Winsor Violet on the Kennet and Avon

painted on 300gsm cold pressed cotton rag
(24 x 18 cm)

I have a metal watercolour sketcher's box, made by Winsor and Newton. It's an earlier version of this one. I've had it around 30 years, but I've never actually replaced one of the half-pans until today (watercolour pans last a long while, especially if you don't use watercolour very much).

I bought a number of replacement half-pans more than a decade ago. I had evidently mislaid the card that listed the colours, because there was a whole lot of guessing going on. Some of the "replacements" don't seem to tie in with the originals, and there is at least one duplication.

Original colour card, with my paint swatches

Repairing a painted canvas (acrylic)

Oh, darn. 

No Parking featured on the front
of  the Bromley Book.

I put a screwdriver through a Very Important Painting, two days before the exhibition. The Very Important Painting is No Parking. The exhibition was the Bromley Arts Festival. No Parking is a key piece in the Bromley Project. (I was using the screwdriver to attach some hanging hardware. There was a knot - a stealth knot; it was not the most obvious of knots - in the wood, and my screwdriver slipped.)

But darning it wouldn't quite work.

I did a bit of research. I asked for advice in an online forum.
And this is what I did to fix the painting...

Varnishing

Varnish protects the surface of a painting from dust and other airborne pollutants. When paint dries, small pores open up in the surface to let the solvent escape; these pores make the surface vulnerable, and that is why a coat of varnish is required after the painting has dried completely.

Palette

When artists talk about palettes, they mean one of two things: either the thing they mix their colours on, or the range of colours that they use in a painting.

This post is about the colours.

Copyright Issues: Who owns the copyright to a painting?

Let's leave aside the copyright issues that might be involved in making a painting (I touched upon those in a previous post concerning map data); what about the painting itself? (And let's simplify matters even further by only considering the UK.)

If an artist sells a painting, who owns the copyright?

Manual Colour Correction

You may recall that I've been troubled by the lighting when taking photographs of my paintings. Well, after a few words of advice from another artist and a bit of fiddling with the non-automatic colour correction functions in my bitmap editor (I use Corel Photobook, but she uses the freeware GIMP), I think I may have cracked it.

Painting from Photographs

Every time I work from a photograph I have to justify it to myself. I have a number of "valid excuses" for such aberrant behaviour, including it would have been too cold (Watership Down in the snow, Godrevys 1 and 2), it is too far away (most of the Cornish ones), there isn't really anywhere to park my easel (Study in Yellow, View from the Dell), it was moving too fast (the sea at Godrevy) even it doesn't exist any more (View from the Dell). A simple there isn't enough time is a bit shaky (even now that I'm working full time again), but I did use that one on its own for the Greenham Common Fire Plane.

Face to Face: Clamp Set

This is a subsidiary post to Face to Face: Some Commercial Solutions to Transporting and Storing Wet Canvases.

Face to Face: Clips

This is a subsidiary post to Face to Face: Some Commercial Solutions to Transporting and Storing Wet Canvases.

Face to Face: Some Commercial Solutions to Transporting and Storing Wet Canvases

Further to my post on cardboard painting carriers, I have come across a couple of commercial solutions to the problem of carrying wet paintings that are not excessively expensive or heavy. Both of the solutions considered here involve holding two canvases, of similar sizes, a small distance apart from one another. If held face-to-face, the theory is that they will protect one another.

DIY Framing: Framing a Canvas

Canvases are not difficult to frame. The main practical problem is sourcing the specialist hardware; canvases are usually deeper than the recess in the frame and so need some sort of angled clip to keep them in place.

Displaying mini canvases

Let's suppose that you buy one of my 7 x 7 cm canvases. What are you going to do with it?

You could put it away in a drawer and take it out to peer lovingly at it every now and then, but I'm not sure that that's quite the idea. I rather suspect that you might like to display it in some way.

Now, as an acrylic on canvas, the usual approach is to treat it the same as an oil on canvas. It doesn't need to be put behind glass; all it needs by way of protection is a coat of varnish, and it should already be varnished (I've still got some to varnish, but they should all be done in time for the school fair next Friday; you can varnish acrylics almost as soon as they are painted, because they dry quickly). The canvas doesn't really need a frame - as noted earlier, I've painted the edges on the assumption that it won't be framed.

But actually displaying such a small canvas presents its own problems. Do you put it on a wall? And how? I'm not selling them equipped for hanging, although I have got a suggestion as to how you might hang them (and I can provide the hardware*). You might prefer to display them resting on a small stand - one of my friends mentioned plate stands. Miniature display easels are another option.

In the past, I have prepared smaller canvases for hanging by screwing a D ring on the top support so that the "D" is uppermost, but the supports for these canvases are too thin for that (the D ring would be too visible). However, I have found that it works equally well to point the "D" downwards and then use the plate's natural hinge to point it upwards. Here are two I prepared earlier:
 

The larger brass D ring on the right is one of the type I already had several of. But I thought that a smaller ring might work better, so I have invested in a few smaller, triangular rings.

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* Of course, if you'd rather buy your own, small quantities of limited types can be bought from all the usual DIY multiples. Or you can visit an online dealer like UK Picture Framing Supplies, who have a much wider choice.

How to Make a Wet Painting Carrier from Cardboard

Carrying a wet oil painting home after a painting expedition presents a problem: you don't want to disturb your carefully applied paint or to transfer the said paint onto your hands, clothing or luggage. Commercial solutions exist, but they are generally quite expensive and sometimes quite heavy (I found one example that was made of plywood).

I have discovered that it is quite possible to do it yourself - a carrier made of corrugated cardboard is relatively cheap and easy to make, and should survive several trips into the field. I thought I'd describe how I make them, just in case anyone is curious or in burning need of something similar.

The Oily Knife, part 1: Oils

Over the years, I have tried many artistic media, and several different means of applying them. From crayon to pencil and assorted pastels; from poster paint to watercolour to acrylic to oils; inks of many kinds, charcoal and chalk. Fingers, brushes, rags and knives. And that's just the two dimensional stuff!

The Oily Knife, part 2: Knife

Having decided to paint out of doors with oils, I made a few expeditions with brushes (this was a fair few years ago, before I had children). But... you still need solvents in the field to thin the paint and clean the brushes in between colours. And I don't really like the thought of spilling turpentine or linseed oil. They cost money, and they're bound to be bad for the field or its denizens. So... I decided to do away with brushes. Finicky things, brushes. Need cleaning. Don't like being dropped in the mud. What I need is something hard and shiny like... a knife!

Two painting knives and a colour shaper: my favoured painting tools.