Workshop etiquette

I thought about it not twice, but more than 50 at least times before writing this, but I think we, artists, have harder skin than we think and we can take this with both humor and as advice for the future...

In one of my last workshops, I was so frustrated about the people in the class that when the class was done (it was only 2 days) I had to write all this down. I found it in my notes today and decided well, what the heck, I better put it something digital. It's supposed to be funny, but not so funny ha ha ha. The workshop anti-etiquette people:

• The “I know it all” - do I need to explain it.

• The “random question dude”. That’s the one that interrupts a teacher talking about something like composition to ask which brand of paint/pastel the teacher prefers.

• The one that is “always IN the way”. Usually a person with his/her setup up front that is always blocking the view either by standing / sitting somewhere or setting their materials so they can also watch the demo?

• The one that doesn’t clean up after himself. 

• The one that is always late, late first day of class, late coming back from lunch, etc.

• That person that tells the teacher how to paint, or how to tweak something so that it’s correct.

• The person that asks the instructor what his/her opinion is of other renowned artist’s work.8

• The one that criticizes another instructor in front of the current one and does it out loud.9

• The student that thinks he/she knows the one and only one artist you need to learn from…

• The artist that just goes to socialize.

• The loud person, yeah, just loud.

• The unofficial instructor assistant (guilty here). You go and try to help a student cause the teacher is busy helping somebody else, and you think you can help this person.

• The one that does not take constructive criticism at all. 

• The overly frustrated artist. That’s the one that comes to class to get other people to say they are not so bad at painting, or even that they are good at it. 

Reflection: I am going to leave the list at that….We, the students, and the instructor could spend time trying to understand why people behave like this but does that help anybody?I have been to many art classes and watched people matching the least above over and over again. But nobody talks about it because we are all trying to be nice. The thing is we are wasting our time and patience to accommodate others and missing the opportunity to learn from that master we always wanted to learn from…

Guilty of any of the above? I am guilty of several but the main on is the "unofficial instructor" :) 

Little Gems, New Mexico and more...

What's going on right now Vestiges of Winter Hot spot The Little Gems show by PAWA (Plein Air Washington Artists) is hanging at Scott Milo Gallery until the end of June. This show is very special. If you prefer the landscape you will love the pieces hanging. Some of the master painters have work in this show. Robin Weiss, Ned Mueller, Melanie Thompson, to name a few. I actually got an award for "Vestiges of Winter". Thanks to Mitch Baird our juror. Hidden Gem Breaking thru green Desert Schrubs Dappled Steps Above are 4 of my latest pieces. I visited the Botanical Gardens more than one time ha! You can visit my gallery at Daily Paintworks to see what's available right now. Aurelio Rodriguez and Desmond O'hagan receiving their medals Awards night On the first week of June I was fortunate to attend the IAPS Convention (International Association of Pastels societies) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's the most important pastel event in the world. An international exhibit, demonstrations by masters of pastel, workshops, gala and even the pastel vendors from all over the world all in one place. You can easily leave your wallet at this pastel fair. I met some special artists for the first time including Tony Allain, Alain Picard, Kim Lordierand Aurelio Rodriguez Lopez! Click on their names to see their amazing paintings. Hiking new studio format Last but not least, when I got back home, faced with reality, I re organized all the furniture and set up a second easel to allow for more room to work. Thanks for reading!

Holiday Sale and what I am doing ...

Holiday Items for Sale Singled out I am running a Holiday Sale of Small Works (range between 5x7 up to 7x10). I think these unframed pastels would be nice christmas gifts for your loved ones. All of them are going for 55 dollars + shipping. Yes, all sizes same price. I will be loading up more soon... Click HERE to see the gallery. Emerald Reflections I decided to also make my plein air paintings available to the public. I usually keep them for my self as guides for bigger work. For those of you that like my pleinair style now you have the opportunity to own one and at a special price for the holidays. Larger than the small works. Checkout the gallery HERE. Christopher Framing and Art (Edmonds, WA) is displaying about 15 paintings at their gallery until December 17th. So dont forget to check my latest paintings there. Including some birds (something different) with copper pastel. I am excited to be taking a workshop in December with Mitch Baird. Mitch is an internationally recognized landscape oil painter. He is coming to the pacific northwest and I am honored to be able to learn with him. I can't wait to start exploring that area and offer works in oil as well - many of you have been wondering when it will happen. This last month of the year and possibly January, will be all about taking time to learn and decide next steps. I burnt myself out pretty good this year, between shows in galleries and art competitions. I am happy that as a result I was able to achieve my goals - signature status in 3 pastel societies. Including Pastel Society of America. Efforts paid off. Time to focus on some neglected items in my life and paint more of what I like and when the time is good for me. Thank you for reading.

