Egg Tempera and a Beautiful Studio Visit

I am starting a new adventure in painting, egg tempera.  As with all things I find an interest in I have been researching, reading and obsessing about this new medium for weeks now, when I learned about the glazing properties and luminous quality of egg tempera I knew I had to try!  I also contacted several artists with knowledge about the technique and I can't say enough about the generous nature in which they shared information with me.  One artist sent me New Techniques in Egg Tempera by Robert Vickrey via USPS, which was a very good read and quite inspiring.  Koo Schadler, master egg tempera painter, sent me several e-mails with detailed information answering my particular concerns about the medium.  I am a huge fan of her work and it was amazing to converse with her!  I had read several posts by her on various art forums about egg tempera and she is so passionate about painting.

 Grinding pigment

I also had a memorable visit at local artist Juan Wijngaard's home and studio.  He graciously invited me over to learn about egg tempera, his space is the picture above--his 'daily grind'.  We spent the afternoon talking about painting and drawing, viewing amazing artwork and I left feeling so inspired.  His studio is a dream, filled with his figurative oil paintings, landscapes and charcoal drawings from life.  All the photos here are of his amazing space.

~*~*~Juan Wijngaard's art studio~*~*~

I soon placed an order for dry pigments through Natural Pigments, I use several of their oil paints and knew I would receive the highest quality supplies.  There's something about art supplies that I find so luscious, it's hard to describe.  When I get a box of paints in the mail I really take my time savoring the new packages and containers.  The colors are so beautiful!  I also ordered true gesso, a mix of rabbit skin glue and marble dust.  I have never used traditional materials to prepare my panels, acrylic based gesso has always worked fine for my oil painting, but I was excited to try out something new and was curious about the different quality of the primer and it's application.   

I use regular masonite from the hardware store and always coat it with PVA size to isolate the surface from my primer.  These had a coating applied already, they had a slightly tacky feel to them.  I'm not sure if it's necessary when using the mixture I was about to apply, which has rabbit skin glue in it already, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.   After soaking the gesso, (which was RSG and marble dust together in one mix), I placed the mixture over a pan of hot water which immediately liquified the gel to a milky consistency.  As it cools it thickens up quite a bit.  It was tricky to apply in smooth even layers.  I realized the trick--lots of sanding to create a super smooth plaster-like finish.  I felt like I was sanding half of the gesso off, but from what I understand that is normal.

Next I decided to grind all my pigments to prepare them for painting.  I saw how Juan kept his in jars with water over the surface to keep them from drying out.  Out here in the dry Southwest tempera paints can dry out incredibly quickly.  I used distilled water and mixed the pigment until I got a nice smooth consistency.  Most of the pigments were already quite smooth, which surprised me.  I had expected there to be a grainy texture--hence the 'grinding' to a smooth paste.  I breezed through most of the pigments by just using my palette knife and glass palette, then I got to the blues....  I had ordered Prussian blue which was a very fine dust and incredibly grainy.  I worked it and worked it on the palette and switched over to my mortar and pestle.  It was a disaster, if you think prussian blue invades everything on your palette when painting in oil, try manipulating the dusty particles w/out contaminating your whole studio.  It was everywhere, thank goodness I was wearing gloves and a dust mask!  I gave up on a getting a smooth paste and moved on to ultramarine blue which was slightly less grainy.  Both the blues had a peculiar odor compared to the other natural colors.

 

Voila!

My basic palette is complete.  As soon as my panels cure a few more days I will attempt my first egg tempera painting.  I'm nervous about the fast drying time, which is also what attracted me to the medium in the first place.  I also read it can be tricky to get the proper proportion of pigment to egg yolk.  I'm expecting a challenge but ready to try, we will see what happens!  I will post my result soon.

commission

"Metamorphosis"  8"x8"

This little painting was a commission, a gift with personal meaning.  It was a challenge to capture what the patron requested and a little different for me but I enjoyed painting it so much.  It was even more rewarding when I learned how much the new owner liked it and how it expressed what they had envisioned.  I was so glad!

"Alight"

Here are some pics from my recent solo show, which was quite a success!  There were red dots before the show opened, and more during the evening.  It was very exciting.  The gallery has asked me to do the show again next year.  yay!  But first I have to prepare for my second solo show for 2014, in October.  Of course I'll share more about that in the future, as it gets closer.  

Christmas Greetings from Santa Fe

My sister and I spent a wonderful day in Santa Fe shopping, eating and wandering through the art galleries this week.  There was a bit of snow on the ground still and everything was decorated for the Holiday season.  The light was beautiful, from the afternoon warm sun and shadows thrown about on the ruddy adobe walls to the evening Christmas lights shining in the trees on the plaza.  We picked special gifts at our favorite shops, saw wonderful art and discovered some great new eateries (The Teahouse and Vinaigrette, wonderful cozy places to stop in between shopping and walking!).  I love the holiday season and spending time with my sister, it was a perfect day.

Art below from Nuart Gallery on Canyon Road:

 Painting below found at McLarry Fine Art:

 Paintings below found at Meyer East gallery:

Wren

"Wren"  12"x9"  oil/panel

Busy November Days

I've been neglecting my blog lately, so I thought I'd share what I've been up to this month.  I've been very busy in the studio and doing lots of creating.  I'm in high gear painting and very excited about my current work.  I don't want to post much until it's done and now that we are getting into the holiday season I am nervous that it will take longer than I anticipated to complete the series.  So I have locked myself away and have become very caught up in the art spirit, much to the annoyance of my family.  Laundry?  do we really need clean clothes every week?  Dinner?  Groceries?  do we really need regular schedules and bills paid?  Luckily my husband has been a dream and often picks up where I drift off, literally!  I don't often ask for help--I'd rather run from sun-up to sun-down meeting the needs of others before my own, and I know how lucky I am to have such a great and understanding family.

Above you can see an example of my new studies, in between painting I've been trying to spend a little time every day getting back into my drawing practice.  Lately that's been in the evenings before bed.  Since I am a self-taught artist I have to be very disciplined to move forward with my skills and there are constant issues I feel I need to improve.   Portrait study is something I've always wanted to master and I am starting to copy Bargue plates and really enjoying it!  I love slowing down and being very methodical about my lines and angles.  I tend to move so fast in life that I become impatient when it comes to drawing, this is teaching me to slow way down. 

 

What else is new you ask?  Well, my husband spent some time making a drying box for my oil paintings this month.  I've had directions for the box for quite a while, which uses black lights.  Apparently black lights give off a different type of UV ray, it is to imitate natural sunlight which greatly increases the rate of drying.  Artists have been using the power of the sun to aid in drying for centuries, but I find these lights very gentle and they do not generate much heat.  My paintings dry to the touch overnight.  I predict this box will see much use over the winter.

One last note, I received an early Christmas present-- a great new drafting table where I will be working late many nights on drawing.  I love it!

 

 best studio company ever

Autumn in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, NM