Here is the watercolour paper that I gessoed and taped last week after applying two transparent acrylics, Alizarin and Phthalo Blue. At some point I will have to cut them apart in order to see where each one is heading individually.

For travelling I am taking half a dozen full sheets of watercolour paper to use with acrylics instead of canvases in order to save room.  I remembered that I was supposed to coat the paper with Gesso, and so I used some black and some white, and in some areas the two…

It was recommended to me years ago by artist and teacher, Barb McLean in Nova Scotia to apply Vaseline around the rim of acrylic mediums like Matte Medium and Gel to prevent the lids from sticking.

Dropping FW Sepia Ink into tea or coffee (no cream or sugar!) poured onto wet watercolour paper is fascinating to watch.  Here is the same postcard size painting at the start, and then turned upside down a few minutes later.  

On a full sheet of watercolour paper I fit together intuitive watercolours, paintings in acrylic and watercolour, drawings, greeting cards outside and inside, stamps, stickers, words, natural objects and perhaps even more into what I hoped would look like a harmonious…

Here are two close-ups from the new walnut oil painting I just started where you can see the effect of thinning the paint a lot with walnut oil so that it runs.  As it dries, it becomes quite mottled in places. I did the painting vertically on the easel but am now…

Working on two non-objective paintings in the summer of 2017 and not having a clue what to do next, I put white ans white tinted with yellow on the painted canvases, and then scraped with one of my rubber, serrated “combs” from De Serres. “Eagle…

Murphy’s Oil and Palmolive Dish Soap: great suggestion by Sharon Barfoot for cleaning oil paint off of brushes. Blue towels from automotive section of Canadian Tire and hardware stores: recommended by Brian Atyeo. Terrific for rubbing fiercely on your canvas or…

The peppers for the fajita recipe came on a Styrofoam tray which I turned into a stamp by cutting off the edges and drawing into.  It is easy to make impressions just using both ends of a pencil.  Pressing the open end of a bottle down makes circles.  These two…

When I cut off the end of a green cabbage to make a salad, I noticed the intricate, floral-like design of the piece of cabbage.  I set it aside to try it as a stamp with Green Gold acrylic paint over an intuitive watercolour on paper.  Here is the stamp and a few…

Here’s a tip I remembered from a Brian Atyeo workshop: use transparent acrylic paints as your undercoat on black Gesso.  Then, when you continue to paint with both transparent and opaque colours, they can been seen.  Otherwise, the colour just seems to be…

Here, in Kathy Longmore’s two intriguing paintings, you can see the unique effect (I call it chalkiness) of painting watercolour over Gesso.

Early gift from Jim.  A handsome collection of palette knives from Lee Valley.  Quite a contrast to my rusty, crusty ones.  Just like a piece of pure white watercolour paper, they are intimidating.  But just like white paper or canvas, the only thing to do is open a…

I keep the mesh bags from garlic, oranges, etc. to imprint the pattern onto paintings or prints.

Something I try when I feel my painting is going nowhere – randomly stick white tissue paper on it as I have done here.  But, I also tear pieces from magazines or use some of my imprinted Japanese papers.  

Thanks to my friend, Kathy, I have new pieces of textured glass to use to imprint patterns onto Japanese papers, a technique we learned from Janine Kinch many years ago.  Unfortunately, my best examples are still in Nova Scotia but you can see the fine lines that were…

So often it has been advised that I work on more than one painting at a time.  Here I have four cold wax and oil paintings happening simultaneously.  I liked the process a lot and finished one.  

The rhubarb leaves are now patterned in this stunning colour combination, which reminded me of Malcolm Callaway at the Chester Art Centre in Nova Scotia recommending mixing Alizarin Crimson and Viridian Green to make a dark most appropriate for the shady areas amidst…

When you cut your watercolour paper into a circle before pouring, you get a 360 degree opportunity to find shapes as seen in “Contemplation” hanging in Helen and Chris’ house and “Moray Transformer” at Wendy’s.  In the latter, two…

Can you spot the black and white structure in the middle of the acrylic paint? It is a photo transfer from an old, family print which I photocopied and then applied gel to the front. Once dried, I removed the paper on the back, leaving the image in the gel which I…

What a difference between the photos I take of my artwork with a camera, iPad or phone and the ones taken by a professional art photographer.  Dennis Campbell took a great deal of care with lighting and colour while photographing, and also later on his computer. …

You may not like the whole painting but by isolating areas with a mat or strips of white paper, you might find smaller paintings that you love.

