Carrasco Studio

The Spinach that Ate Seattle

No, I have not abandoned the Art World.  I have not flown up on my own private rapture.

I have been waiting for the planets to align so I can get photos of this year's big mural projects.....about three of them.  However, due to Seattle's extremely wet winter, the stucco has sprung a leak  for the site of my three 5'x 9' canvases. The wine room client has had to have surgery, and the 9'x12' mural in CleElum is installed, but the furniture has to be just right before the client will set up for photos.  Sigh. Life.

So, I have been busy with my other art....gardening.  Note the size of the spinach  on the right hand  side of my raised box and other spinach slithering along at the box base.  I got the seeds from Annie's Annuals and Perennials and the combination of rain and compost  and this special seed has created acromeglic spinach. Huge, and more huge.

  Phil is getting tired of spinach dishes and the whole green thing is getting out of hand.  We've started to go to bed with a machete on the bedstand.

Also, we have put in a living room space in our basement apartment, and it has really amped up it's cuteness factor. (and we can charge more)

Got a new sleeper sofa, found the 50's TV trays at a neighbor's estate sale, and a real little Persian rug at a dry cleaners. Phil worried about the vases tipping over, but I told him that for 99 cents at Goodwill, we could deal with a little tipping.

And, I lowered my standards (and enjoyed it) by painting some Sofa Paintings. Two acrylics...sort of color fieldish with some leaf and water elements, and a gouache ala DeKooning/Carrasco for old times sake. Like when I struggled in Painting 101.

Leaf color field                                                                                    5'x 2' Acrylic on Canvas

Leaf color field                                                                                  3'x 1.5' Acrylic on canvas

Garden Frenzy                                                                 20" x 30" Gouache over watercolor

Hint: I painted the gouache over a big watercolor I screwed up....it was really fun....worked mostly with chip brushes, sharp points to scratch with and pastel pencils. I think I'll do more of these.  After 40 years, I finally got the hang of it.  Besides, I have enough messups in watercolor to keep me busy for a while.

Abstract art is a lot harder, in my opinion, because you don't have the resonance of an image to play against.

And Phil  had real challenges with making the new room watertight. Seattle basements always leak.  I thought Lynne would appreciate this, since she has an artisian well in her basement.  Note also that Phil has installed earthquake plates all around the foundation of our house.  San Francisco is not the only shaker and mover along this ring of fire!

I made the mistake of showing Phil  the levels of finish for sheet rock that Regina featured on Fauxology. Now I warrant that our renter will be the only one living in a level 5 finished apartment!  Painstaking.

Sheet rock knees.  A disease of carpenters.

And also, I've been working on a series of watercolors called, eponymously, "Clear Water"  They are quite large, some of them.....20" by 30", and so far I have about 10 I like.  Here's one.

And then.....I have developed 4 images for a children's nursery that I plan to reproduce.  But I'm keeping those under my hat until their grand opening.......

So, you see.  I haven't been lolling on the couch eating bon bons.

 

Mushroom Chemistry (it's not what you think) Painting with Mushroom Pigments.

Alissa and Paeolus schweinitzi in the wild

During one of my CandP Coffee House watercolor classes, my student and friend Alissa showed me her samples of dyes made from different mushrooms.  I was impressed, not only by the range of colors, but also by her presentation. 

Alissa's swatches of mushroom dye samples

 I knew she did scientific work for her day job, but I had no idea of the breadth of her knowledge about mycology, Not only did she learn where and when to find the mushrooms, but she had conducted workshops on the subject and could rattle off the species and families in Latin. She had also made articles of clothing and weaving dyed with mushroom dyes.

Alissa's mushroom dye treasures

"How about paint?" I asked her.  When she mentioned that she hadn't tried that yet, I suggested we do some experiments making mushroom watercolor pigment.  So, over a period of three meetings, we got together, boiled up some batches of mushrooms, added the ingredients needed for fixing the color (mordants like alum, iron and vinegar), and brewed up watercolors from some recipes I found online.  (Alissa's comments are in italics.)

Here is Alissa preparing for our experiments in her Romanian mushroom hat.  It is made of pounded mushrooms. (truly)

I donned my Mad Scientist hat  (a rain hat I had picked up from my Peace Corps days) and some round nerd glasses.

Adding water to last autumn's dried Phaeolus schweinitzi.

