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February 12, 2010 4:13 pm

Afterglow: Pink Coneflower

by Jenny Armitage in Floral,for sale,prints available,techniques,watercolors

Afterglow (8 x8 inch watercolor) $100

Painted from a photo I took in my front yard last year, this is a close up of my pink cone flowers (echinacea). Like mums and asters, coneflowers are a reliable late summer flower. In the late afternoon light they just glow. I only have five of them but I hope they spread like mad.

I began this painting with the center of interest, the cone of the the cone flower. I painted the bright orange parts of the cone with a combination of quinacridone deep red rose and cadmium yellow. I began with the brighter orange edge and worked my way down adding rose to the mix as I descended the cone. I filled in around the orange-red highlights with a mixture of burnt sienna and cobalt blue letting the colors mix on the paper. I worked some rose into the mix as I reached the rim of the cone.

I added the petals next with deep red rose, cobalt blue and quinacridone opera from Winsor and Newton. Opera is a vivid pink which I rarely use, but has it uses. Nothing else in watercolor produces such a florescent pink.

I added the background last with a mixture of cobalt blue and cadmium yellow, toned down with burnt sienna. Burnt sienna which is a red-orange desaturates green but not to the extent that green’s compliment red would do. I applied this mixture in tone wet into wet layer and and used a paper towel to lift some of the final layer.

This painting is currently available on-line through my Etsy shop. Prints available through Fine Art America.com.

tags: coneclower, echinacea, flower, pink

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February 11, 2010 9:51 pm

The Magic Bowl II

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by Jenny Armitage in Floral,for sale,prints available,still lifes,techniques,watercolors

The Magic Bowl II (watercolor 9 x 9) $100

I wasn’t entirely satisfied with Magic Bowl I. One on the things I thought lacking was textural contrast and I found the paperweight that formed the center of interest to be a weak point in the painting. The daffodil provides both color and textural contrast. I also gave the background more texture and contrast. I like the result much better. And it keeps the abstract design feel I was aiming for in the first painting.

I painted the bowl conventionally working from light to dark beginning with the daffodil and moving on to it’s myriad of reflections. I used hansa yellow light, winsor orange, cadmium yellow and cobalt blue for the flower. For the bowl I used phthalo blue, cobalt blue, cadmuim red, winsor orange and burnt sienna.

For the background concrete I applied several layers of burnt sienna and phhtalo blue. I salted each layer separately. Salting which is exactly what it sounds like (you sprinkle salt on wet paint) causes irregular lighter areas where the salt sat because the salt pushes away the water and pigment.

Prints available through Fine Art America.com.

tags: blown glass, daffodils, flowers, marbles, salting

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January 24, 2010 12:32 pm

Fall Poplars or Playing with Pastels

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,landscapes,pastels,prints available,techniques

Fall Poplars (12 x 18) $125.00

I have admired pastels and mixed media with pastels for some time now. There is a sparkly quality about pastels that no other medium can match. Pastels over watercolors can create both spectacular and subtle effects.

My husband bought me pastels for Christmas, and I have been playing with them this last week. Pastels are if anything less forgiving than watercolor. All color mixing must be done on the paper either optically or by smearing. Pastel smears easily. The paper holds only so much pastel before it suddenly won’t take anymore. This last can be fixed somewhat, by using a workable fixative. Some lifting is possible with a kneadable eraser.

The method is very different from watercolor too. Working with them is a kind of cross between drawing and painting. Pastels are an opaque medium and therefore work best if the dark tones are blocked in first and the lights laid over them. Highlight go on last. Nothing runs. The chalk stays right where you put it until you smudge it.

I started this image on the rough side of a rose colored sheet of Canson Mi-Tietens paper. I laid in the sky with PanPastels. PanPastels come in pots rather than sticks and they are highly pigmented and almost dustless. Applying them is reminiscent of applying dry eyeshadow or rouge. The top of the sky is phthalo blue. Further down I switched to ultramarine blue. Then I worked back up the sky from the horizon, overlaying the deep blue with ultramarine and phthalo tints (both of which are almost white). I used white, and more of the blue tints to lay in the clouds. Then I got out a violet soft pastel stick and added the deeper shadows smudging them in as I went.

I roughed in the far tree line with a dark blue shade of soft pastel. I added a dark green shade lower down and smudged. I pushed the pastel up into the sky with a sponge applicator.

Returning to PanPastels, I added the hills with turquoise blue shade and bright yellow green shade. Burnt sienna came next. Then I went back over the hills with a variety of green and brown soft pastels to create texture. I smudged these in with my fingers.

Continuing with soft pastels, I drew in the poplar trunks first with a dark green gray and a red brown. I added a lighter gray and then an almost white gray. Then I added the leaves beginning with a dull orange, continuing with a brighter orange and finally a yellow orange. I smudged the leaves on the farther tree to suggest a little distance.

With soft pastels I put in blue and purple shadows under the foreground trees to indicate the rough grass line. I drew in the grass over the shadows with a variety of hard pastels starting with the darker colors and continuing with the lighter ones. I softened the lines with a finger.

After years of reserving or painting around the lighter colors, laying in the trees over the sky and grass felt like magic.

I enjoyed this. Watercolor will remain my primary medium, but pastel has a rough sparkly quality I’d like. Some images just seem to demand it. I may also do some mixed media, painting a watercolor first before accenting it with pastel.

I ship my watercolors rolled in a tube or, if they or very small flat. I provide free shipping for watercolors within the continental United States. Pastels cannot be safely rolled since they would smudge and they should be both matted and covered with a protective sheet. Therefore, the shipping cost of my pastels will vary depending upon size. All pastels will will include an acid free neutral colored mat and backing.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

tags: PanPastels, pastels, poplars, trees

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January 20, 2010 6:35 pm

Submerged I and II: Playing With New Methods

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,landscapes,mistakes,prints available,sold,techniques,watercolors

Submerged I (9 x 12) SOLD

I’ve been experimenting with a couple of new methods. These two paintings are the result. Both are based on some photos of trees half drowned by the swollen Willamette River I took this weekend. I wanted to catch the cold grayness of of the scene and the mystery of the half hidden trees.

Blowing:

I blew the trees. I placed puddles of paint on the paper and blew them into trees with a straw. The line of paint running out from the puddle looks surprisingly like a tree limb. And the direction the paint goes in is quite controllable. But once the paint has started in one direction it’s hard to make it turn. The paint follows the wet path as if it were a stream bed. The solution is to drag a little paint in the direction you want to take it and thus start a new path. Where the trees over-lap it’s important to let the first tree dry completely before starting the next, otherwise the paint form the new tree will run up the first tree.

There are several ways to vary the color in the tree. Leaving the supply puddle partially unmixed is one. New colors can be blown into the wet tree from the base. Accents and be directly painted onto the dry trees. I used all three methods on these paintings.

Layered Masking:

The second method is painting grass and bracken with multiple layers of mask. Thin lines of mask establish the highlights. Then color is applied. Then more lines are applied. Then more mask for multiple layers. When the mask is removed a complex texture is revealed. I was less successful with this method. It’s hard to see what you are doing or to guess the result. More practice is needed.

