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Clay

Artisan Clays

Clay is a fabulous material for any artist who loves to take a fistful of shapeless solid material and manipulate it into one of thousands of items.  Early clay work is believed to have started by mistake.  The bowls and wicker or reed vessels primitive man used to hold his collected grains, berries, seeds and the like were full of holes.  So, they spread bank clay inside the shapes in order to make them more solid.  At some point in time, historians theorize, one of these “baskets” was set too close to a campfire.  The reeds burned, leaving the hardened shell of the lining and a much more permanent container than the original.  Thus, by accident, clay vessels were created.

Today, clays come in many types and forms.  Each has a specific application and appeals to different artisans and craftspersons.  Potters are probably the segment of the artistic community that uses the most clay.  Whether manipulating the clay by hand—creating unique vessels—or with a potter’s wheel—making multiples of similar shapes such as plates, bowls, platters and mugs—potters use volumes of clay.

A potter’s preference might be working with porcelain clay.  It is extra smooth and contains very fine particles that offer artists extra smooth surfaces for their glaze work.  Porcelain is usually fired in a kiln to an extreme temperature in order to “vitrify” the clay body.  This makes the clay as close to stone and as hard and durable as is possible.  Most porcelain clays fire white, making work done in these clays extra elegant.

Clays that are fired to slightly lower temperatures are called stoneware clays.  They are mid-range firing clays and yield a surface that is slightly rougher and less smooth than porcelain.  Most dinnerware is created using this type of clay because it fires to a lower temperature (less cost and faster turn-around).  The majority of stoneware clays fire to some earth tone such as brown, light gold or beige.  Many have speckles, which is an indication of minerals in the clay.  Low-fire clays come in white and browns, but the resulting surface is not as durable or as smooth and near translucent as that of porcelain or stoneware.  The real appeal of low-fire clays is the reduced temperatures at which they reach maturity.  That makes this last group the least costly to work with when it comes to kiln-fired clays.

Of course, there are a lot more types of clays than those fired in kilns.  Today’s popularity of the exact opposite – that of polymer clay – opens the door to almost any person creating with clay.  The colors come pre-blended in a huge range of vibrant colors, even fluorescent and metallic colors.  Because a household oven is all the heat that is required, any item that can stand the temperatures required can be used as a base.  This means that wooden beads, metal items and the like can be covered with original designs without fear of the clay shrinking or cracking.  What a door that opens!  Jewelry, decorative boxes, plates and platters, vases…the list could go on forever.  And you can create original items without a shape under the clay.  Simply shape, create, combine colors…you do whatever you want and make the material permanent in the oven.  Nothing could be easier or more fun.

Self-hardening clays are usually children’s introduction to working with clay.  They are soft and manageable and air dry to a semi-permanent hardness.  They do not have water-holding capabilities but are more rigid than plain soil would be.  They can be painted with water-based paints but can be used for non-functional purposes only.

The pliable types of clay that some kids love are actually easy to make.  That puts them in a very unusual category.  Mixtures of flour, salt, oil, cream of tarter or alum and water are cooked to make an easily manipulated material that can be colored with food coloring or even Kool-Aid.  A bit more challenging because it is so sticky is a recipe that uses white bread and white glue.  It can be combined with glitter or tiny beads for unique jewelry making or fun sculpting mixtures.

So whether you are looking for a simple crafty material or a full blown fine art medium, clay might fill the bill.  It is one artistic discipline that can be enjoyed by almost anyone, on one level or another. See your retailer and visit www.amaco.com for the American Art Clay Company’s extensive line of clays, glazes, pottery wheels, kilns, tools and accessories.  Also see “The Artist’s Marketplace” below.

Art Events

Learning & Product Expo:  ART! will be held July 10-12 at Chicagoland Western Suburbs, Hickory Ridge Marriott Conference Hotel, Lisle, IL.  Here you can immerse yourself in a unique experience for artists where you can choose from 200 art classes taught by some of the most popular instructors in the country.  Also, visit an exhibit hall packed with art material manufacturers to view free demonstrations, learn about art supplies and see new materials.  Classes begin July 9.  Visit http://www.learningproductexpo.com/chi/home.cfm for more info/registration.

The Artist’s Marketplace

AMACO/Brent – QuickCenter System

Centering clay just got easier with “training wheels” for the centering process.  The new QuickCenter automatically centers up to 4 pounds of clay in three easy steps:  Load the canister/plunger with clay by pressing into wedged clay; place the Bat Set onto the wheel head with pins; center the canister/plunger into the recessed Bat Set, release the clay and begin throwing. With this new system beginners can feel “center” and develop confidence while successfully throwing on the wheel the very first time.  www.amaco.com.

