Looking toward the light

Dear Family and Friends,

I ruined a postcard by spilling some black paint on it. Oddly, the mistake spoke to me. I saw a tree silhouette, and here it is. I painted the sky and cut out the bird in tiny pieces from a scrap of cotton I painted long ago.  (In reality the black looks blacker.) I like it -- best mistake I made today!

Love,

k

Bird

4" x 6"

multi-media

I prefer blooms

Dear Family and Friends,
This morning I came across the term doomscrolling, and I think I do it -- obsessively reading the bad news. I'm not sure I can stop. Maybe I don't even want to. I've been addicted to news since I was a kid, but I don't think it ever affected my mental state so long and deep as now. Maybe I shouldn't read online news sites for two hours each morning. (Yes! I do that!)

... on the other side of my brain, I paint.

Have you been doomscrolling?

Love,
k

Bright thoughts

8" x 8"

acrylic 

More class notes

1. Drawing with high-flow acrylic (or not)

High flow acrylic paint is almost like ink, except its pigment is ground fine rather than dissolved. It has the characteristics of watercolor, but it is water-resistant when it dries. I didn't have high flow acrylic, so I used Higgins Black India Ink. It is better to draw with the high flow because the images are stable. I didn't add watercolor to my drawings -- if I had the drawing lines would get smeared.

Esté calls this theme haberdashery, which in England means sewing-related. Dilute your paint with up to 50% water. Write the ABC's. Turn the letters into something sewing-related.

2. How to make pink with  red paint

Paint

Magenta

Pyrrole Red

Alizarin Crimson

Burnt Sienna

Quin Gold Deep

Pointed Mop Brush

Paint blossoms petal by petal. You can use the brush, your fingers, or even a mushroom. (I didn't have mushrooms, but this appeals to me.) First paint with water, then add a little paint, maybe two rosy colors, and dab it up with a paper towel. You can also dilute the paint with water and apply directly. Add details with the gold, yellow and brown BEST  after the flowers have dried.

If you want to add stems, try to mix Paynes Graywith Hansa Yellow to make a sage green.

3. Using matte medium  and learning to make good purple

Paints

Pyrrole Red

Alizaron Crimson

Magenta

Ultramarine

Pthalo Blue

Matte medium
mop brush
fan brush
dagger brush

Primary red + primary blue = flat maroon

Crimson + Ultramarine + rich purple

Magenta is essential for vibrant purple

Make teardrop paisley shapes with the mop brush.

Use the fan and dagger brushes to add texture.

Cut these shapes out and make them into stencils.

There was more to this lesson, but I didn't enjoy it and I don't like what I ended up with. Maybe I'll show you -- don't have a photo now.

The next two projects didn't inspire me, so I didn't do them. * I must have been in a low place for three days. That's easy to do with an online class offering no credit and where you don't have to look the teacher in the face. Here are my notes, and I hope I straighten up and complete the projects soon! They sound enchanting now.
*Now, a month later, I'm working on them.

4. Drawing lace, controlling that pen

1. Make lacy designs using  repeated letters of the alphabet. Practice with a fine liner -- a pen with water-resistant ink that will not smear when used with watercolor layering -- or dip pen with black acrylic ink or diluted high flow paint. See how different letters and different angles change the outcome. Move the paper around. (I think I'd like doing this! Maybe I was grumpy because I've read about lacemakers in France going blind with their work.)
2. Now get serious and cover a sheet of watercolor paper with black high flow mixed with matte medium. You shouldn't need more than a teaspoon of high flow. Esté says you can cover up a piece you don't like -- my purple paisley will see a second life!)

3. Draw lace like you practiced, using white high flow. Esté says don't dilute the white. She says you can expect it to dry on the pen, so wash the point it off regularly.

5. Making rounded shapes on flat paper or
 Tone gradations = dimension 

Paints
reds and yellows
Brushes: flat and mop

*Artist's Tip: Use separate brushes for acrylic  and watercolor.

Paint bulbous forms -- as for Christmas ornaments -- with flat brush. Start on edge, paint toward middle. Use a few colors. Add the white high flow in the center., while watercolor is still wet. But don't mix them!

6. Making paper lanterns that really glow:

Did you ever think of painting with an onion?

This spring I took two of Esté MacLeod's online watercolor classes. Not only is she a delightful artist, she is an effective online teacher, and I recommend her classes.  These notes are for me, and they might inspire you as well. I want to remember what I learned -- many techniques apply to acrylic and other media as well as watercolor.

