Jan’s Place

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-547941.html

A photographer friend of mine mounts his photo prints on aluminum panels.
I would recommend this support as a good option rather than Masonite.Many glass shops also sell aluminum, copper and other metal sheets.

Depending on the size of your watercolours, you can also buy copper coated electronic circuit board as an alternative for a support.
These boards are used by electronic hobbyists, to make their own pc’s and other gadgets.

They are usually sold in smaller sizes.

… Chuck Peterson… I suggest an aluminum coated PVC called Dibond. I am mainly in the commercial sign business and we use it a lot where we used to use MDO plywood . It can be cut with woodworking tools, has a white enamel finish, or bare aluminum, is lightweight and very rigid, comes in several thicknesses. It comes in 4×8 ft sheets or larger but my supplier cuts it for me. I have never used it for the purpose you are considering but it comes to mind as a possible alternative. Good to see John Molnar here.

Dibond is made by Alcancomposites and info can be found I’m sure at their website. I would check with a local supplier to sign companies such as Montroy supply, a U.S. nationwide company with branches in many cities. It starts at 2mm thick, less than 1/8″ and goes up to 6mm or more. At 2mm thick it is more rigid than solid aluminim becauase it is a PVC/Aluminum sandwich and can be cut easier. I think around $80 for 4×8 ft. There are also other brands.

…Well, I wasn’t that crazy about MM Artboard to begin with. If it’s really necessarily to mount it on another board, then I’ll just continue painting in casein on Gessobord…

I wouldn’t say that it’s “necessary” to mount them but only recommend it in order to add more structure. A simple backing in the frame would work fine also, which you’re going to have to do anyway. The only risk of damage is if they are bent somehow and the degree of bending would have to be extreme for them to break. Artboards or 300# watercolor paper have become my typical paint surface for caseins. I often cut down the absorbency of watercolor paper first by apply a coat of shellac. Other surfaces I’ve used are illustration boards, Aquabord, traditional gesso panels and polyester fabric mounted to panels. One thing I dislike about Aquabord is the rough surface is hard on brushes.

“Use a glass or enamel metal butchers’ tray for a palette.

Use two large water containers, one for dirty water/cleaning brushes, the other to wet brushes in clean water.

Mix only enough water with casein to render it into a consistency of heavy table cream.

Use hog’s hair, synthetic, oriental style brushes only. No sables.

Keep a spray bottle of water for rewetting your paints on the palette or the canvas itself.

Use a hair blow dryer for speedier drying times, if needed.

Use a palette knife to mix your colours, not brushes.

Apply an undercoat of toned casein white or any other casein colour as a good base for subsequent layers.

Never paint impasto with casein. Instead, use heavy gel or lay down an initial textured gesso for an impasto texture.

Try to paint with casein on canvas, without mixing with other media. This will speed up the learning curve with the paint, and also cut framing costs.

Remember; paintings on paper will always need to be framed under glass!

Always make sure your studio has plenty of fresh air circulating, preferably with a fan so situated as to have yourself in-between the fan and an open window. This is just good studio practice.

Casein can also be used as a ground for silver-point drawing on paper, or even canvas.”

Boards for mounting -

General info at http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/hardboard.htm and http://www.utrechtart.com/community/comments.cfm?action=print&blogID=214

Thread about hardboards - http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&webtag=ab-painting&msg=2604.1. And sub-threads - http://www.wetcanvas.com/Articles2/532/110/index.php

http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/jaic/articles/jaic33-03-005.html – recommends against sanding Masonite

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100058482&N=10000003+90148+503050 – mounting hardware placed on wood strips attacked to 3/5″ mdf

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100058482&N=10000003+90148+503050 – Very useful analysis of specific brands of hardboard  with winners -
1) Louisiana-Pacific’s“Premium,UntemperedHardboard,”which is the origina lAbitibi-Price product now made in th eoriginal plant by DPI .2) Masonite International’s untempered or“RegularDuron”, made in Danville, Virginia ,the original name but much-changed and refined over the year

Note – Duron does not seem to be available anymore - http://www.truegesso.com/~truegessollc773/uploads/file/Masonite%20is%20Discontinued%20-2.pdf