Artograph – BeadGlo

New from Artograph is the BeadGlo light box, the perfect tool for all your beading projects. Now you can easily sort and lay out beads and crystals on an illuminated surface with custom-designed trays.  It’s great for at-home use, but can also use batteries for beading on the go. BeadGlo has a 5” x 9” illuminated slanted surface, 9V power adapter, convenient carrying pouch, brilliant fluorescent bulb, 2 removable design trays and storage compartment, 2 design rulers, and optional battery operation.  Also available are 6 custom-designed trays for all your beading projects.  www.artograph.com.

DaVinci Paint Co. – New Colors

Da Vinci’s professional watercolor broke tradition over 25 years ago with huge 37ml. tubes at an incredible value.  They set industry standards over 15 years ago when they helped you preserve your work with the first ever Permanent Alizarin Crimson.  Da Vinci watercolor continues to lead the industry and is the only brand formulated exclusively using lightfast pigments approved by ASTM International for Artists’ Quality.  Today Da Vinci is accepted as the most permanent color line in the industry. And now all 112 Da Vinci Watercolors have been reformulated for 2009 with more pigment and improved rewetting properties—including 22 new colors.  www.DaVinciPaints.com.

Gagne, Inc. – New Porta-Scope 1.3M

The new Porta-Scope 1.3M from Gagne is ideal for working on projects such as printmaking, engraving, jewelry, bead-making or viewing slides/negatives/transparencies. It can also give you interesting images as resource material for artwork.  This easy-to-use 6-LED handheld digital microscope with USB interface has an adjustable magnification from 10X-200X.  Images are viewable on your computer monitor and can be saved to your hard drive. Active pixel technology produces sharp images and accurate color reproduction.  The LED’s can be turned on or off and brightness can be adjusted using the control wheel on the body.  The microtouch shutter trigger allows for convenient image capture when in handheld mode or mounted on a stand.  The Porta-Scope comes with software for the best capture of images or videos and an adjustable stand.  Just plug the Porta-Scope into a PC and you are set to go!  It’s a great companion to your Gagne lightbox.  www.gagneinc.com.

Iwata-Medea – New Ninja Jet Compressor and Big Mouth Airbrush Bottles

The New Iwata Studio Series Ninja Jet Compressor is the perfect choice for portable air—with a compact size, reliable performance and affordability. It has a built-in airbrush holder, carrying handle, protective black metal cover, on/off switch, adjustable pressure regulator and comes complete with an air hose.  It’s low maintenance with an oil-less piston motor, is 1/12 HP and PSI ranges from 5-18.  Weighing in at just 5.9 lbs., the Ninja Jet is great for hobbies, crafts, cosmetics, nails, bakery or just having airbrush fun!

Iwata’s new Big Mouth Airbrush Bottles have never-before-seen features that will change your airbrush life!  The offset connector allows larger diameter bottles to affix easily to your airbrush, and the raised air intake creates a splash-proof opening.  They also have a durable, one-piece, easy-to-clean cap and a leak-proof seal—and are solvent proof.  Choose from 1, 2, 2.5 or 4 oz. cylinders and a 3 oz. jar. Adapter caps are available separately and all Big Mouth Airbrush Bottle Caps will fit most popular brands of paint.  www.iwata-medea.com.

See your participating retailer for all the fine new products featured above.

Drawing

Silverpoint

If you are unfamiliar with silverpoint, you might recognize it by another term: metal point.  This style of drawing is very old and considered an archaic medium that reached its peak in the Renaissance period.  It is, however, enjoying somewhat of a revival due to the acute accuracy of the scribing and newer materials that make it not only easier but also much more applicable to today’s artistic applications.

Very early in the history of writing, a metal stylus would be used to make marks on a variety of permanent and temporary surfaces.  Some of these surfaces were soft, like wax and clay.  The purpose of such writings was strictly business records, such as inventory maintenance, and records of the wealthy and royal persons of the time.  Scribes were employed by the rich, and the type of metal used in their stylus determined the status of the employer – precious metals like gold and silver for the most elevated classes, lead for lesser beings.

As writing developed further, animal skins were used as the substrate.  The skins were stretched and scraped to a thin, dry surface.  To this a ground was added, usually white, to make the marks more legible and longer lasting.  Binders in the ground could have been one of a number but often included urine or spittle.  Bone ash, chalk, pumice and ground roasted bone (chicken) were some of the documented pigments used. Skins and added pigments were used for centuries.  Such skins have been found all over Europe and, despite sometimes harsh treatment, they have lasted remarkably well.

