Meeting Notes, March 31, 2016

At todays meeting Loretta, Scott, Diane, Tim, Susan, Thomas, Blaine (new)! Genie, Joanne K, Joanne T, Betsy, Jeanne, Kristina, Charlie, Jeanie B, Jim, Mike, Eunice, Annie, Carrie, and me Celeste

Today suggested table topic:  Mediums for painting-- tell us about mediums you like (and if you want tell us about mediums you don’t like).

Celeste: It’s always cool to find out what other artists use as their medium. I took a workshop with Jennifer Diehl. She used Neo Megilp on her palette. Recently I took some classes with Joanne Kollman and she showed us how she is moving medium around on her portraits.  (She used 2/3 thinner and 1/3 Stand oil). I don’t care for Liquin. It just seems weird and sticky. I am showing a recent head study and a small landscape.

Loretta:  When I use medium,  I use turpentine and linseed oil. I have used Oleo-pasto in paint to make it thick.   
I would like to use poppyseed oil but I haven’t yet--- maybe in the future!

Scott: I generally use Galkyd Slow Dry. When the paint is fluid it gives me the feel I want. For travel I like Gamblin Solvent-free gel. Recently I painted in Australia. I brought in three paintings from that trip.

Diane: I took a workshop from Scott. I like the Solvent-free gel best. I especially like the cold wax medium for watercolor. I like it for oil painting too. I don't care for a glossy look on paintings personally.  I am not a fan of liquin. I brought in a Children’s book I recently found that uses Wayne Thiebaud paintings (to explain counting).

Tim: I have tried everything it seems (laughter)! I like the Neo Meglip and Galkyd. I brought in a landscape painting that I did from memory. Last week I did a painting that I did using a grid. I did another painting with the same still life set up…I did  this one “grid-less”.

Susan: I have been teaching classes at OSA. It is a class about the costumed model. I’ve had to re-think my curriculum. I did a demonstration (that I am showing you) of a value drawing in just charcoal. I want the students to know that they have to really think about the values before applying color. I’m super excited about the hundred year anniversary paintings I’ve done for Alpenrose dairy. I went to pixel print and they reproduced my paintings onto these cradled panels. I am really happy with how they came out.

Blaine: I am new (welcome Blaine)! I have been catching up with all of you on the Alla Prima Portland Facebook page. I have a vertical palette and I like the solvent free gel because it doesn't run. I came from the background of abstraction. I have painted for big hotels--- great big paintings. And here I am painting small.  I brought in some 6 x 6 paintings and I wanted to show you this very nice wet canvas carrier system called Panel Pak. You can put two panels in this and secure it with a rubber band and the paint will not be disturbed. My major passion is florals. One time I quickly purchased some Gamblin  FastMatte white paint and I didn’t know I bought that instead of regular white. I went outside to paint with it and it dried up very quickly. I thought “What is happening”!!?? I didn’t know what was happening!!! (Laughter)! Don’t ever do that! (Laughter)!


Genie: I brought a bottle of “zest it”..I buy this from England. I like how that it makes the paint flow really nicely.  Za Vue told us all last time she was here to make sure that you have fun when you're painting. I have been having fun ever since Za said that. (Laughter)! I am showing a painting that I did recently.

Annie: Well I use acrylic paints so my medium is water! (Laughter)! Thanks to Tedd Chilless, I came across Mitch Albala’s  lecture about Notan. I did some studies where I would crop sections of the studies to determine what was good and what needed work.  I also did a Notan and a painting from the Notan.


Joanne T: I  use Gamblin solvent-free gel. I like how Gamblin gives away products sometimes! (thank you, Gamblin) It is really helpful to decide what you want to use. I just came back from Scottsdale school where I took a class with Derek Penix. He told me:  “More color in the trees! more color in the trees! I was struggling and Qiang Huang was painting next to me. He told me just scrape it back. I did and then everyone liked it! (Laughter)! I also painted this painting that has a building in front of the rock. I don’t know if I’ll leave that there or not.

Jeanne: I use two different mediums. I really like Galkyd slow dry. I used to use Galkyd light and then I decided I didn’t like it. I like a product by Graham –it is Walnut Alkyd--  It makes things shiny and I like that. I have been going to my classes and I have been continuing my master copies as part of that class. I have learned that I love the Corot figure paintings. I brought in my most recent Corot copy.