And we begin to simmer. Toil and Trouble.  Until the smelly mixture is reduced to a rich color.

Decanting the pigment-rich color.

Adding color enhancing mordants and pHadjusters: iron, alum, vinegar and washing soda.

First test

Testing the concentrated solution.  The results were amazing.  All this range from 2 species!  The watercolor pencill added a nice level of detail, illustrating a feature in mycology called "marginate gill edges" where the caps's pigment carries over to the gill's edge.  It is a detail to look for when determining the identity of a specific mushroom.  

At this point,  Alissa took the pigments home to allow them to dry in their labeled containers. 

On Meeting 2, we ground the pigments (I believe in paint lingo it's called "milling") and added the ingredients for watercolor paint.

1. Water  and the dried pigment, 2. oxgall (as a dispersant), 3. glycerine (as a plasterizer or to help the gum arabic redissolve), 4. liquid gum arabic (not pictured but works as a binder), 5. Honey!!! (as a humectant...Note it is REAL honey I buy from my beekeeper friends in Indianola). And finally, 6. corn starch as a filler.

 

Straining the cornstarch. Yeah, my gravy is lumpy too.

Add aproximately 3 parts gum arabic to one part glycerin to 3/4 part honey to 1/2 part ox gall to 2 parts corn starch to "enough" water. 

We dabbed samples on white plates and labeled them.  Alissa again took the paints home to hydrate in the fridge.  We didn't have oil of cloves, but it would be a good thing to add a drop to each container...prevents mold and bad smells.

Hydrated pigments plus watercolor additives

On our third and last meeting, we got together and painted.
 

 Alissa painting the negative spaces

 Alissa's mushroom                          Jennifer's morel

 

Pigment samples and watercolor products

Alissa and Jennifer at the grand finale of the Mushroom Paint experiment.

And toasted ourselves and the Fungi Family with wine to celebrate!

Next, Alissa has promised to take me to see a wonderful Bog. 

BOG ART is next.

 

On the Trail of Watercolor Easter Bunnies and other Fuzzballs.

Our famed watercolor group at the even more famous CandP Coffee shop has erupted with all sorts of rabbit images for Easter....and other furry beasts.

Mary

  As usual, the class is composed of old hands and dudes (a Far West metaphor for Far West Seattle), and their individual progress was amazing. Mary, a gifted illustrator in her own right, jumped from working almost solely in line art to handling subtle glazes in shaping the form of a polar bear and a couple of very fine rabbits. Sara, a first time student, painted a brilliant hula rabbit while her mother Rebecca surpassed herself with a bunny in an Arts and Crafts mode. And Kim produced a jumpin' prairie hare.  Wendy painted a hatted cat with attitude, Elizabeth painted a " Whoops! Stuffed bunny", Carol did a lovely liquid rabbit sketch, and Ingrid stole the show with her "Dressy chickens."

  Sara                                                         Rebecca

Kim

    
Elizabeth                                                        Carol

     Ingrid                                                                           

I wanted to focus on the qualities of pigments....staining, granulating and glazing, and the idea of furry animals seemed to provide a good vehicle. As you can see in my example below, the addition of raw umber (R), Lunar black (middle), or burnt umber (L) to a re-dampened (or if you feel gutsy, a wash) of raw sienna can give a nice "furry" quality. And, if you want to get down and "Durer", you can painstakingly render the dry under washes with strokes of pale gouache or darker strokes of watercolor

 

In fact, I started the first  class with a print of an Albrecht Durer rabbit (circa 1502) and the whole unit has been devoted to the class experimenting with the qualities of pigments...underglazing, the subtle blending and textures of sedimentary pigments, and the advantages of using glazes over all to tie in different forms and values in a composition.....and,  the use of negative space as an element in composition.

Albretch Durer

The last two classes were concerned with watercolors  and colored etching of animals in illustration for children's books.  We looked at the work of Tasha Tudor, Beatrix Potter, Tenniel , Rackham and Grandville, and contemporary work by artists such as Jane Dyer and Maurice Sendak.   We noted how animals in costume, both as parodies of famous persons and as important additions to children's literature, has been a tradition of  illustrators from the time of Italian grottescas through Victorian lampoons  to today's Jane Dyer's charming illustrations. 

