Belinda Del Pesco Fine Art Blog

Monoprint: Three Eurekas!

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:13:00 +0000

Three Eurekas! 6x8 Monoprint with colored pencil on Arches Cover paper
Process shots start at the bottom of this post
Available on Etsy.

After I finished playing with my groovy, new Akua Intaglio inks on the collagraph Sinking In, I had a small amount of ink left on my table, and I thought it would be more fun to make another print instead of storing it and cleaning up. (When it comes to clean up, I'm all about finding efficiencies.)

My cleaned Three Amigos collagraph plate, next to the Three Eurekas monoprint and a ghost print. I should mention here that the eventual clean up of my ink table was easy-peasey: soap and water. An enthused fist bump to the folks at Akua inks for making such a great product.

After a trip through the press with soaked & blotted Arches Cover paper, I'm pulling the print, and you can see how well the Akua ink releases from the plate. Since I wasn't sure how much ink would stay on the plate, I had one extra sheet of paper soaked & blotted, so I put it through the press to make a very faint ghost (you can see it in the second photo from the top).

If you follow this blog, you might remember this plate; I did a collagraph a few years ago called Three Amigos and I still love the circles & squares composition, so I used the plate again - but this time, to make a monoprint. My leftover Akua Intaglio ink is on the table in the back ground, and I've coated the plate loosely with color a la poupee via rolled felt "dollies", q-tips, my fingers and old paint brushes.

Art Quote
"The only thing noble about my parents," once said Rosa Bonheur, "was their character, which is more than many so-called aristocrats can boast." The genealogical table of the Bonheur family shows that for three generations the ancestors of Rosa were cooks —cooks, of course, who practised their calling with the skill and devotion that made it an art, but still no more than cooks. However, the father, Raymond Bonheur, was an artist in painting. Although three of his ancestors were but cooks, twelve of his fourteen lineal descendants were painters, sculptors, composers, and architects. Among these was his daughter Rosa, the most famous of his five children and the most famous of the women painters of the nineteenth century.
Rosa was born in Bordeaux, France, March 22, 1822. Upon the death of his wife, when Rosa was seven years old, the father moved to Paris, where he hoped to win that success which is the dream of every artist. He never became great, but the little girl who loved to watch her father at his work, and who liked still more to take rambles with him through the woods and country fields, early achieved that fame and prosperity which the father never acquired.
When Rosa decided to become a painter, she spent four years copying the masters in the Louvre before she concluded that her life work would be the painting of animals. She loved nature and had a passion for animated nature. In later years when she lived in the Rue d'Assas she owned and kept near her one horse, one he-goat, one otter, seven lapwings, two hoopoes, one monkey, one sheep, one donkey, and two dogs. ~Sketches of Great Artists, by Edwin Watts Chubb 1915

Collagraph: Cape Dory Book Club

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Cape Dory Book Club 7.25 x 10 Collagraph & Watercolor [Artist Proof]
Available on Etsy.
The reference photo for this collagraph was taken many years ago, while sailing for a week along the Intracoastal Waterway on the east coast, on board the 31' Cape Dory cutter 'Heiress'.
Process shots begin at the bottom of this post.
Pulling the first print - an artist proof. After this proof was dry, I added watercolor, which lead me back to the plate to do a little more cutting & a bit more carborundum. This will be a fun to print, as I'll get to experiment with color on each piece in the edition (15).

After a trip under the press, with soaked and blotted paper on top of the plate, you can see the results of the pressure; the paper is embossed with the shape of the voids I cut & peeled out of the mat board.

After adding goss medium to the pencil marked channels, and pouring carborundum on them, I let everything dry, removed any excess grit, and coated the whole plate front & back with one more layer of Gloss Medium Varnish. In this shot, I've inked the plate using the a la poupee method - rolled and taped felt, or "dollies" - dipped into ink, and them rubbed on the plate in areas where you'd like that particular color. This is a great way to do a multiple color print from one plate, with one pass through the press, and the effects are often quite painterly.

I planned to use carborundum on this plate, after the fun experiments on the Sinking In collagraph earlier this week, so I've scribbled pencil in specific furrows to map where I want to add gloss medium to adhere the grit, which will give me some rich dark areas when they're inked.

This is another simple crescent mat board collagraph plate, sealed with a few layers of Liquitex Gloss Medium Varnish. I'm peeling the top layer off the back of the mat board to make geometric moats where the ink can loiter. The gloss medium makes peeling easier because it gives the top layer of mat board a plastic texture that doesn't rip unless it's been cut with an exacto knife.

Art Quote
The early stages of any craft are more interesting when we are familiar with the final result. For this reason it is often an advantage to beginat the end.
To see a few impressions taken from a set of blocks in colour printing, or to print them oneself, gives the best possible idea of the quality and essential character of print-making. So also in describing the work it will perhaps tend to make the various stages clearer if the final act of printing is first explained. The most striking characteristic of this craft is the primitive simplicity of the act of printing. No press is required, and no machinery.
A block is laid flat on the table with its cut surface uppermost, and is kept steady by a small wad of damp paper placed under each corner. A pile of paper slightly damped ready for printing lies within reach just beyond the wood-block, so that the printer may easily lift the paper sheet by sheet on to the block as it is required.
It is the practice in Japan to work squatting on the floor, with the blocks and tools also on the floor in front of the craftsman. Our own habit of working at a table is less simple, but has some advantages. One practice or habit of the Japanese is, however, to be followed with particular care. No description can give quite fully the sense of extreme orderliness and careful deliberation of their work. Everything is placed where it will be most convenient for use, and this orderliness is preserved throughout the day's work. Their shapely tools and vessels are handled with a deftness that shames our clumsy ways, and everything that they use is kept quite clean. This skilful orderliness is essential to fine craftmanship, and is a sign of mastery. ~Wood-Block Printing by F. Morley Fletcher 1916

Drawing: Portrait Study-Lury (& Daniel Sprick workshop)

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:01:00 +0000

Portrait Study - Lury 18x16 Charcoal on Canford paper

Last week, I went to Monterey, CA to attend Weekend with the Masters - the art workshop and conference hosted by American Artist magazine and a handful of art supply vendors. Just like last year, I left the event on the verge of spontaneous combustion of the brain. Hundreds of artists from all over the U.S. are under the same roof for four days; the all-art-all-the-time energy was palpable and fascinating. (Imagine talking about brushes & various papers for an hour over lunch with no one getting bored! Or just by chance, meeting a group of attendees who have admired the same artist online and in publications, and for the first time, will watch him/her demo a painting live & discuss process - together.) Conferences like this are the antidote for any artist who spends days and weeks working alone in the studio. There were about 26 instructors on site, so attendees had a chance to take multiple classes and attend various demos from 5-8 outstanding artists in just a few days. Instructors also got a chance to meet each other - some for the first time - and I saw many of them wandering in and out of the classes of their peers to listen in, or paint/draw for awhile. Evenings were dotted with clusters of kindred spirit attendees and instructors - huddled over dinner & drinks - talking about exhibits, museums, galleries, process, marketing and supplies - late into the night. The energy level and stimulus at events like this make focusing enough to draw or paint challenging to me, so I usually opt for demos where I can watch, take notes and just absorb. I made an exception for the all day session with Daniel Sprick - one of my favorite contemporary painters. He did a demo for us in the first half (photos below) and we did drawings or paintings of the model with him in the second half (my unfinished study is above).

Daniel set up his easel relatively close to the model and used a small panel and Cobra water miscible oil paints - which were new to him (a gift from the manufacturer attending the event).

Daniel's portrait was started with a line drawing of the model's head and features, laid in very light with vine charcoal, followed by a broad fill in with thinned pigment - which obliterated what he laid in with the charcoal. When asked why he brushed his charcoal drawing away with the paint, he smiled and said you should trust that if you can lay features in once with charcoal, you'll be able to place them again with paint. And it's a second chance to get it right. In the shot above, he went back into the flat mass of the shape of the model's head and started blocking in shadow patterns and making adjustments to the curves of the model's face and cheekbones.

Daniel's palette for the portrait (Cobra Water Miscible Oils)

Daniel uses a mahl stick to steady his hand for the smaller or finer brushwork.

He laid in daubs of color with deliberate, slow placement, and made jokes about how kind we all were to stay and watch such unexciting stuff. We assured him that we were enjoying every minute of watching him work.