Rubbing Alcohol flung onto wet watercolour dives through the paint and causes it to ripple outward in fascinating ways.

I was told years and years ago that your dried watercolour paintings could have the same intensity that they did when wet if you applied a coat of Gum Arabic.  It was only yesterday that I tried it for the first time on these samples.  I hope that you can see that the…

This print was done in a few stages.  I painted the plate, printed on the paper, and then I painted on the plate again and printed over the first one.  I used a piece of deli paper on top of the print in order to rub the print, taking off some of the excess paint.

Making a print using a Gelli Plate and acrylic is simple and effective.  You paint, scrape or roll the acrylic onto the plate and then press it onto dry paper (watercolour or Japanese).  Using your hands, wooden spoon or bamboo “gizmo,”  evenly press down…

It seems so obvious now but it was only a few weeks ago that I learned to tape the edges of my canvases with green or blue painters’ tape in order to keep them clean and prevent having to tidy them up afterwards by painting them white, black or grey.  It works…

Inspired by watching Gerhard Richter drag enormous scrapers across his canvases (documentary and YouTube), the one foot scraper and six inch brush from the hardware store have been fun to try.

An interesting discovery, and I do not know how it happened, but wearing 3D glasses allows you to see the lights, mediums and darks in your paintings.  

Terraskin is about 3/4 mineral powder to 1/4 non-toxic resin combined to make a paper similar to Yupo which is 100% polypropylene. I  have used inks, watercolours, thinned acrylics and coloured pencils on both.  The Terraskin is slightly more textured than the very…

Although the painting did not turn out, I have always loved this isolated area because of the colours and textures. Crackle paste, thick gel, and a shell pressed into modelling paste were three of the mediums I used

When I placed a fern over the the dry paint on the plexiglass of the monoprint, “Ferns and Fiddle Heads,” the pre-soaked paper remained white underneath after being pressed onto it. When the poured watercolours and inks were wet, as in, “Tinted with…

Kneading stretch wrap over poured, wet watercolour will create fine lines as seen in “Shamanic Dance,” whereas waxed paper creates thicker lines and shapes which you can see in this segment of ‘Spirit of the South Shore.” Waxed paper needs to…

Salt absorbs the watercolour paints and leaves white “sparkles” as you can see in “I have Come to Play, Not to Conquer” on the right. In “The Protectress” on the left the salt created “blossoms” of various colours in the…

The birch trees in the painting to the right were created by applying torn strips of masking tape to dry paper before pouring.  Randomly flung Rubber Cement made the swirly lines.  Once dry, the Rubber Cement is removed by rolling your finger along it.    …

I would love to share thoughts on techniques, products, books, concepts … relating to art every Friday, and hope you will join in with your experiences and photos.  It is Thursday evening and so I am jumping the gun a little.  But, I wanted to mention the…

Remembering climbing down the Circles of Moray carrying our painting supplies and bottles of water to paint, and then sitting in a circle with Kathy, Jill, who lead the group, Dolores, Janet , Ann, Barb and many others who became lasting friends, I am including,…

Sharon Barfoot (www.sharonbarfoot.com) recommended this book as a reference for Cold Wax and Oil painting: “Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts and Conversations” by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin available through Squeegee Press. Having…

Whenever I mention how much I love walnut oil paints, people get confused because they think of the walnut oil that they can add to regular oil paints, and have not seen the tubes of gorgeous colours by M.Graham on the shelves. For me, they work well because I can…

After decades of mulling over the idea of website/blog/Facebook/Instagram and not knowing where to start beyond needing good photos of my artwork, it seems surreal to be out there in the social media world in all of these formats. MarketTap in Toronto did the research…