acrylic - that other water media

untitled

acrylic on canvas

9 x 12 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

If you follow me on Instagram you may already know that I have begun a new journey with acrylic painting. My explorations in mixed water media have led to the desire to really push paint around on canvas or whatever surface I can get my hands on. I see the approaching winter solstice is a time to draw inward, as a good time of year to step out of my routine and take an inward retreat. A time to try something new, without pressure, and just for me. I have a new crochet pattern to try with some wonderful new yarn and I may even attempt a macrame wall hanging for that piece of drift wood I brought back from the beach last spring. And I painted two acrylic landscapes on canvas. The one above was the more successful of the two. At this point I felt more exploration was in order so I went back to the acrylic painting paper. I like this paper in that it is sturdy, acid free, and not all that costly so I don't worry so much about wasting good art supplies.

Every Road Home

acrylic, graphite and Inktense on paper

8 x 11 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

I began this series with the intent to paint non-objectively. I wanted to explore compositions that were about color and shape, texture and line, but without the constraints of subject. Except what happened was that mountain landscapes kept showing up. So I just went with that.

The perimeters I am using for these works is to keep the format vertical and use a limited palette. My palette as shown above is white, purple, teal and ochre acrylic. I just love those gray-greens that come from these three colors. The crayon is a Lyra water soluble graphite crayon, and I occasionally threw in little bits of magenta Inktense.

Where Mountains Rise

acrylic and graphite on paper

8 x 11 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Again, the limited palette, while exploring using a variety of shapes and marks, and there are those mountains again. I have lived here so long that the landscape has become a part of my subconscious visual language!

Now one of the biggest road blocks I faced when working with acrylic was how to dispose of the waste water. This was a big issue when I was painting with water soluble oils. I liked painting with them but was worried the plumbing in our house wouldn't. From my previous trials with acrylic I was keeping a bucket for the waste water hoping that the liquid would evaporate and I could throw out the solid acrylic skins. Except that here in these southern mountains nothing ever evaporates and I was stuck with this ever filling bucket of paint water. But I kept looking for a solution and eventually found this delightful artist who had found the answer to this problem. Kitty litter! It's simple and brilliant. The only issue with the kitty litter is the sickening synthetic "air freshener" smell. So if any of you cat owners know of a brand of kitty litter that clumps but has no perfumey odor please let me know!

departure

I seem to work in cycles. After playing with abstracted images in my Edisto series, I have returned to my familiar mountain landscapes with the aim to take them beyond the literal. This is something I have attempted in the past with watercolor but this time I am exploring other water media as well.

So these two pieces are the first in this exploration. I began with a scene in mind and a few sketches where I focused on what is most interesting to me about the landscape- the movement of the undulating hills receding into the distance, defined by the lighted and shadowed areas.

Both of these works are approximately 8 x 11 inches on acrylic paper. I used water soluble graphite, Inktense blocks, Neocolor II watercolor crayons, Lyra Aquacolor crayons, gesso, and some acrylic paint. Pretty much anything I could think of to throw at it just to see what would happen! This is a departure from what I have been doing with watercolor for the past several years and I find the novelty of working in an unfamiliar way energizing as break from routine and the predictable.

Edisto Series

All The Quiet Places

mixed water media on paper

10.5 x 14 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

My Edisto series is now completed and available for purchase in my Etsy shop. You can see the entire collection in my shop by clicking here.

Ending Where It Began

mixed water media on paper

10 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

I loved this exercise of sticking with the theme of the beauty of Edisto all the while keeping my color palette and method of painting and mark making consistent.

That Alone Will Do

mixed water media on paper

10 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

There is so much beauty to be found on this island, a beauty that requires our strict attention in order to protect and preserve this coastal environment.

To Lose One's Self

mixed water media on paper

10.5 x 14 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

And it is a home and a second home to many who find comfort in being by the sea in a small, strong community, away from the commercial trappings found in most coastal areas.

Beckon

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

I also enjoyed the challenge of abstracting this theme just a bit. 

Haven

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

I used my feeling for the place as a starting point and allowed the paintings to develop through the common thread of beach, water, palms, and the light.

Return

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

This is a method that I plan to explore more deeply in future works.

Rhythm

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),

It's always our self we find in the sea.

~e.e. cummings~

Edisto series continued

Edisto II

mixed water media on paper

10 x 14 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Here are two more paintings in my Edisto series, created with the same process as the first. After sketching in the composition with a watercolor pencil I lay in watercolor washes. Then I build up areas with more saturated watercolor, after which I apply watercolor gesso in selected areas. Then more washes and marks with Inktense pencils. I liked the simplicity of the composition in the painting above, and left a good deal of white paper exposed. This painting shows one of the many little cottages at Edisto beach.