Golden Acrylic demo uses Medium Density Overlay (MDO), not recommended elsewhere.  ["Medium Density Overlay (MDO) board is a wood panel often used in the sign making and cement forming industries. It is usually made of plywood, coated with outer layers of resin-impregnated kraft paper. Phenolic, urea, or melamine resins are the common resins used on the paper overlays. Because of the impermanent nature of the kraft papers used, MDO is not considered a suitable material for use in permanent artworks."]

http://www.utrechtart.com/community/comments.cfm?action=print&blogID=214

http://www.hudsonhighland.com/woodglossary.htm (Note this is a vendor for one brand)- High Density Fiberboard and Medium Density Fiberboard are considered the most stable of engineered wood panels. Laminated with fine wood veneers, they are often used in high quality furniture making and are prized for their warp-resistance and durability. They make excellent art panels. . Terminology can get confusing: thin HDF (THDF) of 1/4″ thickness and below is usually referred to as “thin MDF” or “TMDF” since more people are familiar with the term “MDF” than “HDF”.  ”Panels of a half inch or more are generally MDF; panels of a quarter inch or less usually fall into the category of HDF, though these are generally called “thin MDF” (TMDF) since the public is more familiar with the term “MDF’ than “HDF’.”
Ampersand hardbords or gessobords are made with a wet/dry method – see http://www.ampersandart.com/tips/archivalinfo.html. Ampersand recommends using Golden’s Acrylic GAC 100 to seal panels for water-based painting and the Gamblin’s Oil Painting Ground for use with oil paints.

Blick Studio Artists’ Boards are mdf.

Jack Richeson gessoed panels are made from high density, smooth hardboard with a solid fiber core, these 1/8″ thick panels are acid free, archival and warp-resistant.

Adhesive – Golden Soft Gel recommeded in several sites

Sealing -
Ampersand info – Q. How do I seal my watercolors so I can frame without glass? Seal watercolors with several light coats of spray fixative, being careful to spray outdoors during warmer months or in a ventilated and heated area during colder times of the year. Use Krylon® Matte Finish #1311 or Krylon® UV-Resistant Clear #1309. The fixative seals the surface making it air, dirt and moisture resistant. For additional protection against scratches during transport and also ultraviolet light, follow the application of fixative with Golden® MSA UVLS or Golden® Polymer UVLS varnish – about 4 coats, brushed-on, leaves a very durable archival finish.

Golden info at http://www.goldenpaints.com/technicaldata/varnapp1.php. For brush application, the appropriate isolating medium can be made by diluting Golden Soft Gel Gloss with water (2 parts by volume Soft Gel Gloss to 1 part water). If a spray application is desired, a 2:1 mixture of Golden GAC-500 to Transparent Airbrush Extender can be applied with an airbrush, touch-up spray unit or commercial spray equipment.   If varnishing water-soluble paints, including watercolor, gouache and tempera, the isolation coat must be sprayed on in very light layers to avoid solubilizing the paints, which could cause loss of distinctness of the underlying image.  For acrylics and other water-based media, if the painting is composed of thin layers, waiting a day or two before applying the isolation layer, followed by another two days to a week before varnishing, is recommended.

Link also has info about thinning and applying Golden varnishes.

DB Clemons 1 - Instead of applying varnish directly to the casein paint surface, I use an isolation coat process as if I were varnishing acrylic paintings. When my finished caseins have cured for at least 4 months, I apply a gloss acrylic medium that is designed to be used as an isolation coat, such as Liquitex Varnish Medium or Golden’s Soft Gel. I can then apply a spirit varnish that is compatible with acrylics, such as Golden’s MSA, Liquitex Soluvar, or Gamblin’s GamVar.

There has been some discussion here regarding whether or not to varnish gouache paintings. I put my gouache paintings under glass and don’t varnish them. I mention it here since I believe a varnish should only be considered removable, and varnish on gouache or watercolor cannot be removed. Varnish on casein, however, if protected by an acrylic isolation coat can be safely removed, just as if it were an acrylic painting. It’s possible that egg tempera could be prepared that way also, but I’ve not thoroughly tested that.

….If you have any suggestions about how to avoid annoying brushstrokes showing up in the isolation coat—diluted soft gel medium—I’d be happy to hear them.

