Resources for Artists: Acrylic Solutions by Chris Cozen and Julie Prichard

The wind is howling, the roads are icy, and snow is falling. It's the perfect time to curl up with a cup of cocoa and a good book! If that book is Acrylic Solutions: Exploring Mixed Media Layer by Layer (North Light Books), you're in for a fine read.

Co-authors Chris Cozen and Julie Prichard lead readers step by step through the process of creating  compelling mixed media paintings. After covering the basics -- paints, surfaces, tools, and guidelines for applying techniques like glazing, blending, and mixing colors -- they move on to the hows and whys of laying a solid foundation for a piece, including choosing the right substrates and how to prep them.

Structure comes next, with discussions of exactly how the various mixed media pieces shown were developed using collage, texture mediums, color blocking, mark making, etc.

From there the book moves into the topic that poses a challenge to many artists: how to develop complexity in a work without it becoming a visual jumble. Advice and techniques are offered to enable you to design a work of art that's both exciting and yet cohesive.

The last chapter covers the essential final step, which is assessing the work and finessing the details.
If the checklist provided reveals that improvements are necessary, you'll find numerous ways to achieve them in the "toolbox" of solutions offered.

I consider this book to be an essential resource due to both its excellent content and functional design. It's spiral bound, making the many demos in it easy to follow because it can be laid flat on your worktable. It's written in a lively, entertaining style, and the many photos provided are crisp and clear. Among them are many photos of works created by the authors along with those of dozens of other mixed media artists. The works depicted are sure to inspire anyone looking for some artistic inspiration. And because Cozen and Prichard's own personal styles are considerably different from one another, it's interesting to see how applying their suggestions can result in decidedly different yet equally successful works of art.

©2015 Lynn Edwards

 

A Must-Have Book for Artistic Inspiration

Ideas for paintings and other art endeavors are all around us. Our familiar environments are rich with possibilities -- objects, colors, textures, patterns, and so forth -- but sometimes the problem is, they're so familiar we don't notice them anymore.

Books and articles on finding inspiration often suggest taking a camera to remote, less familiar locations to capture things that could prompt ideas for your art. This is a great way to go about rousing a sleeping Muse, but what if you're housebound? What if you don't own a camera? Aren't there any other ways?

There's a book that can help you if you're struggling to come up with ideas. It's 210 Imaginative Ideas for Painting: How to Find and Keep Your Inspiration by Marjorie Sarnat. If you can't find any ideas to work from in Sarnat's book, you might want to take up another line of work.

This author has thought of and describes almost every possible thing, condition, or scenario under the sun that could serve as a basis for inspiration. Do you paint still lifes? How about depicting a piece of fruit splattered with drips of colorful paint? If you work in collage, how about collaging one of those small poseable mannequins sold in art supply stores? Or painting a room's interior as seen through an empty goblet? Ideas for realistic and figurative work abound in the pages of this book.

Practitioners of non-objective art aren't neglected, either. Just two examples: homing in on a few square inches of old, worn out denim to use its faded markings as a compositional aid for creating an abstract piece. Or using unexpected surfaces and unusual shapes such as pieces of 2x4 lumber as supports for abstract, primitive or folk art works. There are many, many more.

Sarnat also provides a great many helpful insights on such topics as working in series, developing a signature style, creating a sense of mystery in your work, and determining what makes subjects "worthy" to name just a few.

I had no idea when I downloaded this book to my Kindle what an amazing resource it would be. I now view it as a studio essential. Get a copy and you may find you now have too many exciting concepts to choose from!

©2014 Lynn Edwards

Using Old Books as Collage Material

The other day a heavy box arrived from my sweet and thoughtful sister-in-law. Imagine my delight when I discovered it contained a collection of extremely old books! They included vintage titles printed in Russian, German, French, and Latin, a richly illustrated book on the history of clothing design, an engineering manual written entirely in Chinese, a book of Arabic proverbs, even a hardcover catalog from France's 1889 Salon Illustre. (More on this last item in a future blog.) This gal's heart very nearly stopped when I saw what a treasure trove of collage materials the box held!

I love using vintage book pages in my mixed media collages. They have an irresistible visual appeal that draws viewers into the work. (Not to mention being a pleasure for the artist too.) I'm absolutely nuts for incorporating pages with foreign languages and symbols and vintage illustrations in my art. The challenge for me is finding sources for it. My sister-in-law knew this. She obtained these books for me through her city's library system which holds periodic book sales. I am giddy with gratitude!