When to Use Photographs

Discussion abounds among portrait painters about the good-vs-bad points of painting from a photograph, as opposed to painting from a live model.

Painting from life brings clarity to just how soft the transitions within the face are, especially in the seamless contours of a baby’s face. However, even the folds of the wrinkles of a 95-year-old are soft. It clarifies the softness of the extreme edges, showing how they round into the light. However, painting from a photograph clarifies the absolute boundaries of eyes, ears, nose, hair, in a forever-fixed position. This brings resolution to many internal disputes the artist faces the moment she begins fixing lines on a piece of paper.

The problems with painting from life are in ever-changing lines and movements, left-right, up-down, and not having a head full enough of every angle and curve of a roundly 3-dimensional object. The problems with a photograph are many–distortions in the planes, misreading the data, not understanding the 3-dimensionality at any point along the way, interpreting light and shadows, and more.

Most veteran artists maneuver both paths.

So, when I received a request to paint a life-like portrait of a woman’s 50-year dead grandmother when she was a young child, I was not alarmed. I’ve had a lot of experience over many years in ‘reading’ photographs when I worked ten years as artist in a photographic studio enhancing portraits. So I had a wide acquaintance with old photographs and enhancing them, making the project only marginally intimidating. My emphasis with anything photographic is in making subjects jump off the page to greet you. And one fact alone ends the portrait painting discussion–if the subject is not alive, you don’t have any option other than using a photograph. My client wanted her own picture of her beloved grandmother, as another sibling owned the original one, because she had seen my work, and had concluded she would prefer a work of art rather than merely a photograph.

She lives in another state. She had visited my studio several times, however, visiting someone in the area and acquired one of my gel pen paintings. She had the vision for a piece of fine art, as well as a likeness.

So, of course she wanted the feel and sense of an old photograph. Once our back and forth was firmed up, I received an 8 x 10 black and white with all the colors described to me verbally.

We discussed parameters, found samples and examples of the exact colors desired. Her color sense was exacting and precise, and her willingness to respect and work with me as artist was an artist’s dream. She wanted a certain finished size, so I had to work backwards in designing the figure in the space, allowing the amount of space for painting in what had been the original oval mat, the pattern on it, the actual matting, and the frame width. Every aspect of frame, mat, background colors, dress color, hair, eye, complexion color were described. We decided on watercolor paint as the medium to more accurately and sensitively express an old photograph. That meant bringing back all of the lost integrity of the image. If you have ever seen chalked-in old photographs, you probably know what I mean about so much detail having been lost.

She sent me an 8 x 10 image of the original photograph, and my work began in earnest. I first drew many sketches of her on watercolor paper tinted yellow, the color of the dress. I drew her and re-drew her multiple times. In the end, I was not happy with the effect of the tinted paper, so I scrapped that version and began what would be the final on a 300# Arches cold press piece of watercolor paper, having acquired good practice in nearly memorizing her features one by one in every line variation. By this point, I had a decent hand-done oval. My drawing was nearing the ready phase.

Even then, I had to check and correct tiny little lines multiple times, moving them a hair up or down, a hair right or left. It was tedious work. Don’t ever commission someone who thinks their first line is final. However, extreme caution must be used in erasure, as well, as using the wrong eraser or overworking erasing can ruin a painting in short order, abrading even expensive 300# watercolor paper especially designed for watercolor abuse.

My biggest struggles, besides the hand-done oval, came in the colors, as the copy I had was black and white, and I had to dream up color mixes based on names of colors. I searched the web a lot for examples of ‘chestnut’ hair, and other descriptions. However, it was not my ignorance, but my knowledge that lead me astray. Knowing there is a lot of blue in a shadow color (for which I substitute green added to red to get the perfect complementary), I ended up with more shadow versions of the colors in her face than I needed. Then my client shared a painting she had bought that reminded her of someone in their family, sent me a picture of it, and I freshened up the facial colors using those. Don’t trust someone to do a watercolor portrait who says you can’t tinker with watercolors, either. You just have to know how.

A friend at one point made crucial comments that lead to change and downplaying some detail to greater effect.

At this point, the client preferred to be surprised, so the finished product was taken for its framing, a suitable was picked, along with a mat that made the unit hang together in a way that seemed inevitable, as if it had always existed. The prince of all boxes was ordered at a princely price, and the work was sent off in fear and trembling through my favorite service who picks it up at my studio. Then I followed it on pins and needles until it was received.

Finally the longed-for response arrived. “I can’t begin to tell you how ‘over-the-moon’ I am with my grandmother’s portrait!” was the first line in my thank-you letter from my client. Imagine my joy when she told me that the grandmother that was always in her heart was now in her home, too. And the very best thing a portrait artist can ever hope to hear, “You nailed it, girlfriend!”

Sigh. Now I can proceed to my next project. But first, this just came in from my client, “Oh, yes, tell Joanna she has my grandmother’s eyes down perfect. They’re the same as I remember!”

I wrote this article on request for a restorer working for the University of Delaware creating a public forum for artists to post their questions about the chemical components of art materials and the effects they have on their painting practices. She is now working with such a forum, indispensable to us painters, saving thousands of hours of research. AMIEN was a symposium which disbanded and left a vacuum until now. MITRA, https://www.artcons.udel.edu/mitra

Ever since I turned professional (part of some 40+ years of painting), I have upgraded my techniques and materials. When I send my art students to an art store for supplies, I tell them, “It’s a jungle out there.” Without exception, major questions arise on what to buy in every single arena, whether paints, surfaces to paint on, brushes, mediums, or varnishes.

These trips force questions to the surface which I am not prepared to answer, and not from lack of trying. These choices are not fun ones; they are not cosmetic at all. Once I sold my first $3000 portrait I upgraded my materials and painted it on a Belgian linen canvas. (It had to be restored.) I joined the Portrait Society of America, attend their conference annually, and learned from buying at their kiosk that most of what was sold at major art dealers was craft product, not designed for the serious artist, but for the throwaway market that attracted customers who wouldn’t find them in the 20 years they stayed a-float to complain. As I continued to find expert resources I drained every bit of information I could contain from them and upgraded further, swimming through masses of conflicting data and input, through purchases of shoddy to great materials, and never knowing which was which. I have one book I refer to above all others for expert advice. The old books, like Meyers, have been superseded and outdated by current product and understanding.

