Category Archives: Artist materials

Artist materials

Artists Switch From Labeling Their Paintings Acrylic To *Synthetic Polymer*

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English: THAHLES, 2006. Corday. Synthetic Poly...

English: THAHLES, 2006. Corday. Synthetic Polymer and Pigment on raw linen. 72 x 216in. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I wrote and published this article in June of 2012, yet artists are still commenting on it.

Featured it again in 2015, and for a 3rd time October 2016.  Here’s the original article–

I don’t know all the reasons for acrylic shame, but I do know that many galleries and artists have long labeled acrylic paintings as *mixed media* to help increase sales. I’ve also heard stories of art collectors losing interest and walking away from a painting once they learned it was painted with acrylic paints.

Lately, I have noticed a new trend–contemporary artists are labeling their paintings *synthetic polymer* paintings rather than use the dreaded word *acrylic* to describe their work.

I’m thinking of doing the same. Synthetic polymer does sound more advanced, up-to-the-minute, complex. Perhaps *synthetic polymer* as a medium is actually more accurate a description, since *acrylic* does come in many forms other than paint. There are acrylic nails, acrylic fish tanks, acrylic comes in sheets, there are acrylic fibers, and acrylic acids. Just using the word *acrylic* alone in a line description assumes that the reader/viewer of your work will know that refers to artist acrylic paints. As contemporary artists continue to expand the materials they work with it may just be necessary to use *synthetic polymer* to describe the paint used, for accuracy and clarity. What do you think? Are you willing to drop the use of the term *acrylic painting* and start describing your paintings at *synthetic polymer paintings*? If so, why? For more accurate descriptions? Hope to increase sales? Please leave a comment below.

Artist materials

ArtSnacks

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blogartsnackstumblr_static_banner2

Yesterday, I posted about the art site eatsleepdraw. While viewing art on eatsleepdraw, I noted repeated references to ArtSnacks, an art supply subscription service. Artists love art materials but perhaps hate the hours spent in art supply stores or online suppliers sites searching for just the right tool.  ArtSnacks feeds that love of the hunt but helps you cut down on time waste with monthly sampling of artist materials

. How clever! ArtSnacks subscription service delivers art supplies to your studio door!

Normally, I receive offers of blog posts in exchange for art products, but this time I bypassed that and went ahead and subscribed to ArtSnacks.

Success! Thanks so much for subscribing to ArtSnacks!

Here are some questions you might have:

I just signed up for a ArtSnacks subscription – what will I receive?

Each month you’ll receive a box full of 4-5 art products to enjoy. Each box will include a different mix of goodies like pens, pencils, markers, inks, brushes, paints, and more.

When will I get my first ArtSnacks box?

If you signed up before the cutoff date (the 20th of each month) you’ll receive your ArtSnacks this month! We ship ArtSnacks on the 1st of each month and you can see details on shipping below. If you signed up after the 20th, you’ll receive your first box next month – and we promise it will be worth the wait 🙂

When will my ArtSnacks ship?

ArtSnacks are sent every month, like clockwork. We’ll start sending out boxes on the 25th(ish) of each month.

Will you tell me what is coming in my box ahead of time? Can I choose?

No, we won’t tell you, we like surprises. But we definitely want to know if you have ideas for future boxes. Send us an email with a link to a cool art product and well consider it for the future.

Whats your cancellation policy?

You can cancel your subscription via the account page at any time. To cancel your subscription, just login to your account, click on Manage Membership and hit Delete Account. You will still receive the ArtSnacks you have already paid for but your subscription will not be renewed the next time it expires.

