R & F Pigment Stick

My current favorite new medium to play with are the beautiful, juicy oil sticks by R&F. I feel like a little kids using finger-paint all over again. They are so soft and highly pigmented. I use them in my cold wax paintings for mark making and adding areas of luscious color. Pigment sticks really are the grown up version of oil pastels times ten.

Cold Wax Medium (CWM) mixed with oil paint is gaining popularity with painters because of the wonderful textural qualities that can be created as well as the luminosity the wax gives to the different layers of paint. You can add things to the wax to incorporate it into your surface. Check out my gallery to see the cold wax paintings. A wonderful book to investigate is Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts, and Conversations by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin. You can find it at Squeegee Press .com and Amazon.

I don’t receive compensation for mentioning these products, but I do recommend them.

Hidden Pathways Dawn Hartigan 2019

Do Over

The OOPS! Box

What happens when you have worked on something and it has gotten to a place where you decide it’s super ugly and ready for the cylindrical file? In my art classes students are NOT allowed to trash their work because they don’t like it. Does that make me a mean teacher? I don’t think so.

As artists we come up with ideas and try to execute them. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s not. I find I usually get to a place where I have to stop and let the work rest. I revisit it later and revise and edit where needed. This could be just a few changes or I might even gesso over the entire thing.

Here’s how it goes in my class:

1. I explain the Number One Rule - We don’t throw out our art work or art supplies!

2. I read them the “Beautiful OOPS” book by Barney Saltzberg.

3. I explain that I expect them to work through the “ugly” stage and not give up.

4. If all else fails, and they have really tried, they are free to put their work in the OOPS! Box. (A box that contains rejected work used for collage)

How about you? Do you have a pile of artwork you aren’t happy with? Guess what you are in the ugly phase! It’s time to revisit and revise.

Check out this video by Patty Palmer! She has a lot of great content on Youtube that I find very inspiring and useful!

Child's Play

Recently I took my grandson and daughter to the pool. Riley has never been to a pool, much less a pool with slides and sprinklers and tunnels. At first he just didn’t know what to do. Where am I? What’s going on? What’s all that noise? 

He began his exploration in the shallow end where water streams from  a  ground sprinkler, creating a sparkling arch . He reached out and got splashed with cold water. Over the next 45 minutes Riley explored the sprinklers and created games for himself.  He used  these games to teach himself about how the water worked. He touched the water and watched it  change form,  as it sprayed  him in the face and chest. He figured out that there were two places where the water touched the ground. He stood on the hole where the water came out and let it go up his pant leg. His last, and most exciting discovery was, that there are five sprinkles that span the length of the pool. He could run under the sprinklers and not get wet at all!

Flowers for My Mom by Ella 2nd Grade

How does this relate to art making? To me it speaks of our innate ability to  explore and create new things - or things that are new to us. Child’s play is really the child’s work.  Just like Riley had to explore the water sprinkler, we should always approach our art making with wonder and expectation.

Familiarize your self with how your materials work. Play with them to discover how far you can push their properties. Remember to never stop exploring and learning. Much of art making does involve practice and discipline, but process is where all the joy and inspiration comes from.

“Inspiration exists, but it must find you working.” (Pablo Picasso) - or should I say playing.