You might try Liquitex Gloss Medium & Varnish product instead of Soft Gel as an isolation layer. I’ve found this brushes on with better leveling than the gel and doesn’t really need diluting. You can also “polish” it on with a lint-free rag (nylon or polyester) to help avoid brushstrokes. Even though it’s “gloss” it winds up more “satin” on the dried casein so I don’t lose much of that matte softness. I follow that up with a matte varnish (MSA) and like the results. I’ve never really liked spray cans myself finding them more difficult to control.

Chuck anderson - I use masonite, but I coat front and back and sides with two thin coats of shellac, then lightly sand before I put three thin coats of “real gesso” on them. I do my underpainting for figures with detail on first with the casein paint as I find working with water thinning them down allows me to work fast and accurately. Then once my composiiton is done, I apply a coat of shiva varnish over the entire image. Then with wet 400 grit, I lightly sand and then apply my glazes and scumbles of oil paint with a coat of retouch varnish when dry. Six months I lay down a coat of damar for the final piece. If it has been sold, I make an appointment to do that for the client. Look at the artwork of the western artist Frank McCarthy. He did a lot of underpainting with casein. One must remember for a lot of the old illustrators from the 40′s, 50′s, and early 60′s, casein was the medium of choice because of the matte finish so they could photograph the illustrations with 4×5 transparency or an 8×10 to send to their advertising or magazine clients. Examine your reasons on why you like a certain medium. If you like tight work, or have problems with the drying time between glazes in oil, you might like doing the ebauche or underpainting in casein. I use only raw umber, cobalt blue and white for my underpainting. Reason being, value and shapes are my purpose. The oil palette I use is 14 colors with a full range of grays to lessen the chroma on the cadmiums and pthalo colors.

John Lovett on varnishing - http://www.johnlovett.com/preservation.htm -WAX VARNISH

Wax varnish is a matt varnish based on purified beeswax. It can be applied to Oil or Acrylic paintings and is removable with mineral turps. The varnish has a waxy consistency and is rubbed on, then buffed to the required sheen with a clean cloth. Beeswax based varnish is extremely stable and non yellowing. I also like to use bees wax varnish on large watercolor paintings to avoid using glass or acrylic glazing. The wax permanently penetrates the paper surface, deepening dark tones and enhancing colors. The Beeswax varnish (Matt Wax Varnish) I use is made by Art Spectrum here in Australia. It is simply bees wax and gum turpentine as far as I can gather, speaking to the chemist at Art Spectrum. Winsor and Newton also produce a similar product.

I have used several mounting methods. Smaller work (up to full sheet size) I have mounted to neutral pH foamcore using a heat sensitive adhesive sheet. This is an archival method and the adhesive can be released in a heat press. The downside is the cost and the fact that a framer with a vacuum heat press is required. I have mounted larger (4′x6′) paintings on a 4mm ply backing braced with pine and coated with several coats of gesso. These are fixed down with matt acrylic varnish (or you can use neutral pH PVA glue). The most difficult part of this process is getting the painting good and flat before mounting. To do this I clean the studio floor, lay the painting face down and spray the back with water. after a few minutes I then tape the painting to the floor with gummed paper tape. The painting is left to dry and shrink tight. I then cut the tape to release the painting. I have also discovered it is easier to leave a couple of inches around the outside of the painting to allow the gummed tape to be cut off rather than the time consuming sob of soaking and peeling it off.

ACRYLIC GLOSS AND MATT VARNISHES

Acrylic Varnishes are water based polymer varnishes suitable for a final finish on acrylic or water based mixed media works. They form a non yellowing, durable plastic skin that bonds permanently to the artwork. These varnishes can not be removed, but can be painted over with acrylic paint.

PARaLOID VARNISH - Acrylic polymer varnishes (e.g. Paraloid – also known as Acryloid) – Lascaux makes it, see Jerrysartarama

Paraloid varnish is a non – yellowing, turps based varnish suitable as a final varnish over dry oil or acrylic paintings. This varnish dries very quickly and can be completely removed with mineral turpentine if necessary.

Paraloid and Acrylic varnishes can be applied with a soft hake brush. Acrylic should be washed out of your brush immediately with soap and water. The parloid will need to be rinsed out in Mineral Turpentine before washing with soap and water.

http://www.apfitzpatrick.co.uk/ideas.htm – Lascaux makes a spray paraloid varnish

http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/568/145/ – conservation info on varnishes

Daniel smith info re Clayboard without glass – http://www.danielsmith.com/content–id-126 - I simply seal the finished watercolors with 3 to 4 coats of Ampersand’s Claybord Fixative followed by a final coat of Golden’s UVLS satin varnish.