My knowledge grid is now one that has wildly divergent arrows which would take up a side wall.

One of my biggest downers as a professional artist was finding out how fugitive my favorite color, alizarin crimson is, and how careful an artist had to be about mixing what I consider all the “pretty” colors.

Had I known oil painting harbored such numerous pitfalls witnessed by the unseen cloud of restorations through the centuries, and was rife with chemical and logical incompatibilities, I might not have braved entry into oil painting at all.

That said, I am a water-colorist as well, which also presents multiple technical problems, but to my mind, not so many.

Here is a recent conversation for you:

Me: I didn’t realize zinc came in acrylic gesso.
Expert: OH WAIT I MISSPOKE MYSELF….I have not had caffeine yet. SO SORRY.
Me: So I’m really at a standstill.
Expert: Zinc in acrylic is FINE, as far as we know.
Me: It just shouldn’t be in oil gesso, or ‘real’ gesso.
Expert: Right.
Me (after further research): But every manufacturer puts this in their gesso.
Expert: Well, yes. It happened once lead, the sturdiest white, was taken off of the market.
Me: So none of my paintings are going to last.
Expert: Unless you affix it to a rigid support… Unless you prime with lead with no zinc in it… Unless you find the one man in the U.S. that does this work… But then you must find the right rigid support, like tin or aluminum or copper or wood panel or hardboard panel.
Me (after researching each one of these): Each one of these has its own problems. And in the end, you can’t get large surfaces ready made anywhere. (Meanwhile, the price of my portraits had just tripled).
Expert: Well, some manufacturers teach you how to attach linen canvas to different surfaces.
Me: So now I’m into time-consuming prep work, expensive courses, and more time. My schedule already stinks, it’s so full. When can I paint?
Expert: Yes. It’s not so hard, once you’re into it.
Me: So, what if I return to fake gesso, acrylic gesso?
Expert: The main concern with acrylic grounds is quality. There can be tons of surfactants and other additives, especially if the company is outsourcing in China.
Me: Dang. One should marry a materials expert.

Take one of the good-guy companies in an area that is fraught with disaster, varnishing, and look at their disclaimer.
“Disclaimer: The above information is based on research and testing done by X Artists Colors, and is provided as a basis for understanding the potential uses in established oil painting and printmaking techniques using the products mentioned. X Artists Colors cannot be sure the product will be right for you. Therefore, we urge product users to carefully read the label, instructions and product information for each product and to test each application to ensure all individual project requirements are met – particularly when developing one’s own technique. While we believe the above information is accurate, WE MAKE NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND WE SHALL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES (INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHERWISE) THAT MAY OCCUR AS A RESULT OF A PRODUCT APPLICATION.”

Am I the only artist into whose heart that strikes terror? No.
Expert #1: If the satin varnish has matting agents this will be a problem and could result in a “frosted glass” effect (re-varnishing on top of glossy with a mat varnish).
Expert #2: Yes, actually Expert #1 is right about that. Conservators are able to get away with applying satin (higher molecular weight varnishes) over your average more glossy varnishes (lower molecular weight varnishes) because we make our own varnishes from scratch….There is a dire need to survey what is in all of these proprietary varnishes.
Expert #3: It is zinc in oil that is a problem.

Many of us run right along in total ignorance where angels fear to enter, assuming the seller has OUR INTERESTS AT HEART. My gosh, I remember first learning in my Old Master’s watercolor training in Germany that ox gall, which

dissolves fat in water to prevent oily resists in watercolor, was deadly poisonous. To date, I have never even seen a skull and crossbones on a bottle. Do paints containing cadmium have label warnings? We assume happily the truth of one of the most popular American phrases of the century, “It’s gonna be all right.” And this happens in what the general public would consider more important than how long their painting will last.

“Really?” With luck, perhaps, maybe…. but then, probably not. Who can we trust? Why will manufacturers not tell us what is in their products? Why are so many processes hidden in multiple, indiscernible layers? Why must the consumer roll back middleman after middleman and waste time when a manufacturer could have simply disclosed the materials he used. Why does one of the most reputable sellers going tell a customer, “In all the years I’ve worked here, no one has ever asked that question”? about the exact components in primed canvases and says he’ll take it further after their first hundred or so inquiries. Gee, thanks.

The industry has turned craft instead of artist. The industry does not have long-term vision. The industry is not worried about liability. The industry profits on the artist while BYPASSING THE ARTIST’S NEED TO KNOW AND MAKE GOOD, DISCERNING DECISIONS.

Having seen all of this without a doubt, I would like to proclaim an Artist’s Manifesto:

* We Artists need an independently run forum where we can ask questions regarding materials and techniques.
* We Artists need a platform in which to interact with conservators, scientists, and industry representatives.
* We Artists need help navigating the ever-growing world of commercially available art materials.
* We Artists need to be heard and listened to in every area of art product manufacturing and design.
* We Artists need to KNOW what we’re dealing with.

To do so, we need to be able to ask questions of those with the knowledge base we are crying for, and which we could only navigate if we gave up our own call to paint. Happily that day is here.

November celebrates a lot of things, elections, Veterans, the pilgrims’ day of thanks (unless history has been dumped), but I just discovered that November’s National Love Your Red Hair Day celebrates redheads. That’s right, everyone with red hair gets good press on the 5th of November, a custom, I am told, started by two redheaded sisters.

Why as an ash blonde would I want to enter in? Why, because they make up 13% of Scots in Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots being a famous Scottish redhead and 10% of folks in Ireland, because I write books, and because the heroes and heroines in my novels often have Scottish or Irish descendants. Nothing says Scottish like red hair and freckles. Another reason is that they won’t go grey, and hence, stay eternally young, the way a good hero or heroine must to entertain centuries of readers. Give my heroine some green or blue eyes and you have a real rarity, because even among redheads, the common eye color is brown. Bees are attracted to them, I have just learned, so maybe I need to write a thriller with a redheaded victim.

