NEWSLETTER 6
March 15, 2006

Artisan Northwest
The magazine of Northwest art and artists

Artisan Northwest's Spring issue will be in the mail soon!   And available on newsstands around the region.

"We help promote the growing art scene through-out the Northwest and provide a high profile venue for artists and galleries by producing a quarterly magazine focused on fine art and craft in our region.

We cover Alaska, Vancouver B.C., Washington, Oregon, Idaho, northern California and western Montana. Our goal is to make the Northwest a destination for collectors, artists and art lovers.

Each issue includes features on established and emerging artists, collectors, Artwalk information for your area, gallery openings and upcoming events."  From their website.

More on the Trip to
ITALY!

EXCITING NEW PAINT

Acrylic paint is great because you don't have to deal with wet paintings like you do with oils.  Chroma has manufactured a new kind of acrylic which we want to take to Italy.  It's called Atelier Interactive and has a longer open time than any existing acrylic paint, is still dry to the touch pretty quickly.  This may be the ideal paint.

Very new to the US market, it has been difficult to actually get this product.  I first ordered a set of the new paints about six weeks ago.  Half the order was out of stock, due in on the 17th of February.  The 17th came and went, no paint.  Finally, on March 2, I got the in stock notice.  The box arrived yesterday, March 13, but one of the yellows was missing.  I sent a fax last night.  I learned by email this morning they are sending the last tube.  Will it get here in time?  I hope so.  If not we'll make do.

PHOTO EQUIPMENT

After thinking it over it seemed like a good idea to leave the big Nikon digital SLR home on this trip...possibility of damage and theft, size, limited zoom and no video feature.  We will be traveling light and a smaller camera seemed in order.   I settled on a used Canon PowerShot S1 IS for a lot of reasons:

It will fit in a pocket of my photographers vest; uses the same Compactflash card as the Nikon, newer versions use the smaller SD card; 10x optical zoom with stabilization for pictures you could not otherwise get...3x is typical; will take TV quality video, 640/30 fps, up to the limit of the memory card, 1 GB - almost a half hour;  the 10x zoom works in video mode, very unusual for a still camera;  has a flip out and swivel LCD screen; and being used is less expensive than the latest S3 model.  The Swiss Army Knife of cameras!  Purchased on eBay from the original owner.

Should we take the laptop to store photos and video?  Too heavy and too big.  Instead we will take an Epson P-2000.  About the size of a paperback and very light, it will store 40 GBs on it's harddrive and will fit in another pocket of my vest.  It has a very sharp 3.8" LCD screen and a zoom feature to view photos and video, or you can show them on a TV.   You can also watch movies and listen to music on it.   Purchased new on eBay.

TRAVEL EASEL

This is an improved version of the Plein Air paint box I've had for years.  The legs screw in, two at the rear corners and one in the front.  The legs are from an old tripod and fit in the box.  The box will fit in a carry on backpack with wheels so we don't have to check our painting equipment.  A folding tripod stool completes the outfit.
 

FEATURED PAINTING

SHIP DEMO
8x10" a/c

PAINTING CLASS

We have a small class that is meeting once a month at the request of three lovely and talented ladies.  Last month we did a little practice painting to get used to mixing paint and applying it to canvas.  First, a 1" bristle throwaway brush was used to establish an underpainting in acrylic Burnt Sienna.  Then, using just the three primaries and white, color was added.  This is the very quick demo I did in class using the traveling easel shown above.  Maybe twenty minutes, inspired by C. W. Mundy's painting.

Below is the homework assignment they were given.  An exercise to explore the possibilities of just three primaries.  Here I've used Napthal Red Light, Ultramarine Blue and Hanza Yellow.  First, the color wheel was filled in showing that secondary and tertiary colors can be easily mixed.  Note that the greens are grayed which is just right for realistic painting.  Next, compliments are mixed to produce the grays that artists actually use to paint with.

FEATURED COMPUTER ART

Maya Card
5x3.5", digital

Oracle cards, never heard of them until a client recently asked me to design this one for her.  She had a good idea of the elements to be included and a well developed aesthetic sense.  After several versions this is what we came up with.  Her plan is to publish a deck with 36 cards.  This is only one I'll be doing.  I used Paintshop Pro 9 and ArchiCAD.

Copyright © 2005 Robert Bissett. All rights reserved. 

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