50 in 50 CHALLENGE

 What do I mean by 50 in 50?

I've been making notes about ideas that I might chase after in 2021. Not resolutions. I don't do guilt anymore and resolutions do nothing for me but bring on the guilt because I rarely carry through.

No, I'm still working on FOCUS. Staying off the rabbit trails that lead me away from my PATH. Unlike the magpie who chases after all the bright shiny things, I would like to use what I own, what I know, ideas I have, and build on that. I intend to continue learning and experimenting. 

So, 50 in 50 comes out of the idea of reining myself in and using my stuff. I'm challenging myself this way:

During 50 weeks in 2021 I'll work with 50 art tools.

one each week

Every week in 2021 I will choose one art supply, tool, process, technique and see what I can make of it during the week. 

I've left 2 weeks for holidays but I'll take more time off whenever I need or want it.

I'll be flexible. This is meant to be a fun way of teaching myself ways to use these things in my current ... in my paintings, in collages, in my journals. Only rarely will I use these things as a stand-alone exercise. The question will be "how can I use this____ on the painting on my easel, or on a journal page).

I've made my list by typing each item into an Avery return address label template (I used Avery 18167 from their website). I then attached each label to an index card. The cards will live on my desk, banded in blue, and I'll choose one when I have my weekly planning hour on Sunday afternoon. 

If you'd like a copy of my list for ideas for making up your own list just ask (in the comment section or by email to joreimer (at) comcast.net) and I'll email it to you. Remember, this is a list of supplies I own; your list will be different.

Since I post most of the art I make on Instagram or Facebook you'll likely see what I make of 50 in 50 there.

Wishing you a bright, healthy, happy 2021.  (that's a lot harder to type than 2020)

HOW TO PRINT PHOTOS ON TISSUE PAPER

SUPPLIES:

• 1 sheet of cartridge (copy) paper 
• Tissue paper. Any will do but the best is the kind you buy at an art supply store. 
• Photos on your computer 
• Laser printer 

 PROCESS: 

• Make a Carrier Sheet by folding down ½” of the top edge of the copy paper. (this can be used multiple times.) 
• Cut tissue paper to the same size as copy paper: 8.5 x 11” 
• Slip the leading edge of a sheet of tissue under the fold of the copy paper.
• Put it into your computer so the tissue I on the same side as the print heads of your printer. 
• Pull up a photo on your computer, either from your own photos or a copyright-free image and print it with black ink. (I suppose this works with colored laser inks but I haven’t tried it.) Instead of using the folded edge of the carrier sheet you can tape or glue the tissue paper to a sheet of copy paper, using low-tack double-stick tape or a glue stick. 

 TROUBLESHOOTING:

• If the tissue wrinkles or jams as it goes through the printer, work it out and try again, perhaps using a glue stick to glue the edges of the tissue in place.  
• The resulting printed tissue can be used in many ways in your painting. Make lots of copies of printed tissue and experiment. 
• Always apply glue to the receiving surface, not to the tissue. I use acrylic medium of some sort, brushed or scraped onto the substrate. I avoid wrinkles by lightly misting the tissue paper before laying it in place. This relaxes the fibers in the tissue before it hits the glue. Use a rubber scraper to gently work out any air bubbles. Brush more medium onto the surface to seal it down. The tissue will mostly disappear into the paint leaving a sharp image.

Every House has a Story, a Collage Tutorial

 

House on a Hill
16" x 12"
collage on panel
available

EVERY HOUSE HAS A STORY

On visits to my hometown in Arkansas I'd often drive east on Highway 10 passed a lovely old unpainted house on the rise just back from the road near Blue Mountain, and I'd wonder about the people who lived there. I made up stories about it, though they were just flights of fantasy. There was something about that house that really appealed to me. Sometimes there were flowers in the front yard but I never saw a person, no signs that a child lived there.  

One day I slowed the car, rolled down the window, and shot a photo.

Who lives there? How do they make a living? They must be old because there's no trike, no red wagon in sight, just the lonely house beside the busy highway. Year after year the same.

Then one day I drove there to take some good photos and maybe knock on their front door...

THE HOUSE WAS GONE!

No more house. bulldozed and discarded.  I'm so glad I still have one photo.  

(This is the first layer of the collage, indicating the empty home place.)

So now, here, I've made up my own story and placed the house on a hill, added a barn and a farmer who's thinking: There's weather coming, just look at that stormy sky! I better get the cows in and get up to the house before it comes a gully washer.

The farmer is heading to the house where his supper waits on a red checked tablecloth... leftover fried chicken and mashed potato cakes, with some juicy ripe tomatoes out of Mama's garden and chunks of sweet onions.  Maybe pecan pie and ice cream and a night of untroubled sleep. 