Edisto III

mixed water media on paper

10 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

I am enjoying being able to use very saturated color and then push it back with the gesso. This process adds a dimension to the layering of pigment that watercolor alone cannot. And then restating areas with marks made with those wonderfully vibrant Inktense pencils is just fun! The painting above is inspired by the walk out to the beach at Botany Bay. I have read where the Botany Bay nature preserve sustained a good deal of damage from Hurricane Matthew and that it will be quite a long time before it will be open again.

Edisto series

Edisto I

mixed water media on paper

10 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Since my last post I have been busy creating works based on Edisto Island, South Carolina. The painting above is inspired by the many marsh views there, this one comes from Botany Bay on Edisto.

After my sketchbook explorations, I made a suite of small images wothout working directly from a photo reference. Instead, with my photos nearby purely for inspiration, I relied more on memory and pulled some of the graphic elements to create imagined compositions based on my feeling for Edisto. These were done on 1/8 sized watercolor paper. I used some watercolor washes along with watercolor crayons, water soluble graphite, Inktense blocks and gesso.

I am finding that I do like using gesso with watercolor. I discovered this gesso and similar to a watercolor ground, it can be applied thin or thick. I like using it not only to reclaim white areas but also to push the intensity of color back a bit when applied more thinly. It also provides an absorbant surface to then layer with a wash or accept watercolor pencil.

And here is a detail showing the watercolor pencil marks on top of a thin layer of watercolor gesso. Even though I had intended to keep these strictly watercolor paintings, I am so enjoying responding to the image with mark making and the added element of layering the surface. And all of this is causing me to reconsider those acrylics that I tried a while back.

sketchbook :: Edisto series

Ever since Hurricane Matthew cruised up the East Coast a couple of weeks ago, my mind has been on our beloved Edisto Island in South Carolina. Edisto took a direct hit from the hurricane and has sustained a lot of damage. Keeping up with the news reports and seeing photos of the destruction was, and is, heartbreaking.

I began pouring through my photo inventory from Edisto with the idea of creating a new series of paintings based on that island that we love so much. This top sketch is inspired by the walking path that takes you out to Botany Bay on Edisto Island. Sorry about the wrinkles but this big Seawhite sketchbook is a bit unwieldy for my scanner.

And this one comes from the view out to St. Helena Sound.

Another St. Helena Sound view. I love those tall sea grasses.

I am using a variety of water media with these sketches, watercolor pencils and crayons, Inktense pencils and blocks, a water soluble graphite pencil, charcoal, and a little gesso sometimes here and there. I am exploring imagery from Edisto that is something other than my usual seascapes. You know how I love painting water and waves! But for this series I am looking for a different perspective on that beautiful island, so I plan to explore ideas through lots of sketches and studies.

sketchbook :: a new Seawhite sketchbook

I am continuing with the Raven Rocks overlook theme by exploring compositions and color in my sketchbook. Above is one of the last sketches that finished my Strathmore 500 Series 8.5 x 11 inch Mixed Media sketchbook. Here I used charcoal, watercolor, watercolor pencil, Neocolor II watercolor crayons, and Inktense blocks. Although I like the Stathmore Mixed Media sketchbooks as a sturdy studio sketchbook I had found another, new to me, sketchbook to try.

It's a sketchbook made by Seawhite of Brighton and I chose the 10 inch square format. It is cloth bound with a hard cover and has a whopping 190 pages, so it's a hefty book. One of the first things that I noticed is that it stays flat when opened so there is no struggle with clips or holding the pages down when trying to work in it. The paper is 140gsm(95lb) all media cartridge paper, and it is a nice, bright white. So far, it has held up very nicely to everything I have thrown at it. There is some buckling when the paper gets very wet (and I tend to do that) but I don't mind because it is a sketchbook after all. The sketch above was also done with mixed water media.

I was curious how it would be for straight watercolor painting and I was very pleased with the way the paper in this book handles paint. I like to paint very wet and drop in color to allow it to mix on the paper and that method worked well with this paper. I have had sketchbooks that were so heavily sized that the paint would just sit there which was very frustrating for the way I like to work. I also found that lifting paint was not a problem on this paper either, so the sizing seems about right. This sketch was done with watercolor only.

So all-in-all I am happy to be working in this sketchbook. My studio sketchbooks do become a mix of studies, notes, quick visual thinkings, an occasional watercolor or pencil sketch, and more notes. I like that this has a lot of pages to accommodate all of that. Although because of its size I doubt I'll be hauling it around very far for plein air painting, but I already have a nice watercolor sketchbook to fill that purpose. The sketch above is also with mixed water media. I have more exploring to do yet with this Raven Rocks theme.

