March 2019

Untitled

9 1/2 x 5 1/2

Watercolor

Untitled
10 1/4 x 14
Watercolor

Jan 2019

Owls Head Home

5 1/2 x 7 1/2

Watercolor on bristol

Blue door - Santa Fe

Acrylics on board

What I learned from Barry McCann

There were a few things I learned as I watched the demo listed below. 

First, Barry mixes his own mixing white using titanium white acrylic paint and acrylic paint retarder in a 3:1 ratio. The mixing white is used to tone the colors on the palette. This does two things, one it extends the drying time of the paint and two it tones down the intensity of the paint (acrylics tend to dry darker). 

Barry adds the retarder to a mister filled with water. The paints on the palette are given a fine mist periodically so that they don't dry out too soon. The mist can also be applied to the painting to aid in blending the colors on the surface.

Barry uses a Palette Garage to store his paints between sessions. This can be obtained at Amazon for around $28. 

I found that I can store paint by using the Premier Paint Palette by Nicole, that I got from A. C. Moore for around $20. Other brands/styles similar to this can be found on Amazon starting at $10.

The Paint Palette is air tight. I added a moist paper towel and found that the paint stayed workable for several days. 

 The Paint Palette has a removable tray for easy cleaning and adds an extra mixing area.

I added some Golden Open extender to a mister. I use this to occasionally wet the paint on the palette during the painting session and as a final wetting when done for the day.

I used a combination of Golden Open and Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic paints on this painting. Both worked well with the mixing white. The Heavy Body stayed just as moist as the Open acrylic during this testing time.

Barry McCann Fine /arts

YouTube Demo by Barry McCann

Albert Handell study

Oil pastel study of oil painting by Albert Handell

7 x 10

Under painted with Creatacolor Aquastics, then used Faber-Castel Oil Pastels. Sennelier Oil Pastels were used to finish the lights and highlights. Created in 2016.

December 2018

2017 Plein Air

9 x 7

Oil

This was started last fall en plein air. Used oil pastels to add highlights and to bring up more colors.

Charles Street Morning

10 x 14

Watercolor

Through the trees

8 x 12

Oil on gessoed board

John Deere 2

8 x 10

Watercolor & Gouache

Sisters 2

4 x 6

Watercolor

Mixed media studies

3 x 5 each

Watercolor, watercolor pencil and gouache.

Mostly Don Demers references were used.

181201 Christmas Fair - South Portland

Gouache

Gouache

Goauche

Gouache

Acrylics

Colored Pencil

Goache

Acrylics/Goauche

Nov 2018

First snow on the marsh

9 x 12

Oil on canvas

Gloucester Sunrise

3 x 5

Watercolor

Happy Days

9 1/2 x 6 1/2

Watercolor & Gouache

Woody

8 x 10

Acrylics

John Deere

8 x 10

Acrylics

Bug Light

Gouache

Fog, Biddeford Pool

Gouache over w/c

Marginal Way, Ogonquit

Gouache

Sisters
5 x 7
Colored Pencils

181019 Pochard Box using a plate hanger

Plate hanger for holding panels

October 2018

Day Break

Acrylics on paper

Moose Study
7 x 9
Acrylics on pastel paper

Black bear at dawn
Acrylics on board
Updated from a couple of years ago. Lightened background trees and added dead trees.

  

French Resistance plein air pochade box adaption

Guerrilla-Painter-Medium-Resistance-Pochade

I have had this box for a number of years but rarely used it because it lacked a pallet. The company, https://guerrillapainter.com/ , suggest using the area in front as a pallet, but that takes away storage space. Also the area is too deep for me personally plus it makes cleanup difficult.

My solution was to build a pallet platform out of ½ inch square dowels and dry erase board, 6" x 9 1/2". Any hard wood board would do, I chose the dry erase for easy clean up.

I cut four dowels to 1 inch lengths, pre-drilled four holes at each corner, glued and screwed the dowels in place. I used Hide glue to help keep the dowels in place while I screwed them on to the board.

The area below the palette can accommodate painting supplies, etc.

The result is a pallet that is functional and can be removed for easy clean up.

Update:

I installed cleats in the storage area so that the pallet can fit on top. 

The cleats add more strength to the pallet than the previous design.

This is the pallet area now. I replaced the previous pallet (dry erase board) with a birch panel. One thing that I would do next time is to lower the cleats a bit so that there is more of a lip for the pallet to prevent any access paint from running into another section.