Daniel uses a fan brush - held lightly at the tail of the handle - to gently soften edges over a brow or cheekbone of the bridge of the nose, etc.

I know it's cliche, but watching the face emerge from the panel under his brushes was akin to a magic show. He is such a masterful painter, and this was just a two hour demo. He told us that he normally works 12 hours interrupted on the first day of painting a head. Yet another artist telling a room of learners that good art takes time, deliberation, a plan, and long, uninterrupted days of work.

I posted these photos and many more - including a demo on the stage of the auditorium of the Portola Hotel - with Daniel Sprick and Quang Ho painting from the same model. You can see them here on facebook.
Art Quote
I'm 77 this year, and I'm seeing more and more color with a better-trained eye. I think I need two more lifetimes to get painting down. But I don't have that "artistic angst". Painting is a joy, and I'm grateful every time I pick up a brush that this is my vocation. We should all paint like a pig eats.

~Richard Shmid at 2011 Weekend with the Masters

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:30:00 +0000

On the Cusp of the Next Chapter 9x7 Monotype with colored pencil

Available on Etsy

(Process shots begin at the bottom of this post.)

With my reference photo (an iphone snapshot of one of my nieces, taken with the instamatic filter) nearby, I'm using colored pencils to refine the young girl's features, and I'm adding some darker areas in my imaginary hedge behind her.

Soaked and blotted heavy weight Arches cover paper is laid on top of the plexiglass with the painting face up, and then newsprint is laid on top of the Arches paper to protect the press blankets from any bleed through or staining from the pigments. After a trip through the press, the monotype is pulled from the plexiglass plate.

This is a beveled plexiglass plate with an under-drawing done in water-soluble crayons. I'm adding watercolor here; the crayons give the watercolor something to cling to, which keeps the wet pigments from repelling the slick plexi surface and pooling in little piles like water on glass. You still get quite a bit of that, but less so when you lay the crayons in first - and the pooling is a good thing because it keeps the image less fussy - and ~~encourages~~ insists upon a more painterly approach.

P.S. I have more to write about Weekend with the Masters, but will have to share on another blog post. :)

Art Quote

In 1894, Whistler exhibited three small marines, which he had painted off-shore while the boatman steadied his boat. They were fresh and crisp - so good that a great painter of marines said of them in an exhibition: "They over-topped everything about them." Two were sold and he showed a third to an American who came to the studio. The caller said at once he would be only too glad to take it at price named; the matter was apparently closed, and the buyer sailed for home, leaving a friend to get the picture. A day or two after, Whistler stood looking long and earnestly at the little marine, saying half to himself: "It is good, isn't it?" Then he took the canvas from the frame and said "I think it needs touching up a little." Another pause, then "Do you know, I believe I won't let this go just yet. I want to go over it once more. I can send your friend something else next winter - something that he might like better. And if he doesn't like it, why, he can return it." "But, Mr. Whistler, he wants this little marine. There is not much to do upon it, is there?" "Nooo-o; but, then, you see...." "Well, why not give it the last touches now, and let him have it. If you do not send him this, I am afraid he will never have one of your pictures." "Oh, yes he will - next winter..." "But, next winter others will come in when we are not here, and buy from you whatever you have'" "Well, we will see." And only persistent urgings, day after day, even after a draft on London had been forced upon him, induced him to ship the painting. At no time was there any question of price or money involved; he simply didn't wish to part with the last of his three marines. It was not until about 1890, and after, that Whistler's paintings began to sell at anything like their real worth. To his credit be it said, his work was never "popular". By his independence, his seeming defiance of all conventional and academic notions in his art, his eccentricities, and his lack of commercial instincts, he managed, at a very early period in his career, to alienate: Dealers, Painters and the Public... the three factors upon which commercial success depends.

~Recollections and impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler by Jerome Eddy 1903

Color Monotype: Berlin Breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:03:00 +0000

Berlin Breakfast 7x10 Monotype with Colored Pencil
Available on Etsy.
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On a gray day in Berlin in 1987, in an apartment in the city, I snapped a photo of my friends talking at the breakfast table, backlit by tall windows. I've loved the light, the composition and the subject of this photo for over twenty years, and I have always meant to paint the scene. I finally pulled the photo out last week to make this monotype, and now that I've played with it on plexiglass, I'm all a-flutter to make a linocut, and a graphite drawing, and a watercolor of the same scene. Was that part of my plan? Because I do have a plan for the work I want to do this Fall, right? [Just between us, it was *not* part of my plan for the next few weeks, but... I don't even have an excuse.] Maybe I'm swelling with nostalgia; the memories of traveling with dear friends twenty four years ago, combined with the love for this particular composition, and the people in it, and the notion that I really, really want to get the image RIGHT. I see all my drafting hiccups in this monotype, and that translates to opportunities to re-work it, and do it over, and over, till I get closer to Truth. If I keep working on it - in graphite, and as a linocut and as a watercolor - I'm bound to get familiar enough with the nuance of the light, the backlit values and shapes in front of me. I'm old fashioned, and I believe it's always good to nail the drawing - the bones of the painting - before you take it down a path where there is room for expression and free association. With so many visits to the photo as I work it into a linocut, or a drawing, or a watercolor - hopefully, within that well-worn, often visited room of familiarity, I can twirl around in creative license, and make it better.

After a trip through the press, against soaked and blotted Arches Cover paper, pulling the monotype.

A beveled piece of milky plexiglass, with a drawing done in Caran D'Ache Water Soluble Crayons, followed by layers of watercolor on top of the line work.

Art Quote

In 1926, a year after Sargent's death, Adrian Stokes, who had accompanied the artist to the Alps, described what had inspired his late friend to paint particular watercolor:

Sargent's watercolors... usually record, with the utmost directness, something that had excited his admiration, or appealed to his artistic intelligence. That may have been the clearly defined and exquisite edge of some rare object; of the way in which a dark thing, when opposed to vivid light, is invaded by it, and loses local color; or the change that seems to occur in the color of things along the edge where they meet. ~The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent, by Carl Little 1998

Monotype: Furry Blessings

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Furry Blessings 7.25x9 Monotype & Watercolor

Available on Etsy.

Close up of the painterly, layered texture you can get with this method of monotype.

On a sheet of beveled plexiglass (using a milky piece of LEXAN from Home Depot on this one), I'm drawing with water soluble crayons to give watercolors something to hold onto.

Adding layers of watercolor (gently - one pass of the brush), and letting the paint pool and bleed and mix where it wants to. Trying to control the process in this method will lead to frustration, so it's best to throw caution to the wind and just play.

In the spirit of playing, I've spritzed the plate generously just before printing, because I wanted to see if the pigments would dry a bit more saturated & bright if I printed on dry paper. I've found in previous experiments this Fall that pigments bleed deep into soaked & blotted paper, often all the way to the back, which leads to a dull finish with less saturation and vibrancy in the print.

Quite a bit of the crayon and watercolor released from the plate after being spritzed, so I'll continue with experiments and try a fine spritz on just the paper next time. After this dried, I went back in with watercolor, and lightly added a few more layers of pigment, but I left it pretty loose, resulting in the monotype at the top of this post.

Art Quote

A few days after my arrival in Los Angeles in November, 1887, and just as soon as I was miraculously delivered from the tender mercies of a host of Philistines, called real estate men, I found myself, one Sunday morning, strolling cityward on Washington Street, far out beyond the Rosedale Cemetery. It was after the first rains, and I felt full of the delicious vitality and charm which the first rains give. Sauntering off the road to peruse an interesting announcement which offered a big bargain to the first man who came quick enough with a deposit, I came to the edge of a pool, a lodgment of the rain in a hollow, a pool just sixteen yards across, and in it, or upon it, was a vision of loveliness that I shall never forget. I have lingered by the silvery mirrors of other lands, and have haunted the richest bits of dear old England's lakes and streams, the inspiration of poets and the paradise of artists, but, except on one occasion, when, riding past the garden of the poet Wordsworth, I saw the glory of a most perfect reflex in Rydal Water, I had never seen anything surpassing this. Such a vision of pure and tender color in water, with such perfect definition of detail, it is impossible to describe, and until you take an opportunity of looking into that or a similar pool, with your face cityward, you cannot realize the enchantment. At my feet was the ethereal blue of a rapturous sky, and against it was the spotless snow of Old Baldy's crown, glistening under the sheen of the water like a celestial thing. The pearly gray shadows of the monarch beneath it came out with the sharpness and clearness of a touch of a pencil, while all the great range from Garvanza to Rialto was as clear and defined as the stones in the foreground. The city came next, its turrets and towers clear-cut against the gray of the mountains; its red-painted roofs and the interspersed foliage looking as bright as the blush of a maiden. Then, fringing the face of the city, were line upon line of pepper and tall eucalyptus, interspersed with the gables, and chimneys, and windmills which stretch 'twixt Washington Gardens and Rosedale; then, at the far edge of the mirror, the tender, sweet shoots of new herbage and grasses reflected their modest new beauty, and when I looked up, and glanced at the vision reflected, I fell into wondrous amazement, and knew not which most to admire, — the substance, or only the shadow.

