More doodle painting....

 

I've had this Marjolein Bastin book for many, many years.  Every few years I get it out and drool over it.
Sometimes I even get out my watercolour paints and 'doodle' from some of the pages.

 

 

 

It takes me back to childhood in Scotland.

 

One of the favourite activities of my sister and I was to ramble through woods and down country lanes on nature walks - seeing what treasures we could find.

Sycamore pods were a favourite.  We called them helicopters.  We would throw them up in the air and watch them fall to the ground.

 

 

 

 

More fun doodling with more traditional folk art styles.

 

 

And, of course, more folk art houses.

 

 

 

 

And tea........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you're having a great day,

cheers

Fi

More Folk Art Practice....

Still continuing with practicing techniques and more on Norwegian folk art styles.

I was still looking at Jo Sonja's "The New Rosemaling Primer", and thought I would use this page as my starting point.



This is a particularly soft style of Rosemaling, utilising a dry brushing technique.

So out came my sheet of painted paper, masking taped to a board.

Again, my aim here was not to paint a 'picture', but to try out styles without having to worry about outcomes.

Aim - have fun (and maybe learn something in the process).

When you are working on something new, your mind is concerned with technique, which usually results in your working looking more laboured, maybe stilted, if you know what I mean.

So give yourself the freedom to play.

The bit on the left is slightly more complete than the bit on the right - my brain had been through enough by this stage.  And this is where this will stop.  It will go into a folder, and I can look back on it and, hopefully, see progress in time to come.



That was a few days ago.

Today, my aim was to take what I'd been learning and develop it in a different direction.

So I basepainted a cheap canvas I had on the shelf, put out some paints and brushes, and just started painting.  I had no idea at this stage where it was going.

The colours weren't too difficult to decide upon, as Norwegian folk art has a sort of limited colour palette.

I had been reading Sigmund Aarseth's book, and his style is quite liberated, and a bit abstracted at times.  He calls it 'dancing with the brush'.

I liked that idea, so tried to keep it really loose and 'moving'.

This is the result.

 



 

Now, those canvas boards are quite textured compared to the surfaces we folk artists are used to, so I needed to use brushes to suit.  These are the ones I used, mostly cheap bristle brushes, which are great for dealing with the textured surface.



 

 

And this is the palette I used.  Except that I only used about half of these colours.  I didn't end up going with the yellow, as it clashed with the background colour (which was Raindrop).

Provincial Beige became my yellow.



 

While I realise there is a long way for me to go in developing this style, I was really happy with the 'movement' in the design.  I feel it is quite loose, which is what I was after.



 

I hope I have encouraged  you to spend some time working on new techniques, or old ones, just for the sake of having fun and creating a record to look back on.



Till next time
Fiona

I like your 'chops'.....

Now, you are probably wondering 'what on earth is she talking about - what do chops have to do with folk painting?"  Has she gone mad?

No.

Let me explain.

Musicians practice to get a technique, or new musical skill, 'in their fingers', so to speak.

In other words, their brain doesn't have to painstakingly think it through each time they incorporate that technique in their performance - the 'memory' of the technique is now in the muscles of the hands and fingers.

This is what is referred to as a musicians 'chops'.  Skills that have been well developed in the musician, that are performed with seeming ease.

So how is this done?

It is achieved by repetition - training the brain, nerves, muscles, etc. to adhere to a pattern, until you can do it in your sleep and you don't have to give much thought to it.

Do you remember learning to tie your shoe laces?

The exciting part is, that this is where creativity really kicks in. Our early attempts at something are usually stilted, encumbered by the mental process of thinking each step through.

Once we become free of the thinking, our brush strokes 'flow off the brush' with seeming ease.

So, for those of us that want to improve our painting skills (develop our chops), here are a few points I've been mulling over.

Don't spend all your painting time working on actual projects that need to be completed, that need to 'become' something.

Get sample boards ready - or better still, get heavy drawing paper (at least 210gsm I'd say), tape to a board, base paint, practice away.  Without the hindrance of completing a coherent piece.

 



 



This is exactly what I was doing in the last post about Norwegian Folk Art.  I wasn't painting a design, just components of one.



Make notes as you go - list colours used, brushes, etc.



 



Store the pages in a folder.  This is a GREAT way to record your progress and to let you see how much you have improved.

Next.

Find beautiful strokework.  Get tracing paper and lay it over the pages.  Draw over with a pencil, stylus, whatever, and feel the rhythm of the shapes.

Continually doing this teaches your brain. You know - develops your chops. :)

Ok.

Now it's your turn.

Off you go.  And don't forget to have fun!

Till next time
Fiona

I'm discovering the joy of Norwegian folk art painting...

I want to talk a bit in this post, and more so in the next one about spending time in skill development, rather than always focusing on painting a completed piece.



 

So last night, while home alone, I decided to 'play about' with a style of painting that I haven't really tried before.  Rosemaling.

I have been developing a bit of an interest in Scandinavian folk art styles recently, mainly Swedish, and I have some books and a DVD on Norwegian styles (Rosemaling).