Paper technology spelled the end of prepared skin record keeping.  Sometime during the late medieval period (11^th century through 14^th) scribes moved to paper as the ground for their record keeping.  In early years the surface of the paper, a true luxury and very costly, was treated with the same concoctions as preparation for recording.

During the same medieval period, artists took up the stylus as a tool.  From the late 14^th century to the 17^th, silverpoint drawings began to surface.  It is known that Leonardo da Vinci prepared his paper for drawing with much the same compounds as earlier scribers had used.  His grounds were composed of pumice and bone ash, and as so many of the professional ancient scribes had done, the material was moistened with spittle.

While silverpoint and the surface preparation required for great success was not the only drawing and writing medium used by artists and scribes during medieval and Renaissance times, it is one of the longest lived.  Silverpoint was superior in many ways to all other recording methods (inks).  The marks did not smudge.  They were completely permanent, inert and fade-proof (unlike ink).  Silverpoint could be used on any prepared surface, so it was a great under-drawing tool for artists.  It was self-contained, portable and easy to use.  Many of the drawings have remained in very good condition over the 700+ years since they were created.

Tools used for modern silverpoint (metal point) include the use of a stylus.  Today’s stylus could be made from many different types of metals and in many styles (“pin vice” draftsman style holders, plastic handles with rounded wire stylus points, wood handle with rounded wire point or even stylish carriers with silver rod points).  Check out the stylus selections at local art material dealers.

The paper you use could be any heavy-bodied, smooth watercolor paper with a coating of white gouache, gypsum, chalk or zinc oxide, applied very smoothly.  Fixative/binder could be glue size or gum arabic.  Drawing paper of good quality and body can also be used.  Smoothness is essential for best rendering.

Some experimentation could be done with a variety of scribing tools and on smooth surfaces with flat, dry coatings, too.  There is huge potential for extremely detailed renderings and drawing methods that build darks and depth with repeated strokes.  Perhaps it’s time to try this ancient, long-lived art medium.

Silverpoint Drawing Workshop

A Silverpoint Drawing Workshop will be held Tuesdays, June 9 – 16, from 1-5pm at the Museum Studios, Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA.  For more information, visit http://www.getty.edu/visit/calendar/events/14991.html.

Kids’ Korner

—Kohl’s Art Generation is a joint effort between Kohl’s Department Stores and the Milwaukee Art Museum to bring art and creativity to area kids and their families.  Included in the program are the Kohl’s Art Generation Gallery and Studio onsite at the museum, where kids participate in exciting and creative projects—all while seeing some of their best work showcased exclusively at the museum.  www.mam.org/artgeneration/.

—From June 8–Aug. 7 the Miami Art Museum’s “MAM in the Neighborhood” program offers summer camps and community centers free site visits, art activities and tours based on this summer’s featured exhibition.  MAM comes to your site with free art materials and activities.  Also, visit the museum for a free interactive exhibition tour guided by MAM gallery teachers.  Call 305-375-5466; www.miamiartmuseum.org.

—The Walker Art Center presents the WAC Garden Pack, a free family guide to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden that contains fun, hands-on activities.  Games such as Seek+Find, Go-Garden-Go! and Balancing Act will engage your child’s imagination and provide meaningful stops on your outdoor art excursion together.  Borrow the kit on your next visit from either the lobby desk or the FlatPak House in the Garden.  www.walkerart.org.

Art Competitions

Oil/Acrylic

The NOAP Society 19^th Annual Fine Art Exhibition, The Best of America! 2009, will be held at the Dunnegan Gallery of Art, Bolivar, MO, from Sept. 27–Oct. 18; at KATY Historic Depot, Sedalia, MO, from Oct. 19–Nov. 2; venue under consideration Nov. 2-10; and location to be determined in Osage Beach, MO, from Nov. 10–Nov. 21.  The competition is open to all living artists 18 years and older who create original works of art utilizing oil or acrylic media.  Entry Postmark Deadline:  July 17. Best of Show Award of $5,000 plus additional awards. www.noaps.org/public/prospectus.html

All Media

—The Rockport Center for the Arts, Rockport, TX, will present Shorelines 2009, a national juried exhibition for excellence in coastal art, from Oct. 14-Nov. 21.  All artists age 18 and over whose work is inspired by and reflects upon coastal life, whether representational or abstract, are eligible.  All media are accepted for entry.  Awards of $4,000 in cash prizes.  Entry Postmark Deadline:  July 6.  http://www.rockportartcenter.com/entries/callforentries.php

—ArtPrize invites artists of all kinds (18 years of age and up) from around the world to participate in an unprecedented competition that will award nearly one-half million dollars to prize winners, including $250,000 to the artist who receives the most public votes—via mobile devices and the Web. The city of Grand Rapids, MI, will become an art gallery, as artworks and performances will be exhibited at hundreds of ArtPrize-registered venues in the downtown riverfront district from Sept. 23–Oct. 10.  The Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation is underwriting ArtPrize—to “reboot a conversation between artists and the public on a grand scale.”  Artists may register at http://www.artprize.org/default.aspx before July 31.

