Following the Pink Petals New Journal June 2020

Cezanne Grey: Titanium white, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, a dab of black (optional) Thank you, Maira Kalman, for this!

Following the Pink Petals 

Auvers sur Oise. 

I spent one day there back in June 2019. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since.

Van Gogh. 

Cezanne.

Daubigny.

Some of the artists who walked the streets of Auvers.

I've been wanting to make an entire journal dedicated to my time there for months now. 

This is that journal.

Above are some of my reference photos. I put those pieces together to create this page.

Supplies used:

100 lb Accent Opaque size 23 x 35" opened (this is the journal I made that I'm working in)

Acrylics: Holbein, Sennelier, Utrecht and Golden

Water based paint markers: Holbein (acrylic inks), Sharpie, Molotow, Posca

Stabilo All in One water soluble pencils in black, blue and brown

.35 Rapidosketch pen with black India ink

Palette knife 

Brushes

Read (and listened to) various editions of the letters of Vincent Van Gogh  

Busy Painting

Finished some very big To Do List things this weekend. It took me some time before I could start the work you see above, from actually doing the above work to being able to cut the pieces down (not shown here. I may share to Instagram and FB later today.) I really wanted to keep the above either as they're shown here or torn down into journal spreads but I didn't. Last night, I broke out the ruler and started ripping them down as individual pieces, which is what they were intended to be. Each one will soon make its way to their intended destination via the postal service later on tonight.

Materials:

100 lb Accent Opaque cardstock Acrylics: Utrecht, Golden, Holbein and Sennelier

 a regular pencil

Stabilo Aquarellable All in One water soluble pencils in various colors (except white)

An Abundance of Paint

Recently a very good friend gifted me with an extremely generous Blick gift certificate. Before buying, I took inventory of what I have, what I use, what are my favorite mixing colors and what I truly needed (I had an abundance of red so I skipped ordering that for now.) Like many, I have been hesitant to spend any extra money during safer at home orders on anything other than food, rent and toiletries. Paint is a necessity for an artist but it is also a luxury and I wanted to make sure that I put the gift certificate to good use.

One of my goals the last few months has been to explore and expand my knowledge of paint. I've been painting for 23 years but there is always something new to discover. 

 

I haven't used any of the Utrecht paints in jar form before (I usually buy it in tubes.) I love the quality of their paints especially their professional grade heavy body. 

Ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, titanium white and a little black make the most beautiful Cezanne greys. (Thanks, Maira Kalman, for this tip.)

Since I do not know when I will teach in person again, I have class paints (NOT shown) that I am looking to donate to young people/teens who don't have access to acrylics. Any suggestions of people or places that are accepting donations of gently used paints would be greatly appreciated. I can mail them in large flat rate boxes anywhere in the U.S. 

Links to my favorite supplies can be found here. My main tools lately are:

-journal (which I make)

-Coccoina glue stick

-scissors and a metal ruler (for cutting/tearing)

-paint brushes

-palette knife

-acrylics

-water based paint markers

-.35 rapidosketch pen (with black India ink)

-Stabilo Aquarellable water soluble pencil in various colors (black is my favorite)

-water brush pen

-collage material

Have you made anything lately? If so, what? What are some of your favorite must have tools?

What I'm Reading: Jack Whitten Notes from the Woodshed

For the past week or so, I've been staying up late reading Jack Whitten's Notes from the Woodshed.

“THE PAINTING MUST BE BUILT…LIKE YOU ARE BUILDING A STONE WALL.”

Whitten should be required reading/viewing for every creative individual.

“I want to put the fear of God in these paintings. I want to evoke a spiritual—magical—cosmic existence with a material connection—emotionally charged….”

I first learned about him in early February. David and I went to a book signing/presentation at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles. I had been wanting to go to their bookstore for quite some time but the timing was never right. I'm so happy that we finally had a chance to go. While there, I flipped through Whitten's Notes from the Woodshed. I didn't buy it (it was one of those bills and food before anything else kind of weeks) but I couldn't stop thinking about him.

King's Wish (Martin Luther King's Dream) 1968

I started googling his name when I got home.

When California began "safer at home", I dived in. I listened to as many podcasts, youtube videos and soaked in his words. Jack Whitten KNEW his stuff and I was hooked!

April's Shark 1974

"The developer" was ONE of the tools he created and used to create paintings like April's Shark, long before Gerhard Richter painted his famous works.

Whitten didn't stop.

He was always creating, pushing his tools, and learning from them, except for the times when he ran out of paint (which he talks about in Notes from the Woodshed.)

Black Monolith X, Birth of Muhammad Ali, Detail, 2016

“I am back to zero. The only thing I have to salvage from the past fifteen years is the fact of the hard backing; the bringing of the floor up to the wall. This is meaningful. I want to start 1986 with a clean slate. Of course, this destroys any chance of getting a gallery, no one is interested in an artist at the end of a series and beginning a completely unknown beginning. I am black, 46 years old, angry, tired of teaching, tired of being poor. ...What am I to do?”

I have much to learn and more to read (and re-read.)

Discover Jack Whitten:

Buy the book

Artbook@Hauser & Wirth on Whitten

Hauser & Wirth Whitten Bio

ArtNews talks about Notes from the Woodshed

Jack Whitten on Youtube

Art21 Interview

Jack Whitten interviews on Instagram here and here.

LISTEN here:

Modern Art Notes Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/manpodcast/ep151

https://soundcloud.com/manpodcast/ep98?ref=clipboard

Perspectives at the Blanton: Jack Whitten and Kellie Jones:
        

https://soundcloud.com/blantonmuseum/jack-whitten-kellie-jones-lecture-february-2015?ref=clipboard

Inventing Your Own Game Jack Whitten: A Painter’s Painter Gets His Long-Overdue Recognition

Jack Whitten’s Secret Self

My Painted Life: 24 December 2019 - 8 June 2020 Journal

After working on the cover of the journal (beginning on the 24th of December 2019), I didn't pick the journal up again until the 2nd of February 2020. During the month of January, I had other projects to finish. I don't like to work on more than one journal (or page at a time) so I set this book aside to finish other work.

This is the second largest journal that I've ever worked on.

This is the first time I have worked across the page in this size (an open page is 20 x 15". The book is 10 x 15" closed.)

Each page took several days to complete. Some pages took more than a week. When I didn't have a paint brush, marker or scissors in hand, I was processing and thinking about the page. I was studying various artists (reading, looking and listening to podcasts/youtube videos.) Each page is meticulously and thoughtfully layered until it said what needed to be said. I struggled the most with the words on the second to last page (with the artist at the easel) as the United States is in the middle of a mass revolution in thoughts and actions, and hopefully (finally) moving towards a massive systemic change.

Artists studied include:

Henri Matisse

David Park

Richard Diebenkorn

Vincent Van Gogh

Paul Cezanne

Wayne Thiebaud

Elaine de Kooning

Arshile Gorky

Delita Martin

Jack Whitten

Handmade journal using a discarded book cover, waxed linen thread and 100 lb Accent Opaque cardstock

Media:

Acrylics (Holbein, Sennelier, Utrecht, Golden)

Water based paint markers (Posca, Holbein, Molotow, Sharpie)

.35 Rapidosketch pen with india ink

4 in One Stabilo Aquarellable water soluble pencils in black, brown, orange, red, yellow, blue, green

water brush pen

Coccoina glue stick

Video flip through: