Mixed Media    Monoprints    Oil Painting     Pastels    Watercolors     

Displaying Art       Protecting Your Collection

COLLAGRAPHS AND MIXED MEDIA
by Mary Moquin

Cool Tranquility     Collagraph, oil, pastel, wax on panel by Mary Moquin

The use of mixed media exploded in the early twentieth century when artists sought to break from the restraints of practices instilled by academic art. Artists such as Picasso and Braque were the first to incorporate collage elements into their work that were not previously thought of as art materials. Along with other artists around the world, I continue to break from the boundaries and limitations that restrict our mode of expression to one medium. We integrate and incorporate whichever methods and materials best express our unique experience of the world. We are limited only by our imagination.

Mixed media paintings use many different materials, both the traditional and the unexpected, to create the final painting. The materials used are as varied as the artists who employ them. Often, the juxtaposition of the materials' qualities lend to the uniqueness of the final work. In my own work, I combine traditional drawing materials with traditional painting materials. Mixed media helps to break down formal divisions within art. For example, I use charcoal, chalk, oil pastels and grease pencils.

I continually search for ways to create a unique mark that embodies both intuition and intent, a natural mark that does not look controlled or contrived. My marks are allowed to be beautiful marks, searching marks, sensitive marks, and marks that coalesce into something more interesting and closer to my original inspiration. I use palette knives, brushes, credit cards, and baking spatulas to manipulate oil paint and cold wax into a creation beyond the literal representation of my subject matter and closer to my remembered experience. The beauty of my marks and media layer to create a palpable, contemplative visual experience.

Many of my smaller studies begin as hand-pulled collagraphs created by placing texture-rich materials on cardboard, inking the surface, and feeding the the inked material and cardboard through an etching press where the texture is inked onto a piece of paper. Once the paper is mounted to a panel, the resulting impressions become the foundation onto which I can begin to apply layers of paint, wax, charcoal, chalk, and so on. Each individual collagraph then becomes a puzzle with which I become enthralled: a little jewel of sensitive color relationships.

Mixed media engages the viewer much like any other traditional painting; however, the intermixing of media requires the artist's skill and foresight to add an additional layer of complexity and subtlety to the painting.

Within seconds egg tempera feels dry.  However, true drying or setting may take a year or more. As it dries, it forms an unusually hard, waterproof, elastic skin considered more resiliant than oil color.
 

On Tempera Painting “. . . it calls for strong discipline, clear thinking, and an accurate observance of  the rules of craftsmanship” Max Doerner “. . . in the long run is as tough and permanent — if not more so — than oil” Robert Vickery	Wellfleet by Robert Wisner
For more information, please consult The Materials Of The Artist And Their Uses In Painting by Max Doerner (1949, Harcourt Bruce & Company) and New Techniques In Egg Tempera by Robert Vickery and Diane Cochrane (1973, Watson~Guptill Publications).

GICLÉE PRINTING

	Night at the Land Ho!  Giclée on Paper by John Murphy

The giclée process uses environmentally safe, water-soluble dyes and works by translating a digitized original from any source into a high-speed stream of microscopic color droplets. Prints appear smooth and continuous in colors and tone because the original droplets are comparatively the size of a human red blood cell.The giclée process allows reproductions to be printed on a variety of surfaces such as premium archival watercolor paper. Giclée prints also allow the artist the versatility of controlling color relationships. The rich saturation of color is comparable to dye transfer and has a velvety surface reminiscent of either mezzotint or sheet-fed gravure.

MONOPRINTS
by Kim Victoria Kettler

A Taste for Life by Kim Kettler

For me, the process of making a monoprint involves the best of painting with the best of printmaking. Basically, one paints an image on a plate, (in my case, with specialized water-based inks), aligns the plate on paper, and runs the plate through a printing press, thereby transferring the image from plate to paper. It is a MONOprint because only one image can be made; though “ghost images” can be pulled from a second passing of the plate through the press, they are much much lighter in color, and bear little resemblance to the first print. The painting stage can take hours or not, and it is possible to run the same paper through the press several times, building up a unique image with several passes.

The magical part is in the transfer from plate to paper. Details such as brushstroke lines and distinct edges between colors are diminished, and the result is a certain freedom between artistic control and pure chance. This is how a monoprint succeeds best in my work: when intuition plays with intention, making the piece more like an improv than a strict exercise in form and color.

Oil paints can be used on a number of wood, Masonite, glass, paper, metal and canvas surfaces. Canvas is used most frequently. Cotton canvas is quite durable and the least expensive of the regularly used canvases. 

While some artists prefer linen over canvas for its texture and permanence, cotton, polyester and jute are all widely accepted surfaces.
 

		Oil on Linen: “ What makes linen so attractive to painters is its strength and its beauty... it never looks as mechanical or evenly woven as other fabrics.”  Bill Creevy Osealia Oil on linen panel by Marc Hanson
For more information, please consult The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques by Ralph Mayer (1985, Viking) and The Oil Painting Book by Bill Creevy (1994, Watson~Guptill Publications).

PASTELS

Solitude    Pastel by Amy Sanders

Pastel is a dry medium in a stick form, consisting of powdered pigments held together with a minimal amount of a binder (usually gum tragacanth). Pigments used in making pastels are the same pigments that are ground for use in making oil and watercolor paints. Painting with pastels, therefore, is as close as one can get to painting with pure pigment.

Traditionally used in the 18th century for painting royal portraiture, the soft pastel medium can trace its roots back to prehistoric cave paintings. In and out of style in the last four centuries, pastels are now enjoying a modern-day resurgence of popularity, due to their intense colors, permanence and “immediate” handling.

Pastels are the most permanent artists’ medium, if properly created and protected. Pastels should be done on an archival surface which is free of acid, and should be framed under glass, preferably with a spacer between the glass and the surface of the painting. As the pigments are the same as those used in oil paintings, you should expect the same level of resistance to fading.

Caring for your pastel: You only need to know a few things about caring for your pastel.

Your pastel has been created and framed for maximum protection and permanence. It has been created on an acid-free and/or archival surface. The pastels used are the finest in light-fastness currently available on the market (equivalent to oils in light-fastness). It is currently framed with an acid free backing (and mat, if it has one). It is also framed with glass.

WATERCOLORS
by Ann Trainor Dominingue

	Beyond Pleasant Bay    Watercolor by Elizabeth Pratt

Watercolor has long been considered a very difficult medium to master. The freshness of brushstrokes as well as watery, seemingly uncontrolled effects are the hallmarks of this versatile medium. Curiously it still retains a lesser status among other painting mediums despite the difficulty factor. The affordability of watercolors can make it possible for a novice collector to step into the world of art collecting. Experienced and novice collectors will find real value in watercolors as they demonstrate an artist’s ability to draw, design, and work with color and texture as proficiently as in classic mediums such as oils. Watercolor painting styles vary greatly from delicate pastel color schemes to those that echo the masters such as Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth, to contemporary abstract styles.
Watercolor is composed of two key elements, first a gum arabic binder—a clear liquid that dissolves in water, and second, pigment—mineral-based or synthetic-based colors. Watercolor is available in a wide range of transparent or opaque paints. Paints come in tubes, cakes or pans, watercolor pencils or solid color sticks. Opaque watercolor or gouache (pronounced gwash) contains a chalk-like substance that will cover over transparent watercolors and are available in tubes or pans. Transparent and opaque watercolors can be combined to create a multitude of layered effects on paper or other synthetic surfaces such as Yupo paper—a polystyrene sheet. Improvements in paint quality have dramatically decreased the fading of watercolors due to ultraviolet light. New developments include an archival coating that offers UV protection from paint fading and allows watercolors to be displayed without glass or plexi.

Watercolor is primarily painted on paper prepared with sizing which gives the paper body and, depending on the brand, also provides a variety of distinctive absorption qualities. Paper qualities are a very personal decision for an artist. Paper is available in smooth (hot press—allows paintbrushes and watercolor to glide across the surface), cold-pressed (with texture—allows some of the pigment to settle into the crevices), and rough (with coarse texture—allows even more pigment to settle into the paper texture). High quality paper will stand various scraping and mark-making techniques.

Paintbrushes used for traditional watercolor techniques are primarily made of natural bristles—very soft so as not to scrape the paper surface. Combination bristles of synthetic and natural hairs are also a good choice. Sable brushes are historically a long-lasting choice although expensive.

Watercolor can be used to produce very detailed imagery as in the contemporary works of Andrew Wyeth, Charles Reid, Robert Wade and John Salminem, and historic artists such as Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, John Constable in England—an early adopter of watercolor, John James Audubon an American—used watercolor to enhance engravings of flora and fauna, and John Singer Sargeant used watercolor for beautiful figurative works. Abstract watercolor styles are also very popular because of the free-flowing nature of this versatile medium.