Paddling in the Great Outdoors

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

Most of September we have had beautiful, clear, sunny days here in Vermont. I paddled with a group from the Brattleboro Outing Club on September 16, at Tully Lake and Long Pond in Royalston, MA. This trip was about an hour from Brattleboro, Vt. We even portaged along the way and hiked to several impressive waterfalls.

I recently started two watercolors inspired from kayaking in this great setting. There was a paddler with us, depicted above in a small sketch, with a new canoe which only weighs eighteen pounds and is the size of a kayak. It even has foot pegs.

After this outing, I started a full sheet watercolor (22" x 30") on Arches 300 lb. watercolor paper and a smaller painting on a 140 lb. 14'" x 20" Saunders block. For me the two surfaces are very different. The Saunders watercolor block is like painting on silk. It is very smooth paper, which the paint brush glides over. In contrast, the Arches sheet has much texture, which allows for a wide range of effects that I am yet to master, but I do like the greater scale.

The above sketchbooks, manufactured by Strathmore, with a fine tooth surface, I have taken a liking to, at least for pencil.

Pen & Ink

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

There is something so basic that a pen provides. Pen and paper can go a long way. I do not need a pencil sharpener, and I seldom carry an eraser. Pen does not smear either. In fact, I have been at church services when the sermon gets really boring; as others nod off, I simply pull out my pen and start doodling. Before you know it ideas and images start pouring out. I can't keep up with the rapidly emerging thoughts that are evolving from my mind to my pen.

This is a drawing from one of my sketchbooks, back in 1993. Through the years I have done many drawings in pen and ink. For some doodles I have used such a basic writing instrument as a Bic pen. For other more elaborate drawings such as the one above, I have used technical and even fountain pens. Here, I used colored inks from a bottle where the pigment is really concentrated, with a brush to depict individual plants. This is a detail of an imaginary landscape. With a background in landscape architecture and hands-on experience, I have learned much about all kinds of plants and their growing habits.

Through the years I have evolved to using watercolor with black ink, which conveys an illustrative appearance. The pen provides the structure or perspective while the watercolor gives it atmosphere and temperature. In a future post or posts I will provide more examples, but for today I just wanted to talk about using a pen. So get busy -- because we all basically carry a pen with us most days. You will forever look at the world differently.

Off at Sea

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

When we were in Bar Harbor, Maine this past summer, we saw this sail boat pass while we were walking along the shore path. Earlier on our vacation, down in Portland, we visited some of the tall ships which had moored along the docks. There is much history in these tall ships with their strong tradition of training young sailors in all aspects of sailing. There is also, a strong sense of drama to be in their presence. The distinct forms of the sails, extensive rigging and discipline of the crew is evident as you walk among the ship's decking. This romance of the sea, inspired me to attempt some ocean scenes as marine artists have done for generations.

This is a study, I recently did, for eventually, a much larger watercolor. During the humidity and heat of the summer I decided this fall I was going to paint some full sheet watercolors. A full sheet is 22" x 30" which is much larger and requires more time to finish. However, the larger scale, as seen on a wall or an easel, really makes an impact.

Pen, ink & watercolor

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I like to draw with a pencil, pretty much any kind of pencil. These days there are charcoal, conte, colored and even watercolor pencils. Within graphite alone there is quite a range from hard to soft pencils. For the last year I have preferred using a brand called cretacolor. I have been primarily using their HB and B pencils which make a mark that is scratchy but does not smear so much as to be bothersome.

However, I like to draw with a pen too. I have drawn with fountain, technical and micron pens which come in a wide range of colors. I actually sign my watercolor paintings with a micron pen. I try to find a color which is harmonious with the colors in the painting so the signature does not stand out. 

I have drawn as long as I can remember. The above image is from a watercolor sketchbook going back nearly ten years. The combination of pen with watercolor can be quite pleasing. With the addition of color you can introduce atmospheric effects and temperature into a picture, even a simple sketch.

The above watercolor drawings are of imaginary landscapes full of life with lots of activity. There are fountains with spraying water, lots of bird life and an abundance of vegetation with long-blooming fragrant flowers. Water is what unites all the spaces and determines what plants are used and where. 

Curbside pickup

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I started this watercolor recently because I really wanted to capture the layers of green foliage that we see in summer. I have mentioned in past posts that the color green is the hardest for me to paint. In the last year I have been attempting to improve upon my greens. At this point I do not use any right out of the tube. I do not prefer the golf course or graphic design greens, which you see in many publications or in advertising. 

Thus, for now, I have settled on three mixtures that provide varying degrees of green. For a rich, earthy green reminiscent to me of Albrecht Durer's large piece of turf, I use Prussian blue with aureolin. For a shadowy green offering a more muted effect, I prefer mixing Payne's gray with new gamboge. For large evergreens such as a spruce I use phthalo green with Payne's gray and alizarin crimson. This provides a strong sense of presence, which counterbalances the lighter areas in a picture, such as in snow. I have learned that if you add burnt sienna it will darken the color.

There is a shadow green that I purchased on our vacation to Maine this summer, which I like to mix for dark ocean effect. There are so many other greens available that I periodically use, such as viridian, olive, Hooker's, and sap but I have learned to appreciate the richness and variation from mixing my own.