Fall Shows

Shows update! Towards the foothills Tonight October 18th, is the opening reception for my Fall solo show at Christopher Framing and Gallery. A collection of 9 paintings will be on display with new exquisite framing. The reception starts at 5pm. The show will run until November 15. Hope to see you! Private Property Northwest pastel society show at Evergreen Medical Center (West entrance) in Kirkland. Come enjoy a selection of pastel works by members of our society. Our judge of awards will be Catherine Gill, who will be announcing awards during the reception Saturday October 20th at 1pm. Refreshments and snacks will be served until 3pm. I have 2 pieces showing in this show which will hang until January 9th, 2019. And last but not least, the Northwest Pastel Society Signature show is coming to the Schack Art Center, Everett this year. This show features about 90 paintings exclusively by signature artists of the society. Opening reception is Nov 15th- 5pm. I have 3 of my paintings in the show this year. And this is my first one participating since I transitioned to Signature this year. Hope to see you in any of these events. Contact me if you have questions. Emerald Fascination

Latest newsletter

Art Show in Anacortes, WA and other news And its been super busy the last couple of months for me. I have been preparing for my show at Scott Milo, in Anacortes, which opens August 3rd and runs for the whole month in parallel to the Anacortes art festival. I am officially done with that. "Emerald Fascination" 12x16 pastel Some of the pieces delivered to the gallery The painting above was done very recently (like a week ago) based on a field study at the North Cascades Institute at Diablo Lake, WA. The Plein Air Washington Artists group organized a paint-out in this location and I was lucky to join. 3 days of beautiful and refreshing scenery. I had forgotten how intense Plein Air painting can be, packing and moving gear around, hiking, dealing with bugs and sunburns. I had lots of fun because when you have the "plein air bug" like I call it, you dont care about anything but embracing nature right in front of you and how lucky you are to be painting it. Hi there! what a view The group strategizing Robin Weiss capturing the sunset light On the awards side of things I was honored to receive the "Elizabeth Mowry Poetic Landscape Award" at the Pastel Society of Colorado Annual Open "Mile High" exhibit that is currently hanging in Parker, Colorado at PACE. This is the first time receiving an award in this exhibit. It's a beautiful show. More information here. I also got accepted into the Pastel USA exhibit again by the Pastel Society of the West Coast. This is a very prestigious show and it's highly competitive. I really like how this painting turned out and I am happy its the one that will be in the show. Unfortunately I can't show it to you until the show is hung. It will be posted soon. But the real highlight is that these last 2 weeks my sister-in-law came to visit from Australia and I got to meet my new brand niece. I got my baby fix for sure. Very amazing girls. The oldest one is already so tall and grown up! Amelie Brianna See you at the opening at Scott Milo on friday August 3rd at 6pm!

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Summer sale

Summer sale is on. I need to move some of the work to make room for more! checkout the link below. Selected items are half off (9x12, 11x14 sizes).

Click here!

Can I or can't I? my trial and error experience with underpainting

As I mentioned in my last post, pastel artists have many options when it comes to paper. Paper can come in colors or white (tan in UART).

We all know how hard it is to work on a white surface and so, like oil painters do, we color our "canvas" before starting a new piece. We just call it "underpainting".

Many of you are familiar with different products and options for underpainting. This underpainting can go from a simple wash with one color to tone the surface all the way to a more sophisticated and detailed application of liquid prior to starting with dry pastel.

Different materials that I have seen used for underpainting are:

• watercolor
• oil (very thin)
• acrylic (very thin)
• fluid acrylic (they have more water than regular acrylics)
• dry pastel with a rubbing alcohol wash
• dry pastel with mineral spirits
• dry pastel with water

So let me start by saying that you can try all of the above on UART and it will accept it just fine, retaining all of the qualities of the paper. This is the reason so many pastelists love this brand. Also, the paper is tough enough to be cleaned off and re-used for another painting.

But let's talk about other brands. I made some small samples of what I wanted to show you so that you can see it in photos.

La Carte

This paper does not like any type of liquid, water included. There were some rumors that you could use alcohol on it, so I tested that out. The experiment yield the same results as with water.

When you wet LaCarte, it might seem like nothing has happened, but as the alcohol/water penetrates the sanded surface, the "sand" will start to loosen up and separate from the paper. Check this out:

Black LaCarte with water - at first.

LaCarte with water, after about 5 minutes.

PastelMat

PastelMat works well with watercolors and fluid acrylics - always make sure that the acrylic wash is thinly applied. This is my favorite paper at the moment, and I like to use fluid acrylics on it. - Takes a while to dry, be aware of that.

However, the paper's microscopic rubber hooks that retain pastel particles will literally disintegrate if alcohol is used. You will start seeing a layer of glue that can be moved around on the paper. That was the tooth of the paper. 

PastelMat after alcohol wash. 

Water on pastelMat (no issues here)

Pastel Premier

Pastel Premier also does well with watercolor and dry pastel applied with water. However, applying alcohol produces the same or similar issue as with PastelMat. You start noticing that the layer of tooth in the paper separates from the paper itself. Leaving no tooth to work with. I have also tried Pastel Premier with fluid acrylics and that doesn't work either. I am not sure what the actual issue is here (in chemistry terms) but something in the acrylic itself interacted with the tooth of the paper leaving no tooth in the end. 

Pastel Premier has a plastic or rubbery feel to the touch which is probably some sort of glue that holds the grit on the paper. So, it's possible that this particular material doesn't interact well with acrylic paint. 

PastelPremier after alcohol wash

PastelPremier with water - no issues here.

Conclusion

Here is a table with paper brand and underpainting technique to summarize.  I have not tried all of the combinations. I will test those out and give you and update when I have them ready. In the meantime, if you try something else or another brand let me know!