What's Up Wednesday...

I had several friends ask after I posted this recently...so I thought I'd tell you all about what I am currently working on...

In the new year I began painting in acrylic and fell in love with it! I want to eventually move into oils but for now I am really enjoying painting on not only canvas, but paper, fabric and wood. Right now I am working on the second piece in a series of rose-related collages. The first (shown above) is an acrylic and paper collage on wood, measuring 10 x 10". It is entitled, "Undercurrent" and simply is a statement of how things may seem "rosy" on top, but if you look deeper you will see beneath the surface and find the undercurrent. In one corner of the piece you will see a school of fish for example. I often use the insides of security envelopes because I like the various designs they offer. It also makes me feel better to recycle my mail into my artwork! The paper pieces here are used to show the movement of the water around the rose, which is bright and unyielding, as people are when they are stressed and determined to keep up a positive front.

The second piece is on wood measuring 12 x12" and has a large rose at the center, painted in pink hues of acrylic. With the rose as the focus, I wanted to incorporate subtle black and gray hues, again using security envelopes. This one has a long way to go but I'll share it when finished!

Watercolor Wednesday... Pattern making...who's your friend?

To some watercolor artists, liquid frisket is a must! Frisket? (I know what you are thinking... you start humming a tisket a tasket...while your brain summons up images of a steaming brisket coming out of the oven) So what is frisket?!!

Frisket is a rubber/latex-based, milky liquid that works as a color resist in watercolor painting. It is a bit like painting with curdled milk, but it is really helpful! If you have ever tried watercolor painting, you know that it is one of the hardest types of painting because water is so difficult to control! You are not only striving to keep it from running into other colors, but also maintaining the right balance of water and pigment to create the opacity and brightness of color that you wish for your painting. Frisket can be found at your local fine art supply store, for me it was Blick's (old Utrecht store) in the Short North area of Columbus, Ohio.

Frisket becomes your friend when you want white areas in your work, or clean areas that you wish to layer with pen or another medium. It blocks any pigments from bleeding into that desired white space. But...frisket, can be a bit like that friend of yours who is notoriously late for your coffee dates, it requires a little patience! You paint it on and need to allow it to dry completely before you launch into adding color! And it comes with the warning that exposure can cause allergic reactions, or damaging effects to the nervous and reproductive systems. So I don't advise you let your kids play with it...and if you use it, don't breathe it in, and try to reduce the exposure to your skin.

Having said that, the exciting part of the frisket process in painting, is removing the dried frisket after your finished watercolor painting is completely dried. You need to remove it gently (by rubbing it off) or it can tear your watercolor paper. The big reveal is a bit like that piece of bubble wrap that you can't stop popping! You peel off the frisket, see clean white space and your mind starts thinking of more patterns made possible by frisket! Try it (carefully) and enjoy!