” For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that may have a heart. ” Carlos Castenada

Thanks to Bill Singleton (www.billsingleton.net) for this quote.

I have been thinking a lot about this idea, my first few month of retirement. I have years of the habit of making art with anything that catches my eye or is convenient — a good photo of someone that I happen to take, usually.  If I drew from life, I have been drawn to “dead lifes,” still lifes of things that are dead or wilted like tree limbs and devils claws.  I am determined to stop both these practices.  One aspect of retirement is the knowledge that time is limited, and I will not spend it on things that have no heart anymore.

I have the ability to draw people and faces, and I want to use that to find meaning as much as possible, not just to show an interesting person. How this will evolve I do not know, but I resolutely take the dead tree limbs to the trash now, no matter how beautiful they look to me.

This book is available as a free pdf at http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/books/the-end-of-loser-liberalism

This is an illuminating look at the deep structures of our economy, in the spirit of “Who Rules America.”  Baker does a real service pointing out that most of the political theater we watch is a sideshow that deflects attention from the institutions that truly control wealth. He sheds light on the Federal Reserve and Treasury, housing policy, valuation of the dollar, union regulations, trade policy, and copyright policy as they are relentlessly used to shift wealth upward.  I recommend it highly for the light it sheds on what Gore Vidal calls the invisible government, but it is consistently flawed by a liberal’s refusal to question basic “free market” assumptions. Baker concentrates on recent distortions and abuses that have particularly favored the rich. But capitalism is an economic system whose goal is the accumulation of capital, and its deep structures will always promote concentration of wealth.  Because Baker believes in the structure of capitalism, his recommendations hit a limit of imagination and are generally not nearly as powerful as his analysis.

He calls for job-sharing and a reduced workweek as a solution to unusually high unemployment, for instance, rather than raising the forbidden topic of why we can’t have employment for everyone who wants to work. Picture the aftermath of a disaster where thousands of people show up to help. Capitalism will automatically set at least 5% of them aside for no reason but to  improve the free market of helpers.  Sounds silly?  Yet we accept this without question in our society.   If you show up wanting to work, why can’t you?  Baker calls for the remedial solutions of job-sharing and a reduced workweek, which I think are good suggestions as far as they go.   But Baker won’t question the whole existence of unemployment, which is an essential element of a capitalist economy since it drives wages down and places the suffering of capitalist economic cycles on workers as much as possible. A real solution would be a call to declare employment a human right and cut the workweek without a cut in pay to give workers the benefit of increased productivity. Whether you agree with this or not, it demonstates the meaning of liberal vs. radical solutions. The press tries to convince us every day that our only choices are between conservative and reactionary solutions.  It should be very clear to all of us that ending Medicare and Social Security, which are called for on the national stage constantly, are reactionary solutions for the wealthy. We must begin to at least voice the radical antidotes. Baker stops far short of doing so.

Even within Baker’s strictures, though, one recommendation is really idiotic.

“The argument that highly paid professionals should face the same international competition as factory workers is a compelling one, and more arresting than the argument that we should redistribute money from the winners to the losers.”

Excuse me? I complain as much as anyone about bloated salaries for my particular boogeyman of “highly paid professionals” (lawyers), but this is such a lame conclusion to his analysis as to boggle the mind.  Any look at the deep structures that move wealth in our society must acknowledge that the existence of low-paid workers at any level is a huge boon to wealth.  Low-paid workers in other countries are a spectacular boon, since they can be hired under different labor and tax laws and paid wages in keeping with the political submission and depravity of their regimes. So, in the face of this, progressives should take up the call to lower the wages of U.S. professional workers!!  This is the kind of stupidity that comes from going just so far in your critique and refusing to go one inch further.  Corporations have long made the world their economic playground, to the point that national ties are more and more an advertising fiction, with a huge subsequent concentration of wealth.  In the face of this, working people should call, at minimum, for a world living wage, an end to all obstacles to international unionization and an end to the criminalization of immigrant workers in any form. These are the only things that will prevent corporations from playing the endless game of finding some poor soul, somewhere, who is more desperate than you and will work for less.

