How to Paint Like Turner

I have recently visited the exhibition -  J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free - at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

One of the memorable and well-know paintings- Snow Storm - Steamboat off a Harbour is oil on canvas. Exciting as this painting is, I much preferred his luminous watercolours.

                                                              The Blue Rigi, Sunrise
                               ( He did several variations of this image in Switzerland)
                                                 

                                                                      The Red Rigi

                                                                Nordham Castle,Sunrise (my favorite)

    Fort Vimieux

                                                                               
Imagine my surprise when I saw a book advertised in an art journal claiming to  help you "paint like Turner". Wow! Off to the public library for a copy of  How to Paint Like Turner, edited by Nicola Moorby and Ian Warrell and featuring the work of various artists.
This is a book well worth a look. The forward is by Rosalind Mallord Turner, his great-great niece and also a painter. It is an interesting introduction to Turner and provides practical information and demonstrations.
I found the book provided additional material on Turner which enhanced my appreciation of the exhibition I had just seen. I decided, however, that I wasn't ready to"Copy first the works of God, and then the works of Turner" as Edward Lear suggested.

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Wonderful Watercolours

Golden Artist Colors Inc., a company well-known for their acrylic paints, have produced a range of "modern" watercolours called QoR -  pronounced "core". The binder in these paints is different from other watercolours, and according to the company, it gives colour greater intensity and clarity. They offer a large range of colours, including three iridescents.

Four colour sets are available. Three have six colours and one has twelve, and are a good introduction to the watercolours.  I purchased the "High Chroma" set of six, which included Cobalt Teal, Green Gold, Quinacridone Gold, Transparent Pyrrole Orange, Quinacridone Magenta, and Dioxazine Purple. They are presented in the paint box below, which can serve as a small palette. The tubes are 5ml and unfortunately paint tended to ooze out of some of the tubes when opened.

I utilized my new paints on two impressionistic woodland scenes on terraskin.

Watercolours on terraskin, as a rule, tend to be more vibrant so it is difficult to asses the brilliance of QoR. What do you think? More later.

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Paintings too bad to throw away

Sometimes there are embarrassing paintings - impossible to leave in the garbage, identified as yours!
There are options:

- if on canvas then good old gesso cures all ills
- if paper and watercolour, then a dunk in a sink might remove most if not all and the process can begin again
- if paper and acrylic, good old gesso can come to save the day again or even gesso over watercolour to scrape out colours and images
- if paper, interesting pieces can cut out for a later collage
- if paper, the painting can be cropped to leave a smaller but more interesting composition
- of course, yupo and terraskin allow more flexibility in removing an wiping out images.

This painting is a good example of a rescue of a painting gone wrong. This is acrylic on terraskin, and renovated with the inspiration of a very good teacher, D.D. Gadjanski. See her work at www.ddgadjanski.com/‎  and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/DDGadjanski‎

Lonely Beach

The lightbulb series continued

How many modern artists does it take to change a light bulb?
Four. One to throw bulbs against the wall, one to pile hundreds of them in a heap and spray-paint it orange, one to glue light bulbs to a cocker spaniel, and one to put a bulb in the socket and fill the room with light while all the critics and buyers are watching the fellow smashing the bulbs against the wall, the fellow with the spray-gun, and the cocker spaniel.

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It Really is "Time for Art"

A Gala Evening of Art

This is your personal invitation to attend the North Toronto Group of Artists' Opening Gala:
Friday evening, November 8, 2013, 6:00 to 9:00 pm
Blessed Sacrament Church,(basement)
24 Cheritan Avenue - Yonge Street just south of Lawrence

Please email me to register (free). We require registration due to liquor laws.
Wine and light refreshments will be served and jazz music will be part of the atmosphere.
22 local artists will be showing their work - all media including oil, acrylic, watercolour,  photography, digital.

  If you are unable to attend on  Friday night:

The event is open to the public on Saturday, November 9, 2013 from 10:00am to 3:30 pm.

 Go to My WebSite    or    to  North Toronto Group of Artists

Why Was the Art Dealer in Debt?

Of course you won't get the answer to this mind blowing question until the end of the post!
Meanwhile, to continue my foray into "Terraskin"which I mentioned in a recent post that I was about to try as a new painting support. The treeless paper, manufactured in Taiwan and sold under the TerraSkin brand, is three parts recycled calcium carbonate—the same mineral in marble and limestone—and one part polyethylene binder. It's production requires no water or bleach and only half the energy needed to make traditional paper. This produces an environmentally friendly product. It is reported to be multimedia paper and similar to 385lb watercolour paper. It is also similar to Yupo paper, which I enjoy using, but absorbs some of the paint as opposed to the paint sitting completely on the surface. You can't tear it as you do watercolour paper and it has a quiet dense feel. Below you will find my first effort on Terraskin . I used gouache, India ink and watercolour crayon. Can you see a difference from watercolour paper? This painting is 20x12 and is called Into the Woods. I am now anxious to try other media on Terraskin.
                                                               

                    


There are increasingly more new art materials on the market to entice the painter whose creative muse has taken a hike. Sometimes that can be a major distraction, both financially and in time-wasting detours. Sometimes however, they are just fun, and very occasionally point your art in a new direction.
I have just finished a home studio tour and am involved in the Willowdale Group of Artists, Spring Juried show at North York Civic Center, and the Willowdale Group of Artist's summer show at Todmorden Mills. I am focusing now on cleaning up the junk in my basement studio. After that, I will do a lot of reading, walking, taking photos and planning. I really believe in the advice that I have read, that suggests that as long as you do something in art everyday, you will keep the juices flowing. I hope so! In the meantime --- Why was the art dealer in debt? Because he had no Monet!

I'm Havin' a Heat Wave

This amazing spell of hot weather has made me want to do some loose and cool watercolours, or "watercoolers". The "nebulae" paintings are done with watercolour paint on yupo paper, which allows the paint to slip around in an easy way - just right for this weather. I had just read something about nebulae and found them very beautiful. When I slowly started to manipulate paint, I began to feel nebulous. There is art which is very planned, and there is art that "happens". The nebulae melted into my conscious. Nebula is from the Latin - "cloud". These are interstellar clouds of dust, and gases, some of them are very beautiful. I hope you enjoy mine. 

Nebula 1

Nebula 2