HOW I MADE THE COLLAGE

Smooth a thin layer of gesso over the panel. While the gesso dried I printed some photos onto tissue paper and began selecting sections to build the farmyard idea. I augmented the house photo with a photo of a barn of the same vintage, and a photo of my father, also the same vintage. I printed several copies of the photos so I'd have extra bits of tree foliage to piece together.

HOW TO PRINT PHOTOS ONTO TISSUE

Make a carrier sheet by folding down the top 1/2" of a sheet of computer paper. Slip a piece of tissue, cut to size (8.5 x 11"), under the folded edge. Place in your printer, fold first. The fold protects the leading edge of the tissue from bunching up in the printer rollers.  There are other methods; look on YouTube.  Warning: expect a few printer jams before you master the process. Your printer manual will tell you how to retrieve the jammed paper.

 

I used Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish to adhere vintage book pages to the support and then glazed over the papers with gesso juice (1 part gesso to 1 part water) to soften the text and add a bit of mystery, and let that dry thoroughly.  Then I added more tea-dyed papers on top. 

I'm sorry... I got so excited about the work that I forgot to take more process photos!

And finally, I got to THE IMAGES

I decided on a landscape format because of the general look of the background and the stormy sky at the top. I played around with the placement of the images before settling on the final composition.

GLUING TISSUE PAPER IS TRICKY.

You need to put the glue on the substrate, not on the tissue, but in order to prevent the tissue from wrinkling it needs to be moist. I have a spray bottle that sends out a fine mist that works well with fragile tissue. 

Put the glue on the substrate, lightly spray the tissue, count to 10, and lay the tissue in place, putting one edge down and carefully rolling the rest in place.  I keep a rubber bowl scraper at hand and use it to flatten out the tissue.

I know I typed that fast and made it sound easier than it is. Working with tissue in this way takes lots of practice and patience... and a willingness to scrape it all off and start over if need be.

So there you have it, a House on a Hill, with a story to go along with it.

Please leave any questions about my process in the comment section below. If you have a question I'm sure others will want the answer, too.

Best regards,

Jo

Woo Hoo! I'm showing in the Beaverton Art Mix

 Beaverton Art Mix VIRTUAL show begins today and I'm beyond pleased that four of my paintings are in the show and that I can offer you an opportunity to visit my studio to see more of my work. 

Beaverton Art Mix virtual show:

Here's the link to the BAM show.  Search by artists' first name or click on Random Artist.

Vera.  24" x 36".  acrylic on canvas.

Make an appointment.

If you live nearby or will be visiting the Portland OR area do get in touch with me to make an appointment to tour my studios and see other paintings or to make arrangements to buy one of the works in the show.

Open Studios for both Portland and Washington County have been postponed until next year. Knowing that many of you enjoy visiting artists' studios every October I have decided to host my own informal open studio, with social distancing protocols and no more than 6 visitors at a time, throughout the month. I live in a gated 55+ community so appointments are absolutely necessary. 

You are welcome to visit my studio.

Contact options are noted on the BAM website. Simply search for Jo Reimer and you'll find my phone number, email, and website information so you can make an appointment to visit. My acrylic painting studio is inside my garage and my collage studio is accessible via a door from the courtyard. I hope you can come sometime in October. The garage is wheelchair accessible but the collage studio requires two steps up.

Fair warning!  I've decided to leave my studio in working condition rather than to perk it up with special displays, so if you visit you'll see how I really work day by day. 

Goodbye Summer 2020

 Goodbye Summer. I missed you... I think.

Friday in the Garden

12 x 12 Mixed Media

I was determined not to waste a single summer day, but it happened. Maybe it was the weather that caused me to waste time. Certainly it was current events, what with a worldwide pandemic and my husband and me right smack in the middle of the range of senior citizens who needed to be extra cautious in public. So we were. We stayed home, and while I intended to spend the summer painting in my lovely studio I didn't get around to doing much painting. I gardened. I puttered around the house. I fiddled with my collage papers. I wrote copious plans in my journals, plans for someday, just not right now, thank you very much. I'm hibernating.

Bless her heart, Crystal Neubauer recorded some encouraging collage related demonstrations on Facebook and directed viewers to join her in making 5-minute collages as a way to begin the day. If you've been around this blog from its beginning 10 years ago you'll remember that daily collages prompted this blog, One-A-Day, in the first place. I was making 5x7" collages, one every day and writing about what I learned in the doing... and here I am, doing it again. 

Upon being prompted by Crystal I gathered scraps of watercolor paper and cut dozens of 4" squares, gathered a box of collage compost, and my YES! Paste mixture and began. I'm just 4 short of 100.  One Hundred small collages finished. I call them Lagniappe. That's pronounced LAN-yap, and it means a little something extra, a gift, like a baker's dozen or 13 donuts.  I heard it in New Orleans years ago and always liked the idea. 

