Door County’s Cana Island

I published the first of my series of Door County paintings today on ArtByUs.  Here’s my latest.

Open Gate, watercolor on paper, 9″ x 6″
Available on ArtByUs

I opted for a winter setting because frankly at some points during our vacation it felt nothing like spring/summer at all.  That’s the thing about Door County.  Unlike home, when there’s a chance of rain it means it’s going to rain.  The percent chance is just talk.  Actually, I had something different in mind for this painting and when I began the present work, I hadn’t realized that I was using the other side of an abandoned work.  Not that it detracts from the scene, but those things happen sometimes.

The setting for this painting is Cana Island where the appropriately named Cana Island lighthouse is located.  Interestingly, visitors can now climb up to the tower and walk the catwalk as it were.  You can get an idea from this painting.

See that black railing?  It feels like it’s about a thousand feet up.  It’s actually about 65 feet.  I must confess not to climbing the tower, but consenting to be in a photograph my husband took from the top looking down at me, waiting patiently for his return.

The waters were wild that day we visited.  I have enormous respect for the seas, which Lake Michigan is–an inland sea.  How can you not when this is coming right at you?

We were reminded of the impact of weather our second night when the electricity went out in the campground during a wild storm.  Park staff inexplicably locked the shower house, the one safe shelter in the place.  I can’t recall ever feeling so vulnerable and at the mercy of whatever was going to come our way.  Needless to say, inspiration for my “Nature of Door County” series.

Vacation Days

There’s a marvelous joy about vacations for an artist.  This trip was no exception.  New scenery, new colors, new sensations all add to the fodder of inspiration.  Of course, our destination certainly played a role–Door County, Wisconsin.

I began my painting with Door County.  Here’s one of my first paintings in which I strove to capture the beauty of this one-of-a-kind place.

Cana Lighthouse

I adore this place.  I love being close to the Earth, close to Nature.  Since we were tent camping, this factor played a big role in our days.  Imagine the chill of hearing of impending storms looming closer and closer only to lose power.  No communication.  No warnings, and certainly no basement in which to hide.  I liked Nature having the upper hand.

I’m newly inspired with all the scenes whirling in my head.  Because weather played such a factor in all our activities, weather will be a key component in my new series of paintings called, "The Nature of Door County".

Website Changes

Along with my osCommerce store, I’m working on a new updated look for my website. As much as I hate to admit it, my site is dated with its code and use of tables. I’m planning a CSS tableless site. A lot of questions have come up during the process. First, there was resolution. The latest stats I’ve checked and also my own Google Analytics report suggest that 1024 x 768 is by far the most common resolution. Having said that however, the site still has to be viewable for other devices like phones in order reach the most amount of people, i.e. 800 x 600 resolution is not dead yet.

A very attractive feature of my new hosting provider, Hostgator, is the 4,500+ free templates available. I found several that I like. For the most part though, they are written in HTML and not XHTML. Most I looked at were table-based. Most were at 800 x 600 resolution. All of these factors, while not impossible to deal with, are not factors with which I want to fix necessarily.

I’ve browsed several templates for purchase. Again, while I’ve found several attractive templates.  Browsing through the help section on one site, I did find once again that most were 800 x 600 resolution.  If I’m going to buy a template, I pretty much want it out of the box.  I don’t want to have to do a lot of rework.

The problem I’ve found with so many of the sites offering the same templates by the same designers a la’ TemplateMonster, TemplateOutpost, is that the details includes no information regarding resolution, code, etc.  If this is important to you, I suggest you check out PixelMill.  At least you can sort for the specific requirements you have like CSS tableless layouts.  They tend to be more expensive, but the help files are more extensive, blank pages with different layouts.  If you need the extra help, it’s worth the dollars.

After all the searching, templates started to all look the same.  While I have some good candidates, nothing is saying, “buy me!”  My approach now is to start listing the requirements I want, the elements I like on other sites, and perhaps using one of the free templates as a starting point, to create my own site from scratch.  The next question is do I want a flash site?

I’m not talking about one of those sites with the flash intro.  Those I skip.  With that option necessary, I wonder why anyone invests the money.  I do like galleries built with flash.  Sometimes the transitions between images is obnoxious, but that can be changed.  The one problem with the flash sites I’ve seen is the little room for text.  I use a site to check the SEO of my site.  An index page with 200+ words is one of the criteria.  As far as music on the site, if it’s unobtrusive, I like it.  It adds to the package.  I’d like to incorporate it into my site–with the option, of course, to turn it off.