The undefined and inexpressible thrill of the artist as he looks out upon the rolling landscape in vernal beauty, or upon the mountains melting in the golden glory of our common sunsets, is as much above the pleasure of the millionaire as he counts his gold as is the reality of the rippling laughter of your little child at play to the forced guffaw of a salaried clown. ~Talks in My Studio - The Art of Seeing, by John Ivey 1903

Monotype: Countenance

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:43:00 +0000

Countenance 10.5 x 8.25 Monotype with Colored Pencil on paper

Process shots begin at the bottom of this post.

Available for sale on Etsy.
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Close up - mark making with colored pencil on top of Caran D'Ache and Watercolor.

Holding Countenance for a sense of scale, after working on her with colored pencil. She's a little bit bigger than life sized.

The beauty of a monotype: you clean the plate (in this case, with water and a paper towel), and start all over on something else. With every pull of a new monotype, your creative brain is lured towards ideas, materials and methods to try with the next one.

Pulling the print from the plate; lots of pigment transfer from the plexiglass to the paper, and some nice surprises in swirled textures and colors after the pigments mixed under pressure.

The paper after a trip through the press; visible plate impression, and a little bleed through on the crayons and watercolor.

Laying a sheet of soaked & blotted Arches Cover paper on top of the plate on the press bed in a newsprint sandwich to protect the press blankets from any seepage of pigments.

Layering dry (Caran D'Ache Water Soluble Crayons) and wet (WN Watercolors) pigments on the surface of a beveled sheet of milky, opaque LEXAN plexiglass.

Art Quote

There is no way of explaining the Italian fondness for form and color other than by considering the necessities of the people and the artistic character of the Italian mind. Art in all its phases was not only an adornment but a necessity of Christian civilization. The Church taught people by sculpture, mosaic, miniature, and fresco. It was an object-teaching, a grasping of ideas by forms seen in the mind, not a presenting of abstract ideas as in literature. Printing was not known. There were few manuscripts, and the majority of people could not read. Ideas came to them for centuries through form and color, until at last the Italian mind took on a plastic and pictorial character. It saw things in symbolic figures, and when the Renaissance came and art took the lead as one of its strongest expressions, painting was but the color-thought and form-language of the people. And these people, by reason of their peculiar education, were an exacting people, knowing what was good and demanding it from the artists. Every Italian was, in a way, an art critic, because every church in Italy was an art school. The artists may have led the people, but the people spurred on the artists, and so the Italian mind went on developing and unfolding until at last it produced the great art of the Renaissance.

~A Text-Book of the History of Painting, by John C. Van Dyke, 1894

Monotype: New to California

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:27:00 +0000

New to California 6.5 x 4.5 Monotype with colored pencil

Available on Etsy.

Another experiment with monotype printmaking - this time, I used caran d'ache water soluble crayons to sketch features, and then painted loosey-juicey layers of Akua Kolor waterbased inks on a little 4x6 beveled zinc plate I've used to make lots and lots of monotypes. (I'm not sure how other printmakers feel about this, but when I use a plate over and over, through a chapter of years in my studio, it becomes an object of my affection. This little sheet of zinc has been the support for tons of experimental prints, completely failed attempts, ah-hah-surprises and happy accidents... I love starting new things with it. We have history - me and this plate. We're good buds.)

I've got Akua Kolor squeezed out on a piece of plexiglass as my palette above: Hansa Yellow, Crimson Red and Ultramarine Blue. I planned to print it right away, while the ink was still very wet, but suddenly, it was dinnertime, and we started talking about good pizza, and cold beer, and before I knew it, we were in the car, driving to Chi-Chi's.

The next morning, the plate was completely dry. Akua Kolor doesn't normally dry (until it's printed and the ink soaks into your paper). The pigment on my palette was still wet from the night before, but the layers I painted on the zinc plate were mixed with the caran d'ache crayons, so I think the alchemy of the two changed both mediums to something dry and shiny-hard on the plate. I could run my hand over the image, and the pigment felt as hard as porcelain paint.

I put the zinc plate on a piece of matboard on the press bed to raise it up a little - for better pressure from the roller, and then laid a soaked and very lightly blotted piece of Somerset paper on top. After a slow pass through the press, I got some - but not all - of the pigment off the plate. The pigment really bonded to the metal, so now I know - I have to prep the surface with a little release agent - like Gum Arabic, before I start drawing or painting, especially if I'm going to mix pigment media like Caran D'ache & Akua Kolor.

My trusty little plate, the monotype and the mat board I used under the zinc.

Onto the next experiment.... :)

Art Quote
I am going to try to explain to you why I exhibit at the Salon. In Paris, there are scarcely fifteen collectors capable of liking a painter without the backing of the Salon. And there are another eighty thousand who won't buy so much as a post card unless the painter exhibits there. That's why every year, I send two portraits, however small.... This entry is entirely of a commercial nature. Anyway, it's like some medicine - if it does you no good, it won't do you any harm.
~Pierre-August Renoir, in a letter to his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel - 1881 (The Salon was open to the public that year for two months, and 300,000 people attended.)

Monotype: Not Camera Shy

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:06:00 +0000

Not Camera Shy 6.6 x 5.5 Monotype with Watercolor
Available on Etsy.

I was talking with an incredible artist friend of mine - Priscilla Treacy - about supports for monotypes, and she suggested frosted mylar as a printmaking plate, with a piece of matboard underneath while it's on the press bed to raise it up a little higher, if you have the benefit of a press. (I'm glad to be a new member of that Club, but more on that later.) I remembered that I had some mylar for colored pencil drawing, so I pulled a piece out and did a little experiment with Caran D'Ache water soluble crayons and Akua Kolor printmaking inks.

When I pulled the monotype - I understood why Priscilla suggested coating the mylar first with Gum Arabic as a release agent, and I will do that on the next mylar monotype, since so much of the pigment stayed on the plate (right side of the image above). I had to use Dawn dish soap and a scrubber to get the dried pigments off the mylar, but this could be a result of the Flying-by-the-Seat-of-my-Pants-Chemistry I'm dancing with, by mixing Akua Inks and Caran D'Ache crayons. To make up for the left-behind pigments, I added watercolor to the monotype to increase the contrast in a few areas, but the watery, painterly, loose patterns in the print are very appealing to me, and I'll be doing more of them this week.

Art Quote

One evening, Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) was dining with me and some friends. Among the latter was a young lady recently married, who related to us an account of the furnishing of her house. All the rooms were finished except the dining room; for this last, her husband could not, for the moment, give her the money, and she was compelled to hold her little receptions in her sleeping room. After dinner, Rosa asked me for a large sheet of drawing paper, and while we were talking and she herself smoking a cigarette, she sketched a delightful hunting scene, which she signed with her full name. Then, under cover of a general conversation on music, as tea was being served, she approached the young wife and said to her: "Take this picture to (Benjamin) Todesco, on your return to Paris, and he will give you at least fifteen hundred francs for it. Then, you will be able to furnish your drawing room."

~French Landscape painter, Joseph Verdier writing about his friend, the painter Rosa Bonheur

Monotype: Last Roses of the Season

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:28:00 +0000

Last Roses of the Season 8.5 x 7 Monotype on Arches Cover paper
Available on Etsy.
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Fall is here in the California desert, with squinty-bright light, cool mornings and scattered leaves. The very last roses in my garden are wind-blown and crumpled, but I've been bringing them inside just the same, to collect their breathy, floral scents, and stand them up in a small ceramic pitcher my great grandmother made.