Airbrush

Airbrush Painting on Canvas

Painting on fabric has a long history in the field of art.  In the orient, since ancient times artists have painted on silk with ink and watercolor.  Canvas painting as we know it today did not come into vogue in Europe until the Middle Ages.  Unlike working on wooden panels (the norm), stretched canvas allowed artists to work much larger without seams; and the end artwork was much lighter, easier to handle and transport, and could be rolled for storage.

Today, fine artists who work in oil and acrylic predominantly paint on stretched canvas. For airbrush artists, there are special considerations, e.g., texture is of prime importance in the selection of canvas. The smoothest textures are preferred for airbrush work because the spray denotes the texture painted upon.  For example, if the gesso has paintbrush marks, they will remain evident when sprayed upon.

Three basic types of canvas are used in painting today:  cotton, linen and synthetic.  Whichever one is selected, canvas manufactured for portrait painting is always the smoothest, whether primed or unprimed.

The majority of airbrush artists working on canvas use acrylic artists’ colors.  These are the easiest to spray, are lowest in toxicity and, since they dry quickly, you can work quickly with templates, frisket film and tape.  Canvas can be purchased unprimed, so you can prime it yourself with acrylic gesso.  When dry, sand to develop the desired surface.  Canvas that is purchased pre-primed may also require sanding, depending on your preference.

Canvas is available in rolls for you to stretch or pre-stretched on armatures and ready for painting.  It can also be glued to rigid supports such as plywood or Masonite.  Canvas can be purchased in sheets (to work on in the same way as paper) and panels that are available in a variety of sizes.

Completed works on canvas must be protected with varnish that can be applied with a paintbrush, airbrush or spray gun.  This not only seals and protects paintings from the environment, but enables you to develop a consistent sheen—mat, satin or gloss—throughout the entire painting.

Historically, the survival of paintings on stretched canvas is very high, and when restoration is required, it is quite successful.  But there are some things to remember to ensure longevity. When transporting stretched canvas there is a chance of damage from sharp objects or laying anything on or against it that will “bag out” the canvas.  Also, moisture and humidity can damage canvas and shorten the life expectancy. So be sure to store paintings in a dry environment with canvases upright and not touching.

For the fine artist, airbrushing acrylic on canvas is the way to go, particularly when you wish to work on a very large scale.

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ArtPourri

USPS News—Wedding invitations never looked prettier as the Postal Service announced two new wedding stamps. The 61-cent Wedding Cake stamp depicts a 3-tier cake topped with white flowers and accommodates the heavier weight of an invitation, while the 44-cent Wedding Rings stamp features a photo of two gold wedding rings nesting on a small white pillow and is intended for use on response envelopes. Both photos were taken by Renee Comet of Washington, DC.

New Statue Unveiled—A statue of abolitionist Sojourner Truth—created by California-based artist Artis Lane—has been dedicated in Emancipation Hall of the new Capitol Visitor Center in D.C.  She is the first black woman to be so honored and the 10^th statue of a woman to stand in the building out of 211 statues.

Awards at La Biennale di Venezia—The 53^rd International Art Exhibition will honor artists Yoko Ono and John Baldessari with the Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement award.  This will be presented during the opening of the exhibition titled “Making Worlds” on June 6 and running until Nov. 22 in Venice.

Top Museums—Among the top searched museums on AOL Search are Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (1), Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA (2), Getty Museum, CA (3), Dallas Museum of Art, TX (4) and Brooklyn Museum, NY (5).

NEA News—The NEA has announced its second round of funding for fiscal year 2009 in the categories of Access to Artistic Excellence, Learning in the Arts, Arts on Radio and TV, American Masterpieces:  Three Centuries of Artistic Genius and Partnership Agreements.  The Endowment will distribute $83,472,100 to support 1,075 projects by nonprofit national, regional, state and local organizations nationwide.

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Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 19 No. 8 — June 2009