California Scene Painting
California Scene Painting captures the regional spirit of the Golden State by illustrating epic landscapes and expressive genre scenes, which depict narratives of everyday life. It went through a golden age in the 1930s, when it documented the catalysts of cultural change of the time: industrial development stemming from the aftermath of the Great Depression. Born out of a larger national movement called the American Scene style, California Scene painters sought to create representational art based on what they saw and felt. Their movement developed with changes in the American way of life, and documented the expansion of the agricultural, railway, and automotive industries.
Artists
Nov 19
Interview
Watercolor Artist John Salminen: Art & Advice
Vesta Kirby (1936-2016)
Vesta Ann Kirby, age 80, long time resident of San Francisco, passed away on November 14th, 2016. She was born on January 28th, 1936 in Hillsdale, Michigan to Roscoe and Pauline Kirby. Vesta Kirby grew up in Michigan and Ohio. She began her studies in Fine Arts at Ohio State University and completed her BFA at The New School, Parsons School of Design, New York City. During her employment at Skidmore Owings & Merrill Architects, Vesta became primarily responsible for the color and designing of corporate interiors. She lived, worked, and painted in Europe: including, Paris, Bern, and various locations in Greece. She traveled to study the art, culture, and architecture in the Middle East, India, and the Far East. In Japan, she studied sumi'e ink painting and calligraphy brush painting with Japanese Masters in Kyoto. In 1970, Vesta chose to make San Francisco her home, where she continued to paint, design interiors, and teach art. After considerable traveling and working with other architectural firms, she completed her MFA at John F. Kennedy University, Arts & Consciousness in Studio Arts, Berkeley, CA. She was later invited to participate in the Djerassi Resident Artists Program for one month where she exhibited her completed paintings.
Vesta was preceded in death by her father, Roscoe Ives Kirby; mother, Pauline Ida Aiello; step-father, Albert Aiello; brother, William Mills Kirby; brother-in-law, Cornel Mentler Jr.; and niece, Vesta Elizabeth Mentler.
Vesta is survived by her sisters, Susan Elizabeth Pullman and Paulette Edyth Walters; brothers-in-law, Howard Wayne Pullman and Robert Dennis Walters; sister-in-law, Carol Kirby; nephews, Erik Ross Pullman, Brian Keith Pullman, Cornel Mentler III, and Ethan Patrick Pullman; and nieces, Teresa Ann Kirby and Karen Mae Story.
Family requests that donations be made to Next Village San Francisco (www.nextvillagesf.org/next-village-documentary/) or Friends of the Sharon Art Studio (www.sharonartstudio.org).
Memorial arrangements to be announced at a later date.
Watercolor Artist John Salminen: Art & Advice
Vesta Kirby (1936-2016)
Vesta Ann Kirby, age 80, long time resident of San Francisco, passed away on November 14th, 2016. She was born on January 28th, 1936 in Hillsdale, Michigan to Roscoe and Pauline Kirby. Vesta Kirby grew up in Michigan and Ohio. She began her studies in Fine Arts at Ohio State University and completed her BFA at The New School, Parsons School of Design, New York City. During her employment at Skidmore Owings & Merrill Architects, Vesta became primarily responsible for the color and designing of corporate interiors. She lived, worked, and painted in Europe: including, Paris, Bern, and various locations in Greece. She traveled to study the art, culture, and architecture in the Middle East, India, and the Far East. In Japan, she studied sumi'e ink painting and calligraphy brush painting with Japanese Masters in Kyoto. In 1970, Vesta chose to make San Francisco her home, where she continued to paint, design interiors, and teach art. After considerable traveling and working with other architectural firms, she completed her MFA at John F. Kennedy University, Arts & Consciousness in Studio Arts, Berkeley, CA. She was later invited to participate in the Djerassi Resident Artists Program for one month where she exhibited her completed paintings.
Vesta was preceded in death by her father, Roscoe Ives Kirby; mother, Pauline Ida Aiello; step-father, Albert Aiello; brother, William Mills Kirby; brother-in-law, Cornel Mentler Jr.; and niece, Vesta Elizabeth Mentler.
Vesta is survived by her sisters, Susan Elizabeth Pullman and Paulette Edyth Walters; brothers-in-law, Howard Wayne Pullman and Robert Dennis Walters; sister-in-law, Carol Kirby; nephews, Erik Ross Pullman, Brian Keith Pullman, Cornel Mentler III, and Ethan Patrick Pullman; and nieces, Teresa Ann Kirby and Karen Mae Story.
Family requests that donations be made to Next Village San Francisco (www.nextvillagesf.org/next-village-documentary/) or Friends of the Sharon Art Studio (www.sharonartstudio.org).
