How to Varnish an Acrylic Painting

Good morning everyone!
I have finally finished up my video on how to varnish an acrylic painting. This is a final step that a lot of artists skip and they really shouldn't. The final varnish coat is meant to protect your artwork for many years to come. Often we don't think about the environmental elements that are wreaking havoc on our paintings. Dust, dirt, UV rays, etc. The final varnish coat protects your work from all of this. When you purchase a varnish I would make sure to choose one that won't yellow over time and is removable with mineral spirits or some other medium. You want the varnish to be removable in case someone in the future needs to touch something up on it. (say it is damaged somehow and needs repair) Also, this is handy in case you find that you need to add something else to the painting.

Varnish is also a wonderful way to bring out all of the rich colors in a painting. Sometimes certain paints will have more gloss while other colors remain matte. Adding a final varnish will help to unify the texture and gloss of the entire piece.

When choosing a varnish you can choose matte or gloss. I usually prefer gloss because I like that "wet paint" look, but matte varnish works just as well.

Anyway, here is my video demonstration. Enjoy!

Introducing Laura Stamper Designs!

I promised to share with you an amazing fantasy jewelry artist, and here is she! I can't tell you how much her work inspires me. Much like me, her inspiration is rooted in story. As such, each piece of miniature wearable sculpture has its own personality and its own story to tell.

Laura grew up in rural Minnesota where she was surrounded by the natural elements that would become her greatest source of inspiration. Laura originally studied portrait painting. Even today, her first love is painting and illustrating.  She still uses the same creative approach to her jewelry that she used for her portrait paintings, thinking in terms of color, composition and negative space. Her artwork first evolved from portrait painting to creating miniature porcelain paintings, sculptures and jewelry pieces. Soon she learned how to work in metals and began to incorporate metal work with her jewelry.  Each of her unique pieces is crafted from porcelain and gemstones, and set in precious mixed metals.

Laura is a wonderful example of an evolving artist. Rather than continuing in only one area of art and doing portrait paintings her whole life, she has sought to grow and evolve so that her art takes on many new and exciting forms.  We have a shared love of learning and I admire her tenacity and perseverance.  

Often artists have a hard time letting go of certain pieces. Laura has a wonderful theory about her art that helps her to part with these beautiful creations without shedding a tear. She believes that each piece is waiting for her human twin.   "They tell me who they are and I just provide the hands to help them get here.  I also think they know who they are going home with long before I do. " What a wonderful way to look at it! 

To check out more of her fantastic creations, go to her etsy shop.

 

Creative Concepts and Sketches

Some days it seems like my creative well is dry as a bone and then some days I can't seem to keep up with all of the ideas pouring in. I currently have over 30 sketches that I've made for future paintings. I also have another 20 sketches done for random jewelry pieces. Often I do these sketches at work, but it's pretty much whenever I feel the need to jot an idea down. I'm so very grateful to have this many ideas floating about, but it's sort of overwhelming at times! 

The first sketches that I am going to be creating the final paintings for were done almost a year ago and are my versions of the Four Seasons. 

 Since we're in summer right now, I've decided to start Summer first. I had a lot of fun working on a quick color study with watercolors. 

When you are creating something, do you do mock ups? Or put together a practice run? Or do you just jump in headfirst? I have to be honest that with me it sort of depends on the piece. I always will do a quick pencil or pen sketch, but as for the color studies, it sort of depends on how detailed the piece is. In these small seasonal pieces, there are so many components that I feel compelled to play around with the color a bit. For simpler compositions I will often just jump immediately to canvas. 

Here are a few sneak peeks of some other upcoming projects that I will be working on in the future...

Hope that everyone has an amazing week!!

Painting with Acrylics Video

Good morning everyone! I spent all day yesterday putting together a compilation video of me as I work on my latest painting, The Butterfly Faerie. I was ready to throw my computer out the window  because of all of the technical difficulties I kept experiencing, but it's finally done!




My next video will show how to varnish an acrylic painting, so stay tuned! :)

Painting to Help Others

 Everyday I count my blessings and see how truly rich I am. We are bombarded now with photos of the horribly malnourished and suffering people of Somalia. I can't help but think that this could be any one of us. We have no control over the conditions that we are born into. It just breaks my heart to see how horribly these people are suffering!

I have finally finished my Butterfly Faerie and have placed it for sale in my etsy shop. 20% of the proceeds from this sale will go directly to UNICEF. They have launched a massive scale up of their operation and are using all avenues available to get supplies into Somalia. I want to help them with their efforts in any way that I can. I am honored to have the gifts that God has given me and hope to be able to use them to help others less fortunate.
I am also donating another 10% of the proceeds from this sale to Compassion International. I have been a member of Compassion for almost 6 years and find them to be an honorable organization who helps families in poverty stricken societies.

I plan to have prints available soon and will donate a portion of the proceeds from those as well.

Thank you so much for supporting my art! 

Gurney on Sargent

One of my favorite modern day illustrators, James Gurney, recently had this blog post. I found it so interesting and inspiring that I wanted to share it with my followers as well. Enjoy!


John Singer Sargent traveled to America in 1890, he went painting with Frederick S. Pratt, an amateur painter and founding trustee of the Worcester Art Museum.


Luckily for us, Pratt wrote down what Sargent had to say about painting methods.

“Choose simple subjects, near objects at first. Do not try to make a pretty picture so much as to render truthful effects. Paint over the whole canvas with colors approximating the masses so as to obscure [sic--did he mean establish?] relations of tones while working—when finishing, ‘paint into paint’ when possible and in portraits, paint around the features in detail, using small brushes rarely.


“Always use a full brush and a larger one than necessary. Paint with long sweeps, avoiding spots and dots (‘little dabs’). Never think of other painter’s pictures or how some one else would treat a subject but follow your own choice of colors with exact fidelity to nature.”

This was quoted from the new book John Singer Sargent:Figures and Landscapes

Fairy Tales

You know how much I adore fairy tales. So when I was included in this fairy tale themed collection on artfire, I was just thrilled! I wanted to share this whimsical collection with you. I think that LuaTuomi did a wonderful job! My favorites? Coltpixy's Golden Apple and krougeau's In The Garden Of Live Flowers. So much fun! Which ones are your favorites?

Fairy Tales

Curated By: LuaTuomi

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts