Tesia Blackburn Artist's Blog

Back in the studio and all that jazz

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:52:00 +0000

Just a quick post here. I'm way behind in all things online, email, website, blog, podcast, twitter and facebook. Good grief! But I'm back in the studio after an awful summer of having no space, borrowing space to work and teach in. It really sucked. However - now that I'm back there's no stopping me! I will post photos of the workshops and such from over the summer. I have such awesome students! More on that later...stay tuned.

Fake Damien Hirst Blog

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:17:00 +0000

I love this. I mean, how can you not love this spoof? Whether it's a real blog or not, it's damned entertaining. Have a laugh on me....fake Damien Hirst blog

Repost of Wayne Thiebaud's Video from KQED

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:59:00 +0000

He is really a national treasure. Wayne Thiebaud, our own California artist, interviewed here by KQED "Spark". It will take a while to load but be patient, it's really worth the wait! Thanks to Ruth Brophy for sending me the link!

Making Soft Sculpture with Acrylic Paint

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:05:00 +0000

Here's a nifty technical trick to keep up your sleeve! Check it out, soft sculpture made with acrylic paint! What do you think?

Digital imagery and Acrylic Paint

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:03:00 +0000

Recently I gave a free online webinar on Digital Imagery and Acrylic Paint. Golden Artist Colors has made some fabulous new products to allow you to print on acrylic paint skins. Sound crazy? Yeah, watch the video and get back to me. Way cool fun! By the way, this video is nearly 30 minutes long so get a cup of coffee and sit back. It's like a free art lesson!

How to s-t-r-e-t-c-h your paint!

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:25:00 +0000

Here's a short demo on how to stretch your paint by adding gel. Wahoooo!

Auction news glub, glub

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:00:00 +0000

The fine art auction market was sober recently as witnessed by the dismal Sotheby's auction. Read the entire story here.

I'm very pleased that the Calder sculpture made a good showing though. It just goes to show, good design is never trendy and always in demand. I especially loved this paragraph:

"One of the few moments when the salesroom came alive was for an early sculpture by Calder. The artist is one figure who manages to shine during bad times. A standing mobile fashioned from wood, steel and string — “Ebony Sticks in Semi-Circle” from 1934 — was thought to bring $1 million to $1.5 million. Five bidders, including Eli Broad, the Los Angeles financier, went for the sculpture, which sold for $3.5 million to a telephone bidder."

Not a shark in formaldehyde in sight!

Creating works on Paper

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:15:00 +0000

Here's a short video that shows how some of my paintings on paper are created. Enjoy!

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Here's a couple from the new Italia Series, acrylic on paper.

I was inspired to name this series after listening to Chris Botti's CD "Italia". Check him out

How big a role does music play in your studio? For me it's huge. I listen to a wide variety of music and often work on a series based on a piece of music. I'm likely to have a Johnny Cash piece playing right after an aria by Placido Domingo.

Music truly does calm the savage beast, but it also wakes up my creative beast!

Obama and the White House Art Collection

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:05:00 +0000

President Obama rocks my world. He's forward-looking and creative and now he's bringing those two attributes to bear on the White House Art Collection. With Michelle he is bringing new work to the White House, the likes of which have never been seen before. No more stuffy 19th century portraits for our 21st century President and his wife. Read the entire article here. (Thanks to Gordon Bruning for clueing me in to this article). Some of my very faves are now in the White House; Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Rauschenberg, and Louise Nevelson just for starters.

I am excited by this as is the rest of the art world. Finally! We abstract painters have a voice in the Highest Office. So now when you are asked "what do you paint?" You can say, "oh abstracts, just like the ones in the White House!"

A recent trip to Seattle

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:59:00 +0000

Recently, I visited a client in the Seattle/Bellevue area to see some of my work installed. Here's a short video of the artwork installed.

Check out the podcast

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:25:00 +0000

I've just started my new podcast

Stay tuned for more podcasts and be sure to subscribe to stay up to date. I'll be sure the podcasts have lots of information and technical tricks to keep your creative juices flowing!

New work in the studio

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:17:00 +0000

Here's a look at the most recent painting from my studio. SPRING ECLIPSE

Webinar Video Update - Monoprint without a Press

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who visited the Webinar on Saturday February 21. I did a live, interactive webinar on Monoprint without a Press using Golden's slow drying acrylic, OPEN.

Here's the edited version of the live webinar. We had some audio problems but for the most part I'm happy with this first effort.

MONOPRINT WITHOUT A PRESS USING GOLDEN ACRYLICS "OPEN" PAINT.

