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| 'Fall Meditation' 8x10 pastel ©Karen Margulis available for purchase $145 |
I don't know what possessed me to use this color. It is a good example of making mud! But there it was, an ugly but perfectly fine homemade surface just waiting for some pastel. I pulled out some older papers and boards to use for my aspen series and this ugly purple brown board was in the pile.
I loved the texture. It was my own concoction of clear gesso with a bit of pumice powder that I toned with liquid acrylics and applied to a board with random brushstrokes. The board I used was a Multimedia Artboard which is a wonderful surface that is practically indestructible.
I have written about homemade surfaces on my blog. Here are some links in case you missed them:
http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2013/02/friday-featurethe-secret-formula-for.html
http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2012/01/one-way-to-loosen-up-your-painting.html
http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2013/02/using-homemade-surfaces-to-spice-up.html
http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2012/01/one-way-to-loosen-up-your-painting.html
http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2013/02/using-homemade-surfaces-to-spice-up.html
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| My sad and ugly board. Click to dee the texture |
I love working on homemade surfaces and I always forget just how much I enjoy them. They are unpredictable and perfect for painting in a looser more expressive manner. It is difficult to get too detailed and fussy on the rough surface.
I began the painting by blocking in the big shapes of dark, light and intense color. This is one of the easiest ways to get a painting started. The photo below shows this first layer. Hmmmm I like that dull muted purple of the surface peeking through. Maybe it wasn't so ugly after all!
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| The first layer. Look at the wonderful texture of the surface! |
Oooh beautiful homemade surface! Color reminds me a little of Aubergine Colourfix - one of my all time favorite surface colors. It's super landscape friendly, little bits of purple harmonize everything but it's muted so doesn't really jump out like white flecks.
ReplyDeleteYours is lighter though, closer to a perfect mid tone. Sometimes the best substrate color isn't pretty by itself but gorgeous in use!
When I opened my first set of Rembrandt pastels, I wound up scratching my head over the mid tone grayed purple in it. Why did they put in this ugly color that looks like nothing I've ever seen in nature but not other grayed colors? Once I used it, I knew why it was so important to both landscapes and portraits. Now I absolutely love it in a stick or a surface, so your photo of the homemade surface just made me grin. It's so inviting!
And of course the other way to get it would be to swipe that stick over some or all of some Uart and give it an alcohol wash.
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteA bg thank you so much for your wonderful daily Blogs, I have enjoyed every single one of them. Especially the lightness of your strokes, the mixture of Colors, impressive!
Enid