Beatrix Potter

Grandville

                                                                    Arthur Rackham 

                        Jane Dyer

Consequently,as a result of our discussions, I noticed some very fine animal fashions evolving in the latest class creations.  

Perhaps next Tuesday, the class will surprise me with bunny bonnets.

Over the years, I've had a few animal fashion epiphanies myself.  A waspish chantuse....a soulful (soleful?) fish flautist, a very hip daddy-0 goat......

Jazz Band                                            © Jennifer McCabe Carrasco 3/28/ 2008

 

Watercolor Triptych. A Day on the Llano River

I finally mailed off my Austin client's watercolor triptych.  I framed them with cherry and left extra wide mats, and I think he'll like them.  My client wanted a realistic rendering and wanted a local butterfly included, so I spent some time developing a technique for working with glazes and textures appropriate to the subject.  Here's a close up of my left painting. 

I got better as I went along.

The effort of coming up with detailed work was helpful, since I plan to do a series of loose paintings of the same... closeups and  and more abstract.   I spent  actual time on the river and took many photos and did many sketches.  There was a gentle wind, and I kept singing to myself, "Hear the wind blow..."

The Llano River and I became well acquainted.

My right painting.

My center painting.

...and my left painting.

The center painting is wider...12"....and the left and right paintings are 9" wide.  All are 30 " long.  The right painting is the river coming "in", the wider center painting is the point of view, and the left painting is the river going "out"

I was taken by the granite rocks, the transparency of the water, and the animals and the colors of the underwater strata.  Since the rocks are metamorphic and have been carved by rain and wind, they have strange inclusions and holes.....the navel(s) of the world.

    
 ..... ikebana-like arrangements of pools, rocks and grasses.

and pockets of still water and creatures....

I am fascinated by the river and water in general, and find the transparency and the difficulty of watercolor both appropriate and  challenging for the reflections, clarity, the torrents and deep still pools.  I will get better.  I can hardly wait to start on my series.

West Seattle Blog Ruins Tour and CandP Watercolor classes

Hey people...take a look at the West Seattle Blog article about my work and my classes in the March 21 !  Ellen Cedargreen wrote the article and took the photos during my tour of the Ruins and also put in a plug for my classes.  Thanks Ellen!  Thanks West Seattle Blog!  My infamy increases.

Photo by Robert Pisano            The Ruins Ballroom.  40’ by 30’ by 17’ high.

 

Here I was, ready to install after two years of work.

The Pacific Northwest Primeval cartouche ..15’ by 17’ Part of the Ruins Ballroom.

The Nez Perce Cartouche 17’ by 8’  Part of the Ruins Ball Room

J. Edgar Hoofer.  4’ by 2.5’  (in the entry) Part of a series I painted of 30’s political characters. Mr. Hoofer, here, is a cross-dressing zebra.  John Swartley designed the format for all 6 characters.

BTW, the food at the Ruins is fabulous.

And here’s a shot of my wonderful students in a class  a couple of winters ago.

(Each class unit has a different focus....this next unit (starting tonight at CandP Coffee 5612 California Ave SW Seattle, WA 98136-1515(206) 933-3125) will feature spring, animals, color theory and creation of space with values and aerial perspective.  All levels of skills welcome.

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.

Spring Inches Across the Land

 My tulips are up and meditating about blooming, and a male robin is patroling our spaded beds.  He looks martial and very smartly turned out.  New feathers and a bit of a black crest on his head.  Aha! A worm! He dives in triumph. (the robin) The early bird...etc., etc.

Which brings to mind.  My watercolor class at CandP starts up again on the 22nd of  March.  I wanted to let you know before it fills up.  Register soon.  The early bird...etc.etc.

Here's the facts.

Brown wrens, martial robins, timorous rabbits, fresh and radiant art loving creatures! Let's express our inchoate yearnings and renewals with splashes of paint and blooming fields of flowers.

Besides having fun, you learn skills and a way to start on your individual path in art. As a teacher, the coffee shop has been my favorite venue. Cameron and Pete, the owners of CandP Coffee have been the souls of generosity to allow us to paint in their space.  We all have bloomed.  You too, come to the meadow.

See ya. Chirp! Ribbit! Cheep!

 

 

Gather Ye Rosebuds

 

We had a fine time with painting images of flowers at Susan Allemand's studio. There were ten students, from beginners to professionals, and they did great. As I tell students, everyone starts where they are at.

