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Calico Art - Carol Vaage

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Sharing My Research

The research of the 129 Daniel Smith granulating pigments took me 8 months to complete. It truly was a labor of love and torture at the same time. I knew what my purpose was - to find the best granulating pigments and the very best mixes so that I could make spectacular statements in my art. There needed to be a consistent approach for my analysis at the end of it all. But the tedium of penciling in the squares, deciding and prepping the paint each time was contrary to the freedom you'd think an artist would crave.

But now that the work was finished, my new task was to begin to share what I'd done so that it could be used by other artists, and perhaps even the Daniel Smith company itself.

I've been posting (one color, the mixes page, and the 2 abstracts done with those colors) three times a week as it takes time and concentration to upload them. There are four sites I'm using: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and of course, this website. Along with each color there is a small description. By the end of 2023, the work should be fully published.

It is very interesting that though I've used the hashtags and links, there are few people following as yet. That is the challenge, isn't it? To find an inroads into the complex world of social media. That is my current task and far more difficult than drawing my squares and prepping my paints.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a guru sitting beside you when you need it most?

To find the results of my research:

  • Granulating Pigments Link
  • Rubric for Ranking Granulating Paints Link
  • Best Granulating Mixes Link

Letting My Brush Take the Lead

I've been spending the last week going through my collection of art works. Tending to be prolific has its drawbacks as I have hundreds of paintings. I've noticed how tight and tentative my earliest works were, and how closely I used the photo reference to try and replicate what my eyes were seeing. What I noticed was the surface of each photo, what you see when you first look at an image. The trees, the buildings, the lakes, the mountains.

Very few of those early paintings appeal to the artist I've become.

Since January I've been dedicated to using Daniel Smith granulating paints and experimenting, researching what happens when two granulating pigments are mixed together. The effects of those combinations inspired me to break free of my tight/tentative self. Now I'm painting two abstracts with every mixing color I use. Since January I've accumulated 175 paintings, which is quite a tall stack of work.

When I look at these, I feel freedom, movement, and surprise! Starting with a blank page every time, and no guiding photo or image, my brush seems to move on its own. Grabbing juicy paint with my sable brush and letting the brush take the lead.

The emotional feedback I get showed me just how deep my artist-self is. I see sharp lines, diagonals, curves, color contrasts, and I feel emotion. I feel like these paintings speak their own language.

As part of an art group that meets on Monday mornings, I see my paintings are different from all the other works. They are fluid, done quickly. So I wrestle about just how far out of the norm this journey is taking me, and the value of my work.

My sister reminded me this morning, I am doing this art for myself. Yet I've found other artists online who love working with granulation as well. Jane Blondell, Muriel Napoli, Anna Zadarozhanaya, Stephania Boiana, Muriel Buthier Chartrain, Anne Larrson Dahlin, Yesim Meltem Gozukara, and Reine-Marie Pinchon. I've been following their works on Pinterest, and noticing how free and unlimited the possibilities of using granulation.

So somewhere in the world, I belong  - with my quest and journey.

I'll continue to be surprised with what comes in the future, wherever my powerful sable brush leads me. Now when I use a photo reference, I'll look for the underlying emotion and feeling that's hidden, and paint with freedom! Lead on, brush!

Granulating Pigment Research

February 24, 2023

My newest passion is exploring the colours and textures created by using Daniel Smith granulating Paints. This example shows how using Hematite Genuine with 12 other granulating colours creates the most dramatic effects. These pages are 9 x 12, so squares are 3". The partner colours were selected from my master granulating paints chart. 

 

   

The granulating effects and colour combinations pull your eye. Daniel Smith granulating paints offer so many choices. See the web page  Granulating Paints for other abstract paintings from vibrant colour mixes.

Dare It!

Think it, Believe it, Dream it, Dare it is a quote from Walt Disney. I saw it on a billboard as I was driving yesterday, and had a moment of recognition. It applies exactly to my journey in art! And perhaps it might apply to you as well.

I had been thinking about art for many years, as my sister, my daughter, sons were all artists - so skilled and imaginative. It wasn't until I took that next step to believing that I could then try art, buy art supplies, take art courses. That believing stage took a year or two to take hold, and I felt the transition to dreaming that I could actually be an artist. I dreamed about what kind of art I would like to do - nature/abstract/landscapes/prairie... I dreamed while studying other artists' styles. I dreamed as I saw growth in my painting skills and techniques. I dreamed as I joined an Art Society. 