Here's what Joe Coho (who attended "live") had to say: "I truly enjoyed your webinar. And I meant it when I said you did a great job, especially for a first try. The technical problems didn't keep your enthusiasm from coming across... And I could see what you were doing, too... More important to me was your enthusiasm for your subject. Living in the foothills outside of Yosemite in Mariposa, the chance to participate in a real class is a joy. So thank you for your work."

Thanks, Joe, for your feedback. I'd love to hear from anyone else who attended. It's really great to be able to reach people all over the world who are interested in attening a workshop "online"!

Look for more live webinars in the future. Be sure to visit my website and sign the guestbook to be kept up to date with upcoming webinars and classes.

Evolution of a Painting

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Play the video above to see how a painting takes shape in my studio.

The Joy of Teaching

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:58:00 +0000

One of the great things about teaching is the people you get to interact with as a teacher. Here's a recent photo of one of my classes in Walnut Creek. This is the Tuesday night abstract painting group, with a couple of people missing.

I have such a good time teaching! Thanks to all the folks out there who have been my students. I learn so much from all of you!

Using Acrylic Skins for color correction on a painting

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:29:00 +0000

When I'm under a tight deadline to get a painting finished, I sometimes don't have the luxury of making "mistakes". Mistakes are usually something I love! They bring about some very rewarding paintings. However, if I'm under the gun and have to produce, I can't afford to make a mistake. So I will make an acrylic skin on glass and lay it down over an area in a painting that I'm thinking about, just to see what it might look like. Especially, as in the most recent painting, when I'm working really large and changing a "mistake" would take a gallon of paint and half a day. So look below and you'll see three different skins I made to check for color against the painting that I had in progress.

Brush the paint out on glass or heavy duty black plastic. Let it dry and then you can peel it up and hold it over the area on the canvas that you are considering. Be sure to make the paint layer thick enough so that you can peel it up and it will hold together. Below I'm holding the dry paint skin over the painted canvas. Looks good!

Here's a studio shot of the finished piece.

Webinars - Monoprint without a Press

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:08:00 +0000

See the Post on March 26, 2009 for an updated version of the Webinar.

Rolling acrylic paintings for shipping

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:50:00 +0000

Here's a question from the email bag:
"Hi Tesia- Here's a question for you. If I take a 40X60 acrylic painting off its stretchers and roll it up in order to transport it will the paint crack or is it pretty flexible? This will save me a big shipping charge. The paints, by the way, are Golden acrylics.Thanks,Frank AnsleySt. Helena, CA."
Thanks Frank for your question. There are several things to consider when rolling a painting. Rolling a painting is fine if that's the only way you can ship it. It's not the best, but it's okay. In winter weather, you want to be sure you roll the painting in room temperature with the paint film facing out.

I'm going to refer you to this excellent article http://www.goldenpaints.com/justpaint/jp11article1.php at Golden about shipping paintings. Be sure you roll the painting around a hard cardbore core.

It should be fine if it doesn't stay rolled up too long. Be sure you provide adequate unpacking instructions ON THE OUTSIDE of the container for your customer at the other end. For instance, let them know not to the leave the tube outside and to unpack it immediately.

Hope that helps!

Matte Acrylics versus Regular acrylics

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:08:00 +0000

A question from the email bag: "I am trying to create a gouache-like surface with acrylic and am wondering what medium/gel to add. I am looking for super easy flow off the brush and a flat application..." Thanks to Rosalie Fanshel for submitting this question.

Rosalie: The best bet I think is to use the Matte Acrylics from Golden. You can get a very velvety surface from these. Compare the Matte Acrylics with regular Heavy Body in the picture above. The gloss of the regular Heavy Body Paint is causing a glare. Keep in mind you can also just put plenty of Matte Medium into your regular paint to knock back the glare. However, you will diminish the color somewhat since Matte Medium tends to add a waxy like effect to the color. As shown in this photo. The words "matte medium" are in fact made with matte medium and you can see how waxy they look.

So, there you have it. Your choices are 1) to use the Matte Acrylics from Golden or 2) to use lots of Matte Medium in the paint itself.

Hope that answers your question, Rosalie. Any other comments? Let me know.

How to Tear Printmaking Paper

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:57:00 +0000

Isn't it frustrating when you try to tear a piece of beautiful, expensive printmaking paper and you don't get a nice deckled edge? Well here's the easy way to do it.