I love the painterly affect you get with this type of printmaking. I also think it's excellent for the way it almost demands a loose approach, even if your (my) tendency is to be tight and more illustrative, the resulting monotype is so much more exciting to look at with all that fluid mark-making and random pigment colors bumping together under the pressure of the press. I think I need to make another one immediately. :)

I was really pleased with how well the pigments released from the mylar in this one. The gum arabic definitely worked, and I also love the way the brush marks and scumbling I did with my finger tips on the wet pigments stayed in pattern on the print.

I mentioned in my last post that my amazmo-artist friend Priscilla Treacy suggested that I'd get more pigment to release from the frosted mylar plate if I coated the surface first with gum arabic, so I did that - very diluted and thinly - the night before. I also put just a drop of it in my rinse water before I started to paint this loose rendition of my garden roses.

Art Quote
Frank Benson and Edmund Tarbell (and often Joseph DeCamp) were invariably identified as a subgroup within the Ten American Painters. At least one critic noted the lack of Impressionist elements in their first submissions to the Ten's group shows. "Tarbell has recently suffered something like an eclipse of light and color. Several years ago both (Benson & Tarbell) were producing strong and spirited work, but just now, they seem to be wandering in dusky light, using washed out hues and questionable charm." Benson's response to this criticism was to submit to the Ten's exhibitions a flourish of outdoor pictures of his family basking in the summer sun in fashionable white attire. Tarbell responded with a group of Impressionist paintings (through 1906) but then suddenly turned away from these outdoor pictures to concentrate exclusively on interiors and pure portraiture. Interestingly, most of the final works of Tarbells' peak Impressionist period were exhibited with the Ten, and all were portrayals of family members in outdoor settings. ~Laurene Buckley, Edmund Tarbell, Poet of Domesticity

Monotype: Dry Dock Huddle

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:26:00 +0000

Dry Dock Huddle 8.5 x 7 Monotype on Arches Cover paper
Available on Etsy.

Pulling the monotype from the mylar plate, supported underneath by a sheet of matboard cut to the same size as the mylar.

My reference photo on the left is a little grainy and over-exposed, but there's enough information to draw the basic shapes of the sailboats in dry dock. I used straight watercolor over caran d'ache crayons on this one, after treating the mylar plate with just a drop of rubbed on liquid dish soap the night before to help the pigments stick (and release). The swell of boat hulls when they're raised out of the water has always intrigued me - like suspended whales - in for maintenance - anxiously waiting to get back to the sea.

I received an email from printmaker Carol Hetherington this week, suggesting the dish soap treatment above, and mentioning a couple of material options for monotype plates. She uses 1/16" lightly sanded Styrene sheets - also known as Polystyrene - which is a little more flexible than Lexan (polycarbonate) - the plexiglass sheets I've been using for both monotypes and dry points. I have a stack of various brands and weights of polycarbonate sheets, but I've never tried polystyrene. Have you? Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments.

Art Quote

Some years ago Whistler showed a visitor several heads of Italian children, each about 10 or 12, by 16 or 18 inches in size. With them was a three-quarter length of one of the children. They were all superb bits of portraiture, and akin to the Little Rose of Lyme Regis - in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The visitor was eager to get one or more of the pictures. After considerable pressure, he said :

"I think they ought to be worth six hundred guineas each; don't you?"

"And the large one?" said the visitor.

"Oh, the same. That is no more important than the small.”

"Very well. May I have all four?"

"Dear me ! You don't want them all?"

"If you will let me have them."

" But.... " and then the struggle began, "I must look them over; they are not quite finished."

“But, surely, these two are finished."

"Yes, I might let those go by-and-bye, but not now."

"Will you send them to me ?"

"Yes, certainly, after I have gone over them again."

"I will leave a check."

"God bless me, no! You must not do that. It will be time enough to send a check after you receive the little pictures."

Needless to say, the pictures were never received. They had just been finished, and he could not bring himself to part with them. It was not a matter of money at all — likely as not he sold them later for less — but it was always next to impossible to get him to part with recent work. If he happened to have on hand a picture five or ten years old, possibly, that could be bought and taken away, but anything in which he was interested at the time he would not let go.

~Recollections and impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler by Jerome Eddy 1903

Watercolor: Slow it Down

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:29:00 +0000

Slow it Down 5.25x3.75 Watercolor on paper

Available on Etsy.

Here's a little watercolor study, while I work on finishing a larger-than-I've-ever-made (18x24) monotype of an interior. I hope to print the monotype today after a few adjustments to color & values. This petite study was painted after sifting through some family photos from the early 80's. There's always something fun to paint in that stack of images (after dinner, with a glass of wine). :) Happy Art-Making to all of you... It's Make Something Monday. Not really, but let's just call it that, and get to work, shall we?

Art Quote

Maxfield Parrish never lacked commissions, critical acclaim, prizes, the resultant fame or other rewards for his artistic endeavors. He seemed to search for a means to balance beauty in every detail, every brush stroke; his graphic designs combined with proportion, subtlety and grace. His vision came early in life and it flourished to the end. Consequently, Parrish works are timeless. He led an extraordinary life and designed its style as neatly as he laid out masonite panels on which to paint.

Then, abruptly, in 1931, Parrish changed focus. Halting all that had made him successful and famous, he began anew, as a landscape artist. His father, Stephen, had followed exactly the same pattern. After years of critical acclaim as an etcher, Stephen Parrish suddenly became an easel painter, painting landscapes until he died in his 90's.

Maxfield Parrish followed his father's pattern to the letter. Famous for illustrating everything from toys, games, magazines and book illustrations to advertisements and art prints, he painted only landscape scenes after 1931. Maxfield Parrish died in 1966 at the age of 95, at his beloved New Hampshire home, The Oaks.

~from Maxfield Parrish - a Retrospective, by Laurene S. Cutler

Woodcut: Josephine

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:01:00 +0000

Josephine 4.25 x 3.5 Woodcut with Watercolor

Available on Etsy.

This woodcut was chosen for the Georgetown, Texas Arts & Culture program Current: Banner Project. Josephine (above) is one of fifty four banners on display in downtown Georgetown. The project was created and produced by Nick Ramos of Graphismo, and will be on display till November 20th, 2011.

The woodcut was carved from a block of Shina wood, inspired by beautiful photos of the entertainer Josephine Baker, and influenced by the illustrations of Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935) In the photo above, I'm testing the print, or making an Artists' Proof - usually marked with A/P in the lower margin: ink was rolled onto my carved block and pressed against a small piece of Arches Cover paper so I could see if any more of the wood should be cut away.

After the block was inked and printed to complete the edition, the wood was cleaned and dried, and stored with a stack of others in a shoe box in my studio. When a limited edition is printed in full (in this case, there are 20 prints), the artist usually destroys the plate by carving a big X on the face of the block, or drilling holes in the corners. This ensures that no more then the edition of 20 are printed, and it's called "striking the plate". I prefer to burn my plates in a fire pit on chilly winter evenings with a glass of wine. It feels a little more ceremonious, and it keeps my feet warm. :)

So, now I have a nice little stack of woodcuts, and each one will be painted with watercolors in different shades, depending on my whims at the time. How about you? What have you printed lately?

Art Quote

For three centuries the fame of Velasquez has been growing until modern critics and artists have come to consider him, at least in regard of technique, the greatest of all painters. Whistler said of him that Art " had dipped the Spaniard's brush in light and air." And Henri Regnault wrote, "Standing before a work of Velasquez, I feel as if I were looking at reality through an open window." It is this sense of reality that impresses one in seeing a Velasquez. There have been painters with greater power to move the feelings, with a keener insight into the mystery of nature, with a magic quicker to kindle the imagination, with a brush dipped into tenderer, more somber, or more gorgeous colors, but none whose hand has held the mirror up to life more accurately. The artists in Rome thought that Velasquez alone painted reality, the others painted mere decorative convention.

He left no school of imitators, for who can imitate perfection? Yet his influence upon modern art is second to that of none. Regnault, Manet, CarolusDuran, Monet, Whistler, Degas, and Sargent have been his devoted admirers. "Corot and Millet," writes F. A. M. Stevenson, " took his principles into the open air; the first painting landscapes with figures, the second figures with landscapes."

Diego Rodriguez Velasquez de Silva was born in Seville in 1599. He belongs to that era so productive of genius, the era of Shakspere, Cervantes, Montaigne, Kepler, Galileo, Tasso, Guido Reni, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Rubens. At thirteen we find him studying painting under Herrera; then for five years he studied under Pacheco, a man of learning but not a great master in art. He had a charming daughter, charming at least to the young Velasquez, for he married her. From teachers such as these, Velasquez absorbed all they had to give. In the house of Pacheco he met the artists, poets, scholars, and gentlemen of the city, and became conversant with the best of them in manners and culture.

In 1623, when he was 24 , he was summoned by Olivarez, the all-powerful minister of Philip IV, requesting the young artist to come to Madrid. Attended by his mulatto slave, Jean Parejo - who himself became so expert a painter that some of his work has been attributed to his master - Velasquez journeyed to Madrid. In a friend's house he lodged and there painted a portrait which was soon carried to the palace by the son of a chamberlain of one of the princes. An hour later the prince, the king, and the king's brother had gathered about the portrait in admiration, and the future of Velasquez was assured.

Sketches of Great Painters, by Edwin Watts Chubb 1915

Monotype: Monterey Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:00:00 +0000

Monterey Retreat 18 x 24 Monotype on Arches Cover paper
Process shots start at the bottom of this post.

Holding the monotype - Monterey Retreat - to give a sense of scale. (Sorry for the yellow pallor from my kitchen lights.) This is by far the largest print I've ever made, and I'm pretty darned excited to make another one.

After a trip through the press, the print was pulled and laid over the roller, and the plate is on the press bed. I let the print dry over night, and added more watercolor the next day to areas that needed a little darkening for stronger shadows.

Here's a little close up of the plate just before I printed, to confess that there's always a risk of cat fur in my art supplies, and sometimes, it finds a way into my work. I pulled these little feline hairs out before printing. (Scout is contentedly purring & yawning behind me as I type this.)

My awesome step dad TC made me a drawing bridge, which you can see here, supporting my forearm while I paint with watercolors, so I don't rest directly on the pigments. Both feet of the bridge are covered in thick felt so they won't damage the plate or the paper I'm working on. When I was printmaking in the Print Lab at College of the Canyons, they fabricated bridges in the wood shop and painted them bright yellow with the hope that the color would make them hard to steal. By the end of the semester, there was only one left, so my step dad made them a pile of new ones. He's that kind of nice guy (lucky me). If you don't have a woodworking person in close proximity, you can buy a very fancy one online here and here.

Before I started working on this mondo plate, I coated the surface the night before with Gum Arabic (which was the perfect time to breath deep and give myself a pep talk about printing large). Then, I made a grid on the surface with white Caran D'ache water soluble crayons, and laid the drawing in with a burnt siena crayon.

As an aside, this handy-dandy little item is another Lowes goody: an all purpose tub, which works very nicely for soaking paper before printing. (And it was $7.00) Need to soak paper but someone's in the bath tub? No worries, just grab your new Tough Tub!

I also like to use the rasp to file down the pointy corners. This helps to reduce the inadvertent poke in the ribs or scratch across the forearm when you're handling the plate, and it makes a really nice plate impression on the four corners of your print.

After I finished sanding the entire surface, I used a medium to fine metal rasp, to file a forty five degree bevel on all four sides of the polycarbonate plate. When the angle felt right, I switched to 320 sand paper to smooth the grooves left by the rasp in the bevel so they won't hold ink or paint during printing.

There are a couple of reasons for beveling a plate, and they're kind of important to note here; If you're printing on a press (especially a borrowed press), with layers of wool and felt blankets and a rubber pusher, the sharp right angle on the edge of your un-beveled plate under heavy pressure from the roller on the press will slice right through a full set of blankets during printing. That would be very bad. (Press blankets are expensive.) Another reason - the same chop-chop, slice & dice from the un-beveled edge of your plate can go through your paper too. So, instead of a nice plate impression in your sheet of BFK Rives, you're paper will be cut to the exact size of your plate, with no margins around your print. Not as crucial as the first scenario, but worth avoiding. The last reason (I promise) relates to cutting your hands; a sharp right angle on the plate is really easy to cut yourself with - whether you're using metal or acrylic plates. You'll handle the plate a lot - during surface prep, inking, wiping, moving back and forth between the press and your work surface, and cleaning. It's really not fun to slice your palm open around inks, solvents and cleaners. It's so much safer to bevel the sharp edge off the top of your plate. Don't forget to also use a course sand block (see above) to scuff the bottom edge, because it can get razor sharp as the bevel sweeps to the base of that slope.

The Polycarbonate sheet is secured to my table with a bit of overhang on two sides. I've put a sheet of paper underneath as a cushion, and a scrap of watercolor paper under the grip of the Bessey to protect the plate surface. I used 320 grit sandpaper (with a respirator on - you don't want to breath this stuff) to sand the surface gently & evenly in a circular motion from edge to edge all over one side of the plate. This will give the plate a little bit of tooth so it'll hold pigment without a lot of beading up. (Watercolor, especially, repels the surface of polycarbonate, so it gathers like little beads of mercury when you paint on the plate. The scuffed surface helps, but it'll still bead a little bit unless you treat your plate beforehand with a thin coat of gum arabic.)

I have a trusty set of Besseys: 2" x 4" Wood Clamps. I use them to hold acrylic or metal plates firmly against a table - with a bit of overhang so I can use a metal rasp to file the edges of the plate into a nice bevel. (Bevels are a good thing.)

I've prepped plenty of small (4x6, 5x5) plexiglass plates for making monotypes and dry point engravings, but I had a hankering to make a larger plate. Since so many folks have written to ask about how to prepare a plexiglass plate for printmaking, I've documented the process here so you can play along. Above, I'm using an 18x24 Polycarbonate sheet (.080 inches, Optix brand - from Lowes). And in the interest of full disclosure, the dimensions of this plate feel totally HUUUUGE to me, as in Gigantoid! - How will I cover that whole thing with an image?!

Art Quote

Artistic bigotry is quite narrowing in its tendency, as bigotry of any other kind, and is equally an obstacle to the perception of broad, underlying truths. There is no possibility of settling on any one theory of painting as the best. Every student, after having been well grounded in the general principles of art, must find out the particular way of work with which he, individually, can produce the most satisfactory results; but while pursuing his own chosen line, must keep his mind and feeling open to what is good in all lines. It too often happens that a person who has been trained, or who has trained himself, in a particular theory of painting, becomes so intolerant that every other theory seems to him preposterous, and he has no patience with, nor belief in, any aim that differs from his own. This condition of mind is a misfortune to an artist, because it limits his appreciation to his own work and that of his special clique, whereas his perceptive powers should be so sensitive and so widely cultivated that he can say with Keats, "I have loved the principle of beauty in all things."

Watercolor Painting - a Book of Elementary Instruction, by Grace Barton Allen ~1898

Silk Aquatint: Reflecting

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:10:00 +0000

Reflecting 5.25x4.5 Silk Aquatint on BFK Rives paper, with colored pencil

Process shots begin at the bottom of this post

Available on Etsy.

I've been intrigued with the soft, gradient effects of aquatint in etching for awhile now, but the supplies needed are pretty specific and a bit too toxic for me to have in my home studio (check out this video from Crown Point Press to see how it's done). A few years ago, I read about silk aquatints online. The idea that I could get a gradient plate tone, and a painterly print, with water soluble materials (no acid) really rings my bell! So, I've researched all the variables, and I'm experimenting with the process. I'll be posting the results here.

Here's my little print, Reflecting, fresh off the drawing table, with a couple of layers of colored pencil over the Akua Intaglio ink to bring out the details I lost in the printing process of my first Silk Aquatint. It's available on Etsy.

A bum print always has potential to become something with a little artistic assistance. The next day, the Akua inks had dried completely, and I wanted to see how they handled colored pencil. I love the way prismacolor pigment sticks to the oil based inks I've used - especially Daniel Smith and Graphic Chemical. My experiences with other manufacturer's water soluble inks as a base for colored pencil haven't worked so well, so I was really surprised to find that the colored pencil adheres to the Akua Intaglio inks perfectly!

I didn't get any of the subtle gradation I was hoping for in the print, and I suspect there were two reasons: the shimmery fabric was very absorbent when I was painting with the white ink/gel. I re-applied the white paint three times, and it eventually sunk into the fabric after each pass, leaving the weave exposed to catch ink. I also think my ratio of gel to white paint was off. I painted and pulled two prints during this session (I'll post the other one next) and they both had the same fabric and the same issue; lost details, even after heavy wiping in the white areas. Back to the drawing board. I have a different fabric over mat board to try, as well as that same fabric over a plexiglass sheet, so there will be lots of experiments this week.

Here is my inked and wiped plate on the press bed, with a little tape registration to center my paper over the plate.

I also tried my new batch of Akua wiping fabric. It's much softer than traditional stiff tarlatan, and it works great on their inks.

After the plate was dry, I trimmed the excess fabric and painted a little face with a mixture of white acrylic and gel medium. The white gel/paint fills the tiny weave of the polyester, and blocks ink from settling there, so after you ink & wipe the plate and print it, what you see is what you get. I tore my paper down to size, and used Akua Intaglio Paynes Gray and a little transparent base to ink the plate with scrap mat board cards.

The instructions I found for making a silk aquatint were on the Akua web site. I don't have access to silkscreen polyester locally, so I stopped at a fabric store and bought two types of polyester silk organza; one is shimmery and a little slick, and the other was rougher to the touch and seemed to have a bit more ink-holding tooth. The instructions advise against using cardboard as a base for the plate because it's too absorbent, so I used mat board coated with a thin layer of gel medium as a seal. In the photo above, I'm using a foam applicator brush to paint a layer of watered down black acrylic on top of the silk to adhere it to the plate. It would be wise to iron the silk, but I was intrigued by the possibility of inky effects from the ridges of the fabric. The plate in the lower right has the shimmery silk, and it's the one I used for the art in this post - Reflecting. You can already see the way each fabric reacted differently to the coat of black... both were wet in the photo, but the polyester on the plate in the upper right corner seems to sit on top of the paint. I haven't used that one yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Art Quote

The beautiful "In sorrow" painting has a story worth telling in its own right. Zorn's self confidence was expanding, more now than ever before, mainly due to his successes in watercolours, though his love for Emma Lamm played no lesser role.

His artistic breakthrough took place in the spring of 1880. His painting "In Sorrow" was chosen as the main piece at the Academy's exhibition. The model for the painting was Mimmi Nystrand, whose father had just passed away (at the time Zorn was living with the family.) Zorn said, regarding the reception of the piece:

"I painted the head of a young woman, wearing a black veil, and called it 'In Sorrow' before submitting it the pupil's show. Professor Boklund, the bitter but benevolent man in charge of the exhibition, had a toothache that day and saw me with half-hearted enthusiasm. He said about my painting: "Son, such waste of paper. Put it down on the floor!" ...

... "The next day however, I was sent after to meet him, and he said: "Son, they want it! They're crazy about it! How much do you want for it?" Staggered by this unexpected turn, I modestly replied "Fifty kronor" (about half a dollar) - "Son, damn you for not asking one hundred and fifty for it! The next day the caretaker came to me with an envelope containing one hundred and fifty kronor. It was from one of the professors who bought it for a friend. A few days later there was a big article in the magazine describing my opus, and how my fortune was made."

Introduction to Anders Zorn by Matt Viinanen

Silk Aquatint: Cat in the Lap

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:27:00 +0000

Cat in the Lap - 6.75 x 5.5 Silk Aquatint with Colored Pencil
Available on Etsy
This aquatint was made the same day as the previous post (Reflecting), with the same materials, and I got the same result. I reworked the print with some colored pencil (see before & after below) and prepped new plates (using mat board and plexiglass as a base), so I'm looking forward to the results of my next aquatint experiments.

Fixing the print; after the ink dried, I added colored pencil to enhance the details I lost in the printmaking process.

Pulling the print on the press bed; As you can see above, I lost a lot of details, just like the first plate I pulled earlier that day, but I have some ideas for adjustments in the next batch of silk aquatints, and I'm hopeful for better results.

These hiccups are one of the great things about art, because they push my brain out of the comfortable and familiar zone, and challenge me to think through problem solving. Getting comfortable in art-making can be seductive, whether it's in the rendering of a subject, or the process used to create the art. Its probably a bit more relaxing to approach it that way, but I find it more stimulating to keep trying new things, and with each failure, my commitment to practice my craft gets a shot of conviction and resolve to think it through, and try again. And then there's the reward of a big hooray and a studio happy dance when repeated attempts finally come to fruition. :)

Inking the plate with a scrap of mat board and my groovy new Akua Intaglio ink (Paynes Gray) and Transparent Medium.

After sealing a scrap of mat board with acrylic gel, I laid a piece of polyester mesh/silk on the plate, and adhered the fabric to the plate with with a diluted mix of black acrylic pain. After that dried, I painted an image with white acrylic paint and acrylic gel mixed in a 1 to 5 ratio. The instructions for the process can be found on the Akua Inks web site.If you try this printmaking method, please share your results in the comments section. I'd love to see what you came up with!

Art Quote
If the face were an entirely flat surface, in which the features occasioned neither projections nor depressions, nothing more would be necessary in painting a representation of it, than to cover it with a uniform flat tint of flesh color. But as there is scarcely any part of it which is perfectly flat, the gradations of light and shade claim the earnest attention of the student, and are, perhaps, best learned from a plaster cast, where they are separated from color. (It is a good plan always to keep a white bust at hand as a guide to light and shadow.)

Practical Directions for Portrait Painting in Watercolor ~ by Mrs. Merrifield 1850

Monotype: Winter Refuge

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Winter Refuge 8x10 Monotype with colored pencil

Sold

Process images begin at the bottom of this post

This was an anniversary gift from husband to wife. While describing the art he wanted to present to his beloved, my client referred to his wife as extra special and he said that she loves to read and garden, and that she is a great Mom to their son. The birdbath fountain is a nod towards their little family of three, with an angel statue watching over them. The reader is settled comfortably in a big chair, surrounded by abundant blooms on a winter day, enjoying a good book, safe in the refuge of a greenhouse.

The monotype, while I was adding colored pencil to flesh out some of the details.

One of the best things about using Akua is the clean up; Green Works wipes (no thinner or turpentine) clean the ink off the plate and my work surface instantly. I'm really loving this product; great pigments, non-drying until they get pressed to your paper, non toxic, no fumes and easy clean up.

A soaked and blotted sheet of Rives BFK paper was laid over the plate, and rolled under the press. In this photo, I'm pulling the print from the plate, and you can see how well the Akua Kolor releases from the surface of the lexan plate.

Laying the plate on the press bed, ready to print.

I used Akua Kolor inks on a lexan plate for this monotype.

The preliminary sketch of a reader in a greenhouse, near a birdbath fountain.

Art Quote
Raphael (1483-1520) re-entered the coterie of artists and patricians which assembled at leisure hours in the house of Baccio d'Agnolo, the architect who was then supervising so many new buildings. Here [in his early 20's] he met Sansovino, Lippi, Cronaca, Majani, Granacci, the San Galli and the great [Michael] Angelo, and listened with deep interest to their discussions about the principles of art. Through his intimacy with certain wealthy merchants and nobles, he secured several orders for portraits - the best of which were those of the art patron Angelo Doni and Maddalena his wife. These are now in the Pitti Palace, and show warm coloring and careful finish combined with poor drawing and timid execution. Raphael next painted the celebrated Madonna del Cardellino, or Virgin of the Goldfinch, as a wedding present for his friend Nasi, a frequenter of Agnolo's symposia. The Virgin is shown as seated in a graceful landscape looking with unspeakable tenderness at the infant Jesus who is about to caress a goldfinch held by St John. This picture was sacredly preserved until the fall of the Nasi Palace in 1547, when it was broken in pieces. Carefully repaired and restored, it now forms one of the chief ornaments of the Uffizi Tribune.

Artist Biographies: Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michael Angelo, by Moses Foster Sweetster 1878

Silk Aquatint: The Captain's Cabin

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:30:00 +0000

The Captain's Cabin 7.75x7.75 Silk Aquatint & colored pencil

Available on Etsy.

I'm starting to learn what works best for me with Silk Aquatint Printmaking. The work in process shots and details of what I've learned begin at the bottom of this post. The reference photo for this little aquatint was snapped at a wonderful B&B called the Inn at Bath, in Bath, Maine.

Rinsing the plate after scrubbing with Dawn soap. [NOTE: If you're using mat board as your plate, and you haven't sealed it first - front, back & all four edges - with Acrylic Medium before building the plate, don't run it under water, or you'll turn it into a sponge. Before I adhered the polyester screen to this mat board, I coated the entire surface with Acrylic Medium to seal it. The Akua ink Silk Aquatint instructions suggest avoiding cardboard as a plate, because it's too absorbent. I have a lot of scrap mat board from framing my work, so I'm blocking the absorbency with acrylic gel as the first step to preparing the plates.]

The fine folks at Takach press gave me a good tip: when cleaning Akua Waterbased Inks from plates, hands or work surfaces, straight Dawn dish soap (no water) works fast. I used more than I needed here to illustrate the point, but a dime sized dollop and a scrub brush or old rag works great to clean all the ink from the polyester screen on my plate.

After a trip through the press, I'm pulling the print, and you can see the variations in tone and value - from rich darks, to brighter passages, and some nice gradations in between. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this easy to build, non toxic printmaking method.

On the press bed, with a soaked & blotted piece of BFK Rives paper, ready to print.

Here, I've inked & wiped the plate, intaglio style, with a blend of Akua Intaglio water based ink in Paynes Gray, cut 50/50 with Akua Transparent Base.

Using white acrylic paint, blended with either acrylic gel (for thicker application) or acrylic medium (for thinner application), I painted this little interior and let it dry completely.

The photo above shows a new batch of silk aquatint plates under way. The plates are all scrap mat board, coated first with a thin layer on all sides & edges with Acrylic Gel. This step shows polyester cut about an inch larger than each plate, and laid on the surface. Using a foam applicator brush, I spread a layer of black acrylic paint, thinned 1/5 with water on each square of polyester so it would adhere to the plate with no air bubbles or wrinkles. I let these dry over night, and trimmed the excess fabric the next morning. For step by step instructions, visit the Akua web site, and/or see the description below.

Art Quote

To prepare a silk aquatint plate, you will need a substrate or backing board, some black and some white acrylic paint and fabric. Caraccio prefers to use high impact polystyrene because it comes in large sheets, has the thickness of a zinc plate and cuts easily, even curved shapes with just a mat knife. Other choices are Plexiglas, rigid wood or metal. Avoid cardboard as it is too soft and absorbent. For black paint, use any kind, even inexpensive house paint as long as it is acrylic. The acrylic white paint should be artist's quality. Acrylic medium or gel are needed too, but do not use gesso or modeling paste as they both have a sandy texture. For a brush to make the plate, use a sponge brush if possible. For the image making, some artists use trowels, spatulas and squeegees as well as painting brushes. Caraccio's favorite fabric is silk screening polyester 12xx or 14xx. Real silk organdy will work as well; other fabrics can be experimented with. Wrinkles are a potential problem. Roll the fabric and do not let it touch the floor to avoid dust.
First, sand the backing material lightly to give it tooth. Next, clean the board of all dust with water and a rag and let dry. The black paint is then applied to the board after first thinning it to the consistency of light cream. If you are getting obvious brush strokes, thin the paint even more. After the black is dry, inspect the surface for any lumps and remove them. Next cut your fabric on the bias and cut the fabric larger than the backing by one half inch. The bias cut prevents fraying around the edges. Lay the fabric over the painted backing. It is helpful for the next step to lay your backing plate on a surface into which tacks or pushpins can be used. Tack around the edges only if there are wrinkles to be pulled out. Now with a brush, flood paint the fabric with more black paint. Make this a fluid application to drench the pores of the weave. This colors the silk and adheres it to the backing. Let dry completely, about three hours.
Now prepare the white paint by mixing 1/5 acrylic white paint with 4/5 acrylic medium (for smooth coating) or gel (for impasto effect). Now begin to make your image. If you do not wish to see brush strokes in the print, water down the white paint and use more layers (letting the paint dry before adding to the layers). You can wet the silk for water color effects. Let your plate dry and trim the edges. Ink with a square of cardboard or plastic ink spreader. Wipe the plate with tarlatan & print.
~ Maryland Printmakers InPrint article, Sue Anne Bottomley visits the New York City studio of Kathy Caraccio, March 1998

Monotype: First Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:38:00 +0000

First Cup 8.5x7 Monotype with watercolor on Arches Hot Press watercolor paper

Process shots start at the bottom of this post

Available on Etsy.

If you're a coffee or tea drinker, and you find early morning a little challenging, you'll understand her daydream face and the way she's cradling that first cup of coffee of the day. This was a fast little portrait to take a break from a larger still life I'm almost finished with... I'll post it later this week.

After pulling the print on the press bed; this was printed on spritzed & blotted Arches Hot Press watercolor paper (smooth). Just to see how it would work. What I got was a loosey-juicey little underpainting, with some groovy texture transferred from the plate to the paper to get me started as soon as it was dry.

Working with Caran D'Ache crayons and Akua Kolor inks on a beveled plexiglass plate. This was a fast little sketch from a photo taken by my friend VLB early one Sunday morning a few years ago.

Art Quote
Particularly individual is the work of John W. Alexander, whose large picture of Isabella and the Pot of Basil hangs n a prominent place in our gallery. The Munich training of this artist is less conspicuously present than in many others who have made long studies on Germany. There are some of the best qualities developed in France, known particularly and generally misunderstood as "art nouveau"; but a strong personal note dominates all - the use of a singularly happy graduated sweep of line is always an integral part of his compositions. In this particular composition, the low tones of clack and white - the general atmosphere and pallor of death - are carried out with a masterly and almost hypnotic truth to the sentiment of the story which it illustrates. Alexander has a wonderfully developed ability to indicate - without representing accurately; and yet so strongly is the attention centered in the objective points of his pictures, that one does not notice or feel conscious of any part having been slighted. Absolute certainty for his own impression makes it possible for him to lead your eye that you see it as he does. This is the greatest power of an impressionist painter.

Julia DeWolf Addison - The Boston Museum of Fine Arts ~1900

Monotype: Five More Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:09:00 +0000

Five More Minutes 4.5 x 6 Monotype Ghost with Watercolor

I think this might be the first or second monotype I ever did - in 2005 or so. Hard to believe my love affair with this versatile method of painterly printmaking is almost seven years old, but I think I love it more now than I did before. Each additional year I get to experiment with it leaves me ever more thrilled to have discovered it.

After inking my beveled zinc plate, I laid a sheet of paper over the plate and did a sketch of the image I wanted, which left a subtle map in the ink when I pulled the paper away. I've got the drawing close by for reference here. I'm removing ink in this photo (this is a Dark Field Monotype) in a subtractive method of mark making, with a pastel stomp.

After laying a sheet of BFK Rives paper on the still-wet plate, I ran it through the press, and all that pressure squeezing the paper against my inked plate pushes the pigment around, so that even if I was careful with details and subtle tones, the press will have it's way with the art. It slaps your hand when you get too fussy with the ink. I'm always surprised when I pull the print. That's the best part. :)

Here is the monotype, and the plate above it, which had enough ink remaining on the surface to pull a second print, which is called a ghost, because it's a very faint suggestion of the monotype. The image at the top of this post was the ghost print, painted with watercolor after the ink dried.

Art Quote
Until I started doing monotypes, I had never made an image without looking at something directly, but really - what's the difference between doing this (making a monotype) - I mean really, when we're out there drawing, or making our painting [on site, or from life], we have to turn away from nature. You know, we look, and then we look to our drawing, so there's a little time that's elapsed, so that - really - when we're out there making our drawing, we are in fact working from memory, because when we turn away from nature, we look to our invention, so one is always working from memory, but with notes.

The things that we think about in our heads, in painting and drawing, are parts of long, extended, evolving conversations that happen just as much when we're not painting and drawing. You know, driving around, or walking around, or riding a bike through neighborhoods, and looking at buildings and considering the quality of a pink wall next to a piece of yellow trim. All this stuff informs us, because as long as we're awake, we're processing everything. That process never stops. I mean, if we're really involved with our visual life, we're working all the time.

So, what I've found is there's something about this whole process of the monotype that lends itself to a certain kind of consideration that's more like drawing than painting, yet is also very similar to painting.