Cover for New Release Coming Soon of Stone of Her Destiny

That and because redheads are said to have increased sensitivity to pain, and you know for certain that an author is going to subject her characters to some pain. We fiction authors are something of sadists in that regard, because unless you squeeze the jar, you don’t know what’s in it. The same gene that produces red hair is linked to the gene connected to pain receptors, meaning they might require more anesthesia for intrusive medical procedures.

And in no small part would I pick a redhead because they don’t have the reputation of blondes as being flaky or “I dunno.” Their reputation is hotheaded, independent. So they make strong contenders for your attention as slightly quirky, an inherent difference which grooms them for adventure in your hemisphere.

Great authors have featured stand-out redheads through the ages. Take A. Conan Doyle in Sherlock Holmes, for example and his detective short story “The Redheaded League,” or Anne in Anne of Green Gables who is revisiting us now from yesteryear, or the Weasleys in the Harry Potter series. Then there’s “Little Orphan Annie” and Pippi Longstocking so popular in Germany that we watched when we lived an extended time there. There’s the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, not to mention Dorothy herself of Oz with her cute little braids. There’s Dana Sculley of X-files, one of my personal favorites and the fictional Madeleine of French extract, and I would be remiss not to mention my granddaughter’s current favorite fictional character, Ariel. Don’t forget our wonderful rag dolls, Raggedy Ann and Andy. Then there’s Faramir in Lord of the Rings, quite nice for a hero. In my adopted genre, Gothic romance, popular British novelist Hugh Seymour Walpole published thirty-six novels, including, Portrait of a Man with Red Hair. It is described as a macabre romance, a Gothic tale by a descendant of the author of The Castle of Otranto.

Not to mention that my aunt across the road was a redhead and, to break into brogue, ‘niver ye saw sich an independent female with firmly defined character parameters.’ My cousin the editorial writer has red hair and lots of his cousins, descendants of one of the Scottish clans which made up a huge portion of the population in the Cape Fear region of North Carolina, emigrating from the 1730’s on into the area. My own people are Scottish descendants as well (https://joriginals.net/books/how-writing-a-gothic-filled-in-my-family-line/) and included many influential leaders in local and state government.

Having red hair makes one more likely to be left handed, statistics say, an evidence of a recessive gene showing up because recessive genes like to come in pairs. On average redheads only have 90,000 strands of hair while blonds have 140,000. However, since red hair comes thicker, their hair looks just as full.

Interesting my Christmas novelette features a dual redheaded pair in A Yuletide Folly Follyhttp://books.joriginals.net/author-books/yuletide-folly/, Sinclair, who returns to her mansion and horse farm in the Pinehurst area for some intense intrigue with her geologist boyfriend and love interest, whose red hair leads him in a decidedly levelheaded direction. We hired two models who fulfilled the cover requirements for this. I’m amazed at the odds on having found them, since they are only 2-3% of the total population at large!

Now we have a redheaded heroine in my newest novel, Stone of Her Destiny, by the name of Kenna. I say it takes a redhead to manage her destiny between two worlds, Scotland and the Cape Fear region of North Carolina; with the old world of her ancestry and the modern new world she and her Scottish love must conquer to stay functional. Together they have the combined ancestry which will save the day. This novel is slated for publication before Christmas of this year. I just have a couple more love scenes to incorporate into it, scenes worthy of a redhead, I might add.

Sizzle, sizzle, and still safe.

Some portrait commissions fall on me with no forewarning, like this one did, although it came from a former client and someone I knew very well and for whom I had done another portrait earlier of four siblings on one canvas.

This one, however, is about a young boy at the delightful age of 3 years old caught up in his bright red tractor. Now red tractors are truly classic, especially ones large enough to ride on. Or to fix on with real tools. I know my own connections to little boys contain episodes of fixing and unfixing the crib in which they stayed. Every night the gate would collapse, the screws fall out, and the crib door would be dangling in the morning.

So, the benefactor, or the godmother, of this little boy contacted me for the portrait of a charming little man, and the adventure began. The first sitting with introduction to him and his mother happened on a Saturday, as I recall, and I studied him as he shot all around my studio, a ball of energy. Children are not easy to capture in still shots; did I mention that? In any case, seeing your subject in person is vital, because as every artist of any experience at all knows, photographs can lie. Maybe a better way of saying that is that the truths of a photograph are all internal, and frequently not weighed against other objects, like adults, other small children, nightstands and chairs. Even trees can help in
sizing a person.

We discussed what Little Man would wear, what colors one saw in the tractor, and I was left with a pile of photographs to look at to wonder what angle played him and his personality up best. I remember we decided on going with this look because when he was alone, he was most himself, more than when he was with people; he submerged his personality into the internal process of what he worked on, looking out from there at the world of other people. We set up a schedule, made a contract, and figured out times for the follow-up visits. This work was to be captured on a 3′ x 4′ canvas, and I would add a frame to the basic order as my responsibility.

I started out drawing multiple sketches of his face, which I then sent for comments to the parties involved. We settled on sketches; I made adjustments and then began the grisaille, and the imprimatura. Then, the oil painting.

But let me introduce the godmother with her account of the events. Her Story:

“God’s perfect plan is awesome! Little did a 40-year-old professional and a 20-year-old guest at the North Carolina Correctional Center ever think they would form a life-long friendship and a bond that only God could forge. But they did!”

Nancy was an inmate at the NC Correctional Center for a youthful rebellion with drugs that she knew would destroy her. When the judge, a friend of the family, said he would recommend leniency, she refused and accepted both counts of the indictment which meant a felony on her record and many years in prison, because she knew it was the only way to save her life. On one of those years in spring she met Sarah, a member of a Christian mission group to the prisons who were conducting a Christian weekend for a select few of the inmates. Sarah was the sponsor for Nancy’s best friend at the institution. Months after the weekend, Nancy realized her friend was trying to scam Sarah by pretending not to get the package sent and then selling the extras that came, so she wrote Sarah and let her know the truth.

a precious moment in an oil portrait commission

After that, the relationship Sarah had with the friend ended but a new relationship was started with Nancy. Letters of remorse, truths of scripture, and hope through Jesus Christ was shared. Bibles and books were sent and there was always a visit every month in NC Women’s Correctional Center and later at a minimum security prison. Letters were written to the parole board and when Nancy came up for parole, Sarah was there with Nancy’s mother and aunt.

