watercolor paper Archives - Dora Sislian Themelis Art

Time to Cut More Mats

Cleaning up in the studio can sometimes lead to actually working in the studio. And I had high hopes of beating Mr. Resistance while in the middle of this chore. Alas, it didn’t work that way this time.

However, I did come to one conclusion: paintings on paper need a mat.

There is something about matting a work that says “Finished.” A mat lends a neat look to a painting, much like framing does. The two together, a mat with a frame, is preferable. But even the mat alone cleans up the work and gives it some room to breathe.

Besides, the work won’t flop over when being shown at those shopping events.

In the photo above, you can see how my watercolor paintings look with and without mats. Those with look nice, clean, and professional. Yes, the paintings without a mat are wonderful, but I think they will display a better appearance with that bit of frame.

So, in an effort to argue with Mr. Resistance to stop visiting, I took a small step toward working.

Matting is working. I may be going old school by using a T-square, triangle, and a razor blade, but it’s fine with me. A few mats a day won’t hurt. Paying a framer hurts. Buying a mat cutting device hurts.

Anyway, I can cut a mean bevel with my bare hands.

Painting, Process is #1

The relative lull of the after dinner hour has been holding some powerful stuff lately. What is it about this time of my day that I’ve been able to do some good work? Forget about the product. The process seems to have great momentum in this evening hour.

Let me just say up front, I am a morning person. I am wide eyed awake at 6AM most mornings, but that doesn’t mean I can work on painting at that time. Nope, the early morning is for coffee, the newspaper, and the Morning Pages, in that order too.

I plan my day after these things are finished. First thing on my list is painting. Again, that doesn’t mean painting happens first. It’s listed first and it usually happens later, after the house is in order and any running around I might need to do is done.

Yes, painting is on the list, baby. Every single day.

Okay, so I get to it after lunch, so what? I am grateful to the muse who makes me list it #1, because if that didn’t happen, painting might not happen at all.

So life must be in order for the muse to visit me in my studio that day. Just like a Virgo, right?

Green Pepper ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
9×12 Watercolor, Arches cold press paper

I cropped another section of a larger photograph to make this painting. If I have any idea of getting some quick work done, it’s going to have to be a smaller piece. For right now this is working for me. It’s not twenty minutes, but rather almost an hour’s worth of work. Even possibly an hour. When I start working I lose track of the time unless I’ve set my timer. An hour sounds right this time.

The different colors next to each other are very interesting to me. I love the tumble of shapes. Okay, so they’re vegetables and fruits, there’s color, dark against light, everything I feel good working with.

The paper is great, the paints are delicious, and I’m painting. What else is there?

Process, baby. Just the process!

What? Everyone Loves Free Stuff

Yesterday I planned to take a short break while I still was semi free and visit the nearest art supply shop. There are two in my area and both were having sales. One shop sent me a great coupon to take off 40% on a non-sale item. That is huge.

My little artist date started at the office supply store for some stuff I needed to continue working in the Blast Off class. Then I moved on to Dick Blick art supply. I purchased a nice large block of Arches watercolor paper on sale. I needed watercolor paint and chose yellow ochre from Windsor&Newton. Dick Blick didn’t carry MamieriBlu which I’ve been using. Fine.

Afterwards I drove over to Utrecht where the Arches was also on sale, same price. Ok. I found MamieriBlu paints there and bought permanent green light. Sale! I decided I liked the brush selection at Dick Blick better, so that’s for another day.

At the register the manager was fussing with some large sheets of heavy weight paper as I was paying for my paint. He turned to me and asked if I knew what the paper was, because he had no clue and no paperwork for it. What did I know? Was it bristol board? Was it watercolor paper? No idea here.

Then he said, Why don’t you just take it?

Who? Me?

Yes! Happy New Year to you!

I said, Why not? Hey, I will never refuse free paper. I don’t know what it is, but it’s all mine now.
Now if I can only get my butt in gear and use it.

Quality Supplies Makes Quality Work

Shells ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
8×10 Watercolor on Arches paper

Sunflower Petals ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
8×10 Watercolor on Arches paper

Rocks ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
8×10 Watercolor on Strathmore paper

One day last week I was determined to keep at the painting schedule. Twenty minutes per painting and if I pushed myself I could do a few, one after another. Inspiration was running low, the shells and pebbles have been painted over and over, no new sunflowers around either. But after my artist date I had a bit of motivation so I gathered my stuff and went at it.

Shells, rocks, pebbles were thrown on my table and I just painted what I saw. Next! I decided to crop one of the sunflower photos are paint that view. Great! Then I went for an even quicker sketch of the shells and pebbles. I used paper that I had cut from larger sheets to make these smaller works, not realizing amid the Arches papers was a student grade of paper from a long while ago.

As I began sketching the last painting, as has become my style, the paint beaded up on the paper. The paper seemed to resist the watery paint. I had a hard time with that, and worked harder than I had been doing lately. Twenty minutes and I was not happy with the process of that last painting. Nope.

The moral of the story is to make sure to use quality equipment whenever possible. Taking short cuts is just not worth the trouble. I’ll be careful of that at the next session.

Sunflower Painting is Finished, and What I Learned

It’s Friday and time to show you photos of the latest finished watercolor painting. I had some other fun news to share, but you will have to wait. Painting is happening and the sooner I get this one out of here the easier it will be to get the next one working and I will tell you what was so much fun.

First twenty minutes

There were a few things I learned while painting this work. Firstly, the height of my art table is too high. The dining room table is lower when I painted there, waist level while standing. This was not comfortable and I felt as if I couldn’t get away from it by standing or sitting on a stool. It will need to be lowered if I’m going to paint there.

Secondly, the desk lamp is not natural even though I have a daylight bulb and an incandescent one. It’s just way to bright and also too close to the work to gauge paint colors the way I wanted. I persevered.

Second twenty minutes

The third thing I learned is about the paper. After using Lanaquarelle, then Arches, I can tell the difference in quality. I bought this Canson tablet on sale, it was larger than I was using, and figured it’d come in handy when I was ready to work larger.

Also it’s a pad, not a block, and if not affixed to a surface it curls and rolls when wet. The painting surface is not that great either, leaving weird brush strokes. Well, I guess it’s okay if you want those brush strokes to show.

I’m using two different paint companies, MaimeriBlue and Windsor&Newton. When I painted a layer over an area previously painted, the layer beaded up. Was it the paint? Was it the paper? Or does that happen? I thought it was strange.

After I finished I took photographs while the work was still attached to the table. My problems were the same I had while painting: unnatural and too bright light, too close to get a good shot. I took the painting off the table, went to the dining room table and the nice northern exposure picture window to take a photo. See the difference? Washed out color in artificial light, more true to the paints in natural light.

The fourth thing I learned is that I’m getting comfortable using my photos to paint from. I don’t want to get too cozy because then it’ll take time to get back to painting from life.

I’ll figure it out one of these days. In the meanwhile I’m still in the game.