If someone had told me this time last year that right now I would be thinking about painting oils on aluminium panels, or painting fish on rice paper, or applying for a solo show at a museum, or operating an online store and running contests on my Facebook business page, I would have checked their drink! I have written about the pandemic before, and I realize that a lot of people have suffered and are still suffering because of it, be it because they lost a loved one, a job or a place to live, or because they deeply miss seeing some of their family members. I also realize that I am one of the lucky ones, having only had to suffer the inconvenience (or is it?) of on-line instead of in-person shopping, of shortened or canceled trips, or of feeling slightly depressed because we are forced to stay cooped up at home and unable to go anywhere. And I realize that is nothing. And I continue to hope that the future will be brighter, although lately the news has been anything but! I think I have used this gift of time wisely. I wonder sometimes what it would have been like had I not discovered art a few years ago. What would I have spent my days doing? I find that I can’t help being grateful for the time that was given to me, and certainly grateful for all the things I have learned this year. I have always liked learning, and I guess I expected that would fade with age. Instead, I find myself discovering new things every day! So much that I have to make myself stop, because the list of things I want to try just keeps getting longer! I have always liked watercolors. There is just something about their look that attracts me. I was always told that watercolors were very difficult, so that may be why I waited so long before trying them. It turns out that, like anything else worth learning, they aren’t easy, but they aren't really difficult either. One of the things I discovered that made me like watercolors even more was how clean the whole process is. There is only water, paper, and paint. The paint doesn’t stain most surfaces, including clothing, and no harsh solvents are required for cleanup. Water and occasionally a little soap and you’re done! Whenever I heard about oil painting, it always involved solvents, and smells, and goo, and staining. And don’t even mention acrylics! Want to ruin some brushes? Try acrylics! So I had pretty much decided that oils were not in my future. Until, that is, I heard about water miscible oils. Seriously? Oil paint that cleans up with water? Yes, it really does exist! So I broke down and got a starter set and it turns out they are pretty fun! Messier than watercolor for sure, but there are certain things you can only do with oil paint, so that was a fun discovery. I am pretty sure I won’t be abandoning watercolors any time soon, but I think there is still much discovery ahead for me in oils. I also liked the look of pastels, but they were a total mystery to me. I mean how can you achieve such beautiful paintings as Degas’ dancers with little bits of chalk? Before the pandemic, a friend and member of the Art Ayer’s Cliff group who does beautiful work in pastels had given us a tutorial. My takeaway? “Messy!” All that dust! Until I saw some videos of pastel artists and their setups and thought, “OK, I might try this again...”. So, again, I found some starter sets, added a few other supplies (hey, what else do I have to spend my money on, right?) and tried those out. Again, watercolor doesn’t need to worry I will be abandoning it, but I am liking working with pastels. I love the way you can layer colors, both in broad and tiny strokes. The biggest issue I found, as with oils, is what to do with the paintings after they are done. With watercolor, you just put it in a pile in a drawer, or maybe matte it and put it in a frame or even a clear bag. With oil, you have to let it dry. For months! Then varnish it! Which, it turns out, looks a lot easier to do than it is. With pastels, you have to protect the surface because that powder is just a flick or a smudge away from ruin. So special spray fixative is necessary, then glassine sheets (which are incredibly hard to find!), then perhaps a frame with glass and a mat, but at the very least something to ensure the surface can’t get rubbed. Bother!! So now there’s Sumi-e ink painting to learn. But first I have to complete the watercolor for the contest I ran last month. Then the two commissions that came in since then. And of course there’s pouring watercolors, which could be just the technique I need to do one of those commissions. Then there’s my Black & White series that I want to continue. I just saw something yesterday that gave me a great idea for the next painting in that series. Then if my exhibition project gets accepted I will have to work on preparing that... Thank goodness I have support at home! I was watching an interview of an artist yesterday with her husband by her side. What a wonderful partnership they seem to have! I know of artists who don’t have support from their spouses, and I can’t imagine being where I am today without the support I have had from mine. He actually studied art, which I didn’t, so his opinions are very valuable to me. I know that when I ask for advice or for a critique of my work he will be truthful, yet kind, of course. He is also handy! He has made me an easel, a custom shelf and a paint box for my oils, as well as frames and assorted storage accessories, for which I am grateful every day. He does, however, have concerns about the floor of my small studio collapsing from the weight of my ever growing collection of supplies. Legitimate, I would say! So, what is holding you back from exploring art? I would love to read your comments!
