Cadmium is very expensive but worth it in some instances.

For some time, since I have been teaching beginning to intermediate art students and wanted to make the process of buying colors less painful, I have omitted cadmium reds and cadmium yellows from my palette. These are traditional colors, made from ground pigments (minerals) and their cost is in part due to the difficulty of obtaining the pigments. But I attended a plein air workshop this fall where the teacher insisted that we have cadmium red medium and cadmium yellow on our palette.

And I found something very interesting. they are opaque colors. Because of this, the visual message that they send to the view is very strong.

If you are painting yellow flowers in a green field and you DON'T have cadmium yellow on your palette, you have to find a work-around to the fact that nearly all yellows are transparent. So if you paint yellow over green, you will find that the yellow is overpowered by the green behind it.

So it may be a good idea to purchase the cadmiums but use sparingly. And, of course, shop around. paints sold in retail art supply stores are often 2 times the price as on line.

October 2013 is a busy time for shows!

August 27 – October 6, 2013: Group show by League of Reston Artists at Unitarian Universalist Church on Wiehle Avenue. I showed Great Falls, 2006, Beauty Spot 2, and Path, Riverbend (Limited Palette).

September, 2013: Reston’s Multicultural Exhibit (“Art Mirrors Culture”) at Lake Anne. I submitted Fisher Boats Unloading, Pine and Station Herndon, and Universal Liquor DC

October 1-28: at Reston Community Center Lake Anne, Show: “artReston”. I have three paintings entered: Orange Trees, Lake Fairfax Park, Waiting—Model in Black. (variable hours due to meetings in gallery room.)

October 1 – November 3, 2013: Portrait show at ArtSpace Herndon. Hours as posted on web. I’m showing “Cellist.”

October 4-6, 2013: 70^th Annual Waterford Exhibit in the Red Barn. I am showing Carousel at Glen Echo, Great Falls in Early Spring, and 20 shrink-wrapped works in the Art Mart, ranging from $40 to $350.

 October 5-20, 2013: “Art @ the Mill”, 3 Tannery Lane, Millwood VA (hours?) Hanging: June Morning, Riverbend and Lucketts’ Antiques, with Mute Swan with Reflaction and Bouquet and lemon in reserve.

October 12, 2013 – January 11, 2014: “Small Wonders at Parkridge 5, 10780 Parkridge Blvd, Reston VA, open during business hours in main floor corridor. Small works (under 12” by 12”) by local artists. I’m showing 4 paintings.

October 19-20, 2013 – 10-5: “Art @ The Park”, 600 Quiet Waters Park Rd, Annapolis MD 21403. I’m in booth 9 with 20 or more paintings.

Coming in December: I will be showcasing a selection of recent works at the Reston Association, 12001 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston VA 20191. Hours: 8:30-4:30 Exact dates not yet known.

What is reality, REALLY?

Every once in a while I think, as a teacher, "am I steering my students right?" With beginning students, working from "reference" materials, such as photos or even other artists paintings, there's a great emphasis on correctly duplicating what is there.

It is important that the artist have sufficient confidence in his or her ability to duplicate, whether it be a photo or a live still life or figure.

But it's not the end-all and be-all. A work of art is not a copy. Long ago I was impressed by the idea that, if you sit 5 students in the same room painting from the same still life, you're going to get 5 different still lifes.

Let's take a painting recently done by student Greg Pirio. Greg "interpreted" the scene of a fisherman (shown in the resource photo below) and in so doing, came up with a painting that is very bright and alive. Much livelier, in fact, than "reality."

Glen Echo Labor Day Weekend

Glen Echo Labor Day Weekend: I have two paintings in the student show: Glen Echo View and Carousel at Glen Echo. These were both "plein air" (on site) oils paintings with some finishing later in the studio. 

Glen Echo View, 8 x 10, oil

Technical Info for Oil and Acrylic Painters

Winsor and Newton has a collection of videos on this link which explain various mediums for oil painters and acrylic painters.

One of the mediums discussed is Liquin (for Oils) which I've used for years instead of one of the "traditional" oil-plus-turpentine-plus-dryer mediums. Liquin dries in about 1/2 the time of traditional oil used alone. Since students have repeatedly asked about Liquin, I offer this as a helpful link.

Red

Uhaul by Coulter

Regarding both oils and acrylics, the degree of opacity or transparency may be very important to the effect you can create. For instance, most of the "new" synthetic colors, which can be identified by their unfamiliar names (such as quinacridone, napthol and hansa) are more or less transparent. They also tend to be quite a bit less expensive than the traditional organic colors, such as the cadmiums.

Not realizing this, for a number of years I bought the synthetics. They look as bright. But in the case of Red (for example) they don't cover as well as Cadmium and they interact with other colors differently when blending.

The jury is still out on this point. However, you (as artist) should be aware of the differences and perhaps allow yourself some of the more expensive colors (such as Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt, etc.) for use when the brilliance of the color is important.

Some of the traditional colors, on the other hand, like Alizarin Crimson, were manufactured from plant dyes and are notoriously "fugitive" (they fade.) Alizarin Crimson has been replaced by Alizarin Crimson Permanent (which I don't find as delicious a color as the original). I buy instead, Quinacridone Rose, or Magenta.

I did not intend this to be a lengthy post, but I've been holding off for a long time, so you get an extensive regurgitation. There's a terrific book, if you like to read about this kind of thing, called Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay. It's well written but is dense text. If you're more into experimenting then reading, I suggest you experiment with differences in Cadmium Red Medium and other warm reds in that band of the color wheel. Cheers.