1. Wet on wet

Paint
Nickel Azo Yellow -- vibrant and transparent
Hansa Yellow -- opaque, so good for final details
Paynes Grey for shading under the fruit.

1. Draw a berry lightly if you like. Eventually skip this step.
2. Use a pointed mop brush to create a watery form. Sop up some water with paper towel. Avoid the areas where leaves will go.
3. Apply paint, red and yellows t, to see how they react with one another.
4. You can also print a strawberry shape, even using a berry cut in half.
5. Add leaves.

2. Handwriting and dip pen to create texture and shape 

Pineapple

Qunacridone gold deep and yellow ochre

1. Write the word pineapple or some other words to create the texture of a pineapple. Connect all the letters in rows that are close together. You can write sideways too. 
2. Use a dip pen with watercolor diluted with water. 

3. Pattern, masking, & printing with an onion!

Wet Paper

Stamping with Q-tip, TP roll, green onions!

Masking Fluid

Ultramarine, Pthalo blue, Paynes gray

fan and dagger brushes

Stamp with paint shapes in rows, Use vegetables, q-tips, 

Stamp with masking fluid

Dry completely.

Paint on top. 

Remove masking fluid when the paint on top of it is dry. 

Also, paint lines of water on the paper, leave for a few minutes so it gets absorbed. Dab paint on. Watch the paint flow.

When masking fluid is removed you can add more paint to the white parts.

Numbers inspire leaves and plants

4. Positive and negative shapes

Carbon copy paper for texture

1. Write the numbers 1 to 9
2. Turn the numbers into simple leaves, bigger than an inch. 
3. Pick out favorites.
4. Draw these again on a piece of paper. 
5. Put the carbon paper face down on sketchbook and go ver the outlines of the leaves so there is a template of shapes in the sketchbook.
6. Duplicate these shapes and cut them out.
7. Arrange on blank page into a symmetrical plant shape. No overlapping!
8. Place carbon paper on top of the plant shape laid out in separate paper forms. 
9. Create a texture to cover the entire area. Can use your nails, pencil, stone, wood, fork...
10. Lift carbon paper and stencil to reveal plant shape. 
11. Paint the textured background.
12. Create a stencil on one piece of paper to be used as a negative and positive shape.

5. Printed Wreath

Printing with potatoes, latex sponge

Yellows, viridian green, pthalo blue, paynes gray, red for accent

Mop brush

1. Draw a light circle, using dinner plate.
2. Print  a wreath of leaves clockwise. Use the leaf shapes cut into potatoes. 
3. Apply paint to potatoes with a mop brush.
4. Build up color: start with light colors and gradually add more layers.
5. Mask sections that will be printed over. 
6. Add details with designs painted onto a sponge, or paint directly onto the paper. May use dip pen.

6. Roundup: Tree of Life 

I didn't do this one yet...

Use some of the above techniques to create a tree. 

Keep it simple and then develop further. 

Draw in sketchbook for starters. 

Also may mix white acrylic High Flow with Paynes Gray, brown and a bit of red (for soft gray color) to create an opaque gouache.

#explorecolour

. 

Patrice's Spaghetti Bolognese

Wonderful how some things taste even better now!

Patrice and Mary and I were talking about food on our Sunday Zoom and I told Patrice that her long-ago Spaghetti Bolognese recipe is still fabulous. I made it last week, substituting Italian chicken sausage for the beef-pork-veal. Mary asked for the recipe.

Patrice's Spaghetti Bolognese
Serves 4

3 T. butter
4 slices bacon, chopped (I used a little less)
1 stalk celery
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 T. (olive) oil
1/3 pound ground beef
1/3 pound ground pork
1/3 pound ground veal
1/2 C. white wine
2 C. good beef stock
3 T. tomato paste
1 tsp. dried oregano
grated nutmeg (fresh is best)
salt and pepper to taste
1 C. heavy cream (I used less -- Really!)
1 pound spaghetti
fresh-grated Parmesan cheese

1. Melt butter. Sauté bacon, onion, celery. Cook uncovered, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Set aside.( I crisped the bacon then put the pieces on a plate, added a little butter and sautéed the onion and celery in it until softened.) Put all on a plate.

2 Brown the meat, then add wine. Cook on high until most of wine evaporates. Add salt and pepper, reserved vegetables and bacon, beef stock, tomato paste, oregano and nutmeg.

3.  Simmer partially covered until reduced to a thick sauce (40-60 minutes).

4. Just before serving add all or some of the cream. Heat until it's warm, but do not boil.

5. Serve on spaghetti on hot plates with some grated Parmesan.

6. Good with antipasto and good bread,