This past spring I transitioned into the daring phase. I could feel the difference as I began to risk saying to people (other than my family and close friends) that I paint watercolours, to actually say the words, "I am an artist." I submitted 5 of my pieces to the Art Society to be juried to be recategorized as an Exhibiting Artist. I walked through the Whyte Avenue Art Walk asking questions about selling art, techniques used - I conversed as 'artist to artist.' I joined a Summer Watercolor Challenge and posted my first piece as Calico, and received my first 'like' from someone in Europe. And I began my public artist identity by beginning to develop this Calico Art website.

Walt Disney had it right! Think it, Believe it, Dream it, Dare it!

Know Your Paints

As a beginning watercolourist, it can be daunting to go into an art store and be faced with an entire aisle or at least several sections of watercolour tubes to choose from. How do you begin? Which ones are the basics?

Every artist has their favorite colours and their favorite brands. I've listened to YouTube artists declare you must have "these" colours in your palette. Or, you register for a class, and are required to bring "these" tubes of paint by this supplier brand. Even comparing art stores, you'll find different brands are featured and recommended. The art store staff will have their favorites to recommend. How will you know what to get?

I started my journey of art in a Daniel Smith store, and so selected my paints from their line. Each tube has a colour band on it to give you an indication of the colour family it belongs to. More details are given on the backs of the tubes. Most stores have samples of what that pigment looks like when activated with water.

So, as you are probably thinking, from reading the above, I believe there are NO ABSOLUTES when choosing your first tubes of paint. My recommendation, though, is that you always choose an artist grade tube of paint. You will see less expensive student grade options, but using these will soon frustrate you. Quality versus quantity. If you start with the 3 primary colours of yellow, blue and red, you'll get hours of play and experimentation. But choose the colours that appeal to you!

I bought a coil bound watercolour book to document my paint colours so that I would have a visual reference to go by.

  

As you can see, I made a good, intense colour swatch (small circles on the left). I then made a water puddle line to the right of the circle, and then made the smallest touch of a bridge with my brush, and watched to see if the pigment would travel over the water. After things dried, it enabled me to see which colours had the most dramatic impact, for example the very bottom left orange sample. The edges were strong, and had small frills, so it might be used for flowers or dramatic clouds, etc. Some of the samples granulated, as you can see on the third bottom on the right side. That Bloodstone colour left small pockets of texture. Some pigments did not travel over the water, some flooded and then backwashed, like the bottom right blue sample.

My next step was to create a page for each hue, so it would be easy to compare the shades later on, to find the just right pigment for my paintings.

Document the name of each pigment, make your own codes and shortcuts. You can see I added T for transparency, a Y or N for granulation, and wrote whether it was opaque or staining. You have to find a system that works for you. You can find ideas on the web, see charts, etc. but those will come later. First get to know your own paints. 

 

In the Beginning

Scared Stiff!

The desire to express, to paint was so strong, but the fear of starting to paint was stronger. When you grow up believing you are not an artist, it is easy to convince yourself that is a truth.

Art for me started only after I had retired - when I had unlimited time and the yearning to learn. Watercolour paintings fascinated me - with the fluidity, delicacy, blossoms, and back runs. I loved it all.

I walked into a Daniel Smith store, the question was "Where do I start?" And so this blog post is dedicated to that scared stiff feeling of picking up a paintbrush and having a blank piece of expensive paper watching me, waiting for the first mark.

Some advice?

 

Play!

Experiment by yourself, where you're free to try things out. Invest in better quality paper, and good, artist quality paints. Have 2 or 3 excellent brushes versus a quantity - bargain variety.

Break/cut/tear your paper into 5 x 7 size. And play. Use one side of your paper, and when it's dry, use the other side.

Puddle Play

Drop a puddle of water, add some watercolour paint with your brush. Watch the movement, try leading the front edge of the puddle down, or across. Try sweeping marks on the puddle - upwards, across, down. Make the puddle stronger by adding more pigment. Let these experiments dry, so you can see what watercolour will do.