Stuart Shils 2009 (<---Click here to watch a video of Stuart making a monotype)

Watercolors: Floral Valentine's Wishes

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:23:00 +0000

(Watercolors from top left, clockwise: Sabino Fish & Plums 6x8, Sour Green Apples & Wine 9.25x7, He Hung the Moon for Her 6x4.5, Graham Thomas Roses in a Blue Vase 10x7, Camellia on the First Day of Spring 7x5)

Happy Valentine's Day!

A bell is no bell 'til you ring it,
A song is no song 'til you sing it,
And love in your heart
Wasn’t put there to stay -
Love isn’t love
'Til you give it away.
~Oscar Hammerstein, Sound of Music

Monotype: Potted Rosemary

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:46:00 +0000

Potted Rosemary 18x24 Monotype with Watercolor

Process shots start at the bottom of this post

The image above was snapped with my cell phone; I'll post a better photo over the weekend.

After working on the monotype with watercolor - still damp - I'm holding it in front of me to give a sense of scale

Despite the fact that the painted monotype plate sat propped against a wall in my arid studio (I live in the desert) for 8 weeks, I was amazed to see how much pigment lifted when I pulled the print. Akua Intaglio inks are rocking my world.

The moment of truth - about to pull the print after a trip through the press.

I called the good folks at Akua and asked about my dilemma, and they assured me that the ink was still wet, and I'd be able to pull the monotype, despite the two months of air drying. They told me the ink might be a little thicker, but it was still good to go. I reached over and pressed a finger into a blue shadow passage on the plate, and voila, I had a blueberry colored fingertip. In the meantime, I ordered these three modifiers (above) for future work when I'm using a large plate and need more time with the mark-making and painting.

In the middle of working on this - in November - I realized the holidays were upon us. This poor, partially painted plate sat neglected through the rest of November and December and the first two weeks of January. Every time I walked into my studio, I saw it leaning against the wall, jelly side out, staring at me with an unfinished-pigment-pout. I worried that the water based ink was surely rock hard and unprintable. I also wondered how I was going to get the ink off the plate if it was completely dry and beyond rescue.

This is the same sanded and beveled plate I used on a previous post, and I'm painting with Akua water based Intaglio inks directly on the plate, layering color, and leaving my brush marks loose and edgy. I used water to thin the ink for some transparent passages on the plate, but I'll be using modifiers from now on, because the folks at Akua informed me that water tends to dull and lighten the brilliance of the pigment.

Art Quote

When I was in art school, one of my fellow students painted a series of dead fish. She had seen one of Manet's oil still life paintings of a fish on a platter, ad it triggered an explosion of inspiration. My friend went to the market and bought dozens of fish. She painted them frozen, thawed, in piles, on newspaper, in jars, lying on the table, and in frying pans. She reveled in their shimmery scales and slippery textures for weeks on end, and her apartment smelled like the town dump. I was envious beyond description. It wasn't that I wanted to paint fish or flies; I just wanted to find something that I felt that passionate about to paint.

At the time, I knew I wanted to paint, but I didn't know what I wanted to express. For several years I painted a shopping list of subject matter; still lifes, landscapes, flowers, nudes, animals and seascapes. Although most of the paintings found a home on someone's wall, none of them were truly aligned with my most passionate feelings, simply because I didn't know what those emotions were. Since then, I have found what it is that I feel strongly about, and my paintings look more like they are mine. Although I must admit that painting hasn't gotten any easier, it has become even more engaging.

Mary Whyte ~ Painting Portraits & Figures in Watercolor 2011

Silk Aquatint: Dusk

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Dusk 6.5 x 5.5 Silk Aquatint with colored pencil on Rives BFK paper
Available on Etsy.
I'm still experimenting with silk aquatint printmaking: different ratios of acrylic paint, acrylic gel and acrylic medium to get the resulting "what you see is what you get" on the print. So far, I'm getting a little too much tone printing in areas I've painted out, so I think it's time to order some silk screen fabric in the recommended weave. I have a few more plates already made and underway with this synthetic silk organza, so I'll print them for the practice, but I'm curious to see the difference with another fabric choice adhered to the plate. Stay tuned, and I'll share my discoveries here.

Painting the image on the plate (mat board sealed with acrylic medium, painted with black acrylic paint and covered with synthetic silk organza).

Inking the plate with Akua Intaglio graphite colored ink, and wiping with tarlatan.

Pulling the print after a trip through the press.

Art Quote
"Edgar is so absorbed by his painting that he writes no one in spite of our remonstrances. That doesn't keep him from thinking of you often and very much wanting to see you. When will his wishes, which are also ours, be realized?... The violin lessons proceed, but very slowly. It's atrociously difficult. Edgar is learning it too."
Letter from Edgar Degas' brother Rene from Paris in January 1861

Silk Aquatint (Ghost): An Affinity for Palm Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:32:00 +0000

An Affinity for Palm Trees 4x4 Aquatint Artist Proof (Ghost) with watercolor
Available on Etsy.

Continuing with Aquatint experiments here, I've painted another little plate with a blended 1/5 ratio of white acrylic paint and acrylic medium. The reference is based loosely on a photo I snapped of my sister, when she was visiting a few weeks ago from Alaska. The process shots start at the bottom, but I've already altered the plate with more layers of paint/gel, and will share the black & white print - sans any other mediums, as soon as I print it.

I rubbed a thin layer of transparent base on the plate, and pulled a ghost to see how the values would read. After this was dry, I added watercolor to get the little proof at the top of this post.

After a trip through the press on Revere paper, the resulting print has lost some of the more subtle tones in the painting on the plate, so I know I need to go back and fill more of the cross hatch of the silk fabric with paint.

Wiping the plate with tarlatan

After the plate was dry, getting ready to apply Akua Intaglio ink in Graphite color, cut 50/50 with transparent base.

Painting the plate with acrylic medium and white acrylic paint in a 5/1 ratio.

Art Quote

David Kiekl, Curator of Prints, Whitney Museum of American Art, lamented at his recent lecture at the Huntington Library in pasadena, California, Printmaking Now; Cycles of Tradition, Innovation and Change,"We know far too little of the printmaking which occurred west of the Mississppi between the two world wars. These stories need to be told before we can piece together the quilt of printmaking in America." ~Susan Futterman 2010

Silk Aquatint: Library Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Belinda Del Pesco) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:57:00 +0000

Library Cat 4x4 Silk Aquatint on Revere paper

Available on Etsy.

This is a double-post of sorts; an update on yesterday's aquatint, after I made adjustments to the plate, and a new aquatint (above), printed in the same afternoon. Process shots start at the bottom of this post.

Pulling the first proof of Library Cat, in graphite colored ink. The next print was done with a 50/50 mix of lamp black and transparent base, for increased contrast. (But I think the proof I pulled with the graphite is going to be perfect & fun for colored pencil.... rubbing hands and grinning madly)

Using Akua tarlatan to wipe the plate.

Using scrap mat board to move ink over the surface of the plate, being sure to get even distribution into the weave of the silk.

Getting ready to ink the plate for a proof print, using a 50/50 mix of Akua Intaglio Graphite and Transparent Base.

An Affinity for Palm Trees 4x4 Silk Aquatint on Revere paper

This is a follow up from yesterday's post. When I pulled the first proof print from the plate on this piece, there was too much tone/ink in areas meant to be halftone or a bit brighter, so I went back and added more acrylic to the plate, and tried again.

Pulling the print; I got a bit closer to the values I was looking for, but I've got a lot more experimenting to do with some different fabrics, and a variety of ratios on the acrylic as well as the inking process. Still, though, I have to say that the ability to be able to get any halftone, without the use of etching acid, solvents and metal plates has me doing cartwheels in the studio. Stay tuned!

Art Quote

When sketching from nature - pencil water color, or oil - carry in your kit a little view-finder of cardboard to help in selecting well-composed bits of landscape. It is easily made, consisting of but a frame of cardboard with the opening a rectangle of the same proportions as the larger rectangular shape of your canvas or sketch book page. The cardboard should be of a dark tint or blackened with drawing ink. Hold this little frame between the eye and the contemplated view, and move it along until it encompasses a section of the landscape to your liking. Many unexpected pictorial effects are found by the aid of this little contrivance.

~Practical Drawing, by Edwin George Lutz 1919