The painting at the top of this post is one of a small series that I call In The Garden. The collaged bits are from a vintage fabric sample book, just perfect for the painting and reminiscent of my past work in textiles. I wish I had lots more of these fabrics or similar vintage wallpaper.

I'm back to sewing, making masks again. In the spring I used my very last tiny bits and pieces to make masks for a local medical clinic but had to quit when I ran out of fabric. Recently a couple of friends gave me their scraps so I'm at it again. I set up my sewing machine on the dining room table and am doing an assembly line routine of cutting, pinning, and sewing, an hour one morning, 15 minutes while the kettle boils. It all adds up and no matter how long it takes I'm sure I'll have dozens of masks ready long before we can safely bare our faces.

I live in the Portland OR suburbs and if you've been following the news you know that our normally clean pure air is the worst in the world this week due to all the wildfires devouring our forests and farms. I'm thankful for tightly fitting windows and doors and a good air filter on the furnace as I join thousands of others praying for rain. 

That's all. I'm just checking in with all ya'll. (giggle if you must; I'm Arkansas born and that's how I learned to talk way back when). I hope you're well, exercising your creative muscles, reading some good books, and have found better movies than we have on Netflix. 

Yes, okay. I'll take some pictures of my little collages to show you, maybe next week if you ask nicely.

Anything else you want to know about? 

Jo

How to Begin a Painting

HOW TO BEGIN A PAINTING

My friend asked me how I begin a painting and what are the layering steps. That's a question that frequently comes up, one I also like to inquire of other artists. I'll answer by showing you some of the beginning layers... they're Are Not Pretty.

Tangles
10x10 acrylic on paper

This first image is of a finished painting which I began as described below:

BEGINNING A SERIES

Layer 1:  I chose 6 boards that had color already on them, but which had no relationship to one another, hoping to make a short series out of them, related somehow.

Layers 2-6: I chose a limited number of colors for my palette: yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, black and white, and began making marks using a variety of tools: brushes, squeegee, old credit card, painting knife, trowels, a dental pick for scratching lines, a silicone scraper, grease pencil, and probably some other things that I've forgotten.  I worked for one hour and turned these 6 boards....

into this....

Yes, I know they are still ugly, but they are related and the layers of paint on paint on paint give me something to respond to. If you click on the pictures you can get a more detailed look at sections of each piece. At this point there was so much wet paint on each piece that I had to give it a rest and let them dry.

My next step will be to go over all six pieces with my electric sander in order to reveal bits of the color that's underneath.  I'll take pictures and show you my progress in my next post.

NEW WEBSITE!

And by the way, I have a new website, a gallery at DailyPaintWorks, where I have work for sale. I'd love it if you'd go have a look and let me know, frankly, what you think. Make a note of the address, https://www.joreimer.com, and share my good news, if you please.

If you aren't familiar with DPW treat yourself to a subscription that features the work of hundreds of painters delivered as a once-daily email to your inbox.

DIY for Artists, an Inexpensive Painting Surface

Whiteboards as an Inexpensive Painting Surface

Inspiration Board for CVP2020
Art2Life's Creative Visionary Program  

This great idea comes from Eugene OR artist, Patti McNutt  who often uses ordinary whiteboard panels for a painting surface. It’s available at lumberyards in 1/4" thick, 4 x 8-foot sheets and sometimes as small as 2x4ft. 

Ask for MDF White Vinyl panels.

To save time and effort apply a couple of coats of gesso or interior house paint to the raw side of the full sheet of whiteboard. Cut the large panel to the size you require for your work. The whiteboard side becomes the back of the panel and you paint on the side to which you apply gesso. The slick white surface offers a place for a signature, title, project number, and any other information that you want to accompany the finished work. 

If you buy a 4 x 8 ft panel you can cut it down to 32 twelve-inch square panels. Each panel will be slightly less than 12” due to the slight loss from the blade cut. These are great for practice panels but I’ve been able to insert my 11 7/8” panels into both float frames and into regular 12” frames.

Look for MDF White Vinyl (1-side) panel which is currently $23.81 at Home Depot. For $24, each 12” panel would cost you a mere 75 cents.

If you choose to use ¼” birch plywood, at $28/4x8 sheet, your 12” panels would be only 88 cents each.

Of course, some of you want panels that are exactly 12” square, just like the art supply store sells. You can still cut 20 twelve-inch panels for $1.40, as well as twelve more 10” panels from the scrap.