Brush Play

Get to know your brushes and what they can do. Dip your brush, so it's very wet and soak up colour. Make dots, lines, swirls, sweeps. Now try a drier brush, by dipping in water then wiping it on a towel to take off the bead of water. Now make dots, lines, swirls, sweeps.

Colour Play

Document the qualities of your colours so that you know if they will disperse and travel, or stay put. Are they opaque or transparent? Will they granulate? See the blog post for a more complete description on documenting colour.

Play with Mixing Colours

Some colours should never mix and some make the most beautiful combinations in surprising ways. Until you experiment and get to know which colours work well, you will face the danger of creating mud when you paint. Hint: Use a colour wheel to help.

When you've played with these four elements, you will have experience and knowledge and will be yearning now for technique. Now is the time to begin a new phase of learning.

Artist Studies - Online classes

An option to taking an art course from an art teacher is to find an online instructor. The online course availability has grown significantly over the past few years, and you can find any topic that interests you. The advantage of these online courses is that you can work at them at your own pace in your own place. You can start and stop as you wish. The downfall is that the work, lessons, and contributions fall to you alone. Almost all instructors have feedback and question areas for support. Costs vary greatly, so be sure due diligence and research has been done. Check the feedback and ratings section of the course descriptions.

Following are sites and courses I have accessed and what I’ve learned from each.

  1. Angela Fehr - https://www.angelafehr.com/

    Angela is a genuine, sensitive person who talks through her painting sessions for loose watercolour painting. Through her, I’ve learned to use free movements and to abstract the real image in my paintings.

 

  1. Jean Haines - https://jeanhaines.com/

    I feel like I am watching a master as Jean demonstrates an abstract dynamic process and use of colour for a background, and then pulling out the real focus with addition of extra layers (glazing) or brush work. I highly recommend her courses if you wish to work in a loose abstract style. They are expensive, but in my opinion, very worthwhile, as she takes you into her home and sincerely shares her expertise.


My examples of paintings below are not as beautiful as Jean’s, but perhaps you can see how I accented the background colour experimentations with lines and additional colours. There is a hint of something real, but it’s up to the viewer to perceive through their own experience.

  

 

  1. Udemy - https://www.udemy.com/
     

There are hundreds of art-based courses at reasonable prices on this site but there are usually only a few sessions focused on specific techniques or subjects.

Two sessions that I took focused on painting trees and leaves, and you can see how I learned to use composition and colours to show perspective.

  

 

  1. Domestika - https://www.domestika.org/en

This site has truly impressed me with the caliber of artists and the professionalism with which they teach and demonstrate their renowned success. Following are the three courses I have been working on and will continue to review long after I’ve completed the lessons.
 

  1. Architectural Sketching with Watercolour and Ink – Alex Hillkurst

My sister and I have different ideas about straight lines – she enjoys them, and I shudder thinking about them. Alex taught me how to get perspective using windows, sidewalks, etc., so that I could get a reasonable representation of places I had travelled to.

 

  1. The Art of Sketching: Transforming your Doodles into Art – Mattias Adolfsson

    Mattias encouraged practice of doodling people, exaggerating features, sketching them from different perspectives and finally adding human figures to backgrounds. For the first time, I painted figures. 

 

  1. Modern Watercolor Techniques – Ana Victoria Calderon

    I have just begun this course and am very excited about the modern style she’ll be introducing.

     
  1. Other great websites that you might consider for online art classes
    1. Art Tutor - https://www.arttutor.com/
    2. Artist Network - https://www.artistsnetwork.com/

 

Artist Studies - In-person classes

A blank white paper, a new palette, great brushes, and panic sets in! I had several teachers that helped me past that blank page fear, walking me through different aspects of art, opening my mind, removing the blocks of internal messages of ‘you are not an artist’.

Kathryn Hines

My family gifted me a watercolour sketchbook class offered by the City of Edmonton with Kathryn Hines. At our first session, Kathryn set up a still life arrangement consisting of a green teapot, white creamer, olive vase, an orange, and a blue and white checked tablecloth. Our tools? 3 primary colours squeezed onto a foam plate, a piece of paper, and an unruly mid-sized Chinese paintbrush. Frankly, I was stunned, but gave it a shot. Then the group critiqued all the paintings. Amazingly, mine was not the worst, nor the best, and to me, it seemed like my colour mixing was awesome. 

You can see the objects are floating, and the teapot has a unique shape. I chose not to attempt all the still-life objects but loved the beautiful background effects.

Kathryn helped me become bolder with pencil lines and sketching. I learned how to do amazing gradients. She also opened my eyes to the difference between realistic and loose paintings. I began to see the beginnings of my favorite art style.

Edmonton Lifelong Learners Association (ELLA)

Every spring, ELLA holds three week-long spring session classes at the University of Alberta. The daily art classes were almost 3 hours, so a great deal of information and practice was shared. Two of the artists I studied with Susanne Lamoureux and Frances Alty-Arscott

Susanne Lamoureux

Beginner Drawing – Definitely not in my wheelhouse. But with Susanne’s teaching expertise, I learned so many new skills and techniques. We explored pencils of different values, graphite, and charcoal. Experimenting with paper textures and erasers, we selected different photos to represent.

  

 

Watercolour Pencils – Susanne offered other courses that I took as well, such as Watercolour Pencils, and Pencil Crayons. She helped me learn layering, glazing, and patience.

  

 

Frances Alty-Arscott

Frances drew me in to her watercolour style with the brilliant, vibrant colours and bold strokes. We learned how to represent impressionistically rather than realistically. Frances had us work through value studies of our photos, followed by colour studies before we began working on the actual painting. Focusing on the light source and shadows, we learned to create dimension in our paintings. The technique of using masking tape to block out areas for trees was a fantastic tip (below left). She praised me for my mark making with flicks and palette knife work (below right).

   

 

Willie Wong

Willie is a favorite art teacher in Edmonton, offering 6-week courses through the South-West Seniors Association (SWESA) watercolour and acrylics. He brings detailed drawings and guides us step-by-step to produce a stunning, beautiful realistic painting. I’ve taken a few of his courses, and his wealth of knowledge and practical tips that he shares are amazing. He has an affinity for his not-so-clean palette and demonstrated how adding different colours here and there can make a painting pop.

  

 

Artist Studies - Tutorials

Thanks to the wonderful world of online tutorials, a person can observe and learn from others who have mastered different techniques.

Because I wanted to be able to access specific tutorials at any time, I created a Pinterest page and subscribed and bookmarked YouTube sites that supported my art journey and discovery. On this Pinterest page, you’ll find alphabetically arranged over 40 subjects and almost 2000 posts. https://www.pinterest.ca/carolvaage/tutorials-for-watercolour/

Again, I remind you that I was totally untrained in the field of art, so this bounty of tutorials was amazingly beneficial.

For example, I really wanted to know how to paint flowers, as I had so many beautiful photos from my walks and from my friends. On the Floral Tutorial page, you can find videos of artists painting flowers, their colour choices, brush preferences, both loose and realistic examples, and step by step photos of work in progress. Most importantly for me, was the information shared in finessing floral images. I’m still working on adding extra shading, focusing on light and shadows, and painting in the fine detail lines. During their videos, these artists expressed that learning to paint florals is a lifelong journey, and I am only starting to understand. Close observation of flowers and plant life contribute to your intimate knowledge of them and subsequently impact how you can represent their truth.

Filling in my vacuum of basic art principles, the section on Basics significantly supported my growth. Topics of line, shape, form, value, colour, composition, materials, texture, and watercolour techniques were covered succinctly, and in as much depth as I was able to absorb at any given time. Looking over them again today, I see material that I need to review again now that I have moved from beginner to intermediate. My foundational understanding will help me understand and apply more of the concepts than in the early stages of my learning.

Also on the tutorial page are other pages relating to art styles: loose paintings, negative painting, multimedia, portraiture, pouring, and sumi-e ink painting.

Following is a list of my YouTube subscriptions of my favorite artists and their styles:

These tutorials have helped me become free in my painting. To believe that art does not have to be realistic to be beautiful. To trust my instincts and intuition. To create, explore, and discover. As you can see below, I have developed several different styles!

   

 

Artist Studies – ongoing

Studying under the masters was the only way to become an artist in previous generations: apprenticing, learning techniques, design, composition, form, line.

But today, it’s possible to study virtually with artists from anywhere, by studying their style, colour choices, compositions, use of light and shadow. My Pinterest page of artists show more than 50 artists and 2000 images. They are organized alphabetically and can be found at:  https://www.pinterest.ca/carolvaage/artists/.

