Margret E Short Fine Arts Blog

First Thursday June 6, 2013

Don't miss the festivities in Portland this Thursday, June 6. 2013 - 6 to 9 pm. The Pearl District and other areas around town will be hubbubing with gallery goers out gadding and viewing the shows. Come join the fun!

 

Margret Short's Metals, Minerals, and Dirt June Exhibit presented by Signature D Art Consulting will commence that evening.

333 NW 9th Plaza Entrance on NW 10th, Contact Diane Kruger, 503-504-9330

Glimmer  Modello #8 Oil/Copper 6x6 © Margret E. Short, OPA, AWAM

Lustrous  Modello #9  Oil/Gold Leaf  © Margret E. Short OPA, AWAM

Trickster Modello #14 Oi/Stainless Steel © Margret E. Short OPA, AWAM

Kokopelli's Tokens  8x8 Oil/Linen, © Margret E. Short, OPA, AWAM

Bead Counting 10x8 Oil/Linen  © Margret E. Short, OPA, AWAM

 

More Rembrandt Mysteries

There is a mystery that has been baffling scholars for a long time. Why did Rembrandt apply gold leaf to the surface of a sheet of copper and paint in oil atop. Why would he cover a perfectly and already beautiful copper surface? Was it the smoothness? Was it an experiment? Nobody really knows for sure. What is known is that it is an intriguing painting and many of Rembrandt's techniques used here were applied in his subsequent paintings.

According to the information in Copper as Canvas, applying gold leaf to copper was an unusal technique not used by many throughout history. "The copper plate, which is one mm thick, was first covered with a grayish-white ground, consisting of white lead and chalk. then, over the entire surface of the ground, a thick layer of gold leaf was applied, which is visible today at the edges of the painting and as glittering dots in areas that are thinly covered with paint, such as the hauberk and the forehead".

I saw this painting last year while visiting The Mauritshuis in The Hague. There are little sparkles of gold here and there, especially on the mustache, coming through the opaque layers of paint where the wet paint was incised with a sharp tool of some sort. In other areas where the paint layer is thin, the gold is glowing through the surface.

Have any of you tried applying gold leaf to copper? What are your thoughts? I think I will difinitely experiment with this in the very near future. Leave a comment on your experiments.

Into the Soup

Experiments were made using several different brands of powdered gold leaf, but I settled on the Schmincke. This pigment is super fine, rich in color, and mixes easily into a paint by combining the powder with just a little of whatever medium you are working with on your project. I used the Strasbourg medium that I have been using all along on this minerals/metals/dirt project. The gold paint was then floated into the wet paint applications on the pitcher and allowed to dry. This technique is called wet in wet, or the old masters called it into the soup.

The Schmincke Rich Pale Gold powder pigment #18 812 was used here for this application. You can see the gold outlines around the leaves and flowers on the pitcher. Schmincke makes many other colors in their Bronze line of powdered metals.

 

Here is the gold leaf in powder form on the left. On the right it is mixed with the Strasbourg medium. The more you mull it, the finer it will get. You can see the richness of the gold and just imagine the many uses for this pigment. I have even mixed it with acrylic mediums on other painting projects. Have you ever tried this? How did it work for you? Leave a comment and let the readers know how you used powdered gold leaf in your paintings.

Atmosphere on the Easel

This is another example of background transparency/translucency that suggests a lot of atmosphere. The brass is glowing through the paint strokes, but it's not too busy either. Black and burnt umber worked well here.

 

Above is a detail of one of the gold leaf paintings. The gold was such a beauitiful passage that it was left unpainted except for a slight bit around the edge of the pitcher. All of the gold above that edging is gold leaf untouched except for the final coats of varnish. I employed a secondary gold leaf technique using medium and gold leaf powder to make a paint that you can see between the blue and white on the left of the pitcher edge.

 

Twists and Turns

This paint on metal project has had many ups and downs with unexpected twists and turns. Mostly, it has been a big experiment with interesting discoveries. My biggest discovery is understanding what I like the look of and what I don't. What has become crystal clear to me is the look of the metal glowing through the paint is really beautiful, especially on the copper. Here is an example of a background that is both thin and translucent (on the right). The left side of the sample is more opaque, but there remains a few holidays in the opaque paint also. The thin paint allows the brushstrokes to suggest a mysterious background atmosphere. By pressing my brush quickly with a flourish, and wiping away excess paint, the interesting streaks were left unblended as a painterly statement.

 

I used raw umber and chromium oxide green for the background color. Can you see the thinness of the surface? What are your thoughts on how to achieve depth and atmosphere?

Pieces of Paint

As I have mentioned, the resulting beauty of the copper shimmering through the paint and brushstrokes is my goal here. Initially, I was wont to cover much of the surface but after many experiments, I began to achieve more of the look I could see in my mind's eye. Because the format is a small modello, 6x6 inches, it is easier to 'play' with the mediums, paints, colors, and brushstrokes. I used the Strasbourg medium here which created a perfect pull on my brush.

In this close-up detail, you can see the pieces of paint and brushstrokes. The darkness to the left is a mixture of raw umber, black, and cinnabar. Following across the surface from left to right, you can see the copper glowing through at the edge of the gourd. This shows the streaks of the brush with lots of the metal showing. I kept wiping away the paint in certain areas to create thin atmosphere around the main objects. In contrast, the paint on the objects is really thick and piled on. I used flake white, lead-tin yellow, cinnabar, and Amazonite. Amazonite mixed with some yellow ochre or lead-tin yellow makes a splendid green.