Unless you’re handy with a table saw don’t cut the panels yourself. Find a handyman or friend who will do the cutting for free or in exchange for one of your paintings. Don’t expect Home Depot to cut the wood accurately. They don’t have time to be careful, nor are their blades sharp enough. (Experience speaks here.)

I have lots of my own original work for sale on my DailyPaintworks gallery. Have a look here:

It's not too late to sign up for Art2Life free workshops.

Nick Wilton

The first of Nickolas Wilton's Art2Life free workshops begins today. What a nice Valentine gift, three workshops with no strings attached. Click here to sign up.

Nick offers these workshops each year as a lead-in to signing up for his Creative Visionary Program, a 3-month online art course that I took last year.  Watching the freebie convinced me that this program was for me... and I sure chose a winner.

My work and my approach and my process of creating good art have all improved leaps and bounds.

I didn't go to art school but I have attended dozens and dozens of classes and workshops over the last 50+ years and I can say honestly that CVP is the best of the best.

I learned SO much and gained confidence in my process so that my work never fails to give me pleasure.

If you haven't already signed up to take the free workshops, please do so.  Click here.  You'll learn something valuable to your own practice.

WooHoo... Free Art Workshop... Join me...

There is an exciting opportunity coming up that I want to share with you...

My colleague and friend, Nicholas Wilton, is about to begin his annual Art2Life Online Workshop.

It begins on February 14, but free registration is open now!

It is an entire week of teaching from Nicholas, designed to help you make art that is stronger and more like you.

Because it is held online, you can participate from home — no matter where you are in the world.

And... it is completely free!

Click here to save your seat in the free Art2Life Workshop!

I am going to be following along with the workshop again this year, and I would love for you to join me.

Nicholas has been teaching this workshop since 2016, and in that time, has helped over 60 000 artists push their art to exciting new places.

The free workshop has recently been revamped to include all-new examples, stories and more.

Specifically, the free online workshop will explore exciting ideas like:

How to use a ground-breaking concept called Differences to quickly make your art more arresting and impactful  

How to use the principle of Value to create art that is instantly more balanced, refined, and striking

  

A simple but surprising approach to creating amazing Color and a sophisticated sense of harmony throughout your work  

Exactly what to do when your art feels stuck or incomplete (this will revolutionize the way you think of mistakes forever)  

Ways to make your creative life feel more spacious, joyful and personal to you… even if you’re in a creative funk or short on time

Even if you just take ONE insight away that helps you shift your art… 

I know it will be well worth your time.

And it might just help you see your art (and yourself) in a whole new way.

Here’s the link to register for the Free Art2Life Workshop again.

Hope to see you there, 

Jo

P.S. Nick has a habit of seriously over-delivering in his workshops.

In the past, here’s what people have said about Nick’s free teachings… 

“Your classes have been absolutely amazing for me. It feels life changing. It's like I've discovered the core of my art again after being buried for a very long time. Your way of describing the process is true and simple”

Gordon Studer, Art2Life Workshop attendee

Give your creative self something special this valentine’s day.

Best of all? It’s totally free.

Save your spot in the Free Art2Life Workshop here!

Still Waters - Abstract Collage

Still Waters
12 x 12 x 1.5
Acrylic on Cradled Panel
$375

New Year, New Intentions

Inspiration Board

One of the first things I was asked to do when I began the Creative Visionary Program with Nick Wilton of Art2Life was to create an Inspiration Board.  This is the one I did which shows what inspires me as I go around living life. 

Travel. 
Landscape.
Broad expanses.
Gates and doors.
Symbols.
Pattern. Repetition.
Letterforms.
Color, always color.
Photography and sketchbooks to document the journey.

Painting broad expanses is a struggle for me but I will persevere. I instinctively go for the detail, probably the influence of all those years doing embroidery with thousands upon thousands of small meticulous stitches.

I entered the three-month workshop in the spring with the intention to consciously use this board to inform the work I created.  Sometimes it was successful, sometimes I simply needed to dig deeper to figure out a new way to do things. 

Come in the Back Gate.  Sold.

The big success for me has been the growth in how I approach my work and the confidence I've gained.  I'm figuring out how to add direct painting to collage, to add collage to paintings. Such great fun.

I'm continuing with CVP and have signed up for another year of working with Nick and his team, which brings me to giving you notice about an Art2Life workshop, a FREE video workshop in 4 parts taught by Nick. It begins on Valentine's Day, February 14.  Sign up by clicking here.

I'm planning to have an Open Studio and Sale soon, probably in March. Work is accumulating and there's sure to be something for your walls. I'll let you know when you can come to see BOTH of my studios, the one that took over the master bedroom and the one in the garage.

That's plenty about me and my art journey. I sure would like to hear from each of you. There's a comment area below where you can send me a report from your corner of the world.

Cheers!
Jo