At first, it was the renowned artists that I studied, like Picasso, Emily Carr. Practicing their pieces helped me to become bolder with use of colour and unrealistic artistry.

My first ‘aha’ was discovering the Group of Seven. Even, never having studied art, I had heard about this group through my school years but had never seen the images. When I began to look at their work, I was struck by how it called to me. Enlarging the images on my computer allowed me to take in the impact and strength of their work. Images of Canada. Broken into segments of colour and shape. The wild and the raw of our landscape – forests, mountains, lakes. Falling in love with their art led to research their style. https://www.pinterest.ca/carolvaage/artists/group-of-seven/.

As happens with Pinterest, as soon as you express an interest in a subject, they recommend similar images, like Erica Hawkes, Robbie Craig, and Nicholas Bott. When I studied their work, patterns began to emerge. The flow of lines. The use of colour. The foreground versus distance. Composition. My love of nature blended with this style, and I attempted paintings with my own images using their style.

Studying Emily Carr, led me to painting trees with swooping, curved lines and using unusual colours. Her work with Indigenous topics, led me to explore Benjamin Chee Chee and Norval Morrisseau. I spent several months working in this style, loving the bold strong colours and contrasting blacks. At this point, I created my only self-portrait thus far using this style of art.

With so many of the art galleries, museums and artist websites having online images of artwork, it is possible to branch out in many different directions. Immerse yourself in an artist’s style until you can recognize it anywhere, and experiment with the techniques they’ve used. You’ll soon find that certain bits become adapted into your own style. They become the influencers for your growth and development.

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Blog Posts

Sharing My Research

The research of the 129 Daniel Smith granulating pigments took me 8 months to complete. It truly was a labor of love and torture at the same time. I knew what my purpose was - to find the best granulating pigments and the very best mixes so that I could make spectacular statements in my art. There n…

Read more

Letting My Brush Take the Lead

I've been spending the last week going through my collection of art works. Tending to be prolific has its drawbacks as I have hundreds of paintings. I've noticed how tight and tentative my earliest works were, and how closely I used the photo reference to try and replicate what my eyes were seeing. …

Read more

Granulating Pigment Research

February 24, 2023

My newest passion is exploring the colours and textures created by using Daniel Smith granulating Paints. This example shows how using Hematite Genuine with 12 other granulating colours creates the most dramatic effects. These pages are 9 x 12, so squares are 3". The partner colou…

Read more

Dare It!

Think it, Believe it, Dream it, Dare it is a quote from Walt Disney. I saw it on a billboard as I was driving yesterday, and had a moment of recognition. It applies exactly to my journey in art! And perhaps it might apply to you as well.

I had been thinking about art for many years, as my sist…

Read more

Know Your Paints

As a beginning watercolourist, it can be daunting to go into an art store and be faced with an entire aisle or at least several sections of watercolour tubes to choose from. How do you begin? Which ones are the basics?

Every artist has their favorite colours and their favorite brands. I've liste…

Read more

In the Beginning

Scared Stiff!

The desire to express, to paint was so strong, but the fear of starting to paint was stronger. When you grow up believing you are not an artist, it is easy to convince yourself that is a truth.

Art for me started only after I had retired - when I had unlimited time and the yearning t…

Read more

Artist Studies - Online classes

An option to taking an art course from an art teacher is to find an online instructor. The online course availability has grown significantly over the past few years, and you can find any topic that interests you. The advantage of these online courses is that you can work at them at your own pace in…

Read more

Artist Studies - In-person classes

A blank white paper, a new palette, great brushes, and panic sets in! I had several teachers that helped me past that blank page fear, walking me through different aspects of art, opening my mind, removing the blocks of internal messages of ‘you are not an artist’.

Kathryn Hines

My family gift…

Read more

Artist Studies - Tutorials

Thanks to the wonderful world of online tutorials, a person can observe and learn from others who have mastered different techniques.

Because I wanted to be able to access specific tutorials at any time, I created a Pinterest page and subscribed and bookmarked YouTube sites that supported my art jo…

Read more

Artist Studies – ongoing

Studying under the masters was the only way to become an artist in previous generations: apprenticing, learning techniques, design, composition, form, line.

But today, it’s possible to study virtually with artists from anywhere, by studying their style, colour choices, compositions, use of light an…

Read more

View older posts »