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This week, a watercolor artist I have been following for years announced he would no longer be posting new stuff on Facebook. It seems he accidentally removed himself as administrator of his own page and can’t be bothered with the rigmarole Facebook is forcing him to go through to get back in. I was surprised to read so many comments on his decision from his supporters saying basically some variant of “Facebook is evil”, some not quite so nice. I knew Facebook had its detractors, but not to that extent! So I decided to do a little digging! Among the reasons that motivated his decision to abandon Facebook, he referenced the troubles that another artist that I follow had also had recently with her account. I found and watched her video on Youtube and was shocked at the way she had been treated by Facebook. The account that she had for years, with over 30,000 followers, and with which she had never had any issues, had been suspended because of a “community standards” violation. With Facebook, it turns out you are guilty until proven innocent! No warning, no “please remove this or else”. She had to go through some weird facial recognition thing to be allowed back in, only to find that apparently posting about a sculpture of a frog, which was her last post before the suspension of her account, violated community standards! However, she showed us the screen shot where at the same time she is asked if she wants to change the “offensive” post into an ad! Seriously? So you flag a post as inappropriate, suspend the account because it is so offensive, but offer to show it if they pay for it? That’s some serious logic twisting Facebook! There was no one to talk to, no explanation of what “community standard” was violated or how, no email to protest to, and her only option to appeal he decision was to submit to a “facial scan” of not only her face, but her sides too. And apparently this happens regularly. So, dear Facebook user, you are basically at the mercy of the Great Facebook God Alg O’Rythm!!! That may not be a great loss if you are talking about a personal account, but for a business, this could be a devastating blow! No wonder so many marketing experts encourage businesses to build their email lists more than their Social Media following. I suppose one could argue that you get what you pay for, which is basically nothing, to have a business of Facebook. One could also argue that Facebook is itself a business, and that it needs revenue to continue to exist. But one could certainly make the case that with all the money they are making, Facebook could hire actual people to double-check accounts being flagged by software, before said accounts are actually suspended. The person in the video suggests using MeWe as an alternate platform. She also mentions that MeWe has been the victim of a smear campaign that paints the platform as a den of white supremacists, conspiracists and anti-vaxxers. Facebook has its share of those, but there is some oversight, whereas on MeWe there is none. What a choice! Dictatorship or Anarchy! Tell me, dear reader, do you have any experience with MeWe? I would love to hear about it! I’m not sure how long I will be on Facebook, but this certainly has opened my eyes. If you want to make sure to stay in touch with me and what I do, consider subscribing to my email list. It’s easy to do on my website. It is managed by MailChimp, one of the oldest mail servers out there. And I promise I won’t spam you or ever sell your information. You can view the video I referred to above at https://youtu.be/HzJ8YWqprrk In the meantime, has this type of Facebook account suspension ever happened to you? Share your thoughts in the comments! Last week, right after I published my blog, I received the Japanese Ink Painting Kit I had ordered (see last week’s blog for more background on this). I posted a few short videos on my Facebook page if you want to see it. It came with some unexpected extras, including two large sheets of “magic” practice paper which you use with plain water to practice brushstrokes. This is very good because you could use up a lot of paper getting those brushstrokes just right! I chose the largest brush in the set to begin practicing because Naomi Okamoto in her book “Japanese Ink Painting: The Art of Sumi-e” says that this is the hardest to control and you should start with the hardest. My kind of teacher! I practiced some of the easier strokes, like painting bamboo, which I had seen done in several YouTube videos. Of course it didn’t take long for me to get tired of using just water, and I wanted to start grinding some ink! So I got that out and started grinding away! You basically put a few drops of water on your ink stone then start rubbing the ink stick on it to dissolve some of the compressed dry ink. Here is a video of the process: https://youtu.be/0fweYYmWK2g It is slow going!! Very slow. I knew this from the videos I had watched, but I didn’t know what quality of ink stick I would be getting so I didn’t know how difficult it would be. After about 5 minutes I just had to stop and try the ink! (Next time I know I will have to take more time, not only to get more ink, but also to get it darker) I had already practiced the classic “bamboo” so this was my natural choice for what to try after I had practiced just seeing how the brush reacted. I have included a photo of the result, which I am actually quite happy with for a first “painting”. The ink was not dark enough, but that is what practice is for! What I like the most about it, compared to my usual work in watercolor, is how the places where there is no ink in the bamboo sections are as important as the places where there is ink. They give dimension to the stalk, even though the blank spaces are on different sides in each section; in traditional realistic western painting, the lights and darks would all have to be on the same side, showing where light is coming from and where the shadows are, thus creating the illusion of form. In this case, the illusion is there without following that rule…. Very eye-opening! So you can tell I am having fun with this! Now I am following the lessons in the book, and promise to go more slowly to enjoy it even more! The first lesson is to paint a fish. I practiced many many times on the ‘magic’ paper, but was never really happy with the results. I decided to try on rice paper with ink and what a difference!! The water-only can’t produce the variation in tone that the ink does. It is either black or not. That is why I couldn’t get the results I wanted! Another eye-opener! But as you see in the attached photo, I did succeed to get a few reasonable looking fish from my efforts! It is on a different paper, which has grids for practicing calligraphy (that horrible spot in the top left was on the paper... I have no idea what it is!!) Now on to the next lesson: orchids! Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with me. When will I be satisfied? I seem to want to try everything! My latest “trip” is to learn Japanese/Chinese ink painting. I guess it came about as an outgrowth of my “Black & White” phase. I really want to explore all the possibilities of black and white, and black ink on white paper certainly fits the bill! I started this new journey by watching a good number of videos on YouTube, which has been my go-to for most of the techniques that I have learned in the last 15 years. I bought an oriental brush over a year ago so there was already some interest there. Several years ago, I had also bought some ‘magic’ paper that allows you to practice brushstrokes with just water. The paper changes color temporarily but returns to the original light grey once it dries, and can be reused almost indefinitely. I used it to practice watercolor brush strokes, especially when I purchased a new type of brush. It is great for practicing the ink brush strokes, because unlike watercolor, you can’t remove any of the ink once it hits the paper, so brush control is critical, and this lets you practice as much as you need without using up any paper! Before investing in any other equipment, and also to get some pointers on what I actually would need, the next logical step for me was to buy a book, because videos can only go so far in explaining the finer points. I chose “Japanese Ink Painting: The Art of Sumi-e” by Naomi Okamoto after reading the reviews. I bought it used, both to keep down costs and to do my part to reuse whenever possible! I received it early this week, and after reading through the first section, liked very much what I was seeing and decided it was worth my while to invest in a beginner set consisting of an ink stick and ink stone, brushes, rice paper and assorted paraphernalia. I should be getting those later this week. What I especially like about the book is the way the author contrasts the Sumi-e approach to western art. What attracts me about this style of painting is how different it is from what I usually do. My painting style could be called realistic, even hyper-realistic, although some artists are much more realistic than me. It is a tight style that suits my personality, but at the same time I would like to paint “looser”. I have tried with watercolor but I just can’t do it. I might start with the best intentions but soon I find myself fussing with tiny brushes adding details on top of details. The brushes used in ink painting are all quite large, and although you can get them to do small details, that is not the point. Oriental painting is as much about what is not there as what is there. It is also a very mindful experience, which requires a lot of concentration and planning, so I should feel very comfortable with those. I think that even if I don’t ever produce any acceptable work in this style, it will be beneficial for me and will influence my “regular” work, particularly in helping me simplify and let go of unnecessary details, concentrating on the essence of an image. At least I hope so! So this week I will start experimenting with grinding ink (a very Zen experience they say!) and practicing brush strokes with actual ink, which I am sure will be very different from painting with water on a ‘magic’ paper! If it goes well, I will try to document some of it on my Facebook page. If you don't see anything about it, you’ll know things didn’t go exactly to plan! So tell me, have you ever tried Sumi-e? If so, please get in touch, I would love to discuss it with you! This week I am going in a different direction with my blog. I will be talking about the contest I am running for the next two weeks. As you may know, I have been working pretty hard on my art marketing. Normally I get to do two or three art shows during the year where people get to view my art in person, but you don’t need me to tell you that 2020 wasn’t exactly a good year for art shows! So I have been looking into other ways of getting my art out to potential collectors, specifically through Social Media, and in the process have been following advice from a number of marketing experts, trying a variety of strategies that have not all met with equal success!! A few weeks ago, and thanks to the help of one of those experts, James Wedmore, a bunch of loose threads finally crossed in my brain, and I came up with the idea of running a contest where the prize would be a small watercolor, but not just any watercolor, one that would be especially significant to the winner, by basing it on one of their own photos. If you are like most people, you probably have dozens if not hundreds of photos on your phone, that no one but you will ever see. Worse, one day you might wake up to find your phone just doesn’t work, or worse yet to not find your phone at all, and unless you backed them up, your photos might be gone forever! While I can't help you with back-ups, I thought, I can help with preserving memories! I have done a number of commissions from photographs, of all kinds of subjects, and there’s nothing like the smile, or in some cases tears, on the face of the collector when they first see their new painting! Although they come with a bit of pressure, I really enjoy doing commissions, so I thought that would be the perfect prize for a giveaway! While not all photos we take are memorable, we all have one of that special place, or that special person, that deserves to be seen more often and would make a great painting. And unlike some piece of art we may have picked up in a decorating store, this very personal painting could be cherished for a long time not only by ourselves, but by our children and even their children! You might think that your photo isn’t good enough, but the beauty of painting is that reality can be “tweaked”. A telephone pole or mailbox (even a person!) can be removed, backgrounds can be cleared of rubbish, and flower beds can be magically weeded and all be flowering at the same time! Even with flowers that don’t grow there!! So don’t let that stop you from entering a “less than perfect” photo! I will work with the winning person, like I do for all my commissions, to make sure they get a memorable painting. So I am giving everyone (well everyone from Canada anyway) the chance to win a small watercolor painting of their own special memory. I had to limit it to people with a Canadian mailing address because I will be absorbing the cost of mailing, and international mailing is simply too costly. The promotion starts today (April 1st) but lasts only until April 15, 2021 at noon EDT. So dig in your photos and go on over to my Facebook page (Claire Bureau Artiste) and look for the Official Promotion Post. It will be pinned to the top of the page right after my announcement event on Facebook Live (also on my page) today at 5:15 pm (EDT). I do hope you participate! Good luck! |
AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
March 2023
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