel remained on duty, and the temporary lack of climate control has been remedied. Of 50 works, one sculpture by Kenneth Snelson in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden was destroyed and significant damage occurred to the landscape. Security guards have been brought in to protect the museum, and National Guardsmen are on duty, as well. CERF, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, has a mission to strengthen and sustain the careers of craft artists across the U.S. Their emergency relief programs provide assistance to help sustain a craft artist's career when an emergency occurs. CERF is now working to connect with craft artists, galleries and others in the areas affected by Katrina. For ongoing updates, fundraising campaigns and message board postings, go to http://craftemergency.org/katrina/ or call 802.229.2306. --"Quilter's Comfort America" received and distributed more than 7,000 quilts and 4,500 pieces of bedding in their project to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. The 31st Annual International Quilt Market/Festival is scheduled October 27-30 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. Because Hurricane Rita has not yet reached Texas as of this writing, please call 713.781.6864 or see www.quilts.com for further updates/information. Museums to Re-Open --The de Young Museum will re-open in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, on October 15 in a landmark new building. The three-level, 298,000 sq. ft. building reduces the museum's footprint by 37% and returns nearly two acres of open space to Golden Gate Park. The de Young will inaugurate its new special exhibition galleries with an ambitious exhibition showcasing objects from Egypt's Golden Age, Daughter of Re: Hatshepsut, King of Egypt, on view from Oct. 15 to Jan. 29, 2006, with over 100 objects on view. --The Wexner Center (Columbus, OH), the country's only fully multidisciplinary arts center rooted in a major research university (Ohio State U.), will re-open with a week of festivities from Oct. 29 Nov. 5. The events celebrate the completion of a comprehensive three-year $15.8 million renovation of the Center's unprecedented building by Peter Eisenman, which will unite the Center under one roof. Among the festivities is Part Object Part Sculpture, Oct. 30 Feb. 26, 2006, an exhibition that reinterprets the course of the visual arts over the past half century by exploring the organic, hand-made work of artists from Marcel Duchamp and Louise Bourgeois to Robert Gober and Wexner Center Residency Award artist Josiah McElheny.
Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 15 No. 12 -- October 2005 |
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