Matisse Inks demonstration at The Art Scene

Every winter The Art Scene has a series of lunchtime demonstrations on a Thursday. You can download a PDF of all the upcoming demonstrations from their website. I usually do a demonstration for Matisse Derivan. This year I am using the Matisse Inks. They are absolutely loaded with pigment so they are a pleasure to use, and they have new bottles that have a dropper and are bottom-heavy, so they are better than ever.

So I had to come up with something new. Eliza, who works at Derivan now, showed me some good tricks, and I went through my trusty art books to find a few more things. As far as inks and mixed media are concerned, I think Maxine Masterfield is the go-to person. I found something in her book In Harmony with Nature: Painting Techniques for the New Ageand something else in her other book Painting the Spirit of Nature combined the two, and this is the result. Well, one of the results. This technique is fun and easy and something even children could do. If you can doodle, you can do it. This is ‘Guilin Landscape’. It reminds me of the scenery when I sailed down the river in China.

As well as that I will be demonstrating another fun way of making a painting with inks. Lots to cram in, in just two hours. It’s on 18th July, starting midday. Come along!

Day 4 – Ornamental Cabbage

Yesterday a  friend dropped in and brought me two ornamental cabbages from the florist up the road.  They are just stunning with deep greens, then subtle yellow greens and pink in the centre. I decided for my first drawing of them I would do only one of them in Matisse Bright Green ink.

I am NOT promising to stick to inks while drawing these later in the week. I have never had any of these before – in fact have rarely seen them. They’re just crying out for coloured pencils, so I plan to draw them that way also when I get the chance. I won’t be counting those in my 75-day challenge of course, but having all those beautiful colours to look at and not to draw them is just beyond me.

Sunny again today, so at last I remembered to get the camera out and photograph the giveaway book. I have a few different views of it so I’ll give you a taster soon.

Day 3 – Yellow Deep

I plan to do a bit of Gelli plate printing and Annie brought me over a grapefruit and a lemon to print with. I decided to draw them before I cut them up. I used Matisse Yellow Deep ink and a dip pen. It’s quite a challenge using only the pen lines to achieve the tones. I could get them much more easily with a bit of water and a brush, but I don’t think I’d have the same long term gains.

The sun is out today (coldest July in 27 years so far) so I have the door open and some fresh air coming into my house. What shall I sketch today? I have to keep on sketching every day that I can because …………… we’re in single figures on the countdown to the giveaway.

New Guinea Impatiens

Continuing with the 75 day sketch challenge I decided to draw the pot plant that is sitting on my kitchen table. It is a New Guinea Impatiens that my friend Isabelle gave me for my birthday back in the summer. I really love it and especially the white container which is exactly to my taste.

She gave me strict instructions that I was to put it outside in the day and bring inside every night. I’ve been very good about it till now. It is so icy cold outside that I am keeping it on the kitchen table where it gets some sun but not the icy wind. Isabelle, by the way, is getting some sun in America, so she’s not here to check up on me.

The flower is pink and though the leaves are green the big veins and the stems have a pink colour also. One or two of the leaves are orange so it was a big temptation to use colour. However in keeping with my goal of using ONLY ink,  I decided to use Matisse Carmine ink. As I have the whole range, I did get out the Deep Red and the Magenta as well, and thought of varying the reds.  In the end I decided to stick witht he Carmine. Oh, and I used a dip pen.

Whats on in June?

I am doing a demo at The Art Scene from 12- 2 on 14th June. It is about decorative papers made with inks. I’ll be making the itajime paper, pictured, and some bubble paper and one or two others if there is time. There’s not much room there, and its supposed to be only a demo, but I’m happy if people want to have a try.

One week later at Leichhardt Library from 2-4pm, I’ll be teaching a hands-on workshop in the same skills. Hope to see you at one of these free events.

Now that June is here we can look back at the huge success of Every Day in May. This year it resulted in the spontaneous creation of Every Day in June groups in both Facebook and Flickr, and so it goes on. I wonder if it will also continue in July. If you want to take part, so the sidebar off to the right there.

I’ve decided to take part in the Wild Weird Wonderful art swap. Starting today. You have to make six pages and get them to your nearest coordinator before 1st July.  I’m planning to base mine on the weird wonderful plants in the tropical centre in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Today I might prepare my pages and Gelli print the back, then I’ll have a number of pages to work on with the back already done and no risk of messing up the artwork on the front (apart from the usual way).

Another thing going on in June is 30 days of Creativity. It’s a little bit different, being on Twitter and Pinterest as well as Flickr. I very much like their calendar. It is clever as it can be used for any form of creativity, including sketching. I plan to pop in there to use it for prompts for sketching.

EDiM16 Seven-eleven with green flashes

EDiM16 was a bittuva disaster.  I had to draw a local shop. After I hopped off the bus from the city I was taking photos with my phone (Android – 11 months old) and it died.  I came home and went to Google Street View and managed to get this image from there.It was what I’d been photographing anyway. It’s a typical Newtown view and it is the 7-11 near the bus stop.

I used orange ink with a dip pen  (materiality) then a little red ink and green ink to get those 7-11 colours. As I was rubbing out some pencil guidelines, somehow a drop of green ink had got onto the table and onto my hand and what you see is what you get. Julia says it’s a green flash. Maybe I should spatter a bit more.

My phone is fixed now but I had to remember how to work the old one for a while.