That long awaited day came when Nancy was released to her mother’s home under house confinement for a year. Nancy got a 2-year degree and was a model parolee and model worker. After several years, she married and wanted children, but after years of drug abuse in her youth and diabetes, her hope for children became an ‘it will happen if It is God’s will.’ Nancy was content with leaving it in His hands. A few years before her 40th birthday, she called Sarah who had been her mentor and friend throughout this ordeal and told her the good news. She was pregnant.

She had a healthy, but premature, baby boy. A miracle child! That child is now 5 years old. The portrait of ‘Little Man’ was made at three years old, commissioned by Sarah as a gift to Nancy to represent the ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan in a life starting out as a failure, to a life completing God’s plan. Nancy is now completing her degree and going for a masters in her chosen field. She has been selected by her director as a future manager of the regional group in her field.

The visits and calls continue every month and every week, and Gi Gi has been added to Sarah’s name, great God mother. What a blessing!

“The painting is beautiful,” Gi Gi told me, “Nancy had a fit over it!”

And Nancy said about their portrait, “This is the oil painting that will soon grace our home. Now I will always have him with me, in everything I do, will see his sweet little face…. It’s wonderful! I am so amazed by the portrait. I cannot wait until next weekend!”

And so the completed portrait went home to live with Nancy, and I get reports of it from time to time from my dear friend Sarah, or Little Man’s Godmother, Gi-Gi. A portrait painter gets such wonderful connections through her portraits. I love my job.

I just went with my group of DAR ladies to the Major William C. Lee Museum in Dunn. We are one of the patriotic groups, so the trip is a no-brainer. One of our Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) members set it up for us. Our President, Paula Hildebrand traveled from Wake Forest for this event.

We had the docent there schedule a tour for us. We were in the middle of it, and I was as excited as the first time I’d seen it. No, wait, that’s wrong. I was way MORE excited about it than I had ever been, military being my son’s and my husband’s interest, but not particularly mine.

As Gloria Gulledge went on about different memorabilia, like a huge old flag they have framed there, I was struck with the amount of first times, of invention, of tipping point moments that had occurred with this one point in history, through this one man. It was astounding. I would almost say he exploded into a moment of history as potently as had Churchill.

Don’t expect me to tell you all those things, because I can’t. You will just have to call and take the tour yourself, and it is more than worth it. It was at least as good as the one we attended through the LBJ house in Texas, and I would say it was way better. I promise you, they didn’t pay me to say this or advertise for their museum.

I can remember all the way back to its beginnings, when some classmates of mine and a colonel I knew from before my overseas trek started talking about doing this project in a fine Southern home in Dunn, NC. I didn’t give it much credence, not being quite as smart as I think I am. However, this project has grown. The exhibits have multiplied. The one-of-kind moments have, as well. Like the permanently lighted artwork of a major artist which takes you there to that time frame. The uniforms have grown, authentic ones used and discontinued–from WWI days to now–showcased in glass cases on three separate floors boasting a regular set of stairs and a servant’s set of stairs. It also house the Dunn Area Chamber of Commerce. They have a discontinued bicycle that they jumped from planes with in enemy lines, to get out of there once they’d landed. They have authentic guns and rifles used by every phase of military and foreign military. They have statues, old photographs, letters, furniture, stories, and more.

Follow Gloria from the red room to the blue room to the–you get the idea–all are full of story, dates, and times of the action, what lead up to the grand moments of history, and what sequels it has had. It even has tie-ins to things like the history of the development of 5-star generals. I just thought they had always been and ever would be, sort of like the doxology in a Sunday service.

William C. Lee in a miraculous moment started our governments’ parachuting unit. In no time, they had 50 men.That grew to 500, to 1000, to 8,000. Initially, he saw the Germans using it and was captured by it, implemented the idea once that was his assignment by using prototype circus exhibits in a story which sounds more like a total made-up fantasy fiction than like history. Don’t expect me to get my facts right or to repeat a tenth of it, because I can’t, but the docent, a teacher and history lover herself is immersed in this and has been for years, and makes the history of it all come alive right before your eyes.

Our President Paula, Left, Jane Tart, Treasurer, Right

I would actually say she lassos you and forces you into her time capsule and takes you back in time to the first moments, the moments of inception, the invention moments. You can probably surmise that would excite the imagination of an artist as I am.

In recent years I was asked to re-do the brochure the Commission has on its featured museum, which I did, with monumental help from Christian de la Mirand, a photographer who for a short time owned the Photography shop near me on Broad Street. The brochure is given out by the Dunn tourist agency, https://www.visitnc.com/listing/dunn-area-tourism-authority.

Our collaboration on the brochure was a fun time, and reminded me of having collaborated on the graphic presentation of another 3-dimensional exhibit in Holland when I lived in Germany. It was a visual story, as well, on a little known phase of history–one of researching and documenting Bible distribution into closed countries, complete with sound in the story. I wish I had taken pictures of that!

And this experience was a one of a kind, as well, as the Cornelius Harnett Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is slated to end its history at the end of this year. I’m so glad to have been a part of it for a few years before that.

An author friend and I were talking about our books one day concerning pivotal scenes. I mentioned the scene in my book, A Deadly Provenance, at an upscale spa in a resort beyond the Munich, Germany, area, where my heroine Lexi got a massage.

“I can’t imagine getting stripped down to your underwear and having someone actually massage you,” my friend said to me during our lunch at the restaurant.

“Oh, it’s not like that,” I said, cutting my schnitzel. “You’re in a dark room, you’re covered with sheets, your head is down in a padded doughnut, there’s relaxed music playing, and there is a protocol which is entirely objective.” Frequently, I’ve fallen asleep and missed the process. However, touch is the magic ingredient, and not everyone is going to like that. For some, it is intrusive, and they would never think of having a massage.

