Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge


This month's challenge was to paint on black. Now, I used to do this regularly for awhile. I think I got the idea from Karin Jurick and I did like the drama of the color on it. But once its painted over, there isn't much point really. Then I began to paint mostly on a grayed surface, sometimes gessoing many panels at one time in a nice latex house paint actually (idea from Ken Auster) which gives a nice smooth surface. But lately I've been painting mostly onto white linen or gessoboard and using thin washes and wiping back some too to achieve more
transparent passages. Its funny how my own techniques vary widely depending on my mood and subject.
This time I let the black be, and I painted only the areas of light, so the black is the clayboard surface (only thing I had in black.) It was interesting to paint only the color areas, leaving his eye sockets empty and his shoulder and her shirt and hair just unpainted essentially.
All the negative space is untouched. It was a neat experiment. Now, the clayboard is thirsty, so I had to paint some of those passages several times to make the color sing. I'm curious how the others got their very dense black grounds. Will have to read on... follow their links to read more with me!


Glass Artists
5x7 oil on clayboard
©2011 Robin Cheers



Blue & Pink
9x12 pastel
©2011 Vicki Ross


Sunny Side Up
16x20 oil on board
©2011 Suzanne Berry

Sweet Reflections
4x6 oil on hardboard
©2011 Diana Moses Botkin



Not So Crystal Ball
20x24 oil on canvas
©2011 Sharman Owings



Megan Noir
4x6 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre

6 comments:

Art Matters said...

Love the lost edges! Great job.

VickiRossArt said...

Great painting, Robin! now, can you do it from life :)

Diana Moses Botkin said...

I love your painting, Robin. What a perfect subject for a black background. Did this just come to you as an idea, or did you see this scene somewhere?

And that clayboard: is that the clayboard scratchboard stuff? I love it for scratch technique with a sharp tool, taking away the black and working backwards from the way one usually would with pen & ink.

Marian Fortunati said...

TERRIFIC!!!!
All of them.............

A Painter's Journal said...

Thanks Diana -
It was perfect for the dark board! The idea came from a series of photos I took at a friend's glass studio. (Flo Vazquez)
The surface is the scratchboard. In fact, I thought about trying a scratch technique but decided to paint. Its quite absorbent so I had to paint some passages several times to get the color to pop.

Dale Sherman Blodget said...

Very nice. Your figures really deliver the intensity of the subject. Great focus.
What's your method of photographing the painting with all that black?? It continues to elude me.

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