I used layered mask in Submerged I. But I didn’t like the results immediately. The foreground was too busy and detracted from my trees, which then looked much like the trees in Submerged II. After some thought, I painted over the trees in dark tones to match the foreground. The result is an evening picture.

Submerged II (9 x 12) $75.00

For the second painting I added the foreground wet into wet. The result is simpler and gives the feeling of the gray afternoon on the river.

The palette for both paintings is: burnt sienna, phtholo blue and dioxion purple, plus a dab of hansa yellow.

Or purchase prints from Fine Art America.com.

tags: blowing, flood, layered mask, river, trees, Willamette

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January 13, 2010 5:27 pm

Reeds at Sunset

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,landscapes,prints available,techniques,watercolors

Reeds at Sunset (11 x 15) $75.00

This is the Willamette again, but it could really be anywhere. I was struck by the way the reeds look like they are growing out of a sunset.

Like the Broken Dock I painted a couple days ago, I began this painting by masking everything except the water. After the mask on the reeds dried, I painting the sky’s refection on the still water wet into wet beginning with an overall wash of very diluted burnt sienna. When the shine left the paper, I added various mixes of quinacridone deep red rose and new gamgee (yellow). I used cobalt blue and burnt sienna to ad the darker clouds and phthalo blue for the water.

Once the sky had dried, I removed the mask and painted the reeds in new gamgee, colalt blue, phthalo blue and burnt sienna.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

tags: reeds, river, sunset, techniques, water, Willamette

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November 20, 2009 2:20 pm

Summer Shoppers

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,prints available,techniques,watercolors

Summer Shoppers (11 x 12) $150.00

This could be anywhere. What I liked about my photo was the sunshine and the interaction between the young women.

Poured Version

I intended to pour a very atmospheric painting, and I did pour one reserving only the womens skin for direct painting. But I was unhappy with the reflections in the windows and the draping of the sundress. I really liked the bright pinks, oranges and yellows I got through pouring though. So at the gallery yesterday, I repainted the image using not only my photo, but also the poured painting as a guide.

For most of the painting I used hansa yellow light, new gamboge, quinacridone deep red rose, and phthalo blue. Using two yellow helped keep things bright. I added burnt sienna to the hair and the leather bag.

I tried to keep most of the poured feeling by mixing the paints freely on the paper. I added the windows and other darks in many layers of transparent color.

I’m happy with the results, but were I to do this over, I would pour the windows, sidewalk, and shadows and perhaps the dark bag and pants. Then I would paint the women directly.

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com. See more of my people paintings here: people art

tags: girls, shopping, summer dress, women

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October 20, 2009 9:58 am

The Fossil Shell

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,prints available,techniques,watercolors

The Fossil Shell (6 x 9) $75.00

My girls like to hunt for fossil shells on the beach. Once a middle aged fossil hunter with a German Sheppard stopped to to talk with them. It was a brief conference between enthusiasts. He was looking for fossilized fish and other rarer things. The four shared the boulder strewn beach under the cliffs while I watched the waves. Then the girls and I headed back up the beach for the warm hotel room. He caught up quickly and thrust a stone into my youngest’s hand and was gone before she could say thank you or even see what it was. It was the find of the day, a fossilized shell perfectly preserved on one side and rough rock on the other.

Joy! I popped it right down on the sand and photographed it. It lives on our mantle piece now.

After the Mask Came Off

I began the painting by masking the shell. Then I washed the background lightly first with yellow ochre, then with burnt sienna. I painted in the shadow of the shell with phthalo blue. After that I used an old toothbrush to splatter it with layer upon layer of burnt sienna, yellow ochre, cerulean blue, and Prussian blue.

Next I removed the mask and painted the shell in burnt sienna, and cerulean blue. I added a few gouache white touches.

When I stepped back to look at it, I decided that the sand was too busy and had taken away from the picture. So I took the painting to the sink and scrubbed paint off it with a stiff brush under the tap. Washing a painting is a scary process, but sometimes it’s the only good fix. The result is softer, but still shows the effects of the splattering.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

tags: fossil, shell, splattering, washing

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October 12, 2009 10:09 am

Taking Ten With My Shadow

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,techniques

Taking Ten With My Shadow (8 x 10) $125.00

Ordinarily I paint from life or more commonly from my own photographs. But the photo I based these this painting on was taken by charlena of RedBubble. The art groups on RedBubble regularly hold competitions. One of my favorite groups, Just Watercolors, often holds competitions in which each artist paints the same photo. Up until now, none of the photos appealed to me particularly, but this one did.

Just Kickin Back by Charlena

Charlena’s picture is moody and emphases the intimate nature of the space and lighting. I didn’t see any way to do that better with paint than she had already done it with the camera. But I really liked the shadow looming up behind the resting musician, so I changed the format from horizontal to vertical and cut out most of the dark wall to emphasize the man and his shadow.

After Masking

My version of this scene is an almost entirely poured painting. After transferring my sketch to the paper, I masked the musician, his shadow and everything else dark in the sketch. The trick to applying liquid mask is to use synthetic brushes and to soap the brushes before and in between dips into the mask.

The Yellow Pour

When the mask was dry I poured the lights. After wetting the paper (a necessary first step to get the paint to stick) I poured a tea like mix of hansa yellow light over the paper. I waited for the hansa to dry before pouring first new gamgee, then deep red rose. Once again I wet the paper. I poured the area around his feet first. Then I poured upwards from his head to preserve the bright yellow halo effect around his face and hat.

The Second Pour

First Mask Removed

When the lights were completely dry, I removed the mask. I took a moment to renew the pencil lines the mask had lifted. Then I masked all of the areas I has just poured leaving only the darks. I left the mask to dry. Then, after wetting the page, I poured light mixtures of cobalt blue, phthalo blue, magenta and deep red rose. I tried to keep the darker and colder phthalo blue primarily to the shadow and the dark wall leaving the cobalt for the figure in the middle.

After the paint dried, I masked some small highlights in the musician’s face, hat, trousers and shoes. When the mask dried, I wet the paper and poured the same colors in the same places only darker.

When the final mask was removed I felt the picture was too bright. So I added little gray shadow under the chair to set off the vivid colors. Colbalt blue over the orangy pink floor produced a lively gray.

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

tags: musicians, poured, shadow

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October 1, 2009 10:08 am

Challenging Myself: One Subject, Three Moods

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by Jenny Armitage in buildings and bridges,composition,for sale,prints available,techniques

Queen Anne Nods to Shirley Jackson (11 x 15) $150

I set a challenge for myself this week. The idea was to paint a single subject in a variety of moods. The subject I choose was Deepwoods Estate, here in Salem. I took all of the photos for the painting in the same light and although the various aspects of the building gave me different ideas, the photos don’t convey much feeling to me.

Its Greener on the Other Side

Porch reference photo

I began with the front porch. I aimed to emphasize the softness of the light and the romance of the building. I also wanted to draw the viewer into the painting.

As you can see from my reference photo, my depiction is a little fanciful. I limited my palate to yellows and blues to mimic the soft shadowy light under the porch and the golden sunlight beyond it.

