Exploring atists and techniques from the 2nd Biennial International Watercolor Show, pt. 3- Alvaro Castagnet

Alvaro Castagnet-

Of course, Alvaro was on the actual flyer for the show, so getting to see some of his work up close again was of great interest to me.  I thought I would start with the painting on the front of the flyer.  It’s gorgeous, and very typical Alvaro!  It’s also very big (bigger than a full sheet?), at 4’ wide x 3’ tall or so, so it allows for a lot of very loose brush work (both wet and dry), and yet it’s still very legible when you back up.  A wonderful combo.

Here’s a closeup of the people walking, in the bottom right of the image. I love how its almost pure gobbledy-gook when you get up close!  You can clearly see lots of dry brushwork, and then a warmer opaque watercolor being applied for highlights.  I saw him do something similar in the class this past April, and he was combining Chinese White with Yellow Ochre for this kind of affect.

Here’s the cars upclose.  I was wondering if he actually splotched some water in there after he'd done the wash, to get those lovely washy bits, or if he did the opposite and actually had a very wet, rather pale wash in there, and then dribbled the thicker, darker pigment into it and let it disperse.  The affect isn't what's so surprising to me, as I've actually gotten similar affects myself at times, but rather the control- where's all the water and pigment going when he paints this way? It isn't like it's running off the bottom of the page, since the shadow is trapped.  That's sort of confounding to me.  Also, you've got to have some tilt in there to get things to run, but it can't be much or it would get trapped at the bottom of the shadow.  Perhaps he tilts it at first, then lets it dry flat, after he gets the affect he wants?

I was also intrigued by the very rough, dry brush work.  You can see it on the pale valued shadows for the windows, but also down below, in a darker value, where the dry brush work is sort of scrubbed very loosely into the shadows above the taxi.  That's quite interesting to me in particular, because the dry brush work isn't actually defining a form there, the way it is on the windows, but rather a darker value... which is something I might often do with a wash instead.

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In this second pic below, what I was drawn to most were the shadows and headlight reflections.

When I pulled in close, I was surprised to find out that the reflections of the car lights on the wet road are all dry brush strokes.  What a fun juxtaposition!

Again, as in the first image, you can see how loose he is with his people.  Lots of dry brush work and opaque, light valued watercolor pigments.  As I've seen him do before, the color/ value of the umbrellas and the base work for the figures is laid during the first wash, and then preserved and cut around.  The thicker, higher chroma pigments for the faces and what not were done later, atleast when I saw him do them.  Again, as with the headlights, the legs and and their reflections in the water are all done dry on dry.

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This is the 3rd and final Alvaro image that I have pics of from the show.  This one, like the first two, was a full sheet (or bigger?), so each little section I'm taking a pic of is probably a quarter sheet or so in scale.  Big stuff!  In this one, I was struck by two primary things- the cab lights and the window reflections. 

First, look how thick the pigment was on the cab lights.  That stuff is gooped on like impasto! It’s also applied dry, as you can see the texture of the paper with ease.  Here’s the closeup.

My favorite part though is this thing he does with the windows. As before, this section of the painting, in and of itself, is probably atleast a quarter sheet.  So, he's playing rough and loose with his brushwork.

The glare that is captured there is wonderful.  What’s neat is that he does almost all the shadow work there with very dry brushstrokes.  You can see paper texture really show through with the brushwork.  I also have to assume he’s pulling some of the red-brown pigment off the paper after the fact in that particularly “bright” area, though who knows?  Still, I saw him  scrub stuff out with a tissue, to bring back highlights for lamp posts, so perhaps he did the same thing here.  Perhaps he just has some impressive brush control and lifts the brush in the right locations of each of the windows??  Either way, it's also subtly enhanced by the paler yellow wash in the center of the glare on the window, with the yellow "shadows" around them.  Each element of the affect supports the other. I also enjoyed that strong linear shadow crossing the windows from left to right.

And that's it folks.  If you've gone through the 3 posts, I hope you've found some artists or techniques you might want to explore more.  Not having been to a watercolor exhibition before, and of such high quality, I can definitely recommend the experience.  Getting to see stuff so upclose was wonderful and very instructive.  I hope I've been able to replicate some of the experience for you here. 

