BLOG about PAINTING

Now that the first layer of pastel has set up a bit, I went back in and added more colour.

So, from this:

to this:

Not a huge change - and proof that it's next to impossible to save a bad composition!

This is today's 'newbie' - the weeping willow in the back yard.

I haven't painted in oil or acrylics for over a month now. This is a health issue. In an effort to reduce the number of migraines that I am getting, I am avoiding exposing myself to any paint fumes. In recent months I was four for four: every time I painted in the studio for a few days, I got a vicious five-day migraine. That's enough to dissuade anybody. Mind you, I'm having a very, very diffucult time of withdrawal.

First of all, I've been vetting Richard Robinson's nifty little freebie videos about landscape painting. They're short, informative, and just what a body needs to get all excited about painting en plein air. (That would be OK for me in that I wouldn't have to worry about the fumes out of doors. Though I then wouldn't be able to touch up the paintings once they're drying in the studio - perhaps not a bad thing. That would force me to just do them and then not fiddle-fart around with them, for which I have a penchant...) The fly in the ointment is that it has been very cold for this part of the world, down to -14C with wind chill. What to do???

Well, paint in Oil Pastels, of course. Sure, they're not as quick nor as gestural as oils. Nor can you make those lovely edges and mixes that come from brushstrokes. However, they don't have fumes, and they don't give me headaches! They're strictly a studio medium at this time of year (below 10C they're too hard and brittle to be usable), but that's OK. Since I hate to work from photos, that does limit my subject matter: interiors, still life or landscapes that I can see from the windows. Better than nothing! So, that's exactly what I have been doing - with so-so results.

Day 1: Feb. 5

We had some squashes waiting to be eaten. Nice shapes, OK colours. Not a great composition. And OMG, am I ever rusty!!!

Day 2: Feb. 6

This is our little apple tree in the corner of the yard. Again, my composition leaves something to be desired. (I really should be doing little thumbnails ahead of time. Too keen to get going? Too laze?)

Day 3: Feb. 7

Vegetables one day, fruit the next... Not too sure about the pink background. I had just grabbed a 'magic cloth' dishrag as a foil to the greenness of these Anjoy pears. I really should have gone and found a proper cloth. Maybe one of these days I'll get properly organized. As well, the light kept changing as the sun moved around the house and played hide-and-seek with the clouds. I'm doing these little pastels at my kitchen table. (The studio is pretty nippy in this weather. It's hard enough getting the house up to a temperature where we don't have to wear gloves. I love this house and the woodstove, but when we get 'Eastern Canada' style weather, I do miss 'Eastern Canada' style insulation and central heating!

Well, I'm trying out the solvent-free system suggested by the Opus staff.

I've also been getting outside to paint quite a bit. I do use some Galkyd to start the painting, and then go straight to undiluted paint. When I get home, I stick the pieces out in the open shed to vent off the Galkyd fumes, then bring them inside after a few days. That seems to be working OK, though they take a long time to dry out in the shed. We're working on getting a drying booth for things so that I can dry them inside where it's warm.

Here's an early version of one. It has since had a bit of studio adjusting.

I've also been playing with the 37-minute jobbies that I had pumped out. For the most recent ones I had used a star motif. I go back in time and again and add more layers. It can get interesting:

(This last one has a lot of glare and quite a few specks of dirt... My paintings have a habit of doing face plants on the studio floor. Oops.)

Well, my last effort at painting with oils ended in a vicious migraine. So I took a break, researched things online, talked to the pros at Opus Framing, and decided to try to paint in oils but solvent-free. This entails using walnut oil for thinning and cleaning my brushes with kitchen oil instead of any petroleum-based solvent.

I've been at it again for a couple of days now. Of course, I have to get my momentum going again, which always takes a while.

This time, I'm using stars as a motif on which to build my quick-and-dirty paintings. Hmmm.

Interestingly, while I'm doing these semi-abstracts in the studio, I'm having two main thoughts:

1) This might be more productive in acrylic (?!) since I could then layer a lot more easily and faster.

2) I'm really hankering to get painting en plein air. First, however, since I'll need to use a solvent to do my underpainting out in the field, I'm going to have to build some kind of drying box where I can put the paintings to set up. SOON. It has to be soon.

A star:

13-08-31 fw

I finally got into my new studio. The weather had turned, and painting outside wasn't an option. Also, I was just itching to get back into painting with oils. I needed some kind of kickstart to my winter...

So I'm doing this thing where you squeeze out your paints, set a timer for 37 minutes, and paint like mad until the buzzer goes. The plan was to do this for a month. I lasted six days before a terrible migraine felled me (more later). The results are interesting.

The first efforts were pretty grim, but I reworked them a day or two later and am not totally displeased with the results. As time went on, I started to find my feet, and the later paintings were better right from the get-go. The big challenge was finding someplace to start, some kind of structure on which to hang the painting. This structure morphed from quite architectural shapes to more free, organic ones. That seemed to help. I also expanded my palette a bit.

I was really loving doing this until the migraine came along. The good news is that it lasted only a few days. The bad news is that I think it was caused by working with the oil paints. Now I know you acrylic fans will suggest I simply switch over to acrylics, but this would be a huge step. Not only do I have several hundreds (thousand?) dollars' worth of oil paint, but I simply don't like painting with acrylics. (Yes, I've tried them. More than once.) One part that I love most about painting is when I get to put a second, third, fourth layer of paint over the tacky underlayer from the day previous and see how the paint interacts. I love the way the layers sometimes blend and how they sometimes push each other up into ridges. That just ain't going to happen with acrylics, even open acrylics. Somebody suggested going to water-based oils. That would mean another big investment, but it might be worth it if it solves the migraine problem.

I'm thinking on this. Who knows where things will go from here?

I'm giving a two-day, more advanced oil pastel workshop at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts on June 29 & 30, 2013. We'll be using the landscape as a frame of reference, but we'll be playing with creative approaches to this great medium. See http://www.coastcollective.ca/classes.html#oilpastels for more information.

We've just moved to Shelburne on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. It's the start of a new adventure.

Here we are leaving Tsawwassen on the mainland of BC:

That's my husband on my left and our good friend Paul on my right. You can see our kayaks on the roof and you can imagine the poor little Golf packed to the level of the windows. We drove clear across the continent - 7500 kilometers. It was a long, hot (in the 30 - 35ºC range), but beautiful trip across this wonderful country. We arrived in Shelburne for the heat wave of the century and the incipient arrival of Hurricane Earl. The storm was supposed to make landfall here this morning (Sept. 4, 2010), but luckily, we dodged the bullet as the eye of the storm came ashore just north of here, and all we got were some heavy winds and rain.

So here we are, and I can hardly wait to get out my paints and start work.

Hello Everyone,

I have just realized that I actually have a mailing list. Imagine! Now that I know this, I will endeavour to keep you posted on upcoming events. For example, I have two shows coming up in May - May 16th in Cumberland with my good friends and fabulous artists, Lucy Schappy and Jennifer Weber (See Links) and a solo show in Victoria (May 23rd). I will post the information on these a bit closer to the actual events.

Thank you so much for your interest in my work.

Cheers,

Gretchen