Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Day Three- A Rediscovery of Sorts

River Dance
24 x 36"
acrylic on canvas
© Nicki Ault, 2012 
sold

The morning of Day Three was spent talking about the large number of acrylic mediums that are on the market and their possible uses. Our instructor, Alicia Popoff, uses a variety of them in her work to create different textures and effects. I haven't experimented with them at all, so I found it quite interesting and even overwhelming. I had no idea of the possibilities! Golden products alone completely blew my mind- as did the artist friendly nature of the company. After lunch we were encouraged to continue with something that interested us and Alicia generously offered us the opportunity to try some of her acrylic mediums. I, however, was still feeling ever-so-slightly intimidated by my straight forward paints that I decided not to add anything more to the mix! :) 

After coming off Day Two, which was a bit more of a stretch (albeit a baby one) for me, I decided to spend the afternoon revisiting the way I handled my abstract reflections in the past. I hadn't done one for so long that it was a bit of a rediscovery of sorts. In fact, in these first three days I felt like I had been reacquainting myself with my acrylics because I have been painting with oils almost exclusively for the last 10 months. I had brought a canvas with a very bad painting on it (it definitely could have held a prominent place in the MoBA) and covered it with black gesso. I had done some small 8x8" reflections on dark grounds before, but never a large one. All of that black staring back at me was a little bit, well... dark, but I hoped once I began layering the colour it would dance against the black. And as I painted  began to remember- these reflections require many layers of colours and glazes. It's a bit of a push/pull to set the colours down into the water and also to let the "light" sit on the surface. A lot of back and forth. Mmmmm, I had fun!

I did a second painting on Day Three which I will show you next time. For now I am going to make another attempt at falling asleep! I went out with some girlfriends tonight to share some exciting news and I made the unfortunate decision not to order a decaf "London Fog". I hope to share the news with the rest of the world very soon!

Also, note the addition of some dates at the top of the blog. Today I dropped off two paintings for the Mendel Member's Showcase which is opening this Friday evening between 7 and 9 p.m. The show will then run for about three weeks until Oct. 7.

4 comments:

Judy Wood said...

This piece is totally yummy. I'm a big fan of water reflections in general, and you've done this one proud.
Spending some time on the Golden website learning about their products and how to use them is time well spent. Best to pick one or two items at a time and proceed slowly, or the "overwhelming" aspect will kick in!!

Kim Rempel said...

Hmm. I'm intrigued about GOlden. Will have to check it out further. I really like the reflections - they DO dance. Nice nad exciting to look at. And I want to hear this news!! Have a good day Nicki.

Nicki said...

Hi Judy,

I like the descriptor "Yummy"! Thanks for that.

Yes, I need to avoid being overwhelmed at all costs! A couple of new products at a time would likely be the way to go. I want to try the self leveling medium that someone talked highly of in class. She thought if I used it on top of this painting that it would really bring the colours out, especially in the dark areas, and now I am curious.

Looking forward to Agar's!

Nicki

Nicki said...

Hi Kim,

Yes, Golden acrylics are great and they also have many products/mediums to use with their pigments- it is really quite something. And apparently there are many stories of artists contacting the company asking for certain types of products and Golden will often try to develop them. Cool.

The news is on it's way... I can't believe how long I have held it in. Hopefully when I put it out there it isn't anti-climactic! :)

Nicki