Massages are acknowledged world-wide for their therapeutic results. Spa retreats populate the most exclusive sites in the world; the best vie for world travelers. Some include hot baths. Czechoslovakia was known for its healing mineral waters, even in Communist days. Russians are known for their saunas. Every hotel of any stature at all boasts massage offerings of various sorts; menus exist for low pressure, deep pressure, using the feet, rocks, scents, you name it. I’ve had massages in Europe and various places in the U.S.

updated cover of A Deadly Provenance, set in southern Germany

Massages reduce stress and tension, thereby reducing anxiety and wear and tear on muscles. It reduces muscle tension, improves your circulation, stimulates the lymph system, increases your flexibility, skin tone, soft tissue injury recovery, and heightens your mental alertness.

I’m picky about my massage therapist, but I go every month. I had missed at least two appointments, so this one particular one was special. Long-short story, I had hurt all over, feet, knees, shoulders, hands back, legs, side legs. Tight nodules made me almost scream with pain until they released. We talked about what was different, what hurt that hadn’t before, small talk before she left me so I could climb onto the massage table, pull the blanket up around me, the cover all warmed. The first phase was head down into the doughnut. She knocked after an appropriate interval, and I called out, “Ready.”

I explained all this to my author friend about my anticipation of that last massage I had had, and why this was so important, what made the massage in Germany of my heroine Lexi that I wrote about in my Gothic romance novel, A Deadly Provenance (books.joriginals.net/) so important. It had been a pivotal moment in my character’s life. I re-entered that fictional moment in time and began to relive it. It was every bit as real to me as a piece of history, which from comments made to me at readings, it seems that if you are like most people, you will find strange.

“I’m tracking,” my author friend said. “Lexi was touch-deprived.”

Lexi, my heroine, I explained, was in limbo in a bad marriage, a marriage where the partners were separate and unattached, where Lexi had been dumped. She was not valued over other women by her husband who had ongoing affairs. There was no physical component to their marriage. Touch was nonexistent. Lexi, I expanded on the story, had been left alone by the skiers gathering to plunge and ascend mountains, and had decided to avail herself of a long, deep-tissue massage at the luxury spa in the ski and conference resort located at Castle Enzian. Her husband had left with the party from the NC Embassy group which included the woman she suspected him of seeing. See http://books.joriginals.net/author-books/a-deadly-provenance/

This made the massage experience, I think, a profoundly human one. Touch sparks creativity, as well as connectivity. It is not that much different from a hairdresser who massages your scalp and washes your hair. Not that different from a pedicure or a manicure in a whirlpool of water and having the feet softened and prepared for a pretty finish. Professional, caring, but not personal.

And that was how Lexi enjoyed the experience in the spa in the castle, Castle Enzian. It started with herbs and lotions and scents calculated to expunge tiredness and poisonous worries that had invaded her body. It pushed away the sense of loneliness and being lost and rejoined her to that core part of herself that was able to appreciate the scents of herbs, of tactile muscle work, of having clenched muscle which the week had overtaxed, tightened, and locked up, released again.

It joined her soul to her body once again, rejuvenated her. Why, she felt beautiful once more. She felt less, well, rejected. Which made it a turning point for her in the book.

So you see, you can come along with me into Lexi’s world in this book, a book at once more exotic than your own, maybe even more real, but still as nitty-gritty as yours. Because Lexi is propelled by external realities and some internal ones into a cauldron of events which exercised her to go beyond the everyday…which forced her to extremes you may never have to face…and which bring her to decisions you may only want to contemplate and muse on. Or you may decide would be good for you to try as well.

Lexi has had to move away from her home town and her close circle of friends to a consulate in a foreign country where she must learn a new language, put her son into a foreign school, and endure the outrage of desertion by her childhood sweetheart and her husband. She must try something new, only perhaps to have the same thing happen all over again, with no way out.

From one experience to another one like the moment of truth from a massage, from dungeon to attic, around hairpin curves, to international art circles and political charities, from Nazi leftover villains to a family priest, from home to–well, that’s where I’ll stop. In conclusion, I will just say that the significance of her faith changes, her relationships undergo change, and she may turn into another version of herself, stronger and bolder, in this contemporary version of an old-time classic genre, the Gothic romance novel–or she may fold. And while a massage is only a passing event, it can be a pivotal one in a woman’s life. Without overplaying it at all.

When Students Return

Nothing is more gratifying to a teaching artist than a student who asks for more. Sometimes, like Stuart Peregoy, 10-15 years later. Because nothing gratifies a teacher more than getting a second chance to pour expertise into a willing vessel. It’s called leaving a legacy.

So when Stuart Peregoy walked into my studio, I thought it was just to say hello and bring me up on events of his life since school days in the last 16 years or so, like about his getting married to the love of his life and building his first dream home together.

Stuart Peregoy paints warm underpainting in adult art class

And that would have been enough. I love my students and have enjoyed more visits than I can count from students who want to drop in and touch bases with me. I laughingly call myself ‘art mama,’ and 35 years of teaching certainly allows for growing new life adventures. But when they come back to drain your art knowledge bank, you are especially appreciative.

Sure, the first time round is great, full of enthusiasm and fun, discovery and direction in drawing in colored pencils, graphite, and pastels; painting in watercolor, oil, and acrylic. I once had a friend tell me she didn’t need lessons, she had taken art in high school. Ha-ha, as if everything in art could be learned in a few easy lessons. “Everything I know in art I learned in kindergarten” sort of concept. That underscores how undisciplined and uninformed our concept is of what’s to be learned in art.

The second time around, a student takes it seriously, first of all. A return student is ‘broken in,’ has a great foundation laid already. They are willing to listen to detailed additions to their knowledge base. They’ve had the appetizer course, and now they are ready for the whole enchilada.

That’s why Stuart jumped right in and decided to go the master student route, pursue the best Old Masters’ techniques of painting. That’s why he knew to value the build-up knowledge being taught by master painters in ateliers that have popped up all across the country to combat the silly originality is everything notion, the low technique trend in art. Originality is not necessarily a good thing; it has to be a good, trained, originality. I cringe say this, looking for someone to slap me for breaking what’s being taught as the First Commandment of Art.