Kristina: I brought in a Nocturne and I don’t have anything to say about mediums. (I enjoyed bringing Keegan to the meeting last week. (Thank you for welcoming him).

Charlie: I will pass on the subject today.

Genie: I did this small painting that I am showing today. I use walnut oil and I use Galkyd light.

 Jim:  Over the years I have used a lot of different kinds of mediums. I confess that sometimes I get started with the medium and then I forget that I’m using it! Then, in the end some portions of the painting will have a differeing look than other sections of the painting. (This gets fixed when I varnish the painting). I like oil paint to be buttery. So I do use linseed oil to make the paint a buttery consistency.
I don’t use medium much.  I took 15 paintings to Pixel Print to have them photographed.

Mike: When I first saw this topic I wondered if we were going to be talking about the spirit world! (Laughter)! With watercolor it is all about controlling the water. Marc Taro Holmes has a wonderful analogy about “honey-milk and coffee/tea” that is meant to remind us about how much strength to use when you’re using watercolor. There is a something called “clock mixing instruction" that is helpful (as it pertains to control):


Eunice: I have used liquin for a long time and I’ve switched to solvent free gel. I have been doing a series of still life. I am showing two.

Carrie: I knew an instructor who used canned milk with watercolor! This was something that came out like gouache.  

Thomas: For generations people always wonder just what it was that the Masters had what was the “secret sauce”! In the old days the best painters kept everything to themselves. They were very secretive. So people tried to figure out mediums --it was just hearsay and experimentation with materials. I think that the Masters used a lot less in the way of mediums than we have ever thought. Today paint and mediums are made so much differently than they were a long time ago. Paints are more homogenous. I have been moving away from mediums. I will use it for specific reasons. But no one medium will solve all our problems.
I might use an accelerator at times maybe but by and large I have given them up because I think that they will crack the painting (maybe it will be hundreds of years from now but it likely will).  I will use Solvent free gel at times.

Scott added: If you’re walking down the medium aisle of an art store…it can be equally inspiring and intimidating. Medium will change the experience of painting and painting is tactile. The most fast drying a medium is the stickier it will be.  How it feels to you, as the artist, is the most important thing.  The  surface that you want (gloss, matte, etc )should be done with varnish (in the end).
As for the differences between Neo Megilp and Liquin…If you put Neo Megilp side-by-side with Liquin the color difference is obvious. The clear appearance of the Neo Megilp just speaks for itself.



Announcements:

Pacific Northwest Plein Air Call to Artists.  The venue is Maryhill Museum. The juror is Terry Miura.

Don’t miss “The Erics”!  Sale (Saturday April 2 10am-3pm) (a message from the Erics):

Please join Eric Bowman & Eric Jacobsen this Saturday, April 2nd for their HUGE 2-Man OPEN Studio Sale! Hundreds and hundreds of Oil Paintings, Plein Air Sketches, Figure Studies, Still Life's, Ink Drawings, illustration Work and more available at garage sale prices -- many pieces starting as low as $100!! This is a combination "House Cleaning" of our respective studio backlogs of unsold works -- everything is unframed, deeply reduced and ready to go!

Cash or check only, please!

Studio opens at 10am, sale goes 'til 3pm
7311 SW Pine Street
Tigard, OR 97223
(near cross street SW 72nd Ave, 2 blocks behind Fred Meyer on 99W)...


Find out about continuing “Fine Art Saturdays in the Troy.”  


An open house tomorrow  (Friday, April 1) 5:30 to 7pm at the Gamblin factory 323 SE Division Pl. We will show how ink is made! This is in conjunction with the Inkling Studio.

Art on the Boulevard first Friday (10 year anniversary) Za Vue, Mike Rangner, Eric Jacobsen, Michael Lindstrom and others.

 Thomas Kitts workshop in Bainbridge Island indoors and outdoors three days.
More information to come

Susan will continue teaching at OSA during the summer:


Next Meeting: Thursday, April 7, 9am Suggested table topic: “”Variety” –do you feel you are providing enough “variety” throughout your paintings? How so you define variety and how do you define sameness (in painting)? Do you have suggestions to increase variety and fight off “sameness”? Let’s Discuss !

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