I think the painting works. The most common comment about it is that the viewer would like to step through the porch into the garden on the other side.

Turret and Cupola

Turret Reference Photo

Next I painted a detail of the roof-line from in back. This time I tried to contrast the harsh glittering light with the shaded parts of the building.

Because I intended to include many hard lines and less subtle variation in tone I looked for a place where the contrast between light and shade was particularly striking. But I didn’t want it to look like graphic art, so I poured this painting to ensure that the solid expanses of color were lively rather than flat. Once again I exaggerated, the light in the reference photo is not nearly as stark as the light I painted.

I like this painting, but it turned out rather softer than I had intended. I may try it again with an orange and blue palate.

House Reference Photo

The latest painting in this series is of the whole house. I’ve always found Victorian and Queen Anne houses a little creepy. Like wrought iron, they can be both sinister and charming all at once. On a bright sunny day there is nothing really creepy about the Deepwood House, but it does have a swallowed by the woods feel to it. Despite a generous lawn, there are few places where you can see the whole house. Instead what you see is patches of house through the trees.

So in order to bring out the sinister feel of Queen Anne archetecture, I pulled the trees in closer to the house and darkened the edges where the trees and house meet visually. I also distorted the shape of the house stretching it upwards to about fifteen percent more than it’s real height. Finally I chose a very earthy palate for such a pristine white house: burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ocher, phthalo blue and cobalt blue.

I poured this painting too because I wanted a lot of variation in tone. But pouring produces hard lines at the edges of the mask. The result had too many hard lines for the shadowy woods. I did so much scrubbing of the edges, washing over, and detail work that painting doesn’t feel poured to me. But the more I painted the darker it got. I finally had to stop for fear the house would no longer read as white.

I showed the finished painting to my husband yesterday. He said he really liked it, but then added tentatively, “Isn’t it a little eerie?” Yes, yes it is. But I don’t think it’s so eerie that it’s a caricature of the house.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

tags: Deepwoods, house, mood, Oregon, queen anne, Salem, Victorian

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September 29, 2009 8:10 pm

Turret and Cupola

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by Jenny Armitage in buildings and bridges,for sale,prints available,techniques

Turret and Copula (11 x 14) $150

Back to the Deepwood Estate but with a very different feel. This is the west or backside of the house looking up at the turret and the tallest roof peak. The afternoon sun brought the architectural details into graphic relief. I decided to play with the posterized nature of the light by pouring this painting.

Pouring watercolors is much like batik dyeing. First I mask all the white areas of the painting. Then I literally pour cups of paint across the paper. After the first pour dries, I mask all the pastels and pour darker paint. Then I mask the medium values and pour again with yet darker paint. Once the painting is dry, I lift the mask and add the darkest values and the details.

In this case I used phthalo blue, deep red rose, and new gamgee for the first pout. I tried to keep the yellow on the cupola. In later pours I used only the deep red rose and two blues Phthalo and French ultramarine. I saved the french ultramarine for the final pour.

I masked the sky after the first pour and overlaid it with cobalt blue when the mask was removed. The details are all heavy purple and magenta mixtures of phthalo blue and deep red rose.

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

tags: cupola, deepwood, historic, house, Oregon, pouring, queen anne, Salem, turret, Victorian

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9:41 am

It’s Greener on the Other Side of the Porch

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by Jenny Armitage in buildings and bridges,for sale,prints available,techniques

Its Greener on the Other Side (10 x 13) $125.00

Built in 1894, The Deepwood Estate is a lovely example of Queen Anne architecture. But to my mind, the gardens are even better. There are four acres of these and they get better every year. The indoor and outdoor Deepwood Estate meet on the front porch. Steps from the porch lead to both the front and back gardens as well as the house and separate glassed-in porch.

Looking up at the porch from the front, I was struck by how the trees on the other side glowed in sun.

After cropping my reference photo to emphasize the the view of the backyard, I spent sometime correcting the photo’s perspective. After transferring my sketch to the watercolor paper I built up from light to dark reserving the white paper where the sun hit the porch wall.

The palate was phthalo blue, a little cobalt blue, hansa yellow light, hansa yellow medium, and burnt sienna. I tried to keep the porch shadows as blue as possible to emphasize the green and yellow of the view on the other side of the porch. And I exaggerated the porch shadows to increase the sense of depth and to show off the green and gold trees. I used the sienna very sparingly and only to gray down the blues and greens.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com

tags: deepwood, historic, house, porch, queen anne, Salem, Victorian

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September 23, 2009 8:34 pm

The Mill Reflects Upon Itself

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by Jenny Armitage in buildings and bridges,for sale,prints available,techniques

The Mill Reflects Upon Itself (13 x 16) $200

I love the way old glass distorts reflections. This is the second painting of reflections in old glass I’ve done at the Mission Mill Museum.

The old woolen mill is well worth the visit. Most of the original equipment remains inside the mill house and the mill wheel and machinery remains operable. One of these days I’ll have to paint the whole building. It’s bright red and looks like a stack of buildings piled up like crates rather than a single structure. The effect is charming and oddly reminiscent of a child’s toy.

In the meantime I remain fascinated by the glass. Here, a dye house window reflects the mill itself. I love the abstract designs created in the window panes.

I created the siding with multiple washes of paint. I began by painting the shadows in french ultramarine blue. Then I washed all of the siding with with a mixture of deep red rose grayed down a little with phthalo green. Next came Da Vinci’s burnt sienna, followed by HWC’s burnt sienna. The first is really very orange and the second verges on red. I didn’t wash the highlights with the redder sienna. Then I washed the shadowed siding in burnt umber followed by cobalt blue. I like the resulting glow from all of those translucent layers of paint.

I used much the same process for the reflected mill, except that I didn’t use any burnt umber and the final layer of deep red rose.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

tags: factory, Mission Mill Museum, museum, Salem

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September 21, 2009 10:38 am

The Golden Dolphin

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,marine,techniques

The Golden Dolphin (8 x 10) $100

Yes, I’m still playing around with photos from the Newport Fisherman’s Wharf. I liked the way the reflected light from the bay danced across the hull of the white boat.

To paint the reflections I first masked to whitest of the highlights. Then I washed the shadowed part of the hull with a very watery cerulean blue. I used cerulean because of the way it granulates and spreads out across the water unevenly. Then I lifted the lighter areas with a dry brush. Finally I used a small brush to paint in the dark outlines.

The palate is larger than I usually employ. There are three blues, phthalo, cobalt and cerulean. The yellow is raw sienna. The red is quinacridone deep red rose. I used burnt sienna to gray the blues.

tags: boat, fishing boat, Newport

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September 20, 2009 9:46 am

Watercolor Society of Oregon

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,shows

Georgia in the Morning (11 x 14)

Twixt Wind and Water

I thought after sculpting for half a decade, I’d developed a pretty thick skin about displaying and selling my artwork. But I’ve discovered that my sculpture calluses provide no protection whatsoever for my tender painting skin. Rejection and acceptance still matter more than they should.

I’m not sure why this is so. It may be because somewhere in the back of my brain I only consider paintings to be “real” art. But I don’t think so. I’ve admired too much sculpture and photography to believe that. It might be because it’s new to me, but I’m not sure it’s that either. I don’t think I was ever this raw about sculpture or quilting shows. I think the answer is simply that there is a great deal more of me in my paintings than there is in my sculpture, quilts or photos. But whatever the reason, when I submit my paintings I itch as I’ve never itched over applications before.

Grandma Braids

But getting paintings hung in galleries, art shows, and art festivals requires submissions followed by (gasp) acceptances and rejections. I’ve just begun to put my toes in the water. My paintings now hang at Art in the Valley, where my sculpture has already littered the shelves for a few years now. And in addition to the Oregon State Fair this past August, I’ll have my paintings in at least two art fairs. Each of those acceptances mattered in a way sculpture acceptances haven’t mattered for years. Nor would I have considered any of these shows a big deal for sculpture. In fact, I’ve been in these fairs for years. But they mattered for paintings all the same.

In addition to art fairs I’ve begun applying to watercolor societies. Signature membership in watercolor societies is the entrance to watercolor society shows as their shows are often member only. I applied to the Watercolor Society of Oregon earlier this month. The three paintings shown in this post are the painting I submitted to them for active membership. Yesterday the acceptance came. I’m very happy, ridiculously happy given the that the prize is membership dues, and the right to submit paintings to shows.

tags: shows, watercolor societies, Watercolor Society of Oregon

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September 14, 2009 5:16 pm

Twixt Wind and Water II

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,prints available,seascapes,techniques

Twixt Wind and Water II (12 x 16) $225

Twixt Wind and Water

We spent last weekend on the beach. I took enough photographs to have seacape material for some time to come. While I was there I reworked Twixt Wind and Water. Here is the result. As you can see, I gave the painting considerably more sea-room to the left, so that she has something more to look into.

I began her hair with an under-painting of colbalt blue. Then I used layers of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and cobalt blue to complete it. Quidacrone deep red rose provides the accent color in the hair band.

Her jacket is cobalt blue and prussian blue mixed on the palate.

The sea began as phthalo blue and burnt sienna with reserved whites. Then I changed my mind about much of the wave action and began experimenting with white gouache. To cover strong colors, gouache must be laid on fairly heavily. And even though I don’t use ultra white paper, gouache white is still bluer that the paper. Also, as I discovered gouache will washback into transparent watercolor and vice versa. Work a little gouache onto the paper and nothing painted there will ever be entirely transparent again.

The effect is interesting, but I think next time I’ll stick to transparent watercolors, unyielding to change though they may be. I like the translucency better.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com

tags: braid, girl, gouache, ocean, Pacific, storm, waves

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September 11, 2009 9:24 am

A Little Wind and Water

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by Jenny Armitage in composition,figures,postcard,sold

A Little Wind and Water (5 x 7) SOLD

Twixt Wind and Water

Yet another little painting I did at the fair. This one is a smaller version of one of my favorite paintings, Twixt Wind and Water. The only thing I didn’t like about the original was the vertical format. I thought the painting would look better with more sea and waves to her left. So I played around with that idea in this smaller version. I do like the extension of the the sea, but I think I made a mistake in showing too much of her right side. If I do a full sized painting of this one again, I will keep the extended horizon but still crop-out most of her right shoulder.

Reference Photo

As you can see, both paintings show a complete change in compositional thinking from when I took the reference photo. Taking the photo, my thoughts were all about the shape of her figure and the rock. But when I looked at the photo up close, I fell in love with the hair spilling out of her braid. That required some rethinking. Looking at the photo again, I’m tempted to include more of her body to increase the feeling of movement.

tags: braids, composition, girl, sea, Twixt Wind and Water

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September 10, 2009 10:37 am

Breakers at Seal Rock or Using all the White Techniques

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,prints available,seascapes,sold,techniques,unfinished

The Breakers at Seal Rock II (12 x 16) $125

This is the second painting I’ve done of the tide coming in at Seal Rock Wayside. The first was a little postcard sized painting I did while demonstrating at the fair. That little painting sold immediately. I liked it too, so when expanding it to a full sized painting I didn’t mess around with the composition much. But I did want to get some more variety into the rocks and spray.

Like the previous painting, I began by reserving the whites with liquid mask while painting in the ocean and rocks. I used phthalo blue and burnt sienna for the ocean.

I used the same basic technique to lay down the rocks as I did with the first little painting. I started with raw sienna and quinacridone gold. Then I added burnt sienna and quinacridone deep red rose. While the burnt sienna and deep red rose were still wet, I dropped in cobalt blue and phthalo blue. Finally I added some heavy burnt sienna and some French Ultramarine.

Once the painting was dry, I scrubbed the edges of the rock where the spay hit them with a stiff filbert brush to show how the waves obscured them. Then I broke out the white gouache (an semi opaque white) and added more spray. Over the dark painted rocks the gouache white looks gray. I used the gouache primarily for the shelf of the biggest rock and the bases of the rocks on the shore side. Finally I pulled out the razor and scratched in fine white lines where the water spilled over the rocks and little cuts for droplets of spray. All four techniques work very differently, and each has a character of it’s own. I like the variety that resulted from using them all.

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.

tags: guauche, Oregon, razor, rocks, Seal Rock, waves

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September 5, 2009 8:44 am

Sgrafutto or Taking A Razor to my Painting

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by Jenny Armitage in landscapes,postcard,seascapes,sold,techniques

: Seal Rock Breakers I (5 x 7–damaged) SOLD

Seal Rock Park is one of our favorite waysides on Highway 101. This little painting shows a small part of the view north from the headland looking down at a string of volcanic rocks ringing the shore.
Last winter I took a series of photos of the waves crashing against the rocks as the tide came in. The photos look good in black and white but strangely lifeless in color. The contrast between the black rocks and the white waves is almost too much for color. So I left the photos on the back burner. But earlier this week I decided to try a small close-up view just to get me started.

To solve the overly black rock problem, I decided to make the rocks a chocolate brown. I began with raw sienna, and layered burnt sienna over the top. Then, while the burnt sienna was still wet or in some cases damp, I dropped in phthalo blue and let it interact with the sienna on the page. The result is almost as dark as the black in my photos but much more alive.

As usual I saved the white paper for foam and breakers with rubber mask. But I had a hard time getting the mask fine enough to show the run off down the base of the rocks. So when I tore the paper a little removing it from the pad (left of signature), I decided it was a good time to experiment with sgrafutto. After all, what did I have to lose?

Sgrafutto is an Italian term. It means to scratch the surface of multiple layers of color to reveal the lower layers. It’s a good technique for fine detail. In this case I used a razor blade to scratch through the brown rock to reveal the white paper below. Dragging the tip of the razor perpendicular to the cutting edge worked best. Dragging it toward the cutting edge produced a line so fine it didn’t show.

Now that I’ve tried it, I like this technique and I’ll use it to show more water against rocks in the future. I might also use it to show highlights in brick and stone.

