Copper #8 Grisaille

Getting better - will work on this until I'm satisfied then I'll start the color - my whole objective with this entire enterprise! By the way, I use 1500 grit sand paper cloth, wet, to sand down ridges of paint in-between each days work if there are any. I don't use any medium at this stage.

Copper #7 Grisaille

Here's the very beginning - a real mess! Looks kind of blue green, but it's totally neutral gray paints!

Copper #6 drawing

I use home made pastel transfer paper using a sienna soft pastel/alcohol on tracing paper to transfer my drawing to the copper. Then I'll start the grisaille.

Copper Prep #5

Here's my 12" x 12" 18 gauge copper panel smooth and dry ready to the drawing. You can see how thin the paint is - that beautiful pink copper color shows through in place, though it won't show in the finished piece.

Copper Prep #4

Sure wish there was a way to put more than one photo is a post, then I could write the whole thing together instead of piece meal - last step on top of first ones! Anyway...

Here, I'm using a brush to put on flake white - actually I used some Cremitz white here - that's been thinned with mineral spirits or turps. I started with the brush to get the stuff on there, then I smoothed it out with my thumb.

Copper Prep #3

After polishing with the Never Dull and cleaning several times with the alcohol, I then use ca.400 grit wet/dry sand paper to take off the red curprous oxide (CU2O) formed by reaction between surface of copper and oxygen in the air. You can see the fine powder that's on the sand paper and the difference between the cleaned side/dirty side.

This abrading, done in small circles with dry sand paper and quite abit of pressure, is what allow the paint to bond with the copper. I think an ion is exchanged between oil paint and the metal, but don't know the science exactly - only that it works!

Then I clean off any red dust that is left behind, again with the alcohol. Now it's ready to accept the ground of thinned flake white.

Copper Prep #2 Supplies

• Never Dull - a metal polishing batting that works well.
• Denatured Alchohol
• 400 grit wet/dry sand paper
• flake white oil paint thinned with a bit of mineral spirits

Copper Preparation #1 Dirty copper

I love painting on copper! But as with most painting supports - linen, panel, canvas or wall, there is much work that must be done before I can even think about painting on it.

Here is a 12 x 12  18 gauge copper panel. Paint will not adhere to the surface as it is and MUST be thoroughly cleaned and abraded .

Blue

Blue 

oil on linen panel  13 x 15

Private Collection

My intention here is to study the color blue. However instead of painting blue spheres like I did for 5 YR, I decided to try this blue pitcher that's pretty close to 7.5PB and Nasturtiums from last summer's window box...for a touch of humor I added a small iron bird wondering about that reflection that leads outside! I started this one with local color on linen panel and have started another using a neutral grisaille but on copper. I'll post the way I prep the copper in the next post.

Battiporta - Italian Doorknocker

 

Battiporta  (Italian Doorknocker) 

9 x 8 oil on wood panel

Private Collection

New Work 2011

My, how time gets away from me!  I have been working, though you wouldn't know it from the dates on this blog!

Black Capped Chickadee 

 oil on panel 6 x 8

Commission

20th Anniversary at Abend Gallery in Denver, CO

 

 

                    Still Life with Crystal & Peonies 

                       oil on panel  15 x 17 (image)

Some Recent Work - Still Life with Tea

Still Life with Tea

12 x 12

(Sold)

Silver Rimmed Bowl

  

Silver Rimmed Bowl

16 x 20 oil on panel

Available at Abend Gallery.com

Detail Silver Rimmed Bowl

Beets - Locally Grown

10 x 20 oil on panel

Available at Abend Gallery.com

Munsell Exercises

In between living & painting, I've finally completed some of the Munsell Exercises as recommended by Graydon Parrish at Rational Painting. The investment of more than 3 years, lots of paint & work, and the Big Book of Color is starting to pay off.  I've set up the current round of exercises that I finished last fall just to show myself how much I've accomplished - even though they're not perfect - I am beginning to get it! I'll start on a new round of sphere studies soon. As with most things, one must actually do the work to arrive at a deeper understanding.

The value sticks have come in very handy! I started with these:

It's hard to know if I'm on the right track, as I haven't been able to attend Graydon's Color Workshop in person. Learning all this stuff over the Internet by trial and error, not having anyone to critique the work, has been frustrating to say the least, but also very satisfying to accomplish what I have on my own! Thanks Graydon, wherever you are, for starting the conversation and sharing your research and experience!

2010!

Finally, I'm back!

So much to say...but most important event happened during a blizzard on Halloween Weekend, October of 2009. My husband Steve and I moved into our new townhome - ranch style - all living area on one floor (1500 sq') and all of it is wheelchair accessable! (Steve has MS, so this was extremely important to us.) Second best thing is that this ranch style townhome has a full basement that has become my new studio!

The Living Room has 12' ceilings and 10' ceilings throughout rest of house. My studio has 9' open ceilings! The pictures above show how main part of studio looked when we moved in and 2 of the 3 5' window wells.

It's now May 2010 and I still wake up every day not quite believing that we live in this beautiful place! This is how the studio looks today-

Main Studio and Drawing easel on left

Set up area

Work area from side

Hughes 3000/palette area etc.

 

Drying Rack/drying box

and table for layout/framing etc.

Panel and frame rack at other end of studio

Last but not least the Artist's Facilities - and miracle of miracle a deep laundry sink!!! (And there's still more room at the other end for normal basement storage and a separate Mechanical Room for the furnace etc!)

Can you tell I'm extremely happy with my new space!

My intention is to update much more often! Tomorrow: more Munsell in the Studio and some recent paintings.

Munsell Color Wheel

My version of the High Chroma
Munsell Color Wheel.

Munsell Maps in the Studio

Here is my Munsell A Frame.
Made with pegboard - perfect
fit for the syringe tips to fit into.
They are all organized according to
the Munsell BigBook. Each has tape
the end with it's correct notation.
This is on wheels so it's easy to bring
close to the easel and push out of the way
when not needed.


Thought I'd better show the
palette in use. This was for part of
Arizona Oranges (wish now I could
change the background color on that one!)


Munsell A Frame from the end.
Great space for storage!

Entering my studio - you can
see the syringes peeking out
from behind the door.

This is my Munsell Palette.
Drawn on grey card stock and
placed under glass. Neutrals are
along the far left/right sides: N/9-1
Across the top are hue notations and
below each is space for at least 3 chroma
notations. Area in the middle is used for
mixing, medium dish, etc. It was the only
way I could figure out how to stay organized
and know what colors I was using.

No more paintings for awhile, instead, here are some of my 'munsell maps' that I've designed to help me better organize and utilize the Munsell Color Space in my studio. Even though I've spent a year studying, mixing, tubing paint and getting the general principles, there is so much to learn and understand.

Recent Work

Shell
12 x 16 oil on panel (sold)

Cherries & Pear
13 x 15 oil on panel  (sold)
I just delivered these two to Abend Gallery in Denver, CO.

Gosh, I have so much to learn! Seeing all these images here makes me want to make changes on each one. It's not that I'm picky, it's that I know that I know that I'm missing something that has to do with values, but I don't know exactly how to get to it. Just working harder isn't alway the answer - there is a painting principle that's missing and must be realized before work can truely improve.