Gilding

Just a short post today. I made a couple of videos of gilding two small paintings for the Fredericksburg Spring Arts & Crafts Faire, here and here.

Plein Air Painting & Bees

The last couple weeks have blown by. I took a little bit of a breather from art-making in the first week of February because I'd been burning the candle at both ends and just needed some rest. Then I got a cold (or flu?) and I was down for the count. I started to feel kind of like myself late this afternoon. The brain fog finally dissipated, though the fatigue remains. So now that I'm beginning to feel human again, it's time for an update. 

Over the Potomac, 7"x5", acrylic on panel

This is what I worked on last weekend. I spent about 3 hours working on this from the comfort of my warm car.

Bee 2 (Series 2), 8"x8", watercolor, ink, paper, and variegated gold leaf on cradled panel

I wrapped up the second bee in my second series. The photograph doesn't do the variegated gold leaf justice. 

Untitled (in progress), 7"x9", ink & watercolor

And I managed to add some color to this little guy, who's been sitting unfinished on my shelf for a few weeks. I'll be adding paper and metal leaf. I already have a frame picked out for him.

I also have some new videos to work on editing and will hopefully get those up this week.

Spring News: Art Fairs!

As part of my new year's resolution to be more active in the arts, I applied for several arts & crafts fairs this year. I'm happy to share that I was selected for the 2019 Fredericksburg Arts & Crafts Faire! I'll be selling my work there April 6th and 7th at the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center.

I've been burning the candle at both ends a bit trying to build up an inventory. Art supply vendors must be loving me. 

Just a few recent purchases... 

I haven't completed much this week--since I have been burning the candle at both ends for about a month, that caught up with me a bit and I took several nights off to just go to bed early. But I received a whole new order of panels to play with. I'm trying aquabord for the first time... I bought it before I noticed that it's "formerly known as" plain old clayboard. Nice marketing, Ampersand. They said "like cold press watercolor paper" and I fell for it. 

I have mixed feeling about aquabord AKA clayboard (above). Is it nice? Yes. I got some softer lines and smoother blending with ink on panel. But is it like cold press watercolor paper? No. Only in that it's a little absorbent (but no where near as absorbent as watercolor paper, bristol board, or illustration board). The similarity ends there. Would I use my expensive kolinsky sable brush on this? Heck no! It would strip the hairs right out! I was surprised by how rough it is. Will I use my cheapo brushes I got just for ink? Sure. I like the surface, it just isn't what I was expecting. 

I suppose that's a good thing. I haven't really tried any new media since college, and even then, the only new-to-me thing I really tried was printmaking. Working on a new surface will free me up from preconceptions so that I try new styles and ideas. At least I'm pretty sure that's what an art professor would say. 

I am liking how soft this bee is coming out, so far. I'll do watercolor for the body and gold leaf and paper for the background. I probably would have gotten this on 80% finished but Harry decided that I needed his help and flopped down on my painting arm.

As some background, here's what I'm doing for these bees...

A quick sketch (this time on tracing paper) that I transfer to the surface with graphite transfer paper and a stylus. It's especially helpful with bees, where I want to make sure the wings are symmetrical and consistent.

Then I ink them in. Gilding is my third step. I do that before I add paint because I had some problems with gold leaf adhering to acrylic paint a while back and I don't want to repeat that catastrophe again. Last, I apply the paper (if any). To do that, I trace the painting, lay the tracing paper over whatever paper I'm using, and use an exacto knife to cut out the shapes I need. I use Yes! Paste to glue the paper down. I'll photograph all the steps as I finish up the bee, #2 in my second series.