Of note in the above watercolor, is that the greens seem to be the darks in the picture. I traditionally use green as a complimentary color or in a lesser role such as an accent of a feature. The brick path is complementary to the greens around it, thus creating an overall harmonizing effect. Anyway at least that is what I have noticed.

Hiking at Acadia National Park

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This is a little figure study I painted of my wife, taken from a photograph, the summer before last. This watercolor sketch was done very quickly, so I could not fuss around with much detail. I think it does capture the dappled light, which was prevalent on this beautiful day.

We were in the process of hiking around Jordan Pond, at Acadia National Park, in Bar Harbor, Maine. We were not far from the Jordan Pond House, where we later had popovers, out on the patio. However, the trails were quite crowded, and we had to step aside frequently to let other hikers pass amongst the intersections of trails and along the narrow boardwalks.

'Rigger' brushes

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

Most painters use some combination of round and flat brushes to paint in oil or watercolor. There is quite a range of options in terms of size and shape. These are great for painting large areas and even some small sections in a painting. For details, I rely heavily on rigger brushes. 

The rigger brush got its name in the days of sailing ships, when artists painted the ships rigging. A rigger or liner brush is a thin brush with long bristles, often made of sable. These brushes come to a sharp point but can have a flat or square tip. These rigger brushes have a longer tuft than rounds and do not belly out, enabling artists to paint with consistent stroke width. In addition to defining a ship's rigging, these brushes are great for painting fine tree branches at the end of a limb, grasses, or grass-like effects at the edge of a field. 

Recently, I did an ocean scene with an anchored lobster boat (See "Cool Cove" from Wednesday, July 29th and "At Rest" from Wednesday, August 19th). I used rigger brushes to detail the wave patterns and create perspective, as well as to depict the quality of the surface of the water. As seen in the above photograph, I make use of riggers in sizes 4, 6 and 10. All of the doodling and watercolor sketches in the above image I made by using a rigger brush or brushes.

Art in the Park

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This is my booth set-up for Art in the Park in Keene, NH, on Saturday, September 5th & Sunday, September 6th. We had fabulous weather, even though it got hot late in the day, on both days. We were able to keep the tent, with our new display panels and tent weights, in place on Saturday night, which saved us time and labor. The tent weights, long white cylinders, one of which is visible in the photograph above, worked out well. I had spent the better part of two days mixing cement and constructing these weights so the tent and art within them would not blow away.

I had about thirty framed watercolors on exhibit. My wife and I spent time trying to keep these watercolors out of the direct sun by installing and pinning up the sidewalls at various times. I received lots of positive feedback on the work and the professional appearance of my display space. We had a good steady, stream of viewers through the day, on both weekend days. We met and talked to many fellow exhibitors as well as other artists and art lovers who passed through. We learned a lot during the event to draw upon for the future, but we are certainly glad to be done for now after two very long days.

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

Framing watercolors for Art-in-the-Park

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

It has been a very busy week, actually two weeks, preparing for this weekend's art show. The Monadnock Area Artists Association is sponsoring the 58th annual Art in the Park on Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6, 2015.  It takes place in Keene, NH from 10:00AM - 4:00PM on both weekend days, across from the Colony Mill Marketplace, on West Street, at the Ashuelot River Park.

Last week, I made tent weights in my back yard because we are not allowed to stake our vendor tents to the ground due to an irrigation system under the park's lawn. I scrambled to figure out what I would need to prevent my paintings from blowing away in a heavy wind. Long story short, I ended up purchasing PVC piping and cement from Home Depot and making my own twenty-five pound weights, which will hang from each corner of the tent. There are numerous YouTube videos on how to do this. 

Next, I purchased mesh display panels, which go up on three sides of the tent. They are pricey but handsome and you can hang pieces on both sides of the walls. When I ordered these, I was told it was best to use a tent with a steel frame, so I had to order a new tent, too. The one we have is aluminum and apparently is susceptible to wind damage. Fortunately, these display panels and the new tent have arrived in time. Last week, needless to say, was quite a week.

This week the learning curve has been steep too, but I have come a long way in a short period of time. Last Saturday, I became aware that Indian King Framery in Keene, NH, on the last Saturday of the month has discounted frames. I purchased six picture frames to go with pre-cut mats I had ordered from Cheap Joe's. Gerard Doucette cut the glass and shared some wire.  I bought brown craft paper from Staples for the backings.  I want to present my work well. The challenge was that I had never framed a watercolor on my own.

The above watercolor was framed yesterday. It was an exciting and rewarding process for the most part. I have discovered how critical it is to keep the glass clean and not get hair or specks of dirt between the glass and the picture. This requires not getting any fingerprints on the glass, so I used two small, clean rags to handle the glass.

This photograph is of the back of the frame from the picture above. I have installed the dust cover which is brown craft paper, stretched and glued into place. It is then trimmed after the glue dries. Then I installed eye screws and wire so the watercolor can be hung. Last, I attached a business card, which is the colored image in the lower right.

I hope I did not bore you with this rather wordy post. However, a lot has been happening so I put it out there for you to understand my process in preparing for this particular art show.