What do you think?   Flash site?

Remodeling To Improve My Watercolor

Recently my husband and I took on the monstrous task of remodeling our kitchen and bathroom. The project involves stripping forty plus year old wallpaper and painting instead. Sparing the gory details of the enormous work involved, suffice to say after two days I had a ready canvas-my wall.

For those of you not familiar with the technique, first you begin by applying a base coat.  After sufficient dry time comes the glaze over with a complementary color.  The greater the contrast between the two, the more dramatic the effect.  Using a rag, you soak it in the glaze color.  Squeeze out the rag and form it into a cylinder.  After that, roll away.  Here is an example of the effect.

Products from Lowes

Have to put in a plug for Lowes.  They provided the supplies and expertise.  End of commercial.

The technique was stunning.  It almost looked natural like leaves.  With both colors shining through and the mix of the two, I thought the effect was marvelous.

So how does that help my watercolor?  Control.  Control of the degree of saturation of the rag produced different effects.  The best results came from a rag not dripping wet, but a little dryer.  Though messy, the application does have a place in your watercolor tool kit.  Nice for a background, for texture.  To use this successfully in watercolor, the paint has to be of a richer mix.  Make sure and wring the cloth well before beginning.  To minimize drips, a flat surface works best.  For my next project, rag rolling is going to be a part of my work–once the remodeling is done and over.

My OSCommerce Store–Part 2

I’m now in the somewhat tedious process of setting up my OSCommerce store and adding my products.  Unlike what I’ve done in the past, I want to give customers options regarding mat size and color.  I’m hoping this may be an added incentive to buy.

The OSCommerce set up may seem confusing at first, but it’s something you get used to.  I’m glad I have the template.  Even with just a few products added, I feel like it’s a real store.  Though the template was spendy ($170), overall I feel it was a good investment.  Cheaper than the eBay fees I threw out the window each month.  But that’s a different story.

Anyway, options.  One thing becomes quite obvious when you first start setting up your store–you need a plan.  I have products.  I’ve pretty much put myself in a few niches.  My work has an overall theme.  Using this information, I set up categories and subcategories to put my paintings.  I had originally set up categories for paintings, prints, and cards, but have since decided against it.  I have a Zazzle store for cards of which the quality I particularly like.  Prints, I’m going to have to think about.  The fact is that I don’t want to stock that inventory.  I’m going to have Zazzle as my source for other products and stick with paintings. 

So from just a painting category, I’ve moved to subject:  landscape, still life, etc.  My thought here is that I want to cut to the chase.  The least amount of clicks until a user is where they might like to be.  So, onward and upward.  More products to add.

Watercolor Tip–Sealing and Varnishing Your Work

You have two choices when you work on an alternate support such as clayboard or watercolor canvas: you can frame behind glass as with a traditional watercolor, taking the same precautions that the painting itself does not come into direct contact with the glass and that there is a space between the artwork and the glass or you can seal your work and frame as an oil or acrylic painting.  Because paint lifts so easily off of these surfaces, for my part, I feel safest sealing and varnishing.

The later definitely has some advantage.  If you paint on large surfaces, a matted painting framed behind glass can be an expensive purchase and a heavy one for hanging.  Some artists have remarked that paintings on the larger sized watercolor canvas sealed and varnished sell better because of they are easier to frame and the frames, lighter without the glass.  There is a school of thought that also recognizes the fact that oils sell at higher prices than watercolors.  Perhaps it’s the long tradition of oil painting that adds a certain mystique to the works.  Or perhaps it is the advantage of being able to frame without glass.  Victorian watercolorists took great pains using bodycolor and gum arabic to “heighten” a painting to make it look like an oil in order to get higher prices for their work.  For me, I looked at framing without glass as a means to transport works easier for shows, to say nothing of it being safer.