The largest failure in Bakers’s book follows from this blind eye he presents to international capitalism. Where is the military in his list of deep structures that concentrate wealth? We all know that wars are fought for freedom, not wealth? I hunted for “defense” and “military” and found NOT ONE INSTANCE of either word. This is at least one-fifth of our economy and doesn’t merit a word? I can’t comprehend this astonishing gap in his analysis.

Day 1!

I made a first batch of casein binder yesterday. The recipe was a blend of dbclemons.com’s and sinopia.com’s. I used 2 t. casein powder in 5 t. water; then 1 t. borax in 5 t. water.  (I think next time I will use 2 T. instead of the 5 t. in both cases to make it a little thinner and easier to remember.) This made enough to fill 1/2 of a spice jar. It was extremely easy to make, as DB Clemons describes. The one problem I had was the borax failing to dissolve completely, so I will get the water hotter next time.

The resulting binder is similar to Shiva’s in thickness, but is clearer — whitish rather than yellowish and a little less opaque — and not at all offensive in smell as I find Shiva’s to be.

I tested it with three Createx dispersions: titanium white, burnt sienna and quin. magenta. The correct proportion seems to be somewhere between 4:1 paint to binder (rubs off) and 2:1, which was a little glossy in full strength applications.

The homemade paint behaves differently than Shiva’s on my porcelain palette. It seems to dry very hard on the palette quickly and is harder to re-wet, as if  it is missing a retardent present in Shiva.  But perhaps this is because I put a little too much binder in it.  So far, though, I prefer Shiva’s for that quality.

It was immediately noticeable that the homemade white is brighter than Shiva’s, which looks a little grey next to it. (This may be an artifact of the pigment load?)  I did a few tests of burnt sienna and q. magenta next to earlier Shiva color tests, and found they  were more opaque when mixed with white, and made a smoother wet in wet thin wash.  Maybe for a wash a little extra binder may be an advantage.  I didn’t like the white mixes as much as Shiva’s, so maybe you need either less white or zinc white instead of titanium.

I also did a few tests of painting thin washes of watercolor into a layer of wet binder. The results seemed best with some white added to the paint. This has some potential as a method for overpainting with glazes. I have ordered some Spectrafix casein spray, which I will try to work the same way, or it may be better used to fix the underlayers.

Launching on the seventh massive installment of this “book,” I find myself again in awe of Erickson’s sprawling imagination. For one with a somewhat challenged memory, there are two approaches to take in the face of the year’s hiatus between installments. You can start at the beginning once more and draw a massive chart to track the nearly innumerable races and characters of this world, or you can float on the new stories, taking each one alone, to be pleasantly surprised when you remember where you are. Needless to say, I am floating.

Drove into Silver City late, so didn’t see much on the way in. Today, drove 15 north to the Gila Wilderness. Past Pinos Altos, the road gets very narrow and no center stripe, though it’s well-maintained. Luckily almost no traffic. Once you get to the turnoff to Lake Robert, it gets good again and has a stripe. Turns out the easy route in is through the Mimbres Valley.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings area is very nice –fun to go back and do some hiking. Might be good to stay at the
roberts lake hotel (kitchenette cabins) or spirit lake lodge, something like that. Not any other lodging in the Mimbres Valley. Hike near Lake Roberts called Purgatory Chasm sounds interesting.

Silver City didn’t seem great – reminds me of gallup – high plateau, but arid. There is a nice historic area, not terribly gentrified.

2000 miles RT. Went in Honda. Gas averaged $3.30 – worst was $3.99 just inside Cal border (get gas at Quartzsite instead. Honda averaged 28 mpg. Drove to Barstow, then on to SC for Terra’s graduation. Then went with Terra and Alex to Mariposa (nice Best Western hotel there – Yosemite Way Station). Alex hiked Half Dome. The rest of us went to Yosemite Falls and Vernal Falls – nice short hikes (but Vernal is steep). Then Terra left and we went on to Bishop. Hiked up from the road out of Bishop to Lake Sabrina and on to Blue Lake. Stayed at Havasu City (very very hot) then home.

An intimate tale with a backdrop of sweeping events, Purity of Blood tells the story of an old soldier and the young boy he adopts in the troubled Spain of Velasquez – the 1600s, when Spain was sinking into corruption, royal ineptitude, and the horrors of the Inquisition. Captain Alatriste is a soldier-turned-sword-for-hire who protects his privacy and isolation fiercely, but finds the chink in his armor against sorrow and vulnerability when he takes on the son of a dead friend as a ward. Young Inigo, the narrator of the story, matches Alatriste’s gruff love with an independent character and intense loyalty.