For any other questions, or to get in contact with us, please feel free to email us directly at ArtSnacksCo@gmail.com

Artist materials, Emergency Services for Artists

First Come First Served—C.A.S. Donates Oil Paints To Artists Affected by Sandy Storm

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C.A.S Paints, an Illinois-based paint manufacturer, asked me to share the news that they have generously donated a supply of oil paints for artists affected by Sandy. Storm-affected artists interested in taking advantage of these donated materials are free to stop by NYFA’s offices before January 11. Materials will be given out on a first-come-first-served basis. Find the address and details here:

http://www.nyfa.org/level2.asp?id=202&fid=1

also Artinfo shares the news and links :
Midwestern Manufacturer Donates Hundreds of Pounds of Oil Paints to Sandy-Stricken Artists

http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2012/11/19/midwestern-manufacturer-donates-hundreds-of-pounds-of-oil-paints-to-sandy-stricken-artists/

Artist materials

Oil Painting Without Solvents In Your Artist Studio This Winter

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English: Paint brushes Deutsch: Pinsel

English: Paint brushes Deutsch: Pinsel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oil Painting without Solvents

I began using M. Graham Walnut Oil Alkyd Medium a couple of years ago and love this super high-quality pourable oil painting medium that allows me to thin my paints without using solvents such turpentine or odorless mineral spirits.  If you are not looking to speed-up drying with alkyd, then add M. Graham Walnut Oil Medium to your color to increase flow and slow the drying.

With Walnut oil artist products you can do Solvent Free Painting and  Solvent Free Brush Cleaning  in your studio this winter.

You can free your studio of dangerous solvents by using walnut oil to clean brushes. Walnut oil is a natural way to remove color from artist brushes or tools as effectively as odorless paint thinner but without creating an airborne solvent hazard that is damaging to your health.  To avoid solvents while cleaning brushes, use Walnut oil in place of turpentine or odorless mineral spirit. Walnut oil is a natural vegetable oil that neither evaporates nor removes essential oils from your paintbrush bristles.

To clean brushes while painting, keep two jars (one “dirty” and one “clean”) filled with Walnut Oil – a small piece of screening can be kept in the jar bottom to facilitate removal of color from the brush. As it becomes necessary to clean, dip your brush into the first jar of oil (rubbing to dislodge any color) and wipe the oil from the brush on the inside lip of the jar. Repeat a few times then dip the brush into the second jar to remove any remaining color. A final wipe on the inside jar lip to remove any leftover oil completes the process.

Reminder:  Immediately after use, dispose of contaminated waste in a sealed, water filled metal container. If improperly discarded, rags, steel wool or other waste may spontaneously combust when combined with vegetable drying oils and artists’ products made with them.

Learn more about sovlent-free oil painting here.

Both the M. Graham Walnut Oil Alkyd Medium and Walnut Oil Medium are now essential to my studio practice. Recently, I also tried six M. Graham Artists’ Oil Colors in tubes: azo yellow, quinacridone rose, napthol red, ultramarine blue, phthalocyanine blue, and titanium white. I was quite impressed by the high quality of these oil paints as I used them and also did a side-by-side comparison with other brands I had on hand. I am eager to add more M. Grahman paints to my studio supply. If you are looking for intensely pigmented paints in a fine quality oil, then you owe it to yourself to try the M. Graham brand.

The reason M. Graham oil paints are so packed with pigment is due to their use of Walnut oil which allows them to increase the amount of pigment in each color, resulting in extraordinary richness, color saturation, brilliance and tinting strength. Walnut oil also has a unique refractive index and non-yellowing nature that produces color that is more naturally alive and brilliant.

Video: How M. Graham makes paint 

 

Artist materials

Lomography Movement Sweeping the Globe

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Hongkong

Hongkong

Lomography is an international community of Lomographic photographers who advocate creative and experimental film photography, often shooting with outdated 35mm films in cheap toy cameras, creating off-color, out of focus, vignette effects that produce one of a kind photographs.

There are over 30 Lomography Gallery Stores worldwide and an online shop. Lomography has become pervasive. I noticed several lomo cameras for sale in the Andy Warhol Museum gift shop on my last visit. The first Lomography Gallery Store in China opened in the Sheung Whan district of Hong Kong in 2007, and now a second Lomography Gallery Store on Granville Road, in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Hong Kong functions as both a gallery and hangout and is the base for promoting Lomographic culture in the Asia Pacific.

It is interesting to me to see the lomography movement take root in Hong Kong, where I lived for two years. What better place than the jostling streets of Hong Kong, packed with thousands of people on the move day and night, filled with opportunities to make the bokeh images characteristic of lomography.

“Lomography began with a fateful encounter in the early 1990s, when two students from Vienna, stumbled upon the Lomo Kompakt Automat, a small, enigmatic Russian camera. They were astounded with the mind-blowing photos that it produced, the colours were vibrant, with deep saturation and vignettes that framed the shot. It was nothing like they had seen before. Upon returning home, friends wanted their own Lomo LC-A, igniting a new style of artistic experimental photography that we now know as Lomography.”  http://anyimage.net/tag/lomography/

 Lomography.com serves as the communication hub for Lomographers worldwide. The sum of this movement–you don’t have to be a photographer to make lomographic prints as part of your artists output and sales.

Lomo-Lubitel-166

Artist materials

Arches® Oil paper: A new paper for oil painting

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Professor and painter Steve Levin introduces Arches® Oil – A new Paper for Oil Painting. Arches® Oil (Arches® Huile) is a high quality paper, with a surface designed for use in oil painting. Unlike other papers, it requires no preliminary preparation. This paper provides the convenience of a fully ready-to-use support for work in oil painting.

Artist materials

How To Get More Discounts On Artist Materials Online + 100K Poets and Musicians For Change

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Spray paint cans

Spray paint cans (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I prefer to stay in my studio rather than go out and shop, so I often buy artist materials online rather than waste time changing into clothes my public persona wears, driving, parking, getting gas, driving back, etc. But of course when buying online there are always shipping costs.

Recently, I ordered a few cans of Montana Gold Spray paint from Utrecht and the shipping fee came to eleven dollars. A reasonable fee to have several cans of spray paint delivered to my door, but then why pay it if I can get free shipping? So I did a Google search on the term *Utrecht Coupons* which gave me a list of site links. I tried this one which had the Utrecht free shipping code W518. When I typed W518 into my online order form the eleven dollar shipping fee was subtracted from my invoice.

You can do the same for other artist materials suppliers–Google search the terms *Cheap Joe’s coupons*, *Daniel Smith coupons*, *Jerry’s Artarama coupons*, etc. You’ll find several sites offering coupons for each of those online stores. Check some of the coupon sites and soon you will know which ones have the best active discount codes for small orders and for large discounts on larger orders. This is a way for you to potentially save hundreds of dollars.

-also-

I’ve know Michael Rothenberg for a long time. Last month he celebrated his 15th anniversary of his literary ezine Big Bridge–and featured my poetry in his fifteen anniversary issue.

Last night he sent this to me:

OKAY everybody!!

It’s time to spread the word and sign up organizers for 100 Thousand Poets for Change and 100 Thousand Poets for Change on September 29.

Over 560 events confirmed in 100 countries so far. But I know there are tons of poets and musicians out there who want to be involved. We just have to tell them what’s happening. They can write me at walterblue@bigbridge.org, or sign up on the website at www.100tpc.org.

Please post this on your wall, on your friends wall, and send out a notice by email, tweet and share. This will be a historical global gathering.

Best, Michael

Artist materials

What You Can Learn From This Artist’s Approach

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After I accepted Dan St. Andrei’s friend request on Facebook, he sent me this note:

Thanks for accept, Marie!
It is also a great pleasure for me to invite you to visit my online portfolio. Your opinion will be challenging for me.
Have a nice weekend,
Dan
www.danandrei.com

dan st. andrei photography portfolio
danandrei.com
Dan St. Andrei in an art director, photographer and painter specializing in advertising, art photography and graphic design. Dan is based in Lisbon, Portugal, and also have studios in Miami, FL and Bucharest, Romania.

–

His line “Your opinion will be challenging for me” caught my attention. It signaled his professionalism and confidence. His site is impressive too!

Dan’s approach impressed me.  Some artists can learn from his approach.