On the same painting, on the right hand side, are two Chinese lanterns. The pieces of light value paint under them describe the light hitting the top surface of the table. The front edge of the table is nearly all pure copper with medium and some paint to feature the brushstrokes. I'll do some color swatches for you to see next time. Anyone have a specific request?

Signature D Consulting

 presents

Minerals, Metals, and Dirt

June 6 through 30 at

Elizabeth Lofts

333 NW 9th Avenue

Portland, Oregon, Pearl District

Plaza Entrance on NW 10th

Opening Reception June 6, 6 to 9 pm

Shown by appointment after June 6

Diane Kruger

503-504-9330 

A pigment project featuring the beauty of mineral and earth colors painted on metals. Silver leaf, gold leaf, copper, brass, stainless steel and aluminum glow through the paint layers to create a simmering surface like no other. Magical pigments such as lapis lazuli, Egyptian blue frit, malachite, cinnabar, tiger’s eye, azurite, amazonite, lead tin yellow, and earth colors from all over the world have been used by artists for centuries, as they are here, in this current pigment project.

Garlicky Experiments/Trials and Errors

At this point, there are a couple of ways to proceed. If your intent is to use the smooth surface much like a prepared panel, then you can gesso it. Or if you want the natural beauty of the copper to glow through then you don't want an opaque priming. In much of the literature, old school techniques describe a fascinating etching method using garlic. Slice a garlic clove in half and rub the entire surface with the clove.

In a few minutes, the natural juices and acids in the garlic etch the surface which makes it sticky. This stickiness is what allows the initial paint layer to adhere to the surface of the copper. You can feel the splendid 'drag' against your brush as you paint. The one irksome issue here is the tiny fibers of the garlic tend to stick to the surface also, so you must brush those off before proceeding.

Not completely satisfied with the garlic technique, and after much trial and error (heavy on the errors here), I tried many different mediums, such as Liquin, but none of them were sticky enough. I wanted something that set up quickly, but most remained too slick on the copper surface. The paint just seemed to slide from one place to another. Then I tried this very 'sticky'  recipe that resembles Strasbourg medium, and found I could achieve a similar drag on my brush as the garlic.

I found the recipe for this medium in Robert Massey's Formulas for Painters book on page 110.

Massey says this recipe was "extolled by A. P. Laurie for its molecular properties and said to resemble closely the legendary, but unavailable, olio d' Abezzo or Strasbourg turpentine." I make it as follows:

In a double boiler heat infuse the Canadian Balsam - 4 parts with 1 part Sun thickened linseed oil in a glass jar. After removing from the heat, shake and allow to cool somewhat. Then add 2 parts turpentine and shake well again. As you can see from the picture, it has a wonderful amber color. If need be, you can thin slightly with turpentine as you are working. Brush this directly onto the copper surface and allow to sit for a while as you mix your colors. It will form that stickiness and drag against your brush as you paint.

Anybody else tried different mediums on metals? What were your experiences and results?

 

Prep Time

Here is a sample of an unprepared piece of copper. You can see the various scratches and marks across the surface, which if left as is, would be unappealing on a finished painting. My aesthetic sense tells me that the purpose of painting on a shimmering panel of metal is to let the beauty of that metal glow through. Some artists like the metal for the smoothness of the surface and cover the entire surface with paint. Well, I like that too, but the glow is the most important to me. Therefore, I want the surface to be nearly flawless before I begin painting, so that I can leave holidays in the surface here and there.

The first step is to roughen the surface not only to remove the flaws but to give the paint something to adhere to. I used a wet/dry silicon carbide 1000 sandpaper and a hand-held electric sander, going across one direction then the other several times trying to remove any marks made by the sander. There will be some, but they will disappear after the first layer of paint is applied. You can see how the sheen is knocked down some and there is a minimum of streaking.

 

As a final step, wipe the surface with alcohol and a paper towel to remove any oxidation.

Copper on the Easel

 

Several years ago, I did a series of paintings on sheets of copper of various sizes, which was enormously fun. Here are two from that series.

Produce Row 3x10 Oil on Copper Copyright Margret E. Short 2003

Peony's Secret 10x12 Oil on Copper  Copyright Margret E. Short 2003

Well, now here it is 2013, and it's time for another challenge with a new pigment series. This new project poking at my mad scientist self is more expansive though, and will be a project using not only copper but also other metals such as gold leaf, silver leaf, brass, aluminum, and stainless steel, for a total of six types of metal.

Artists for many centuries have used copper as a substrate for oil paintings, many of which were alter pieces. The Phoenix Art Museum presented an exhibit titled, Copper as Canvas in 1999 which illustrated not only the variety of artists who used copper but also the breadth of subject matter.

The aesthetic of oil paint on the shimmering surface of metal is quite beautiful in many ways and the benefits are varied. The rigid surface prevents any cracking. There is no absorption to dull the colors. The smooth quality allows all of the paint to sit all atop the surface, which is unlike the up and down texture of a canvas weave.

In the coming weeks, I will be experimenting with these six metals, painting a series of Modello pieces each 6x6 inches. This project is titled Minerals, Metals, and Dirt. Examples of the proposed mineral pigments are lapis lazuli, Amazonite, tiger's eye, cinnabar, azurite, and my personal favorite, Egyptian blue frit, among many others. Of course, the dirt is representative of the fabulous array of earth pigments available today.

Anyone have any other pigment suggestions or ideas? Let me know and I will try to include them.