Sunday, October 23, 2016

Traditional Gesso panels

I'm in the middle of an experiment with various grounds.  The area of watercolor painting that I am most interested in is dry brush painting.  Contemporary examples are Andrew Wyeth's painting, many of the floral painters and the egg tempera painters especially Koo Schadler.  When you apply the pigment dryly the ground needs to absorb the moisture evenly and timely.  I've found that with 140# watercolor paper repeated applications of pigment do not dry leaving the layers of pigment giggly, like layers of uncured jello, causing all types of difficulty.

I've moved up the weight of paper to 300# Fabriano Hot Press and this works fine, but I want to explore my options.  I had the opportunity to listen to Victoria Wyeth describe her grandfather's technique, his ground was 400# cold press paper.  If you're willing to part with a body part, you can purchase this paper.

The next area of inquiry would be pre-made panels by Ampersand.  The watercolor panel, Aquaboard, works well.  It has a texture that took some getting used to and seemed to require more pigment application.  I must point out that I'm a novice with this technique and the critical questions are how dense and how dry the paint should be on the brush.  Here's an example

The application of egg tempera pigment and dry brush watercolor is the same.  In the past I explored egg tempera with Koo Schadler's excellent book, Egg tempera painting, a comprehensive guide to painting in egg tempera.  Her book has a comprehensive section on preparing traditional gesso ground.  This is my starting point for this post.

I began by purchasing the materials

Fredrix powdered marble which is Calcium Carbonate, CaCO3
Gamblin Zinc Oxide, ZnO
Gamblin Rabbit Skin Glue

I used 3/8 inch thick MDK, Masonite, cut to fit the back of a cabinet by Home Depot approximately $3/panel.  There's considerable chatter about treated versus untreated MDK, I purchased untreated.

I purchase a sanding block and sand paper medium grit and fine grit.  The sanding block is essential because it prevents the sander from creating waves in the surface.

I cut my MDK down into 5 by 7 inch panels and 2 by 3 inch panels.

My sanding block and 2 by 3 inch panels on a drop cloth.

I do all of this work by hand in my condominium.  It is messy and will create dust everywhere, a drop cloth is essential.

Day One.

Mix the Rabbit Skin Glue, RSG, and water and let it sit overnight.  I put it into a steel bowl, used for kitchen prep work, and covered it with plastic wrap.


Day Two

Cook the RSG.  You'll need a thermometer.  The target temperature is 135 degrees Fahrenheit.  A note about double boilers, you really don't need one, you can do the same thing with a steel prep bowl over a pot of water, I've done it and it works, but it is so much easier with the correct pot.  I purchased this one for $6 from a resale shop.  A double boiler hold heat.  RSG rises in temperature in steps, I've found that it's best to stop heating at 130 degrees and let the temperature rise to 135 by itself.  Over heating makes a weaker glue.

Apply the glue to the sanded panels.  Apply to both sides.  I think that this is essential for larger panels because the gesso (glue) is so strong it will warp a larger panel.

Cover and refrigerate.

Day Three


A picture of the Gesso cooking on the stove.  For my mixture, I made a quart of Gesso using 1.5 times the Marble Dust to the water or 43 Tablespoons of Marble dust and the entire 4 ounce container of Zinc Oxide cooked into the RSG.  Stir a lot.

The panels awaiting Gesso.  The white panels are old ones I did and I'm re-gessoing them.

 After the first coat of Gesso.
An individual panel after the first coat.  

Refrigerate and cover the gesso overnight.


This is the gesso the next day, it comes out in a plop.  Once it is heated to 135 degrees it is a thick liquid.

Day Four

Apply gesso to the panels in even thin strokes.  I used a foam brush.  Use care to cover evenly and prevent pin hole bubbles.  Allow to dry between coats, this is my biggest problem, if it's wet and you sand it you'll screw it up.

I covered the panels with 6 coats of gesso, sanding between coats.  I finish sanded with fine sandpaper, beveled the edges and eliminated all of the imperfections including pin holes.  Five panels did not pass inspection due to my carelessness.  