Memorial arrangements to be announced at a later date.
Nov 12
Christoph Niemann
One of my favorite illustrators/graphic designers put out a list of the fears he faces as an artist. Here are some of them:
Fear of comfort - When you’re too comfortable, you don’t have to analyze your work. Why push yourself in a new direction if the one you’re on is just fine?
Fear of likes - Too many approvals can keep us from risking something new
Fear of personal projects - Ideas without outside pressure or time constraints can easily disperse and disappear.
Fear of not being good enough
Fear of creating irrelevant work and going broke - if you depend on your art for your income
Fear of being out of ideas
I can think of many more, just thought he summarized our discomforts in a new way.
Loosen Up Your Watercolors
There are so many discussions about wanting to create looser, freer, more spontaneous, pieces, that I am finding articles and videos to share.
Go (a Little) Wild!—How to Loosen Up (Just a Bit) in Watercolor
1. Choose 3 colors at random and do the entire painting with only those colors.
2. Start with a wild underpainting.
3. Work wet-in-wet within shapes.
4. Connect as many shapes as possible into one big wet area, and “separate” them by lifting and glazing small areas later.
5. Whenever possible, draw with the brush.
6. Touch a wet edge in a few places as you lay in an adjacent wash and let the color run.
7. Use a spray bottle to soften and make color run, especially around the edges.
Here is the full article, with examples: Go (a Little) Wild
Heather Solway @ Gallery Sanchez
Fear of comfort - When you’re too comfortable, you don’t have to analyze your work. Why push yourself in a new direction if the one you’re on is just fine?
Fear of likes - Too many approvals can keep us from risking something new
Fear of personal projects - Ideas without outside pressure or time constraints can easily disperse and disappear.
Fear of not being good enough
Fear of creating irrelevant work and going broke - if you depend on your art for your income
Fear of being out of ideas
I can think of many more, just thought he summarized our discomforts in a new way.
Loosen Up Your Watercolors
There are so many discussions about wanting to create looser, freer, more spontaneous, pieces, that I am finding articles and videos to share.
Go (a Little) Wild!—How to Loosen Up (Just a Bit) in Watercolor
1. Choose 3 colors at random and do the entire painting with only those colors.
2. Start with a wild underpainting.
3. Work wet-in-wet within shapes.
4. Connect as many shapes as possible into one big wet area, and “separate” them by lifting and glazing small areas later.
5. Whenever possible, draw with the brush.
6. Touch a wet edge in a few places as you lay in an adjacent wash and let the color run.
7. Use a spray bottle to soften and make color run, especially around the edges.
Here is the full article, with examples: Go (a Little) Wild
Heather Solway @ Gallery Sanchez
Oct 22
About Gouache
Gouache is a French term used to describe a type of watercolour paint. The word is derived from the Italian guazzo which literally means a watering place. Before the 19th century the term guazzo was applied to glue-size painting.
Gouache is opaque. The pigments used are ground in water and mixed with gum. The results of using gouache appear quite different from those achieved with washes of watercolour, the look of which is more dependent on the nature of the paper beneath.
The National Gallery Glossary
Gouache has a considerable history going back over 600 years. It is similar to watercolor because it can be rewet and the paint can become infused with its paper support. It can also form a superficial layer like acrylic or oil paint. Also like watercolor, gouache dries to a matte finish.
Gouache paint is similar to watercolor modified to make it opaque. Just as in watercolor, a binding agent is present. This was traditionally gum arabic but since the late nineteenth century cheaper varieties use yellow dextrin. When the paint is sold as a paste, e.g. in tubes, the dextrin has usually been mixed with an equal volume of water.[1] To improve the adhesive and hygroscopic qualities of the paint, as well as the flexibility of the rather brittle paint layer after drying, often propylene glycol is added.[1] Gouache differs from watercolor in that the particles are typically larger, the ratio of pigment to binder is much higher, and an additional white filler such as chalk, a "body", may be part of the paint. This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities.[2]
Gouache generally dries to a different value than it appears when wet (lighter tones generally dry darker and darker tones tend to dry lighter), which can make it difficult to match colors over multiple painting sessions. Its quick coverage and total hiding power mean that gouache lends itself to more direct painting techniques than watercolor.[3] "En plein air" paintings take advantage of this, as do the works of J.M.W. Turner and Victor Lensner.
Gouache is used most consistently by commercial artists for works such as posters, illustrations, comics, and for other design work. Most 20th-century animations used it to create an opaque color on a cel with watercolor paint used for the backgrounds. Using gouache as "poster paint" is desirable for its speed as the paint layer dries completely by the relatively quick evaporation of the water.