Exploring artists and techniques from the 2nd Biennial Watercolor Show, pt. 2

Ewa Karpinska-
http://ewa-karpinska.com/en.html

I found the paintings by Ewa amazing and fascinating, and she was easily my big discovery of the event.  I knew I liked Castagnet going in (and he did not disappoint!!), but Ewa was a painter I'd never even heard of before.  All her paintings were very large- 4’ x 3’ atleast.  All the images are also semi-abstract, but much like seeing the amazingly oversized Monet Waterlilly murals, as I backed up I began to see the image more and more clearly.  One is, to me, clearly a waterfall splashing on a rock, another a puddle with neon lights in it, another perhaps a turtle seen underwater, with reflections on it.  Go in close though, and its pure insanity!  Crazy stuff.

Here are some close ups.  Pardon the reflections from my amateur-hour photography...  ;)

 

My presumption, with these first closeups, is that a lot of wet into wet into wet work is occurring, where a wash is put down, let to dry just a little bit, and then a thin, clean, wet brush is used to stroke water into areas, and push the pigment out, to form these circles and strokes.

However, here we have a second set of closeups using a different technique-

With this second set of closeups, my presumption is that that incredible glowing affect is being created by following the patterns of the first set, but that she is then going back into it with a brush that is heavily charged with pigment instead.  Thus, instead of the white of water, we’re getting these glowing oranges and yellows abutting the darker blues and greens of the first wash.  I would be astounded if she was able to do this by progressively building the image wash by wash, and from what I saw of a demo video they were showing at the exhibit, it does seem like she’s doing an immense amount of wet into wet work, and that she’s doing it flat.  The video wasn’t for any of the paintings in the exhibit, but it gave a sense of her working process.

Eric Laurent-

This painting of Eric’s struck, in particular because I’ve long been interested in a more responsive, organic way of painting high valued, chromatic foliage against a darker background, without having to use masking fluid or to go through a super careful, very detailed process of preserving my highlights.  

I’m not sure what pigments he’s using, but it’s obviously very opaque.  Perhaps Cad Yellow?  He’s also got some opaque lime in there, so I think he must be mixing it with something.  I’ve yet to try it with Viridian, but it’s a relatively opaque green.  So maybe??

 

Muriel Buthier Chartrain-

I found this piece by Muriel at the end of the day, and loved it.   I wish there had been more than one, but that was actually pretty common with the exhibition.  I looked her up on line and couldn't find a website for her.  You can find other samples of her work though, if you google her name.  She's clearly putting her work into shows and what not in Europe..  However, I did find out that she has various videos you can watch of her on youtube.  Here's a link to her videos.

Here you can see the absolutely gorgeous texture she's getting in her work.  I'm assuming, much like Bjorn Bernstrom, she applying a pigment very very thickly, and then pushing water or a diluted pigment through it, or spritzing water on it/through it, to get that gorgeous, runny granulation. 

Exploring artists and techniques from the 2nd Biennial International Watercolor Show, pt. 1

I had the privilege of going to 2nd Biennial International Watercolor Show this October while on vacation in Spain.  Narbonne, France is closer to Girona and Barcelona than I thought!  Thank goodness for high speed rail and the gift of birthday money!  Yay!  I couldn’t pass up the serendipitous opportunity.  So, I hopped on a train and got to look at the paintings for my birthday—a little side trip.  I wanted to share some of the pics I took, highlighting different artists I was particularly struck by.  

In addition, I took a series of upclose pics of the same paintings as well, as I hunted for clues into some of the “nuts and bolts” of the techniques these different artists were using.  It was very illuminating to have the opportunity to see some of these works __really__ up close, as in… within inches (not to worry, they were protected by glass!).  If you have the opportunity to go to a show like this in the future for some reason, my advice is--  It’s well worth going.  

So, I have 5 or 6 painters I wanted to highlight from what was easily 20-30 or more, and sort of take other on a "virtual tour" of the exhibit!  What was of particular pleasure was seeing some really big Alvaro Castagnet paintings upclose-- something I'd not done before.  I'll be sharing pics of his work in a later post.  Actually, as there’s a series of pics and thoughts on each artist, I’m going to break it up into a couple of shorter posts.   

Now, without further ado—

Michelle Reynier-
http://www.michelereynier.com/en/Welcome.html

I was particularly struck by these two abstract paintings.  I had no previous knowledge of Michelle, but I found out later on that she lives in France and offers classes.  Her abstract work is fascinating, mostly because, to me, she treads that line of creating something almost organic in composition… as if it were a painting of a very small animal, like plankton, that I just hadn’t seen before.  In addition, the paintings really seem, well, “watery”.  There were some other abstracts there that didn’t strike me as much, partly because I felt like they were almost gauche or diluted acrylics.  Michelle’s paintings, however, always seemed to really take advantage of the medium in ways that appealed to me.