Before using the panel, polish it with a soft cloth.  It will have a translucent shine.

Here's the beginning of test picture, a portrait of my wife, on a new panel.  The gray fixture I use to hold my art.  BTW the finished portrait should take another 6-10 hours.

I had a lot of gesso left over.  I froze it.  It's my plan to experiment wit adding silica, chalk and bone ash to create panels that are responsive to metal point drawing.

Here's the finished piece.






Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Depicting sexual assault



The Oak Park Art League is sponsoring an exhibition, "Behind the wall, a juried exhibition October 14, 2016. The announcement says, ART FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: Behind the Wall calls on artists from across Chicagoland to submit artwork for a juried exhibition that raises awareness to journeys of conflict, pain, empowerment and peace. The working title Behind the Wall, references the isolation and suffering that victims of domestic violence experience in their private lives, as well as the healing gained in the recovery process that brings the work to the walls of the Oak Park Art League’s historic Carriage House Gallery."

I am participating because I am victim of a homosexual sexual assault and childhood domestic violence. I am comfortable talking about my experiences after all theses years and I have enough artistic technique to create an allegorical depiction.  I have never worked with allegory. My artistic explorations have been devoted to direct representation and the abstraction of representational work. I researched how to depict sexual assault and rape; I expanded into depiction of homosexual assault and rape.


Rape of the Sabine women, Poussin Rome, 1637 from Wikimedia.
My Art school days, long ago, gave me images of Poussin's Rape of the Sabine women."   and Ttitian's Rape of Europa.


Titian Rape of Europa 1560 from Wikimedia


A Google search using various search terms also provided Artemisia Gentileschi's work from the 1600's, Frieda Kahlo, A few small nips, 1935 numerous representations of Judith slaying Holofernes from 1614 to now.  The most current Judith is Tina Blondell's, I'll make you shorter by a head, 1999.  Unfortunately all of these do not depict rape or sexual assault, but are comments on Feminism.  Gentileschi was raped and chose to confront the rapist in court.  Her work, often misinterpreted as a rape is her version of Judith slaying Holofernes, represented below.  It is notable for the realistic blood and the arc of blood spurting from the neck.

Gentileschi's Judith

I want to be specific with my allegory and not confuse the issue with other thoughts.  When I added the query terms for homosexual rape and sexual assault.  This inquiry gave me the work of Paul Cadmus, the Burnster skirt by Alexander McQueen and rape viewed from the victim's perspective, Charlotte Farhan, Chained to the past, Lisa Perrett, the rape scene posted March 2011, Andrea Bowers, Courtroom drawings, Steubenville rape case, text messages entered as evidence in 2014.  Of note, Apana Caur, a Sikh artist produced Nirbhaya, 2014 and Gracie Holtzman produced Rape culture, a self portrait with her as victim.  Cadmus created many over endowed man figures, but no sexual assaults.

Gracie Holtzclaw, Rape culture 2014

Performance art by Marina Abramovic, Ana Mendieta, Salamishah & Scheherzade Tillet and the film of Sophia Henson, are you ok bob? (sic) round out and typify artists depiction of rape and sexual assault.  In all of the cases rape is the central theme and rapist male with a female victim, note that the artist is female.

Images available for this allegorical topic are victim centered and are either crime scene photographs or artistic interpretations of alienation.  It appears from my search that some galleries use this theme as a fund raiser for women's shelters and the resultant photographs are abused victim portraits like Holtzclaw above.

Initially, I explored these photographs thinking that a portrait post assault would convey the impact I hoped for.
A watercolor study 2 by 3 inches
 The child in the study above is a professional actor made up for this photograph and the images is available on-line for a fee. Even though the image is disturbing, it was not what I was looking for.

I chose my school photo from that time as a jumping off point.  Showing the injuries as a black eye and split lip on this formal photo makes the piece work.  The injuries are temporary, but their impact is permanent. I struggled with how to tell the rest of the story. The uncommon part is the exact date of the Chicago Tribune article on the assault.  I automatically entered my elementary school’s name because that is part of the formal portrait. Also, 1959 was a time of Eisenhower peace. We, children, were seen and not heard. We thought that authority always protected the little guy and the good guy always wins in the end. Not so. 