I experimented with several different approaches to come up with a sealing method that I use now.  Now I must say that I like a glossy finish, so the products I mention are all about accomplishing this goal.  For clayboard and canvas paintings, I first begin with the clayboard fixative.  I use about three coats, allowing ample time to dry between coats.  After this, I use the Krylon Triple-Thick Clear Glaze.  The “triple-thick” refers to the fact that one coat of this product equals three coats of other clear acrylic fixatives.  I will apply at least two coats until I achieve the finish I’m after.  I follow this with a UV resistant varnish, also by Krylon.  I typically will spray six thin coats to complete the process.  There are a couple of things to bear in mind when doing this: first of all, make sure you have a big space that is covered to do the actual spraying.  Make sure nothing is near by that may get a bit of the spray.  You will want to take off your glasses, if you wear them.  Found that out the hard way.  Make sure the room is well-ventilated.  There will be lots of spraying going on, so be sure and take that precaution. 

Another approach is recommended by Golden for varnishing acrylics.  This method requires an isolation layer so that this layer would protect the acrylic should the varnish need to be removed.  The isolation layer is the Golden soft gel gloss, mixed two parts gel to one part water and brushed on.  I applied this layer onto watercolor canvas.  Despite being the glossy finish, it wasn’t as glossy as I liked, but maybe if you’re looking for more of a matte finish, you may appreciate the look.  I didn’t like applying this with a brush either.  The mix is quite watery and brushes easily, but I preferred spraying.  This layer is followed up by the MSA Archival Varnish.  For prints, this is up to eight thin layers.  I do at least six layers for paintings and prints.  It’s an easy precaution to take to protect your work.  Since I’ve used the MSA Archival Varnish for prints, I have now taken to use it instead of the Krylon varnish.

I have tried both of these approaches with watercolor works on paper.  I mounted the work on matboard before beginning.  I can’t say I was happy at all with the results and will just still to using this for alternate supports.  The nice thing about varnishing your works is that you get a really nice looking product when you’re done.  I find the gloss finish really adds a lot and looks like the watercolors when they’re first applied juicy and wet.

Lock, Stock, and Barrel, 12" x 16", watercolor on canvas

Available at ArtByUs

Watercolor Tips–New Territory

For new challenges in watercolor painting or just for some fun experimentation, there are a variety of supports that lend themselves to watercolors.  Here are just a few and some of the special characteristics of each.

Textured Clayboard
This is a lovely support to work with and one of my personal favorites.  The textured surface as opposed to the smooth offers the same opportunities for creating texture as one would find with cold press watercolor paper.  Prior to using it, I have found that it is wise to gently wash the surface of the clayboard under the faucet, using your hands to “wash” the surface.  The reason being is that with my first uses of clayboard I was dismayed to find little spots where the paint wasn’t taking as well as others.  I called them “footprints” because of their shape.  This was especially vexing after noticing them only after a painting was well underway.  I found that doing the preliminary washing solved this problem.  Do be careful not to get the backside of the clayboard wet.  The clayboard inked stamp on the back is water soluble.

As with the watercolor canvas which I’ll discuss below, the most important thing to remember about clayboard is that paints will lift easily.  That is, if you like to glaze your initial washes you may find that you need a very gentle touch so as not to disturb what has gone down already.  This is good in one respect, but if you’d rather not have to worry about it, you may try adding a little acrylic matte medium to your paint.  Do bear in mind that this medium has a lot of body and your paints will handle very different.  Your brush strokes will show, which while maybe uncomfortable for a watercolor artist, does lend itself to new texturing possibilities.

Watercolor Canvas
This is an exciting opportunity for watercolor artists to use this more traditional oil support.  The canvas is available in sheets and on canvasboard.  Much of what has been said about clayboard also applies to the new watercolor canvas.  Colors will lift easily.  This can be a blessing if you’ve decided that you are unhappy with a work.  Just put the canvas (or the clayboard) under the tap and begin again.  Bear in mind that staining colors will do just that.  I have found though that this can be a great way to add some added color/texture to the canvas when I begin again.

Watercolor canvas also takes a lot of paint, more so than paper supports.  You’ll need to mix up more paint for your washes than you would normally do when painting on paper.  If you find that your washes are streaky, try adding a bit of ox gall to your wash water or even wetting the canvas prior. 

Now let’s say you’ve completed your work.  You can frame either under glass as you normally would do with a watercolor.  Another possibility is to frame it without glass like an oil or acrylic painting.  This requires sealing and varnishing your work, which I’ll discuss next time.