The other technique I used to detail the spray is lifting. I moistened the edges of the rocks where they met the masked spray and scrubbed them a little with the brush. Then I took a dry thirsty brush and lifted as much of the paint as I could along the edges of the rock. You can see the results in along the left hand side of the largest rock and at the base of the far right rock.

I like this little painting and I’ll use the same techniques to make some larger versions of it later. I have plenty of rocks and breakers to play with.

tags: lifting, razor, Seal Rock, sgrafutto, waves

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September 2, 2009 3:59 pm

I Am Not Ruth Armitage

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by Jenny Armitage in biography,portraits

Romantic Memories

I am not Ruth Armitage. Ruth Armitage also lives here in the upper Willamette Valley. And she also paints watercolors. She is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and a past president of the Watercolor Society of Oregon. Her work hangs in my favorite gallery in Salem. And yes, like me, she likes to paint figures. And in my opinion, she does fabulous work.

I knew these facts, and yet I was still not prepared for connection, when I displayed a large number of my watercolors at the Oregon State Fair. Apart from, “these are lovely,” and “are you the artist,” the most common comment was, “are you Ruth Armitage?” The second most common comment was, “are you related to Ruth?” Given Ruth’s stature in the Northwest art community, those were flattering questions.

But the woman who asked, “then why do you use her name” floored me. Jenny Armitage is my name. I place a prominent “J” before Armitage in my signature. And while I like her work, my paintings have not been influenced by Ruth’s. Nor, much as I admire her, do I want to be Ruth Armitage. I want my work recognized as my work.

[This week, most common search phrase used to find this blog was, "are jenny and ruth armitage related." The answer is no. Neither are our husbands. ---added 3-1-10.]

tags: Ruth Armitage, woman

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August 29, 2009 8:02 am

The Joke’s On Me

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,shows,Uncategorized

Hungry, Vegan, and Broke

Memorial Day Waterworks (17 x 19) $275

I spent yesterday talking with people and watching their reactions to my paintings at the Artisan Village, a part of the Oregon State Fair. Mostly, the paintings I, and my family like are the paintings other people like. Also, many people from Wilsonville were charmed by Memorial Day Waterworks because they recognize Town Center Park. The Annex Pub and the seascapes were also popular. There were some surprises though. One of them was Hungry, Vegan and Broke.

I painted the two young men in Hungry, Vegan, and Broke as a kind of private joke. I saw them in in downtown Portland in front of Powell’s Books. And while they were obviously hot and tired, they looked healthy and able bodied. Certainly they didn’t look like they’d been hungry anytime in the recent past. And the sign was so absurd: “Hungry, Vegan, and Broke.” I could translate that sign two ways: “We Are High Maintenance Choosy Beggars;” or, “Feed Us Because We Are Such Good Moral Young Men.”

I liked my little joke, and I loved the afternoon sun on their skin. But I the reactions of my family and friends to the painting were mixed. I didn’t even consider making a print or greeting card of the painting, and I hesitated to frame it for the fair, but I did. At the last moment I made some magnets of it too.

Well, the joke is on me. Almost everyone who sees this painting smiles, and this is the painting everyone wants a print of. I have sold more Hungry, Vegan, and Broke magnets than magnets of any other painting. Today I’ll place it more prominately in the booth. Right now it’s down low and half hidden by a table.

tags: Artisan Village, beggers, boys, homeless, men, Oregon State Fair, Powells, vegan

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August 28, 2009 7:25 am

Opening Day at the Artisan Villiage

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by Jenny Armitage in shows

Grandma Braids

Today is my opening day at the Oregon State Fair’s Artisan Village. I’ll be demonstrating polymer clay sculpture all morning and working on a new Central City Painting all afternoon. I’m really looking forward to the chance to spend a few days painting.

I’ll be painting and sculpting there today through Tuesday. Today’s hours are 10 am to 9 pm. Saturday’s hours are the same. Sunday through Tuesday I’ll be there 11 am to 8 pm.

tags: Artisan Villiage, Oregon State Fair

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August 17, 2009 10:23 pm

Three Waiters

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,mistakes

Three Waiters (9 x 7) $125

Since becoming a painter of people, I’ve developed some sneaky ways of photographing strangers in public. One of them is to sit in a restaurant or on a park bench and pretend to be reviewing my pictures when I am actually taking pictures instead. I took the photos I used for this painting in just that way.

I just had to take the photos because of the way kitchen lights in the otherwise dark pub threw these waiters into relief. They looked like they were on stage, yet the scene was intimate. It reminded me of an Edward Hooper painting. But I’m no Hooper, and I intended something much warmer than the world he painted.

It wasn’t easy. I tried a version of this painting almost a year ago and was unsatisfied with it. As usual, the main problem was composition. I included too much of the scene and destroyed much of both the intimacy and the light contrast I was trying to present.

The First Waiters Painting

I like this new smaller version much better than last year’s version.

Once again I used a limited palate: phthalo blue, cobalt blue, burnt sienna, and raw sienna. Because I was painting with limited supplies in Colorado, I only had one yellow. If I had been painting at home I would have substituted a brighter yellow for the raw sienna.

tags: men, Portland, pubs, resturants, waiters, women

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August 14, 2009 11:27 am

Silverton Art Festival

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by Jenny Armitage in shows

I’m spending the weekend selling my polymer clay animals and vases at the Silverton Festival of the Arts. Come see me if you are in the Salem/Portland metro area.It’s a nicely run show and Silverton is great place to spend the weekend whether there’s an art fair going on or not.

tags: Art Festival, Silverton

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July 22, 2009 8:26 pm

Decisions, Decisions

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by Jenny Armitage in shows

I’m busy putting together materials for my first art fair painting booth. (I’ll be in the Artisan Village at the Oregon State Fair in late August and early September). I will have a ten by twenty foot space to fill with paintings and sculpture.

I spent yesterday afternoon going over my paintings with a girl friend and deciding which ones to make into prints to sell at the fair. I also quizzed friends, followers on Twitter, Facebook fans, and an on-line pen pal. The results were all over the map. After much thinking and listening, here is the tentative list:

The Pumice Seekers

Memorial Day Waterworks

Ladder to the Past

Winter Morning Solitude

Twixt Wind and Water

Waterfall in Her Lap

Georgia in the Morning

Daddys Magnifying Glass

Her Own Little Fountain

The Pink Bucket

Grandma Braids

Winter Morning Solitude II

Hat and Shoulders

Splash Dance

Romantic Memories

Winter Sun

The prints will be roughly 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 and in a few cases 12 x 16. I’m not having any painting printed larger than the original.

I have chosen a different but overlapping group to make into 5 x 7 greeting cards. I’ll post that list when the cards are printed.

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July 15, 2009 5:46 pm

Low Tide at Agate Beach

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,seascapes,techniques

Low Tide at Agate Beach (12 x 16) $200

I love the ghostly look of the beach at low tide on a foggy morning. The beach stretches out forever half hidden in haze and strangely reflective, making the beach and the sky much the same color. The ocean swallows up all sound. All is quiet mystery.

But I have a hard time painting it. It is essentially nothing with variations. Here, to emphases the space and provide life are my daughters striding companionably into to that great emptiness filling it with sound and movement.