The use of gouache is not restricted to the basic opaque painting techniques using a brush and watercolor paper. It is often applied with an airbrush. As with all types of paint, gouache has been used on unusual surfaces like Braille paper.[4] A variation of traditional application is the method used in the gouaches découpées (cut collages) created by Henri Matisse. His Blue Nudes series is a good example of the technique.
Gouache from Wikipedia
The Seven Gouache Hazards and How to Escape Them by James Gurney
Gouache is a French term used to describe a type of watercolour paint. The word is derived from the Italian guazzo which literally means a watering place. Before the 19th century the term guazzo was applied to glue-size painting.
Gouache is opaque. The pigments used are ground in water and mixed with gum. The results of using gouache appear quite different from those achieved with washes of watercolour, the look of which is more dependent on the nature of the paper beneath.
The National Gallery Glossary
Gouache has a considerable history going back over 600 years. It is similar to watercolor because it can be rewet and the paint can become infused with its paper support. It can also form a superficial layer like acrylic or oil paint. Also like watercolor, gouache dries to a matte finish.
Gouache paint is similar to watercolor modified to make it opaque. Just as in watercolor, a binding agent is present. This was traditionally gum arabic but since the late nineteenth century cheaper varieties use yellow dextrin. When the paint is sold as a paste, e.g. in tubes, the dextrin has usually been mixed with an equal volume of water.[1] To improve the adhesive and hygroscopic qualities of the paint, as well as the flexibility of the rather brittle paint layer after drying, often propylene glycol is added.[1] Gouache differs from watercolor in that the particles are typically larger, the ratio of pigment to binder is much higher, and an additional white filler such as chalk, a "body", may be part of the paint. This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities.[2]
Gouache generally dries to a different value than it appears when wet (lighter tones generally dry darker and darker tones tend to dry lighter), which can make it difficult to match colors over multiple painting sessions. Its quick coverage and total hiding power mean that gouache lends itself to more direct painting techniques than watercolor.[3] "En plein air" paintings take advantage of this, as do the works of J.M.W. Turner and Victor Lensner.
Gouache is used most consistently by commercial artists for works such as posters, illustrations, comics, and for other design work. Most 20th-century animations used it to create an opaque color on a cel with watercolor paint used for the backgrounds. Using gouache as "poster paint" is desirable for its speed as the paint layer dries completely by the relatively quick evaporation of the water.
The use of gouache is not restricted to the basic opaque painting techniques using a brush and watercolor paper. It is often applied with an airbrush. As with all types of paint, gouache has been used on unusual surfaces like Braille paper.[4] A variation of traditional application is the method used in the gouaches découpées (cut collages) created by Henri Matisse. His Blue Nudes series is a good example of the technique.
Gouache from Wikipedia
The Seven Gouache Hazards and How to Escape Them by James Gurney
Oct 15
Three Artists
Thanks to Nancy Elliot at CCSF, I have been introduced to these watercolorists:
Thomas W Schaller - for all you world travelers
Lourdes Sanchez - she does great florals
Bernhard Vogel - this guy is fantastic and very prolific. FYI, if your browser asks if you want the "HTML Version", it's a good thing, do it. The site is in German, so translate it if you can.
Thomas W Schaller - for all you world travelers
Lourdes Sanchez - she does great florals
Bernhard Vogel - this guy is fantastic and very prolific. FYI, if your browser asks if you want the "HTML Version", it's a good thing, do it. The site is in German, so translate it if you can.
Oct 01
Artist Hours at Conservatory Of Flowers
Three dedicated artists' days
"We are responding with a trial run of special artist hours this fall that also allows for tripods and easels, which are never permitted during open hours."
The artists' days—September 27th, October 11th, and October 25th—will mean the conservatory is open for one hour before and one hour after 10am-6pm, the Conservatory's typical hours of operation.
Entry to glasshouse hours is $30, which includes same-day admission during regular hours, as well as artist-only slots from 9-10 am and 6:30-7:30 pm.
Thank you, Darlene
Look What I Found!
CCSF > Student work > Watercolor
Totally by accident. The fuzzy berry thing is a painting by Joanie. So is the rosehip beside it!
Three dedicated artists' days
"We are responding with a trial run of special artist hours this fall that also allows for tripods and easels, which are never permitted during open hours."
The artists' days—September 27th, October 11th, and October 25th—will mean the conservatory is open for one hour before and one hour after 10am-6pm, the Conservatory's typical hours of operation.
Entry to glasshouse hours is $30, which includes same-day admission during regular hours, as well as artist-only slots from 9-10 am and 6:30-7:30 pm.
Thank you, Darlene
Look What I Found!
CCSF > Student work > Watercolor
Totally by accident. The fuzzy berry thing is a painting by Joanie. So is the rosehip beside it!
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