When Alatriste embarks on a commission to rescue a young converso woman from a convent/brothel, he is betrayed and trapped. He escapes, but Inigo is captured and delivered to the Inquisition as a sympathizer with Jews. The story of Alatriste’s struggle to free him touches on the fear-driven life of the Jewish conversos, never able to be Catholic enough for the Inquisition, and the lengths that men in power will go to protect their often spurious claims to purity of blood.

Perez-Reverte is a lyrical writer whose weakness is a grand send-up to an ultimately inconsequential tale, but this story escapes that in its details of the unwanted but unstinting love of a war-beaten man for a brave boy.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It has appealing characters, a feminist storyline and an interesting historical period, but does not quite pull them together without interference from an agenda. Books have accessible personalities and deeper subconscious ones. The deep waters of Daughter of Fortune seem to carry a polemic, a dangerous undercurrent for a novel.

The first part of this story focuses on the childhood of a Chilean waif taken in by a childless woman and raised as her daughter. Small mysteries appear and are solved, and interesting characters keep things going, but where it all leads to is a tiresomely long paean to passionate adolescent love, obviously doomed by the incompatability of its victims, the waif Eliza and a smouldering young man. Allende is setting this up as a straw man, but her obvious pleasure in portraying passion undercuts her intentions.

The straw man begins his fall with Eliza’s decision to run away and follow her wandering lover to the California Gold Rush. The pace and interest of the novel picks up as a Chinese doctor shangaied onto a Chilean merchant ship helps Eliza survive the boat crossing and becomes her friend in California. Allende writes well about the Gold Rush and the wildness of this time, and creates a believable friendship between Eliza and the doctor, but the pace of her novel is increasingly clumsy as she tells stories from other protaganists and segues into pamphlateering about injustice and racism. The true story is Eliza’s growth away from adolescent fantasy toward self-reliance and her recognition of real love for her Chinese friend. This kept me going and was rewarding, but I felt a vague mistrust by the time it was told. Allende can’t resist a political lecture, and I began to think that the whole novel was in danger of becoming one.

Pompeii, by Robert Harris

A charming book that tells the last days of Pompeii through the eyes of a Roman engineer who oversees the aqueduct delivering water to resort towns in the shadow of Vesuvius. When earthquakes shake the hills and the stately aqueduct collapses, he works frantically to repair the damage and to understand what is happening. A famous letter of Pliny the Younger, the only eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius, lays the groundwork for the story, crowned by a convincing and harrowing account of people caught in inescapable disaster. The young engineer and Pliny the Elder (the famed naturalist who died in the eruption) are the core of the story, both well drawn and likable. A minor mystery and details of the immense infrastructure of the aqueducts round out this enjoyable book.

Domesday Book, Connie Willis

A young academic researcher travels back in time to England in the Middle Ages and realizes with dawning horror that a mistake has delivered her to its first outbreak of plague. Her story in the past is a sweeping tale of death — the death of Kali, merciless and unsatiable, strewing bloated corpses across the land until all motion stops in a bloody tableau. But one small figure, protected by modern antibiotics, moves in the frozen landscape and the tableau dissolves into sorrow and despair. Unfortunately, the story in the future is laughable, with Willis showing an inability to understand science, academia, or the kind of world that might create time travel. Still, a book with a strong emotional heart.

Passage, by Connie Willis

Willis seems to be interested in death. In a modern hospital, research into near-death experiences leads to a drug that can simulate an NDE, and a young scientist tries to walk the edge of death with a notebook. The awed tales of tunnels and lost relatives haloed in light begin to reveal a strange undercurrent of fear, but this is not a horror story. Dr. Lander hopes to help the living with knowledge of death, and her story is surprisingly moving. When she finally passes through a light-filled door in her near-death journeys, she finds herself in a majestic and doomed world. In the last hours of a disaster, over and over, people signal desparately for help. When phones don’t work, they try radio. When radio doesn’t work, they try flares. Is that what our minds do when we are dying? Another book with a shoddy view of science and too much confusion in its convictions, but a haunting view of death nevertheless.

