another great black/grey - CPR

I found another nice black using combinations of Cobalt Yellow, Pthalo Blue and Rose Madder. This gives a more regular range of colors - from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to violet - with a nice black and light black, of course. It would be good for a subject that wanted pretty pure versions of all the primary and secondary colors. The nice thing about using just these three colors is that the full range that they give you will all look good together since they each (except for the orignal three) have a bit of the others in them. Again, these were all made from encaustic sticks from R&F Paints.
the blacks:


the original 3 colors:


various colors made from the 3 originals:

Samples of the colors I discovered yesterday - EIU

Yesterday I found a good combination of colors to make a nice black, light grey and many other colors. They were all from Egyptian Violet, Indian Yellow and Ultramarine Blue. I'm going to call this grey EIU after the first letter of each color name. This is kind of an off beat color palette but one that would be useful for earth colored paintings. You get nice brown reds, olive type greens, a good warm yellow and a deep black. Here are some samples of the colors.

the blacks:

the original colors:



made from the original 3 colors:

wax - a beautiful new grey

I just discovered a beautiful new grey. I'm always looking for greys. My theory is if I begin with a color that interests me then search for the one or two colors that will grey it, I'll end up with two or three colors that will include a wide range of combinations and won't go muddy. This combination was rather a surprise - Egyptian violet, ultramarine blue and Indian yellow. There isn't an official red in this group but the violet and the blue are both very warm and must supply enough red - because it greys very nicely. These are all encaustic sticks from R&F Paints.

I'd rather be in the studio

Have you thought much about where you're going in your art life? What's important to you or why you create? I've heard those questions before but I've actually begun to answer them now. This came about because of an Artists Self Promotion Workshop I attended led by Alyson Stanfield. She brought up many things to think about and act on. One of the early issues that continued to come up through the weekend was deciding on your goals - prioritizing what's important in today's reality. The answer had to pertain to this political world and these economic times. I'm guessing the answer for me may change as the times change.

The four things that lead my list are:
- selling enough that my art pays for itself
- extra money for a little travel
- showing my work in museums
- doing work that leads to peace, for myself and others

That list may sound pretty general and hey, who wouldn't want that but it actually does eliminate some avenues. For instance, I can't do fast, commercial output if I want to end up on the wall of a museum. I will avoid the pollitical art that promotes hatred and polarization. I need to spend time on my self promotion.

And for that I'm back to Alyson. She sends a free, weekly newsletter that is helpful and she has written a book - I'd rather be in the studio - I love the title. I read it and thought she meant this book would tell me how I could quickly do my self promotion so I would have more time to be in the studio. But no, she is listing "I'd rather be in the studio" as one of the excuses artists use to avoid self promotion. So now I say to myself, "What are you going to do to promote your artwork today?"

WSG Gallery Grand Opening in its new location

I'm one of the artist/owners of WSG Gallery. Last week we opened in our new location on Main Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This was the first exhibition in the new space. The interior was designed by the Ann Arbor firm of Penchansky Whisler Architects. The long side of the gallery faces an interior atrium and is glass. It gives a broad look into the gallery space with its 51' long, white wall which angles across the space. The long wall is 8' high at one end and 10' high at the other end so the top of the wall also angles.

Here are some photos from the opening.







The Community High Jazz Band played in the atrium



This is a link to more photos from the opening.
The photography is by Paul Malboeuf.


Here is a small sample of some of the art in this exhibition -

Lynda Cole: "untitled (pink and palladium): 72" x 24": encaustic, palladium leaf on plexiglas



Michelle Hegyi: "Tides 3", "Tides 2", "Tides 1" each 1/5 in edition: each, 24" x 18": encaustic and pigment ink on rag paper: mounted with magnets on plexiglas strip



Valerie Mann: "Evening Bags for the Midwestern Woman, #8 w/ Matching Pumps"



Elizabeth Schwartz: "Melange" 24" x 20": acrylic on canvas



You can find more images and information about WSG Gallery on our website -