Studio Work, November 27

Being my last day of vacation, I thought I'd better make an effort to do some painting. I had a photo I'd taken in October which I wanted to try to paint, so I got out the oils and the palette knife. I enjoy using a palette knife instead of a brush, but it seems like I forget to get it out. I liked how this turned out.

Fall Yellow, 8x10, oil

I had lots of paint left on the palette, so decided to try to use it up. I attempted to do some abstracts from imagination.

Abstract 11/27, 5x7, oil

I still had lots of red on the palette, which wasn't used in the original painting, so did another abstract. I will admit, I did have to add a bit more paint. This one reminded me of Joan Mitchell's abstracts. I have a print of a Mitchell abstract, but it is not marked with the name. It is a bit more structured than some of Joan's abstracts.
The DPW Challenge this week is to paint like another artist who you admire. So this is in honor of Joan Mitchell's artwork. Click here to see the Challenge page.

After Joan Mitchell, 6x6, oil

Abstracting from Life

Although I took the whole week off from work, I never seemed to make it into the studio. Today, I decided to paint with the group at the arts center. One of the group gave a discussion on how he goes about creating an abstract painting from a still life. We all gave it a shot.

The Setup

My first painting kept going towards realism. It's a cute little painting, but it sure isn't abstract.

Abstract 1 - 6 x 6 - Gouache on Crescent Board

My second painting went abstract and I kept it pretty much hard edged.

Abstract 2 - 5 x7 - Gouache on Crescent Board

Wet Painting Carriers

I enjoy building things out of simple materials like foam core board, so I thought I'd give it a shot to make some wet painting carriers out of a sheet of lightweight corrugated plastic similar to the ones made by one of the artist supply companies. I prefer to paint on 8x10 panels, and made mine to fit that size. I used 1/4" square balsa wood dowels to create slots to hold the panels. I made the first one big enough to hold 10 wet paintings. I still had a piece leftover to make another that will hold 4 wet paintings. I tried to make one more out of the scrap leftovers, but because of the way the channels of the corrugated plastic ran, it didn't work out.

Frank Webb Workshop

Although I rarely paint in watercolors anymore, I jumped at the chance to take a workshop with Frank Webb today. I always admired his work and was happy to hear he was conducting a workshop in town hosted by the Central Ohio Watercolor Society (COWS). I was a signature member, but decided to go into other media several years ago. The workshop was held in quaint German Village, a suburb of Columbus, at the German Village Meeting Haus. The venue was really good for this and COWS fed us well. The only downfall was the parking issues, but at least it was a beautiful clear day, so walking the 4-5 blocks from my car was pleasant.

Here are a few shots of Frank working (some of the photos taken with my zoom lens looking at the overhead demonstration mirror).

Frank Webb's palette and tools

 
I attempted a painting using his 'wet on wet' technique. I had a bit of trouble remembering how to use transparent watercolors, since it has been a few years.