Here are a couple of examples of how *not* to present your art–

I’ll never forget one artist who asked me to review her site to select art for one of my projects. I took the time to go over her site and copied one of her titles directly from her website then let her know that I could use that one for the project.  She immediately emailed her reply  *that’s not my title!”   Her site is in such a mess that her art is mis-titled and she used that as impetus for lashing out. Another artist sent me a PDF of 100 numbered images to review. There were problems with his numbering on his images. Midway down the list numbers began repeating so that two completely different images had the same number.  It may sound harsh, but most would have trashed the PDF and not replied. But I was kind enough to reply and inform him of the problem. In his responding reply, rather than correct his numbering system and resend the corrected PDF,  he sent me instructions that I should count –1,2,3, etc. Like I needed a lesson in how to count to 100!

Get your materials in order before sending them out. If you need help you will find my ebook guide for artist making submissions  and submission resource lists here.

Artist materials

Sunbelt American Made Artist Canvas vs Asian-made Discount Canvases + the Winner of Our Canvas Give-away!

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Sunbelt Canvases with packaging

Yesterday UPS delivered a box from Sunbelt containing two sample 12 x 16 inch canvases.  What I noticed right away was the weightiness of each canvas — the substantial good quality canvas stretched over wide wood stretcher bars, with consistent super tight flat corner folds. Consistent corners are always something I look for.  I noted the labels (pictured above) listing the materials—cotton canvas, acrylic titanium white primer, precision squared.

I  removed the clear plastic wrap on the canvases and examined the white primer coats. I noted right away that the tooth of the canvas was visible and present and the finish matte. This is important!

Do you use Asian-made discount canvases? Check the corners, the wood frames, and the labels on Asian discount canvases before you buy. Is the primer matte or glossy and slick. Usually  labels do not mention materials used. Why is this important?

Did you know that lots of artists have had issues with the primer coating on those super discount canvases made in Asia (Vietnam, China, etc)?  In fact, many artists who use an Asian discount canvas will first take the canvas outdoors, spray it down with a garden hose to give it a good soak and then give the canvas surface a good scrub with a hard bristle brush to remove the primer!  The extra labor off scrubbing off the primer and the mess and extra expense of applying a coat of gesso makes that bargain canvas much less of a bargain. Why scrub off the primer? Because acrylic paint doesn’t stick to the primer on some discount Asian canvases! There have even been reports of entire paintings peeling right off of Asian-made discount canvases!

If you are an artist in the US it makes sense to buy American made canvases such as stretched canvas sold my Sunbelt—the canvas is consistent high quality,  the corners tightly wrapped, the coat of white primer is a titanium white acrylic with a matte finish, as it should be, and the wood stretcher bars wide to prevent warping.

Many artists have noticed the low retail price list on the Sunbelt site and made them their source of supply for canvases, wood panels and silkscreens.

Thanks to all who tweeted and sent our promotional canvas give-away blog post to Facebook!

 Winner of our Canvas Give-Away

Seven artists left comments on our blog post making them eligible to win. We assigned each artist a number 1-7 then put the numbers 1-7 into a hat, and then (without looking) drew out a number. The winner # 1  Brenda O.  We’ve given Brenda O’s mailing address to the people at Sunbelt canvas so they can ship the 16 x 20 inch gallery wrap canvas to her.

Artist materials

Launch of Williamsburg Artist Oils Blog

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Deutsch: Additive Farbsynthese, simuliert mit ...

Image via Wikipedia

Carl Plansky of Williamsburg Oil Paints is an artist in dialog with the paint he mixes and with other artists. He loves the materials of painting and wants to discuss them with you on the new Williamsburg oils blog. Today the blog post is on Cleaning Brushes Without Solvents. Artists may leave comments and ask questions.

In upstate New York you are welcome to visit the Williamsburg paint factory where you can not only see the paint mixing mills at work, but try the paint in their *application area*.

If you would like to receive the  printed newsletter JUST PAINT mailed to you, for news about other paint manufacturers, color mixing and more on acrylic and oil paints, sign up on the Golden Artist Colors site.