Stuart draws the picture he intends to paint first, skillfully, with full drawing school corrections. This he turns into a grisaille which provides a more sculptural, three-dimensional version of the drawing in black and white. Over this he paints a thin glaze of verdaccio or a neutral green called an imprimatura which gets rid of all the white. Then, and only then, does he begin to paint.

Why paint what you won’t see? you might ask.

The answer is, it determines the outcome.

Is learning to paint harder the second time around? I ask Stuart.

“It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be,” he said.

“Yes, and it’s a lot harder to teach techniques like modeling that grow with you your whole adult painting experience,” Joanna admits. “We are so intuitively good at coming up with variants of our techniques and just whisking and brushing away, that we avoid the discipline of the right approach. Many roads to Rome doesn’t apply as well to the accumulation of specific skills, so you have to have a tough skin to learn, and an endless ability to re-frame the verbal explanation for what to do, for troubleshooting just why it didn’t come out quite the way you wanted it to.”

Using the technique’s stated, he has captured the North Carolina Sea-Scape in this oil painting.

Mrs. Joanna, as her students affectionately call her, teaches all major categories of painting and drawing in her studio, Art on Broad Atelier/j’Originals’ Art Studio and has for over 30 years. She received art training from Art Instruction correspondence art school, from Queens University in Charlotte, from UNC-Chapel Hill, and additional courses from Methodist University, plus the odd courses from traveling New York Students’ Art League teachers and invited jurors in state watercolor exhibits. She is a signature member of two watercolor societies.

But back to Stuart. Stuart has just finished his second painting, a surprise birthday present to his wife, a 12″ x 16″ oil on canvas of his hand holding hers, the sea and beach in the background, rings on their fingers. His first painting was of his dog, Charlie.

Part 1: WORKS ON PAPER
Every painter wants to frame his or her painting once it’s done. As beautifully as possible. As much within the conventions of the medium as possible, unless, of course, you are after the weird frame of the year award. As a painter who uses several different media, framing my paintings has given me a unique overview that I think will help collectors and students alike understand the measures I take to love up on my paintings by honoring them with a semi-permanent house. I say that because even the best framed pieces are semi-permanent. We just want decades at the least.

Usually, oil painters don’t want to hear about how to frame watercolors, or vice-versa. However, having insider info into several media’s framing requirement needs will help you understand why I chose the frame I did, and what you will be replacing perhaps with inferior quality, if you choose to re-frame. Even hobby artists and do it yourself folks using a shadowbox frame for mementos can profit from this. There are several things to think about when you frame. One is the stability of the art work itself. Another is its beautification or enhancement. Another is the stability of the unit that is the framed art work. And yet another is the identity of the work.

First, let’s describe different art works to be framed and go into what years of experience from framers and artists tell us. The purposes are many–architectural stability, protection from bugs, spacing the work away from the wall and possible moisture, to name a few. This is not meant as a technical treatise; that I leave to experts. However, my advice will give you a general guidance in the best possible directions.

Pencil, colored pencil, pastel, gel pen, pen-ink, watercolor, and even paintings in oil or acrylic on canvas sheets (not stretched or on board). All of these works need similar handling. The framing process for Works on Paper itself must be broken down into four separate areas: Matting, Backing, Framing Material, and Glazing. Let’s look at each one.

A. Matting. All works done onto paper must be matted. Insert pix of Mom’s Magnolias. Besides enhancing and highlighting the work itself, mats separate art work from the glass. The image of the art work, if placed right next to the glass, can affix to the glass itself, an unintended but permanent state of affairs no artist wants to happen. Glass can magnify sunlight’s rays in all forms and fade the picture. All materials used fade if hung in bright sunlight. Mat comes in different qualities–acidic, buffered, neutral, acid-free. I use only acid-free mats, due to the fast deterioration caused by acid to paper fibers, and also due to its yellowing of the work (early stage deterioration). Acid burns, and the burning yellow color causes premature deterioration of the art work. The only variation I use is between acid-free and museum quality. Various techniques include single matting, double or triple matting, float mounting, and separation from the glass by invisible strips carried by every framer and available on request. Added distance between artwork and glass can always be considered a good thing. For the watercolors I paint on beautiful deckled or raw-torn edges, I use the float mounting technique which requires a full mat sheet behind the work of art, and the at-least 3-inch mat in front of it. I actually don’t go below 4″ or 3-1/2″ matting. Besides worrying about the surfaces on which the art work lies, or which lie on top of the art work, you must also be careful how you affix the painting to mat board. Again, we have to go with acid-free tape, most often, linen. You can order this yourself, but if you don’t specify that you want your framer to use acid-free tape. The work on paper needs not to wobble, but should not be attached too tightly, as different climate conditions will expand and contract the piece. For this reason, and to limit the affected area, a hinge system is used at the top of the work, with only strips holding onto the paper by the acid-free glue on the linen strips. For the process, see source below! This keeps the work in place but expandable so it doesn’t bow and warp from being taped all around four sides, a practice that should NEVER be done.

A few words about color. Mat colors fade. White, grey, off-white, don’t and even darker neutrals don’t look bad slightly faded. Color does. Less is more. You shouldn’t have to enhance to make your work shine. Do, however, choose even your neutrals for nuance of tone. Photo-white is my all time favorite–not too yellow, not too grey. Almost white.

B.Backing. Acid-free foam core of various thicknesses protects and adds stability to the architectural sandwich. It lends stability to the wooden or gallery frame (metal), as well, countering the stress points of such a flat unit. If you use metal or gallery frames, you will use no further backing material, as the design does not allow it. Tension strips of metal come with the frame to press the unit tighter together. This prevents torquing as well as the introduction of bugs into the unit. That being said, bugs will get in, somehow, and is no sign of neglect by either artist or gallery owner. Gallery-framed paintings need to be refreshed every so often, but if you change any of the elements, you MUST INSIST on acid-free components. If you value your art work at all, pick a reputable framer who knows his stuff, and the lady you know will not sneak in shortcuts. Ask for explanations at the point of service. If they don’t know enough about it, you will get a skimpy or curt answer, and you can look further for your framer. If you are a diy person, examine all your materials from the art supplier to be sure they are what is claimed. Make them say it is acid-free.

