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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 n…

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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. …

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Tree Study 2013

In the fall of 2013, I joined SWESA, the Southwest Edmonton Seniors Association. They have a Friday morning art group where anyone wishing to do art in the company of others could join in.

My first project was to experiment with watercolours - to see what I could create with them - what effects col…

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Beginner Drawing - Susanne Lamoureux ELLA 2013

ELLA stands for Edmonton Lifelong Learners Association, which operates 3 weeks of courses for 55+ at the University.

My first year of attending, I took Susanne's course for beginning drawing. At this time, I had zero confidence in my abilities to draw other than a stick figure. However, Susanne tau…

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Graded Wash - Kathryn Hines

 

2013 - This was my first watercolour course - Watercolour Sketch Book

One of the best things I ever learned in a course, with Kathryn Hines as instructor, was how to do a graded wash.

Needed:

  • Good quality paper - 300 lb. (140 dries too quickly for this method)
  • A substantive puddle of water…

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