Day 16-Heart by Mary GowOver a decade ago a book came out that I found very helpful in methods of communicating with others, Dr. Gary Chapman’s Five Languages of Love. Since 2007 his book has been on the New York Times Best Seller’s List.
Wow, what is it about this book that resonates with so many people?
Today’s heart is about riding the waves of life. Becoming a surfer. We all have to become surfers to some extent or another.
Figure out a method to help ride them, a guide for how to communicate in the different styles or “languages” of love.
Today’s heart is about riding the waves of love, weathering storms, to arrive on the shore again — maybe the same shore, but with fresh eyes. And some new vocabulary words.
Learn about a remarkable female artist you may never have heard of: Hilma af Klimt. I especially love how show she created 193 paintings to represent the Spirit of the World! Don’t miss this video created by the Guggenheim Museum about af Klimt’s expressive work.
The theme this month at a local art group’s competition was “California.” I found a painting that was sort of between realism and abstraction and I said to myself, “Oh what the heck, I’ll bring a painting and see what happens.”
Just before I left for the meeting, my husband looked at the painting I picked and he said he liked it better upside down. I hadn’t thought of showing it that way, but by golly, it looked like a mountain or a bridge and a whole lot more intriguing than a lake house on the water as I had originally envisioned it.
“Lakehouse,” acrylic on canvas, by Mary GowSurprisingly, I tied for Third Place with painter, Deboarh Macias, in the competition that was voted on by all attendees.
I went home to tell my husband he wouldn’t believe what happened. We had a good laugh because I was such a skeptic about even bringing a piece to show since this particular group is so oriented to realism while I lean towards abstraction.
The new way of looking at my own painting showed me that it’s never too late to change the orientation of a painting and see it a different way.
Myrna Wacknov drawing with watercolors on her unusual choice of paperA few months ago I saw San Francisco Bay Area Artist, Myrna Wacknov, give a painting demo. She was wearing a colorful bold yellow, red and orange outfit, and her painting palette was much the same intensity. What follows are some of my notes from her talk.
Her favorite watercolors are Doc Martin’s Liquid Watercolor. She used a squirt bottle with a superfine tip to draw her lines.
She said you don’t need expensive brushes for the style she likes to paint – using an inexpensive surface that reacts like no other surface!
Painting on the same material used by the U.S. Post Office for envelopes, Wacknov likes Tyvek: a semi absorbent and easy to wipe surface. You can start a painting over again if you can quickly wipe away first strokes, as Wacknov demonstrated by drawing a face and then totally smearing it to make a soft colored background for the piece.
She buys Tyvek in bulk, suggesting allweatherblueprints.com. When I went to that site I was redirected to outdoorpaper.com. I found 250 sheets of 17” x 22” for $225. https://www.outdoorpaper.com/products/copy-of-tyvek-sheets-for-the-arts-crafts-and-industry-11×17-7-5-mil-uncoated.
Wacknov said it was an economical way to paint watercolors and indeed, much easier on the pocketbook than regular watercolor paper.
Having painted many portraits she said she prefers painting the subject from photographs rather than in-person sittings.
“I don’t admire perfect drawing,” said Wacknov.
She captures a feeling about a person in her drawings, using two apps (icolorama and Paper Camera) for helping her decide how she’ll apply tonalities and colorations.
Looking into icolorama I found this about it online: the effects are from simple image adjustments to complicated transformations. Images can also be painted with many different brushes and you can import and use directly your own Photoshop brushes!
The development of this app is updated based on community requests.
There are some fantastic tutorials written by Jerry Jobe here: http://enthusiasmnoted.wordpress.com/?s=iColorama
For more explanation on icolorama and download go to http://apkdeal.com/download-icolorama-s-4-27-apk-for-free-on-your-android-ios-phone/
You can find PaperCamera online at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dama.papercamera
It’s made by JFDP Labs, the same company that makes Paper Artist, an app I love to use and recommend you try it as well!
When asked whose work influences hers, who does she admire, Wacknov mentioned Ted Nuttall. You can see some of his work as a watercolor portraitist here: https://tednuttallgallery.com/collections/ted-nuttall-3
In Nuttall’s bio he quotes Henri Matisse: “I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.”
You can check out Myrna Wacknov’s work in at her studio at Peninsula Museum of Art at 1777 California Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010. More info at https://peninsulamuseum.org. http://www.peninsulaartinstitute.org/artists
Painting in her own unique way on an unexpected surface, Wacknov encouraged artists to paint in the style they like to paint in — and to “Get people as excited as you are about it!”