A friend gave a copy of Sigmund Aarseth's 'Rosemaling Design - Norwegian Rosemaling Telemark Style' years ago, but I have never really looked at it.

I also bought, many years ago, Jo Sonja Jansen's 'The New Rosemaling Primer' - which is now out of print.

Along with these, my husband bought me the Jo Sonja DVD on Telemark Rosemaling, which had sat in the cupboard unopened.

It is unopened no more.

I painted up some sheets of heavy cartridge paper, masking taped them to a board, got my cup of tea, opened up the books, and plugged in the DVD.

Why did I wait so long!!  Last night was the most fun I'd had in ages.  It was 10.30pm before I went inside (the studio is in the shed) and I didn't want to stop.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed myself so much, was that I was only 'painting on paper' - no nagging mind telling me that I'd better do a good job or I'd ruin the piece.  More on this subject in my next post.

Telemark is all about scroll work.  It is based on the Acanthus leaf and Baroque and Rococco scrolls.  It took a bit of time to loosen up and get the feel of the movements.



 

 

There isn't a lot of blending going on either, which takes a lot of the stress out of it. It's the liner work at the end that pulls it all together.



 

Each Rosemaler develops their individual styles.

Once you had the basic skills under your belt, the fun is in how you choose to express yourself through this art form.



 

By the time I got to this stage (and I had scrolls and flowers all on top of each other on my by now 'getting very cramped paper'), I was in seventh heaven.  It was extremely exhilarating to 'play'

 

 



 

Apparently it's all about balance.  Giving the design a strong core.  Establish your main scrolls, then add on from there.



 

 

When this is varnished, I will store it in a folder, to give a recording of my progress.

If you haven't given Rosemaling a go, I strongly encourage you to get out the paints and brushes, and have fun.

 



 

Till next time
Fiona

Stepping it up a bit

I've been playing today.

I took the design from my last post - home is where the heart is - and scaled it up a bit to paint onto a small canvas I had on the shelf.

I think this version emphasises the Swedish influence more.

These roses are often found in traditional Swedish painting.  And they are fun to do.



 

I love how the flowers become larger than life in this style - totally whimsical.

+

Dutch Folk Art Cows...

I wanted to share with you the bargain I picked up in a local shop last week.

 



These stand about 2" high.
They are a bit dusty/grubby, as I haven't cleaned them up yet.

Here are some close-ups of the folk-painted designs.

On one side, a little dutch windmill and a few comma strokes.

And on the other, a little flower sprig, with commas and dots. Simple. But pretty.

And on the top,

Not only are they pretty, but they are useful - salt and pepper shakers.Here is the bung -

And here is the nostril shakers

Now for the price - I paid a whole $2.Bargain.Till next time
Fiona

Folk art painting on canvas

It's pouring rain here today. Has been all summer.

So I am in the studio.
I want to paint, but I don't want to think too hard about what to paint. My concentration level is a bit on the low side.

I have boxed canvas that I had previously painted on, then didn't like the outcome.

If I paint over it, I can get one of my books from my all time favourite artist Jo Sonja Jansen, pick a design, then recreate it to fit the canvas.

That will be a great exercise in brush skills.

So, I choose this design.



This is the back cover of 'The Art of Folk Painting', by Jo Sonja Jansen (and David).
I bought this book over 20 years ago, as you can probably tell from the scuffs and scrapes on it.

It will be a good subject for practicing brush skills, but I don't want mine to look so 'neat'.
Let's see what we end up with...

Here is my canvas, all painted up and ready to go.

Ok, I have the pattern sketched on there - yes, I did say 'sketched'.  It is a good habit to get into to freehand your designs on, and this isn't too hard if you keep a few things in mind.

Like, if you look close enough, you can see that I have divided the canvas down the middle, both horizontally and vertically. You could then split those areas in half again if you liked.

These lines help you place things in a balanced, symmetrical way.  No real detail here, just enough for you to base in the shapes.

The more you practice, the better you get.  No shortcuts here.Here is the palette that I have chosen to go with.  All acrylic.

Going from the white on the top right, anticlockwise, we have -

Titanium White, Moss Green, Sap Green, Green Oxide (2 splodges of), Teal Green (but I didn't end up using it), Celadon, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Storm Blue (there is a splodge of Blue deep there, but that wasn't used either), Purple Madder, Burgundy, Napthol Crimson, Red Earth, Napthol Red Light, Raw Sienna, Yellow Oxide, Turners Yellow.

Most of the colours are Jo Sonja Artist Colours.

I always use a wet palette, when working with acrylics.  One in a shallow container with a lid.

Most folk art designs require you to base in the shapes in a medium value.  Then we come back to shade, highlight and decorate.

Can you see how I've used a sponge and a rough bristle brush to 'scrub in' colour to the background colour of the canvas.   I stroked this colour around most of the design objects, to 'ground' them.

It also gives the canvas more of the rustic look I was after.

Here is the finished painting.

till next time
Fiona

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