Month: March 2016

Still an unmitigated mess!

I am not proud of the fact that my studio is still an unmitigated mess, but when I work, I take no prisoners, its head down, and everything to hand. I rather pour blame on the Lilliputian proportions of my studio. It makes me somewhat envious of artists who work on a small scale, or things that are less inclined to mess. I think I might have to reorganize, move out some office stuff and books. Yep! its a plan. I am just putting finishing touches to several pieces, and then I will share the images, till then here’s another image of my tip.

Still ongoing
Still ongoing

 

paint and dirty fingernails

Work in progress
Work in progress

I was a mess, my studio a crash site, gesso coating my hands, and paint all over me, I hadn’t realised quite how much I like to physically get down and dirty with the materials, because I love smearing and rubbing in with my fingers. My studio is trashed, not an inch of space to put anything anywhere. I start a piece of work with a reasonably tidy space,  and then just go hell for leather, and because I use such a variety of stuff, materials, implements brushes etc, very quickly I have organised chaos. I have three panels in progress at the moment, all at various stages, so that when I am waiting for drying and setting time I can work on another piece, it also allows me to stand back from work to view with fresh eyes. Well, on reflection, there is no room to stand back!

Discontinued due to regulations

I am finding that a lot of artists and makers are bemoaning not being able to get the materials that they have previously used. In my case it applies to raw pigments, and varnish, and so age old techniques that were part of an artists palette can no longer be sourced. I know that we have to live in the world as it is today, but we are also losing something valuable. Paint used to be made up using real raw pigments, like for example Lapis lazuli, mix them with binders and fillers themselves and create their own paint, and I used to be able to buy all the materials I needed from artists supply stores, but now the word I fear most is discontinued! My most recent bereavement is polyurethane varnish, I could scream at the loss of it, apparently regulations are not allowing  the old recipe because of particulates, I have rung manufacturers and they agree that there are problems with the new recipe, but cannot help me with the problems I have now. Aaaaaaaah! 

july 28-2 My process requires a recipe using earth pigment, which I have to buy from Germany, and a varnish that is no longer made, the image is part of a layering process I have that requires build up of multiple layers. If anyone has old stock of polyurethane varnish I would be interested in taking it off your hands, seriously.