To paint the picture I masked the white waves, the foam and girls, but not their reflections. I painting the sky with burnt sienna and cobalt blue in multiple wet into wet layers. I painted the beach first in yellow ocher and than followed that with burnt sienna. I painted various mixtures of burnt sienna and cobalt blue wet on wet over the sand. The waves are a darker mixture of burnt sienna and cobalt blue painted wet on dry.

After the wet paper dried, I lifted the mask and painted the girls. The were actually dressed in brightly colored coats, but I painted them in more burnt sienna and cobalt to keep the monotone foggy feel of the beach. Then I dampened the area under the girls and painted in their reflections wet on damp.

I placed my signature carefully since in all that emptiness I knew it would be a design element.

This painting is currently for sale on-line through my Etsy Shop.

tags: beach, girls, reflections

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July 9, 2009 2:31 pm

Surf Dance

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,postcard,seascapes,techniques

Surf Dance (5 x 7) $30.00

This is another little painting of the two brothers playing in the surf. They had found a log about half again as tall as either of them and were busy trying to return it to the sea. But as the tide was coming in, the sea kept giving it back. Here they have just finished taking it far so into the surf that they thought they had gotten rid of it. The victory dance was short lived. It came back. I don’t think they really minded though. They were having fun.

I used the same palette and method as the last little painting. First I masked the white foam and the boys. Then I painted the water and sand, beginning wet into wet and adding the details wet on dry. I painted the sand in with yellow ocher and burnt sienna right up to the first foam. I laid the thin layer of water reflecting the sky with blue cerulean right over the sand. I added the reflections last. When all was dry I removed the mask and painted in the boys and softened the foam.

Removable liquid masking is the easiest way to preserve small areas of white paper. I use Shiva Liquid Masque, but Winsor & Newton make a perfectly good mask too. The advantage to Shiva for me is that it’s slightly pink, making it easier for me to see where I’ve masked. Winsor & Newton is slightly yellow which I find harder to see against white paper.

Mask should be applied to bone dry paper. Use a synthetic brush well rubbed in hand soap to apply the mask. Resoap the brush regularly and wash it with soap afterwords. Don’t use water that has been used for masking when painting. Don’t remove the mask until the paint is bone dry. A rubber cement pick-up works best.

This painting is currently available on-line through my Etsy shop.

tags: Add new tag, boys, masking, surf, waves

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June 29, 2009 5:05 pm

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew: Demonstrating

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,shows,techniques,unfinished

I have difficulty painting in public. I never paint my best or even close to my best with an audience. Even at the gallery where people wander in and out infrequently, I have a hard time with painting in company. I don’t blush or drop my brush. But I don’t concentrate as well as I do in private. And I make fundamental errors more frequently.

But I must learn to paint in public and soon. And what is more I must be able to talk about it while I do it, because this coming August I have agreed to demonstrate painting and sculpture at the Artisan’s Village in the Oregon State Fair.

It’s sculpture that got me into this. I’ve sculpted for seven years now and I’m quite comfortable doing it with an audience. For the last four years I have sculpted all day at just about every art fair I’ve been in. Only heat and fancy carpets stop me.

Last Christmas a representative from the Artisan Village saw me demonstrating at the Salem Saturday Market Christmas Show and asked if I would be willing to take a booth at the fair. This is plum. Commercial booths at the fair rent for several thousand dollars. Booths in the Atrisan Village rent for $75.00. The difference? The Village is a juried venue. The catch? —artists in the Village must demonstrate from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm.

Most artist share a booth and share demonstrating hours. But I know no one else who sculpts polymer clay. And besides, it’s an outdoor venue and the hotter it gets the hotter polymer clay gets until it becomes much to soft to sculpt. What to do?

Well, I was looking for a way to display my new watercolors so I talked myself and the director into both sculpture and painting. I am to sculpt in the cooler mornings and paint in the heat of the day. Switching mediums halfway through the day should help me keep my brain active too.

Now all I have to do is learn to paint in public. I spent this weekend learning. Saturday and Sunday I sold sculpture while painting watercolors. I tried to stick to easy subjects and to leave the detail work for later.

I will try my hand at painting in public again at The Salem Art Festival in July, and the Silverton Fine Arts Festival in mid August. At the end of August it’s show time.

Here are my three half finished paintings. With luck I’ll be posting the finished paintings later this week:

Dances with Fountains (in progress)

This is the beginning of another painting in my Splash series of the children playing at Town Center Park. I began by masking the boy and the fountains and painting the water in cobalt blue and burnt sienna. After lifting the first mask I masked the splashes on the boy and the high lights in the fountains. Then I added raw sienna to the palette and began painting the boy. I think I am going to need a real red to complete his skin. Then I will lift the mask and complete the detail work.

Boy with Umbrella (in progress)

This is a full size painting of the boy with the umbrella. The boy is mostly finished, but I want to add a second umbrella on the lower right. I didn’t have a reference photo for that at the show. But I have plenty of pictures of umbrellas in the same light to choose from here.

The painting is on hot pressed paper. The palate is cobalt blue, phthalo green, quinacridone deep red rose, yellow ocher and ceruleum blue.

Pumice Seekers II (in progress)

This is a much smaller version of a painting I did a few months ago of my husband and the girls looking for pumice stones at Crater Lake. Stephen loves the original and won’t let me sell it. But it’s too large for his office. I’m hoping to have this smaller office sized version finished in time for his birthday.

So far I’m using just three pigments: cobalt blue, yellow ocher and burnt sienna. The painting still needs a great deal more contrast.

In the meantime I’ll be preparing to sell sculpture and paint at the Salem Art Fair. I will be at the State Fair August 28th through September 1st in Booth 414 on the south side of the village next to the floral gardens. Wish me luck.

tags: Artisan Village, boy, Crater Lake, girls, man, Oregon State Fair, Salem Art Festival, Silverton Fine Art Festival, umbrella

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June 24, 2009 12:14 pm

One Big Umbrella, One Small Boy, Three Small Sketches

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,shows,sold

About a month or so ago the Titanic exhibit, or at least a small piece of it came to Salem. Stephen and I took the girls. It was a hot day and we were grateful to the sponsoring bank bank for providing us all with sunshades. And all of those great green and white umbrellas made the crowd rather picturesque. I puzzled the volunteers by photographing the crowd rather than the outside of the exhibit.

I think I will eventually do a back-lit painting of the line. But right now I have an upcoming art fair in Seattle (for my sculpture not my paintings) that’s taking up most of my time. Nevertheless I want to keep my brush hand in. These three little sketches are of a toddler ridding on his daddy’s shoulders and playing with one of those umbrellas.

Boy with Umbrella I (5 x 7) $20.00

He was having so much fun twirling that umbrella around and so happily oblivious to everything else that I was afraid he was going to bean his father with it. Come to think of it the father has slid of the paintings. None of the angles I liked showed the man’s head. When I included too much of his back and shoulders it looked like the boy was ridding the headless horseman.

Boy with Umbrella II (5 x 7) $20.00

I began the sketches because I liked the umbrella. I ended up doing three of them because I got carried away with the infinite variety of color in the boy’s hair and skin. Blue, yellow, red, brown, purple and orange. It’s all there.