Use cheap colors, if you will, but buy good paper - fifty percent and more of your watercolors depends on the paper you use. 

Work very wet and don't be afraid of the colors running into each other. 

Use more color, play with it, yell at me with color. 

Give me something dripping with sunlight - make some horrible free studies.

~Charles W. Hawthorne~

sketchbook :: moving forward

For some time now I have been using my sketchbooks more as working sketchbooks than illustrated journals. They become filled with scribbles of ideas and notes, lots of notes. I have been feeling a bit stagnant with my art and new ideas keep popping up and my sketchbooks are the safe place to explore and try out various media and approaches to visual expression. And two recent events seem to have collided to inspire a renewed interest in my sketchbook studies and my approach to making art.

One was a recent drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway where we and stopped at the Raven Rocks overlook, and I snapped several photos.

It was a glorious September day and I delighted in the clouds drifting in the bright blue sky creating shadows on the distant mountain ridges.

From those photo references I am working up sketchbook studies, focusing on what interests me most about each scene. I love the deepening of the late season greens along with the warm spots of sun on the mountain sides. I am trying out a variety of media, curious to see what happens with my mark making and color choices. Some, maybe a few, of these studies will eventually find their way into larger works. But for right now, the value is in the study.

And that is where the other recent event comes in. Last week I took part in Tara Leaver's 7 Day Challenge. The goal was to create a series of seven small works in as many days. The parameters of the challenge were left up to each artist to set for themselves. I chose to experiment with my approach to watercolor while working from one photo reference, exploring various views within that singular scene. It was a whirlwind of a week, creating a new work everyday all the while working in a way that was new and unfamiliar. I got out ALL my water media supplies and tested various approaches to getting marks of color on paper. It was a fun and enlightening experience as I learned just how much change I was comfortable with in my work and when the steps were too big to take all at once. It was with this exercise concentrated in one week that inspired me to return to the practice of creating sketchbook studies.

Here are the finished pieces from Tara Leaver's 7 Day Challenge. And here is her blog post wrapping up the experience with lots of wonderful art to see.

All of my sketchbook images above were made in a Strathmore 500 series mixed media 8.5 x 11" sketch journal, using watercolor, graphite, watercolor pencils and crayons, and Inktense blocks.

sketchbook :: it's magic

Here are some sketches I intended to post much earlier than now, but life, you know, sometimes gets in the way.

Back in March I saw Laura Frankstone's wonderful sketches with Koh-i-noor's Magic Pencils. I was so intrigued that I ordered a few for myself, and they are fun! Not being able to resist adding splashes of paint to my sketches, I discovered that the Magic Pencils are waxy enough to act as a resist to watercolor paint.

I suppose one could be careful to control the color when drawing with the marbled multi-colored lead of these pencils. However, I enjoy the delightful surprise of a new color that changes - like magic- every time you draw a line.

Something a little different

Early Spring

mixed media on paper

4.5 x 6 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

This is a little mixed media experiment that I worked on last weekend. While browsing art blogs last week I came across a post on one of my favorite artists blogs, Vivien Blackburn's, Paintings Prints and Stuff. Her work posted, "A muddy lane in February" immediately caught my attention. I have long been a fan of her art and was intrigued by her explanation of process with this work. So I tried my own version using a reference of an early spring scene I had photographed while on a walk in a local park.

I used a spare piece of Canson Edition paper and began with Neocolor II crayons, sketching in areas of color. This I brushed with water and let dry. Then I went in with colored pencil, adding some of the smaller elements and softening the intensity of the Neocolor washed a bit. After that I added pastel, bringing up some of the lights and then more colored pencil to define some of the details.

This was a fun way to work with much more immediacy than using colored pencil alone. What I like about Vivien's piece is the softness combined with the expressive marks, allowing for a quiet energy in her piece. And this is where I feel my mixed media falls short. Perhaps it's a fear of pushing the media. Of course this is only one of very few attempts I have done with mixed media. It is a method I would like to explore further, but probably not any time soon. For now, I'll remain content enjoying Vivien Blackburn's beautiful art works.

We're here!

We have finally arrived in Blogland! This blog, Nemcosky Art, is a place for us to share our creative explorations in art. I will mostly show completed works by myself and Gary, although sometimes a work-in-progress will appear or works not to be included on our website, www.bluebirdhill.com. In addition to our sketching, drawing, and painting I will also include posts reflecting on homeschooling, our favorite books, recipes, and life with our dogs.
Thank you for joining us on our creative journey!

Avon Still Life
mixed media on paper
by Gary M. Nemcosky copyright 2007

Whalehead Sound

5" x 7" colored pencil on pastel board
by Ann Thompson Nemcosky copyright 2007