I always struggle with framing.  I have renewed the idea of varnishing watercolor paintings for the dimensionality and protection.  In this case it adds to the idea that it is a photograph.   I hit on the idea of a shadowbox frame when I thought of incorporating the newspaper articles into the frame of the painting.


The painting is transparent watercolor on 300# Fabriano HP paper. The painting is 5 by 7 inches and the shadow box is 9 by 11 inches.

The title, sentenced, refers to the date of the initial article in the Chicago Tribune and the lifetime sentence that the victim received.

My elementary school photo


The verdaille underpainting on my easel

Sentenced 2016









Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The Final list of Art Clubs in the USA

Well finally, the list is finished! 

Here's how it was compiled.  First, I tried variations of Internet, Google, searches.  This was very frustrating because of the design of the display.  If you type "Art Clubs" and "your city," you will receive a number of hits.  As you scroll from the top of the list to the bottom, the top third will be ads, the middle results, and the bottom third the search engine's help for people who have made this inquiry before.  The 15 or so results, listed in the middle are duplicates, making the final inquiry many screens long; I stopped at 10 pages.

Second, I asked everyone I know.  This is not that silly, because my Facebook contacts have 200+ artists, most are successful working artists and I belong to three of the organizations listed.  This effort produced a handful of results.

I was fortunate to find a compiled list of 501(c)3 non profits classified as ART through Art-Support.com.  Their list is 500 or so all organizations that have Art as their function, it is broken down by state.  I went through the entire list and contacted over 200 of the organizations.  This produced the bulk of the results.

I became concerned that the three organizations I belong to: Palette and Chisel, Oak Park Art League and Plein Air Chicago are not listed listed in Illinois.  I sought out a second listing and found one ArtModelsTips.com.  This second list about a 100 or so organizations produced a handful of results.

Finally, I retried my search engine inquiry this time using  query language suggested by Google.  This produced very little, but did list my 3 organizations, once again I stopped at 10 pages of output.

After I compiled the list and contacted every organization on the list, 173 Art organizations, I went through the list a second time and re-read every web page to verify that the organization met the criteria and to learn the cost of regular artist membership.  I contacted about 50 organizations a second time.

My criteria

  • 501(c)3 non-profit corporation
  • managed by or for artists and provides benefits to its members (open studio, gallery space, instruction)
  • Is not principly a museum or gallery
  • Is not principly supported by government funding
  • Is not an all inclusive Arts organizations(covering all of the Arts writing, dance, visual and acting)
  • Is not a colleges or university
  • Does not have restricted admissions

At this point, I compiled the list below. The organizations listed in color and not numbered did not meet the criteria. I left them in the list for two reasons, the growth of art organizations is stimulated by societal changes and the individual organization has a life cycle. It became clear to me that each organization had to make a conscience choice to remain centered on the development of the artist instead of moving over to being centered on the community.