Now that I look at the sketches I may make a full size painting out of one of these.

Boy with Umbrella III (5 x 7) SOLD

The palette was phthalo green, ceruleum blue, cadmium red, quinacridone deep red rose, yellow ocher.

These three sketches may be framed or used as postcards. Purchase all three for $50.00.

Because they are so small, I’ll mail these little sketches flat rather than in a tube. As always prices include postage within the continental United States.

tags: boys, toddlers, umbrella

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June 19, 2009 12:41 pm

Her Own Little Fountain

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,mistakes,seascapes,techniques

Her Own Little Fountain (12 x 15) $75.00

Yes, it’s yet another painting of the children playing in the water feature at Town Center Park, Wilsonville, Oregon. What can I say? I love hot sun on skin. And the children were cute. This little girl in particular was adorable. She was all over that stream and happily oblivious to the camera.

This is my second painting on hot-pressed paper. The last was a rocky seascape and I used hot-press to get more luminous darks. That worked well.

I wanted to test the wipe-out properties of hot-pressed paper. Wiping-out means to paint solid color and then to lift the high lights. Hot-pressed paper wipes easier than cold-pressed or rough paper. It thought it would be a good technique for skin on a hot summer’s day. What I discovered is that it works well except for highly staining colors. Quinacridone deep red rose is highly staining. Actually I haven’t found a red I like that isn’t highly staining. The closest I’ve found is burnt sienna which is really an orange. I think I’ll wait for a less sunburn scene where I can use the raw sienna before trying wipe-out with hot-pressed paper again.

The palette was burnt sienna, colbalt blue, quinarindone deep red rose and yellow ocher. I reclaimed some whites with titanium white.

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

tags: fountains, gauche, girs, Town Center Park, water

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June 15, 2009 9:44 pm

In Progress

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by Jenny Armitage in seascapes,Uncategorized,unfinished

The Oregon coast is littered with spiny gray-black volcanic rocks. I love them, but it’s hard to get watercolor that dark without losing the vibrancy that drew me to the paint the first place. Last time I attempted this subject I painted on canvas because watercolor can be laid on canvas much more thickly than on paper. There are things I like about this approach to the problem.

High Tide and Seal Rock (12 x 16) $200

As you can see above, canvas does allow for very dark values. But there are problems with this approach. For one thing, watercolor lifts extremely easily from canvas and so I lost some of my ability to layer washes effectively. Also wipe-out techniques tend to return the canvas to white rather than merely lightening the paint.

This is the beginning of my experiment with hot-pressed paper.

Elephant Rock (14 x 20) In Progress

Like canvas, hot-pressed paper will take higher value darks than my favorite cold-pressed paper. The reason is much the same– more paint sits on the slick surface of hot-pressed paper. Paint has a tendency to lift from the surface of hot-pressed paper too, but not as easily as from canvas.

As you can see hot-pressed paper, does allow me to layer translucent paint effectively provided I make sure each layer is completely dry before I add the next one. All of the lighter colors are in now and I’m working on the darks. Things are just beginning to look three dimensional.

I’m going to prop this painting up on the dining room buffet so I can ponder it during dinner. There are some compositional issues I need to resolve before I go further. For on thing I don’t like the rock pile dead center in the painting. I need to move it to one side of the other. I may lighten the sand and grass up to echo the sea and sky too.

tags: rocks, seacapes, Seal Rock Beach

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June 8, 2009 5:23 pm

Splash Dance

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,techniques

Splash Dance (8 x 11) $150.00

I started painting this young man on Saturday. Unfortunately the tummy bug that swept our family earlier in the week caught me just as I was starting to mask the whites. But I thought about him off and on all Saturday and Sunday. This morning I went right to work and here he is, the fourth in my Town Center Park series–one more happy extrovert getting wet.

I used tons of splattered masking fluid to keep the splashed water. I find flicking a damp flat brush produces a lovely semi-controllable spray of mask. The faster you flick the smaller the dots.

I’m particularly pleased with his shirt. To make it look wet and stuck to him I added a little cobalt blue to his skin tone and applied it very lightly to his shirt. Where the shirt is stuck to his pants instead of his chest I applied a grayed down pastel version of the same colors that went into his pants.

The palette is a raw sienna, burnt sienna, quinacridone deep red rose, phthalo blue, and cobalt blue. His skin is raw sienna and quinacridone darkened with cobalt blue. I washed him with burnt sienna at the end.

tags: boy, Town Center Park, water

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June 4, 2009 10:01 pm

Memorial Day Waterworks

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by Jenny Armitage in buildings and bridges,figures,for sale,mistakes,seascapes,techniques,Uncategorized,unfinished

Memorial Day Waterworks (17 x 19) $275

Yes, this is yet another painting of the Town Center Park water feature. This one is rather more ambitious than the previous two. I backed up to take in the feel of the whole stream bed. And I included not one but seven figures.

As you can see from the reference photo, I took some liberties with the geometry of stream bed. I narrowed the center wall of concrete and removed a trash can among other less major changes. I also slide the boys around a little so that they wouldn’t be directly above each other. Finally I eliminated the blond boy half hidden on the left hand side.

Refrence Photo

After the Mask Came Off

Once I was satisfied with the sketch I masked the boys and concentrated on the water feature itself. Masking an object against water or sky makes it easier to get the water to flow evenly to the edge of the foreground object.

Masking the boys also served as a final composition check as it made them stand out as the centers of interest. People always attract the eye and I expected the boys to so doubly because their skin provides the only warm tones in an otherwise cool picture and because their clothing and toys are the brightest colors in the painting. I liked the way the placement of the boys echoes the “S” curve of the concrete wall. Now that the painting is finished, I still like it.

But I’m probably still not done with this water feature. I like this subject and I’m learning the value of working in a series.

Pigment notes: The background is all burn sienna, phthalo blue and cobalt blue. To do the boys I added yellow ocher, cadmium yellow, and quinacridone deep red rose.

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

tags: boys, figure and figures, fountains, masking, Town Center Park, Wilsonville

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May 28, 2009 9:50 am

Art Interferes With Art

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by Jenny Armitage in sculpture,shows

Leafy Camel (6 x 4) polymerclay

When I started this blog, I intended to emulate the daily painting bloggers and create a painting a day. Alas, life gets in the way and some days the house, the husband, the children, the garden and friends take up too much time to allow for painting. Thank heavens they do. And I often want to do bigger projects than I can possibly paint in a day. So my actual practice has been more like a painting every other day.

Now the art fair season is upon me. This weekend I’ll be at the Wilsonville Festival of the Arts, selling, not my paintings, but my sculpture. And after this show I’ll need to start sculpting again if I’m going to meet my show commitments this summer and fall. And I always meet my art show commitments.