If you frame your work on paper in a wood or wood-substitute frame, you will add an additional step to your acid-free foam core. Once the backing is stapled in place (this is NOT a framing primer), you will need an acid-free sheet of paper to glue from side to side on the back of the wood, continuously. Read: no gaps in glued surface for living things to enter.

C.Glazing. Strange word. It is simple one step more general than glass. Because you can use glass, or you can use Plexiglass, or maybe there’s something else I don’t know about. However, I use Plexiglas on all my watercolor paintings, as that is the only way they are accepted and received from shows. No one wants blood liability on the artwork from shattered glass in transit. So if my customer prefers glass, that’s his chance to ante up and refresh the package, if not the individual elements. Remember, you can get any number of UV-ray controlling exemplars of glass and Plexiglas. It’s best to choose a framer who has a picture of what it looks like under the type of either glass or Plexiglas they are offering so you know how it will look. Some non-glare glass actually greys down a watercolor, and that is something you really don’t want. Plain glass allows for more light play. Treated glass may give additional protection. Weight it out; it’s a personal decision. If you opt for no protection, don’t put it facing a south oriented window to fade away in the blazing sun.

D.Frame Material: metal (gallery), wood, synthetic wood, rigid liner mats, whatever. First, let’s discuss gallery frames or metal framing, which come in a variety of shapes, sizes, profiles, and dimensions. Metal frames are a dream for the do it yourself-er. You can assemble all of the parts yourself even without instructions, intuitively, like I do if have to. There are hinges which hold the corners together, and the four sides have come to you custom cut. There are tension spacers to hold the inner packet together without extra space. If you get a deluxe rounded profile, the total looks smart enough to accompany antiques in a classical or traditional style house. These are the preferred choice of painters who enter watercolor society shows.

However, wood or its substitute is also a choice. For works on paper, since you have a generous (I stressed this, earlier) spacing around your work, you don’t want to go furniture store style and over-burden your piece of art with extra curlicues and show-off gilded pieces, and a very wide profile. Watercolor and other works on paper frames should traditionally be thinner than those used for oils and acrylics. However, they can be modern or classical, plain or played up. Remember the principle of less is more? You don’t want to give anybody the impression that your art work is lacking so you make it up by adding too much show-off stuff around it.

Have fun! For a variety of framed works on paper framed effects, look at both my paintings for sale in the watercolors and gel pen categories on my website.

Source: http://www.logangraphic.com/blog/mount-watercolor

In and Out, Stretched Canvas and Boards Overview

Part 2: WORKS ON CANVAS AND BOARD
Every painter wants to frame his or her painting once it’s done. As beautifully as possible. As much within the conventions of the medium as possible, unless, of course, you are after the weird frame of the year award. As a painter who uses several different media, framing my paintings has given me a unique overview that I think will help collectors and students alike understand the measures I take to love up on my paintings with their semi-permanent house. And no matter how fine the house, it is not permanent, even when we hope for decades or centuries of permanence.

Usuually, oil painters don’t want to hear about how to frame watercolors, or vice-versa. However, having insider info into several media’s framing requirement needs will help you understand why I chose the frame I did, and what you will be replacing perhaps with inferior quality, if you choose to re-frame. Even hobby artists and diy folks using a shadowbox frame for mementos can profit from this. There are several things to think about when you frame. One is the stability of the art work itself. Another is its beautification or enhancement. (Add newly submitted photo of Harvest with full frame) Another is the stability of the unit that is the framed art work. And yet another is the identity of the work.

First, let’s describe different art works to be framed and go into what years of experience from framers and artists tell us. The purposes are many–architectural stability, protection from bugs, spacing the work away from the wall and possible moisture, to name a few. This is not meant as a technical treatise; that I leave to experts. However, my advice will give you a general guidance in the best possible directions.

Stretched canvas really doesn’t have to be framed if it is on gallery wrap. That’s the reason it was created. That having been said, frames protect. After the cutting edge and modern effect is done, the impact worn off, the edges scuffed and whitened and your surface touches the perhaps moist wall and grows a coat of mold which you may never fully get rid of. I prefer to frame. In 30 years, I have only just come upon one large watercolor show which requires wooden frames in order to be accepted. For that case, you need to read the first article on this subject as well. Even paintings in oil or acrylic on canvas sheets (not stretched or on board) must be handled like works on paper, unless PVC-glued to a rigid surface.

A. Matting. For rigid painting surfaces there are mats as well. However, they aren’t the same kind as for works on paper, which have paper mats. This is not necessarily obvious. I have had students frame for shows and add a paper mat to a stretched canvas in a wooden frame without glazing (glass or Plexiglas). Not good. No rhyme or reason for same. Mat insertions might be gold leaf or linen and may have a separate thin border added to show off the frame. Buy the appropriate rigid insert for a wood or wood-substitute frame. One instance of a rigid liner you may be familiar with is the oval insert for an oval portrait.

B. Backing. Here, backing comes into play. I used to think no backing–either acid-free foam core or rigid thin board Masonite–as I was told the painting needed to ‘breathe’ and passed the news along for quite some time. Now the better preferred advice is to securely affix with screws a Masonite furniture backing to the stretched canvas. On top of that, I use acid-free backing paper to take to the edge with a continuous edge of sealed paper so bugs absolutely cannot get in from the back. (Maybe from the front side.) The rigid board protects the painting from puncture from the backside, prevents small critters from setting up housekeeping in it, and makes a much steadier, sturdier, architectural unit, one not as subject to being bumped or even dropped. My acid-free paper is a light blue (see photo) and I have rarely seen it used by other artists. Go figure!

C. Glazing. Glazing is not normally use on stretched canvas or rigid board paintings, as it is not necessary. The final varnish is the substitute for glazing. Now, exceptions may be made in high handling areas, like museums and for famous paintings like the Mona Lisa.

D. Frame Material. Metal Gallery frames are generally not deemed suitable for canvas or rigid boards. Wood and wood substitutes, in any dozens and hundreds of styles, widths, profiles, plainness or fanciness, however, are the pick. Wood is acidic and may require the use of acid-free paper on the inside of the rabbet (http://www.americanframe.com/blogs/ask-mike/March-2014/selecting-the-right-rabbet-for-your-diy-frames.aspx), so as not to begin discoloration or contamination of the canvas or board surface. Some wood substitutes, while containing less acid, may loosen at the point of the hanger screw and be hard to fill in.