Also of interest to me was that her work was gallery wrapped and sealed in some way.  Satin varnish? Or wax?  I wasn’t sure.  She put some sort of additional "paper" or "tape" around the edge, as a trim.  I'd not seen a gallery wrap before, but had only read about it online.  Cool!

Of particular note technically was that she seemed to be using what I can only assume is hair in paintings.  In the up close shot above, you can see the actual shadows and highlights from some of the unremoved hair.  My presumption is that she set the hair into the paint while it was wet, and then brushed/ dusted it off after it was dry, to get these very delicate, organic “etchings” in the paintings.  I love the idea of using whatever material is available to make marks with, but I’d never thought of using hair before!

Frank Perrot-

This man did some beautiful mixed media figure paintings, where he was gently cross-hatching with pencil—darker pencil for certain edges and recessive areas, and a paler blue pencil for areas of highlight.  

In this closeup, you can see how he is using the texture of the paper to good effect.  Perhaps it’s conte or some sort of charcoal or chalk?

In these two next images, I was also struck by his method of merging the fore and background areas of the image by having his textured/abstracted background watercolor wash actually cross into the body of the figure.  Then, on one side, you could see he was carving out the form of the body with a judiciously placed pencil line or two on the back of the figure, and on the shadowed side he was modeling the form by using a new, darker blue watercolor wash. Using the two media in conjunction with each other was very intriguing to me, and really merged the fore and background elements of the painting into one.

Next time, I've got Ewa Karpinska and Eric Laurent.  I'm saving Castagnet for last, as I've got the most pics of his stuff....  :)

Mystic Owl series

I wasn't quite sure how to title this, but I did a series of paintings with an owl, and I really pushed the background to be loose, free, and... well... "mystical". I wanted that feeling I get from an owl to come across in the image.  If you're interested in the process of making a painting, then this post is for you.  I've got lots of in-process photos of various iterations, and some video!  Fun.  :)

The final image is a full sheet (22" x 30"), but I started with a smaller image, (15" x 22"), building the texture of the wings with a granular technique, using Raw Umber.  I then cut the shape with the background.  You can see the first two steps here.

 

I eventually layered the image up to this more complete stage--

I'd not gotten this granular technique to work before this owl, and so spent some time working on the backs of old sheets, etc., as I tried to get a handle on the process and make it repeatable.  It requires  A LOT of Raw Umber, daubed/ applied very thickly into a pre-existing wash.  Then I dribbled water/ watery pigment into it, tilt the board, and let the water paint for me, creating all those wonderful rivulets.  Here you can see some of my process--

I played with the image over the next week. I was not particularly satisfied with either attempt, although I liked bits and pieces of each.  However, my sister took a series of photos and videos of the process, which was fun  You can get a sense of how I'm doing the background in these.  I'm using a spritzer bottle a lot, to move the pigment, with lots of playing with gravity.  :)  The resolution of the video is small, so it doesn't blow up too well full screen, but it works well in the boxed videos.

Here you can see the two images I worked on.  This first one sort of reminds me of Totoro.  :P

In the end, this final one I'm sharing was the one I was happiest with.  Again, it was a full sheet, so pretty big by my standards.  Very exciting to work that big.  Haven't done that in a while.  I only remembered to take some step by step photos part way through, but I though I'd share what I've got, as it's focused primarily on the final stages, and sort of supplements the steps you've seen earlier, from the previous two iterations. 

 

And, the completed image! :)

Evolution of an Image- Winter Tree in a Mountain Valley

I did this series of paintings from a photo and wanted to share the process.

This small one came first.  It's basically a repainting/ reduction of the original image.  The photo is coming out a bit warm, but it gives the gist.  This is a small 1/8 sheet, 7.5" x 5".

I then cropped the image and and re-painted it vertically, focusing mostly on the tree.  This one was also a 1/8 sheet, 5.5 x 15".

I then blew it up and tried it big, on a 1/2 sheet.  I had forgotten how difficult it is to paint big-- logistical issues show up that I hadn't anticipated.  You have to manage the wetness of a very large area, and that can make things complicated.  Kat began to point out that the image doesn't necessarily work the same when its larger-- the viewer expects more detail in some locations, for instance, etc.

Anyways, it's not perfect, but there are some things to like in it.