We worked with Golden Liquid Acrylics on Roclon canvas, and we talked about how this combination worked especially well with painting flowers.  Flower petals, for the most part, are transparent, tender forms, and watercolor paintings of flowers, because of this transparency, are especially effective.  The techniques of watercolor....glazes, transparent levels of pigment...are easily transferable to working with acrylics on canvas....especially  Golden Liquid Acrylics mixed with medium or water on Roclon canvas. 

Roclon canvas doesn't need to be stretched before painting, and because of it's unique blend of cotton and polyester and texture, washes and glazes of acrylics go on beautifully.  The artist has a choice to built texture and opaque paint if they wish.

The class tried some single blooms....roses and peonies first.....and some did bouquets later.

And some rugged individuals did palm trees! (It pleases me when I see people pushing in different directions.)  I DO NOT teach splinter skills.  These techniques are effective for many approaches and subjects...from abstract to figurative....flowers petals, water, glass and splashes of color with great marks.  Try them all.

I get depressed and irked when students strive for a perfect copy of my work, take it home and put it on their website as their originals.  First of all, they are not me and their body talks differently from my body. Secondly, it always looks like student work because....well, it does. No ifs ands or buts about it.  Also, it crosses an ethical line.

Your creativity is a precious gift. If you never use it and continue to copy and copy, it will atrophy.  If you use an age old motif, ie. an acanthus leaf border, somehow expand it to make it your own.

I also demonstrated how I created borders with acrylic metallic tube paint (more body) on Roclon. (Roclon doesn't fray) and mounted it with wallpaper paste on a rigid surface.   With the right paste, you can remove the mural if you want after a few years without doing damage to either the mural or the wall.  Another method is to attach grommets and hang the painting like a tapestry.  Lori Wilson of Golden Acrylics showed me how to do that.  Another tapestry look can be achieved by hanging the work over a painted dowel.

Transparency, layers of color, organic forms overlapping in subtle arrangements of color and shape and value.  Sounds like a rose, doesn't it? 

Name this Rose                             ©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/23/42                                                             

 

Accent on the Negative (as in composition)

Everyone brought toys for this class still life, and the assignment limited the student to two toys drawn so part of them went off the sides of the paper.  I showed the class Harriet Shorr's book of paintings and we discussed how she would paint the negative space, the background, first.  This would establish interesting intervals between objects and the main hue interaction for her painted objects. 

Also, we discussed how this viewpoint had a high horizon line, which created a feeling of flat space and transformed the objects and background into an abstraction.  The class drew their objects with colored watercolor pencils, trying to use a complimentary color....ie., blue pencil to line out Raggedy Ann's orange hair.  Added a little zip to the work when the watercolor pencil would bleed into the painted areas.

Lay that paint down, Mary!

St. Nicolas Trudges On

I've heard it on the best authority (Drudge and Celebrity News) that the old guy is on his way through the frozen North.  He's been walking a lot and dieting (Recession) and the reindeer are on strike for higher wages, so he had to start early. Tomorrow he'll be at the Canadian border and be in line at customs, but if he clears that, he'll be at your house on schedule.

Since you all have been good, I'm sure you'll get yo-yo's instead of sticks.

Happy Holidays from me and Phil.

My cards, both for holiday and events,  are available at www.Emery-Burton.com.carrasco carrasco

 

Keep them Foxes Coming

Fox crossing the snow in the Copper Mountains           ©Jennifer M Carrasco 10/23/93

 

        The Thought Fox

    I imagine the midnight's moment's forest:
    Something else is alive
    Beside the clock's loneliness
    and this blank page where my fingers move.

    Through the window I see no star:
    something more near
    Though deeper within darkness
    Is entering the loneliness:

    Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
    A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;
    Two eyes serve a movement, that now
    And again now, and now, and now
       
    Sets neat prints into the snow
    Between trees, and warily a lame
    Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
    Of a body that is bold to come

    Across clearings, an eye,
    A widening deepening greeness,
    Brilliantly, concentratedly
    Coming about it's own business

    Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
     It enters the dark hole of the head.
    The window is starless still: the clock ticks,
    The page is printed.

            .............................Ted Hughes

Or painted.  Or sung...... Carved, Composed, Collaged, Connected.