I’d like to address what I mentioned in the introduction and comment on the identity of the work. Often the wooden frame or the wooden portion of the stretched canvas frame become part of the identity of the painting itself. This happens especially in cases where it has been stamped by a framer in country or out, which, along with the aged coloring may mean it started the journey along with the painting. I would be very reluctant to change out such a frame, as this forms part of its provenance or “official papers” which are like a birth certificate. It could actually affect the value and worth of the painting. As well, should your canvas or board ever need restoration, there might have been notes annotated on the frame which would guide the restorer in his work. She might make the wrong decision if she lacks the information that was on the frame. This is not so much the case, of course, with watercolors in metal frames, although annotations on the reverse side are discouraged due to possibilities of bleed-through.

For specific longevity issues of materials, you must contact framers and suppliers. This article has no intentions whatever of supplying total lists, but is wonderful overview in which to fit your particulars in each category as you struggle through the process. Happy journey!!!

…Serendipity!

People ask, “What do you do all day long?”

Like yesterday. Valid question. I’m not insulted.

I resisted saying “sippin’ wine and eatin’ cheese.’ Nor did I mention my fantasy of lying in aqua satin gown on a chaise longue in heaven, wielding wand, throwing out star-dust pronouncements, “Well done, Master Painter!”

I wish it were like that. Ever.

Instead, my day went this way. I visited the embroidery shop next door to look for a template for a border on a painting I’m doing for a client, a painting of a lady’s grandmother, a sentimental work, sepia-toned photograph called a brown print. In watercolor I’m to create a look of authenticity, antiquity, as well as a fresh likeness of a young lady. Meeting my new neighbors at the stitch shop, we confessed wanting to wish each other well in our downtown businesses. They listened to figure out how to give me what I needed from one of 25 machines I hadn’t a clue how they’d use.

Returning to my shop, left open too long, pocketbook in full view, I telephoned a customer about an art lesson makeup and learned that her daughter might not want to continue art. Bummer. She loved me, she was just so busy. “It’s criminal,” I say, “she’s so good.” Stuffing my disappointment down, I plan website articles, go to my next joy and next woe. Blogging. A Beast Supreme who chops words up for stew. My computer is Blogging Kitchen where I boil ideas, simmer them into gravy, preferably made from a roux, French style, like my Mom did. Now that I’m ‘into blogging,’ it’s fun. Blogging turns my creative business day into a diary.

Next I sit at my 30 x 36  oil painting of myself on a stretched canvas I’ve been working on for four years. No, I don’t worship myself or think I’m so great–self-portraits are prescribed by Portrait Society of America and  top artists as best way to better one’s craft on all portraits. Since the subject is permanently attached, one can keep comparing, contrasting and “seeing” new info pop up. Working ‘from life,’ the best way.

Today, the brushes rebel, the paint globs, and I’ve been told by experts NOT to use turpentine or thinner to rinse (it leaves chemical residue) and ruins the chemical sandwich that is an oil painting, decreasing its longevity. Every morning I research to determine how to give customers paintings that won’t deteriorate, crack or delaminate after 30 years. Pinky finger promise, had I known technical issues would be so daunting, I might never have ventured further…. Today I’m hating withdrawal from the ‘solve-everything-with-a-medium’ high. I check on p.67 of the oil painting book written by expert, check social media daily for input from his feed.

I arrange paints on a color continuum; I’m proud of my collection, now, result of years of conferences and introduction to professional grade products from a national closed group of artists who share best products and practices–museum conservators, art masters who advise manufacturers, as well as art product manufacturer heads who listen to and implement conservators’ knowledge in the marketplace.

I relax into my art bench, new colors spread out on palette, and begin creating. Submerged into the zone, I get the eye lifted in the middle half a centimeter in almost the right color; I soften. I mix a new shadow flesh color using my system and soften the shadow on the chin that was harsh. Success! I bring a shadow to the cheek area, move the frontal plane of my face from center to an angle to the right, facing beyond the falcon to the viewer. I push color on the right-facing eye up to compensate the change. Now the iris is a tad long, so blued eye white reshapes the base of it. With flake white, transparent, I change shadows past the lower left-facing cheek to underlip to a lighter shade (how did I miss that the first 200 times around?) near the lip. I work until soft turns smushy. Advantage lost, I dip in medium, blot out thoroughly, and then clean my brushes using brush soap. Several times, until oil color is gone, brushes re-shaped. I must take care of brushes.

No sooner done than my neighbor walks in with the template they have worked on, one connecting dollops of cut work on sturdy paper on a pad. I show him my young girl drawing, the hand-constructed oval  done four times like the matting of the photograph. He is duly impressed. I am impressed with their work–a stencil from the source reduced a tad smaller to 7/8″ inch.

Time to teach class. I have younger students today, plus one older. We have a blast, talk art and art concepts as seriously as adults. I take them to my work area to show them what I’m working on. They are amazed with how I can draw something so big, ask me how.

“Start by doing something smaller,” I say with a smile.

“You have a lot of stuff,” one says.

“You can only comment if you come help me straighten,” I say.

My entourage returns to finish their hour. One makes watercolor spots that bleed together perfectly for the calico cat. The other finishes her colored pencil flowers behind her butterfly, which we all agree look like flower candles in a candelabra. I take pictures of each student with their in-progress work, them, and the picture they work from. My art models, I call them, telling them good-bye.

Now I use the stencil created for me, all I needed to make my own marks regular. It works like a dream, as I manipulate material to fit my size oval (ovals are not uniform measurements, folks). Roughed in in under an hour, what would have taken days and too much erasing otherwise.

“Your life,” a friend says. “Yeah, they moved in right across from me.” I laugh. Amazing, how solutions seem to walk right up when you reach out over fear–fear of losing yourself, your time. Opening yourself up, leaving the safe zone, opening ear and heart to life is key.

Serendipity–solutions arrived today when I was ready for them! Others must wait ’til tomorrow.