So this blog may slow to a painting every two to three days. But there will be more paintings. There will indeed. I can’t help it. I’m obsessed.

tags: animals, camel, sculpture, shows

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May 25, 2009 9:55 pm

Winter Sun or Hat With Girl

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by Jenny Armitage in books,figures,for sale,prints available

Winter Sun I (9 x 12) $75

Arne Westerman has a little chapter in his book, How to Become a Famous Artist Through Pain and Suffering, in which an artist complains to his psychiatrist that he just can’t do lost edges because he has a compulsion to paint in the lines. I can relate. I have a hard time painting loose and yet the paintings I most admire are often painted that way.

This painting was an exercise in staying loose. I had to throw away two tighter versions to get it. But I’m glad I kept at it. And yes is does have a lost edge or two.

The palette is my trusty favorite four, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, cobalt blue and phthalo blue. It’s a good palette for painting loose. The burnt sienna and the blues flow together in the most interesting and unexpected ways. I washed just a hair of quinacridone deep red rose into her lips.

But however much I may like the painting, my eleven year old daughter, does not. As she complains, you can’t even see my eyes. And you can’t But if she will wear oversize hats, what else can she expect?

Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

tags: Add new tag, figure and figures, girls, lost edges, Westerman

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May 22, 2009 10:37 pm

Sisters on the Rocks III: A Wild Change in Palatte

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,seascapes,techniques

Sisters on the Rocks III (12 x 16) $100

Yes color matters. I changed the palette to brighter clearer colors, but grayed them down with their compliments. This made the scene more restful. The active climbing takes second place to the static view. I like the effect, but it feels much less like Oregon winter to me.

I used red rose deep (quinacridone), dioxazine purple, cobalt blue, Prussian blue, and hansa yellow light.

I under-painted the rocks with cobalt blue to establish the basic shapes before adding much color. Then I dropped in dioxazine purple and Purssian blue. This resulted in an unreal landscape of glowing blue rocks. After stewing a while I mixed up a grey brown with the dioxazine and the hansa and a muddy orange with the hansa and quinacridone. I washed these over the rocks to tone them down a few notches.

Underpainted

[caption id="attachment_523" align="aligncenter" width="128" caption="Half greyed Half Blue"]

[/caption]

The sky is cobalt blue with a tad of orange mixed from the quinacridone and hansa dropped in wet on wet. The sand is dioxazine purple grayed with the same orange. I used the same mixture for the headland in the background.

tags: Agage Beach, figure and figures, girls, gray, underpainting

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8:03 pm

A Paint Box Full of Gray

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by Jenny Armitage in techniques

There are various premixed grays and browns on the market, but I don’t use them. Nature doesn’t come in neutral gray, it comes in a infinite variety of grays and browns. The best neutrals for any painting are always mixed from the palette. Shadows look more real if mixed from the colors in the wall or ground on which it falls.

And grays are so easy to mix. To get gray, mix any color with it’s compliment: yellow and purple; blue and orange; red and green. Add more of the warm half of the duo and you get a warm gray or brown. Add more of the cool compliment and you get cool gray.

A Few Mixed Grays

tags: demonstrations, gray, mixing, techniques

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11:45 am

Gaining Texture But Losing Transparency

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by Jenny Armitage in for sale,landscapes,techniques

Sisters on the Rocks II (9 x 12) $50

This painting is almost all rock. To get the gritty texture I used naturally sedimentary pigments mainly burnt sienna and French ultramarine. Sedimentary pigments break into fine pieces and settle into the indents of the paper. I used granulation medium to heighten this effect.

But while granulation medium increases texture, it decreases transparency. Very little of this painting still looks like watercolor to me. Only the climbing girls, the sky and the background cliff look transparent. I liked this effect on the rocks in Sisters on the Rocks I because it exaggerated the transparent look of the scenery around the rocks. And in this painting is does heighten the transparency of the the girls. But, in future I don’t this I’ll use granulation medium for quite so much of a painting’s total area. It makes a better spice than a main course.

Stay tuned, I’m not finished with Sisters on the Rocks yet.

tags: girls, granulation, rocks, techniques

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May 17, 2009 7:25 pm

Floating on the Lawn

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by Jenny Armitage in figures,for sale,prints available,techniques

Floating on the Lawn (11 x 15) $125

This is one of my daughters’ friends luxuriating in the lawn. Sinking into soft grass and staring up at the sky is one of the best feelings there is.

I had fun with this one.

The biggest problem I had was forcing myself to make the grass dark enough. Consequently it went down in many layers beginning with cadmium yellow and cobalt blue and progressing through ultramarine blue and ocher yellow. I washed dioxazine purple over it to dull the color and dropped French ultramarine into the shadows. In the end the background took longer than the figure. [In fact I uploaded another version of this painting thinking I was done. After looking at it a while I strengthened the shadows and reposted it. ]

before the darker shadow.

The girl herself was purple pink in the light and I exaggerated that effect. I used rose madder quinacridone and cadmium yellow for her skin and dioxazine purple for the shadows in her face.

Much of the pink in her face was reflected light from her shirt. I used quinacridone magenta, more rose madder quinacridone and dioxozine purple for the shadows in her shirt. Then I washed her shirt with Winsor and Newton’s Opera—yet another quinacridone.

In keeping with the pink and purple theme I used dioxazine purple to under-paint the shadows in her hair before washing it with yellow ocher and burnt umber. I love under-painting for hair. It produces the most natural looking shadows.

purple underpainting

[caption id="attachment_478" align="aligncenter" width="127" caption="over-washed hair"]

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Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

tags: figure and figures, girl, under-painting

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May 16, 2009 10:49 pm

Interview with 1stAngel & Friends

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by Jenny Armitage in biography

Saturday at the Office (private collection)

Elizabeth Edwards just published an interview with me for First Angel and Friends. I love it. She asks great questions and I had a blast answering them.

You can read the interview here.

tags: First Angel, interview

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May 12, 2009 12:09 pm

The Drawbridge Again

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by Jenny Armitage in buildings and bridges,mistakes,unfinished

I don’t know why I am obsessed with the old drawbridge counterweight, but I am. I’d like to say my obsession was producing great paintings, but it isn’t. I’d like to say that there was some symbolism in the counterweight, that justifies all this futile painting, but there isn’t. I don’t see it as a symbol of impending doom hanging over the bridge or man’s ability to lift great burdens or anything else. I just like it.

But I can’t paint it. Here are the efforts of yesterday and the day before. Neither is necessarily finished. Neither is without potential. But I think it’s time to do something else for a while.

Suday's Counterweight

This is almost entirely wet into wet. Only the details are wet on dry. I used Hansa yellow, rose madder quinacridone, cobalt blue, and Prussian blue for the bridge. All of the colors layered or dropped in. I didn’t do any mixing on the palette. The sky is cobalt blue and burnt sienna partly mixed on the palette and applied wet on wet.

The movement in the sky seems to distract from the bridge and there isn’t enough contrast between the bridge and the sky.

Monday's Counterweight

This time I masked the bridge first and poured the sky in a single pour cobalt blue and cerulean blue. I used the same pigments as Sunday for the bridge itself and the same application method.

This one seems garish to me. The counterweight to too bright. Again there isn’t enough contrast between the bridge tower and the sky.

Of the two, I think Sunday’s effort has the most potential and I may get back to it later. Darker sky perhaps?

tags: buildings and bridges, misakes

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