FINE ART CLUBS USA
RankYEARNAMELOCATION
1825National Academy of DesignNYC
11860Philadelphia Sketch ClubPA
21871Salmagundi Art ClubNYC
31871Duluth Art InstituteDuluth, MN
1875Art Students LeagueNYC
41879Copley Soc of ArtBoston
51880Providence Arts ClubRI
1886St Louis Artists' Guild and GalleriesSt Louis, MO
61890Cincinnati Art ClubOH
71895Palette & ChiselChicago
81897The Plastic ClubPhiladelphia
1897Society of Arts and CraftsBoston, MA
1898National Arts Club NYC
91901Seven Oaks Art LeagueColumbia, SC
101902Lyme Art AssociationCT
111906California Art ClubCA
121909Ohio Art LeagueColumbus Ohio
1911Fine Arts Club of FargoFargo, ND
1913FA Club of PasadenaCA
131914Guild of Boston ArtistsBoston
1915Louisville Visual ArtLouisville, KY
1919Santa Cruz Art LeagueSanta Cruz, CA
141921Oak Park Art LeagueOak Park, IL
1922Silvermine Guild of ArtistsNewCanaan, CT
151928Arizona Artist GuildPhoenix, AZ
1926Art Center SarasotaSarasota, Fla
161928Ogunquit Art AssociationOgunquit, ME
171929New Mexico Art LeagueAlburqueque, NM
181931DaVinci Art AlliancePhiladelphia
191933LaGrange Art League
201934Hui No'eau Visual Arts CenterMakawao, HI
1934West Hartford Art LeagueCT
1935Morris County Art AssociationMorristown, NJ
211936Mesa Art LeagueMesa, AZ
221936Vero Beach AC (Sketch club)Florida
231936Richmond ACRichmond, CA
241938Rehoboth Art LeagueRehoboth, DE
251946Elmhurst Artists' Guild
261947Grand Marias Art ColonyGrand Marias, MN
1948Art League of HustonHuston, TX
271950Broward Art GuildFLA
1951Peoria Art GuildPeoria, IL
281952Washington Art AssociationWashington Depot, CT
291954Glenview Art LeagueIL
301954Eastern Shore Art CenterFairhope, AL
1954The Art LeagueAlexandria, VA
311955Associated Creative ArtistsDallas, TX
321955Atlanta Artists CenterAtlanta, GA
331956Chico Art CenterChico, CA
341956Venice Art CenterVenice,FL
1956Associated Artists of Winston SalemWinston Salem, NC
351956Deer Isle Artists AssociationDeer Isle, Maine
361956Naples Art CenterNaples, FL
371956Art League of Ft. MyersFt. Myers, FL
381957Birmingham Bloomfield Art CenterBirmingham, MI
1957Fine Arts AssocWilloughby, OH
391957Huntsville Art LeagueAL
1958Old Town ArtistsSt Paul, MN
1958Sedona Arts CenterAZ
401958Kittery Art AssociationKittery Point, Maine
411961SCVAA, Tubac Center of the ArtsSanta Cruz, AZ
421961Kentucky Guild of Artists and CraftsmenBerea, KY
431964South Mississippi Art AssociationHattiesburg, MS
441964Anderson Artist GuildAnderson, SC
1965DCCAHFairhope, AL
1967Arizona Clay AssociationPhoenix, AZ
451958Art Guild of PacificaPacifica, CA
1960Fremont Area Art Association/Gallery 92 WestFremont, NB
461960Guild of Creative ArtShrewsbury, NJ
471961Naperville Art LeagueIL
481961Coeur d'Alene Art AssociationCoeur d'Alene, ID
491962Glastonbury ArtsCT
501962York Art AssociationPA
1962Arkansas Craft GuildMountain View, Ark
511963Vacaville Art LeagueVacaville, CA
1963Art League of Ocean CityOcean City, MD
1964Southwestern Watercolor SocietyDallas, TX
521964Willingboro Art AllianceNJ
1965Intersection for the ArtsSan Francisco
531966Arlington Visual Arts AssociationArlington, TX
541967Berkeley Art CenterBerkeley, CA
551966Anderson Ranch Art CenterAspen, CO
561968White Bear Center for the ArtsWhite Bear Lake, MN
571969O'Hanlon Center for the ArtsMill Valley, CA
1969Plano Art AssociationPlano, TX
581969Intermountain Society of ArtistsSLC, Utah
1970Galeria de la RazaSan Francisco
591970Mountainside Art GuildLakewood, CO
601970Guild of Artists and ArtisansMI
1971Sierra Arts FoundationReno, NV
611971Stamford Arts AssociationStamford, CT
621971Roswell Fine Arts AllianceRoswell, GA
1973Alliance for the Visual Arts (AVA)Lebonon, NH
1973Atlanta ContemporyAtlanta, GA
1974Ridgefield Guild of ArtistsRidgefield, CT
1974The Torpedo FactoryAlexandria, VA
1974SF CameraworkSan Francisco
1975Kansas City Artist CoalitionKCMO
1975Spruill Center for the ArtsAtlanta, GA
631975Kaua'i Society of ArtistsKaua'i, HI
641976Transparent Watercolor Society of America
1977Austin Visual Arts AssociationAustin, TX
1977Works San JoseSan Jose, CA
1977Maine Women in the ArtsKennebunkport, ME
1978Havasu Art GuildHavasu, AZ
651979Pastel Society of the SouthwestPlano, TX
1979SOMartsSan Francisco
661980Louisville Art AssociationLouisville, CO
671981Illinois watercolor society
681981Mt Washington Valley Arts AssociationNorth Conway, NH
1981Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for the ArtsDuluth, GA
691981Pine Shores Art AssociationManahawkin, NJ
701981Wellington Art SocietyRoyal Palm Beach, FL
1981Park City Professional Artists AssociationPark City, Utah
1981Society for ArtsChicago
1982Headlands Center for the ArtsMarin, CA
711983Montana Watercolor SocietyMissoula, MT
721984Washington Sculptors GroupDC
1985Art Saint LouisSt Louis, MO
1985Central Texas Watercolor SocietyWaco, TX
731985Sonoran Arts LeagueCave Creek, AZ
741986Sacramento Fine Arts CenterSacramento, CA
751986Bakehouse Art ComplezMaimi, FL
1986Space OneElevenBirmingham AL
761988Wilmette Arts Guild
771988Center for Photographic ArtCarmel, CA
781988Milton Artists GuildMilton, VT
1989MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino AmericanaSAn Jose, CA
791990Delaware Foundation for the Visual ArtsClaymont, SE
801992The Drawing StudioTucson, AZ
1991Lana'i Art CenterLana'i, HI
1991Springboard for the ArtsStPaul, MN
1992Traffic Zone (TZCVA)Minneapolis
1993ArtelPensacola, Fla
1993Newark Arts AllianceNewark, DE
1994Arizona Pastel Artist AssociationSedona, AZ
811996Sedona Visual Artist CoalitionSedona, AZ
1995Center for Contempory PrintmakingNorwalk, CT
1996Fountain Street StudiosFramington, MA
821997Art Guild New JerseyRahway, NJ
1997Carbondale Clay CenterCarbondale, CO
1999Brighton Art GuildBrighton, MI
1999CFAAMMaine
832000Pawtucket Arts CollaborativePawtucket, RI
842000Anton Art CenterMtClemens, MI
852001Arlington Artists AllianceArlington, VA
2001Cross Timbers Artist GuildFlower Mound, TX
2001Grand ArtsKCMO
2001Northside Art Collective (NAC)Minneapolis
862002Abbeville Artist GuildAbbeville, SC
2002DamienB Contempory ArtMaimi. FL
872003Midway Art AssociationUtah
2004Center for Fine Arts PhotographyFt Collins, CO
2003Gilbert Visual Arts LeagueGilbert AZ
882007Arizona Plein Air Paintersweb, AZ
89?Laramie Art GuildLaramie, WY
90?North Cobb Arts LeagueAcworth, GA
91?Louisana Art and Artist GuildBaton Rouge, LA
2008The Compound GalleryBerkeley, CA
2008RedLineDenver/Milwaukee
2011Central Illinois Art OrganizationPeoria, IL
?Kentuck Art CenterNorthport AL
?The Button Factory Artists' StudiosPortsmouth, NH
?Art League of Rhode IslandProvidence, RI
? Pump ProjectAustin, TX
?Tucson Artist ColonyTucson, AZ
?Art Students Legue of DenverDenver
?Cottonwood Center for the ArtsColorado Springs, CO
?Thompson Valley Art LeagueLoveland, CO
?Hoosier SalonIndianapolis
?Lexington Art LeagueLexington, KY
?WARM Womens Art Resources MinnesotaMinneapolis
92?Scottsdale Artists LeagueScottsdale, AZ
93?Dover Art LeagueDover, DE