Lay the paper down on a clean table. Dip a clean watercolor brush into clean water and draw a line across the paper where you want the deckled edge. Then place a sturdy (and clean) straightedge on the water line and hold it down. Now, pull up the paper towards you in one clean, strong motion. Voila! You have a beautiful deckled edge to your paper.

Techno Beasts.....

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:49:00 +0000

I just read the funniest article about Facebook. http://www.newsweek.com/id/183180 After spending most of the day catching up with all my inbox stuff, updating my blog, updating my Facebook page, re-activating my Twitter account, getting my blog listed on TopBloglist, my eyes are sore, my head aches and I think I've sprained my right pinky finger from typing at a weird angle.

Is all of this necessary? How do I unplug a little? Beats me. All I know is that it seems like all of these things have to be done to keep up. Please send me your thoughts.

Meanwhile, I have to go update my Linkedin Page and my Plaxo account....... :-P

Barrack Obama, Gallery Deathwatch and Yo-yo Ma

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:17:00 +0000

It's been a crazy couple of months. I've been absent from the blog scene so I have a lot to catch up on. First off, WAHOOOOOOO, we have a new Prez and I am ecstatic. I won't even begin to spin off here into my wild ravings because I could go on at length about how happy Barrack Obama makes me. I have started watching CNN for crying out loud! I have an official crush on Anderson Cooper. Just let me say once and for all, thank goodness! Okay, glad I got that off my chest. (Besides being an amazing, intelligent man, with an honest-to-goodness mission to serve the people, he's a hunk!)

Here's a picture of me with the three Practicum graduates at their show opening February 5 at Canessa Gallery in San Francisco. Left to right, Diane Goldstein, me, Gayle Muehring and Ruth Brophy. Thanks to Ruth for keeping me up to date on all the information concerning the gallery situation in New York via Buck Naked's Deathwatch blog. A real eye opener for those of us out in the sticks. This is useful information, albeit the layout of Buck Naked's blog leaves a lot to be desired. I think I have a migraine from trying to read it. But do try to wade through and read it, there's a lot of useful information in there. The slow economy is making itself known in all corners and we are not immune to it as artists. Far from it. When folks cannot pay the mortgage or have become one of the 70,000 unemployed in the country - big expensive canvases fall by the wayside. Time for us to all hunker down and put our creative minds to use to find ways to weather the storm. And besides, I've always said that the gallery system wasn't the best way to make a living as a real working artist (read "not an art star").

Now music, something uplifting. Google has a new widget that I've just put on the blog up in the right hand corner "Tesia's Tunes". Just a little ditty to listen to while you read.

Using the Old Masters for Composition

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:25:00 +0000

As an abstract painting teacher, I am often asked by my students "what should I paint?" I like to use the world around me as source material and in particular the Old Masters. Old Master paintings by Rembrandt or Titan or Vermeer can provide a wealth of composition exercises to get your brain working. Here's an example of how I use these. First, take the beautiful painting "Saskia" by Rembrandt.

Now, I've cropped a piece out.

Then after manipulating it in Photoshop this is what it looks like. Now granted this isn't the best abstract painting I've ever done, but it gives me something to work with. I could use this painting and build an entire series from it, doing several paintings as an homage, if you will, to Rembrandt. Try this for yourself and see. Pick any artist you admire and crop small pieces out of their painting. Then manipulate it and work on it to make your own vision from it. This is an old and honored tradition among artists, re-interpreting their ancestors.

Take the work below by Picasso "Portrait of a Young Girl" Now look at the inspiration for this piece by Cranach the Younger. The possibilities are really unlimited. Find your inspiriation wherever you need to!

Mixing Clean Color

tesia.artist@gmail.com (Tesia Blackburn) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:58:00 +0000

The key to mixing clean color is to know your pigments. Inorganic pigments (ultramarine blue, the cadmiums, chromiums, cobalt blue, etc.) tend to make muted mixtures. Organic pigments (quinacridones, phthalocyanines, dioxizines, etc.) tend to make brilliant mixtures.

Try this head to head comparison to understand this issue better:

Take equal parts of Cadmium Red and Cobalt Blue and mix. Expected purple? Nah, you get a brownish purple...a designer might call it eggplant or mauve or something....

Now take equal parts of Quinacridone Red and Phthalo Blue and mix. Voila! A beautiful clean purple that you can tint with white and still keep brilliant.

Does this mean that one type of pigment is better than another? Of course not. Just that if you know what to expect from the pigment, you will save yourself frustration. This will also save you money becuase you will be able to mix the color you want without wasting paint.