Iron Sunrise, by Charles Stross

Accelerando was too twitchy and disjointed for me, but this book has a much smoother narrative. Pluses: a fast-paced adventure story of galactic assassins, mind-controlled religious fanatics and the undercover agents that fight them. Minuses: a child in peril (almost always a cheap trick) and too many mindless lapses of intelligence in the cream of galactic security agents. I shouldn’t be able to read a book about super-agents and say, “You dummies! Even I wouldn’t have done that!”

Museums

Contemporary and Digital
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Beinart collection of Surrealist Art
Museum of Digital Art – some very good.
The Museum of Modern Art, NYC
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

United States
National Gallery of Art – great online exhibits including Cezanne in Provence
Art Institute of Chicago’s Art Explorer
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Guggenheim
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
The Frick Collection, NYC
Cleveland Museum of Art
Hirschorn Museum, Washington
Detroit Institute of Arts
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Getty, Los Angeles
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Cincinnati Art Museum

International
Tate Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
The Royal Collection, England
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna
The Louvre
MauritsHaus, Netherlands
National Galleries of Scotland
Prado Museum, Madrid
Staedel Museum, Frankfurt
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki
German National Museum, Berlin
Glasgow Museums, Scotland
Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Japan

** Sites especially worth looking at within their categories

General art sites showing works of artists

World Artist Directory – Works by eclectic group of international artists, good and bad
A list of artist Webrings – Webrings are spotty, but sometimes good
Ask Art – Info about thousands of American Artists
**Art Renewal – Home of Bouguereau enthusiasts and a huge collection of historical realist paintings – most in the best resolution you’ll find on the internet

Painters of interest – still life

Xiao Xie – paints stacks of library books and newspapers. Can be seen at a number of galleries includingMetivier Gallery.
TR Colletta at camptongallery.com – Stylized still lives of old machinery, scientific equipment, toys.
Daniel Adel – paintings of cloth in motion
Michael Chapman – odd still lives of sorts with a 30s feel
Michael Grimaldi – occasional still lives of antique equipment mixed in with some nice portraiture
Steven Skollar – still lives of antique toys
Daniel Sprick - manages to give a new feel to traditional table-top still life — no small feat

Painters of interest – landscape/cityscape

Francis Livingston – Edward Hopper meets Diebenkorn

Painters of interest – portraiture

Odd Nerdrum – some odd portraits with a lot of character
Victory Wang – he makes skin out of more colors than I believed possible
Helene Knoop – a few unusual portraits are mixed in with a general Bougoureau (?) genre
Ray Caesar – this 3d artist makes macabre Lolitas on LSD. Disturbing, sometimes funny.

Painters of interest – abstract

Gregory Deane - vivid and beautifully textured

Illustration and Cartooning

Illustration and Cartooning blog
Another Illustration blog
Zoological art – an amazing collection of antique posters
Collection of antique Vogue Magazine covers
Flickr – gallery of mid-century illustration
Tales of Future Past - Scans of 30s and 40s sci fi magazine covers

Galleries – mostly figurative since I’ve been doing portraits and looking for help

Mesarts – a large group of artists, including Pat’s friend in Oakland
Wendt Gallery – includes Scott Burdick
Daylight Fine Arts – prints of Jeffrey Larson
Gandy Gallery – classic portrait artists like Sargent
Tirage Art – some figurative work and landscapes
Ann Long Fine Art – realists, scroll down to see images
Eleanor Ettinger – realists
Arcadia Fine Arts – includes Daniel Adel, painter of paper
Florence Academy of Arts – list of links to galleries
Forum Gallery – Modern figurative
Saatchi Gallery – a European physical and online gallery with a wide range of artists

Art Tutorials of interest

** Daniel Smith’s tutorial archives – their catalogs have had well illustrated and professional tutorials for years. Many are gathered here. The first place to look for advice.
**Scott Burdick’s demonstrations – Burdick is a great portrait artist and his website has several demonstrations.
**Vigee Lebrun’s advice on portraiture – The main part of this website is opinionated and full of formulaic ideas about art, but scroll down and you’ll find an excerpt about portrait painting from Vigee Lebrun (17th-18th century portraitist). Very interesting advice from a different time and approach. It had never occurred to me to pay such close attention to foreheads.
Links to art tutorials including Scott Burdick
Vermeer’s Palette
A group of art tutorials including an interesting one about using Scanners and Computers in Art
William Whitaker’s website – an accomplished traditional realist includes some tutorials including one of the few good ones about grisaille
Links to art tutorials and info about a realist atelier
**About.com’s painting info site – with some old master’s info and other eclectic stuff, including a Page of links to portrait sites
Alexei Antonov’s website – an egomaniac realist, but has a lesson on grisaille of a rose. Grisaille info is hard to find.
Nancy Doyle – several art tutorials, some of which are mostly advertising, but a decent one on art materials
**Art Q&A site – a large site with good info under Painting and Paints, emphasis on technical info
Foundations in Grisaille – Colored pencil demo of an intricate grisaille teapot
An artist’s color theory
Oil painting techniques – Portraits and other subjects
**Wet Canvas – huge website of art forums, including Color Theory and Luminous Skin and Limited Pallette and Studio photography lighting techniques
Figure drawing tutorials
History of Painting Techniques – includes old master techniques – shadows, flesh tones.
Indirect painting info
Indirect Painting technique – Example is rocks under water
Art Show – Links to a number of painting, pastel, drawing, digital tutorials including some Daniel Smith
Photographing your artwork
Real Color Wheel – a huge, rambling website including medium yellowing, complementary pigment lists, and a rather obscure main menu

Portait artist websites – these are mainly commercial portrait painters who pose people, and I find their work too stiff or pretty usually, but I linked these for something of interest.

**Masters of Portrait art – the biggies – Kinstler, Greene, Sanden, Knox, Sherr, Silverman
**Portrait commission group in London – of all these sites, this includes the most experimental portrait artists (mixed in with traditional)
**Stroke of Genius – largest collection of American portrait artists I’ve found
Andreeva Gallery portrait artists – New Mexico
John Singer Sargent online
Russell Fecchion – Tucson artist
**Scott Burdick and Susan Lyon – Very fine realist painters, a generous website with tutorials
Ann Kullberg – colored pencil
Daniel Greene – one of the biggie, New York Subway paintings
Simone Bingemer – a stylized super-realist, pastels and drawing. Her drawing is somewhat like mine, though more prettified I think
Steven Mickle – Pastel only, largely children. Photographic style
Robert Hartshorn Not a style I like, but some interesting lighting
Bart Lindstrom – one of the big names
Linda Vise – somewhat stylized. I don’t like her that much, but I like painting white too.
Vincent Chiaramonte – I like the old veteran, the rest are too posed.
Chris Saper – Phoenix artist, writer. Tends to be overheated but facile
Marvin Mattelson – there’s something austere about him that I like sometimes.
Ronald Sherr – see the pencil and pastel heads and very realistic portraits with abstract backgrounds
John Ennis – I only like a few.
Sergei Ostroverhy – very stylized super realist
Tony Ryder – Santa Fe classical realist, teacher
John Howard Sanden – author of portrait book, one of the biggies
Jan DolanStylized, good light
Gwenneth Barth – some good pastels
Morgan Weistling – Bougoureau follower to the max, has some demos
Cristina Troufa – unusual, stark portraits

Works of specific artists, non-portrait

Diego Rivera murals
Banksy – a stencil graffiti artist
Anamorphous street artist
More anamorphous street art

Pencil portrait sites

There are very few good ones I’ve found. Some of the artists above do pencil well.

Pencil Drawing Web Ring – lots of sites, sometimes fun to hunt through, but many bad ones.

Some other favorites, art or not

**Boingboing - a great site for curiosities of all kinds. Almost a new gem a day. Many of my oddest links were found here, including:
**The Museum of Regrettable Food and many other oddities of the 30s through 60s, including a collection of photos. Very funny commentary makes this the mate of the Museum of Bad Art. Go to Home page to see other subjects including The Institute of Official Cheer
**Museum of Bad Art – what can you say? This site might be considered mean-spirited, but it’s pretty funny.
Thrilling Wonder Blogspot – Large collection of interesting photos and graphics
World Best Websites – Links to a lot of good art museum sites as well as pick of the web designs. Lots of quality digital art sites
**The Demotivator Posters – antidote for work madness
Before and after logos – I like a lot of the Befores.The Afters are generally more corporate and polished – not always the best thing.
Proceeding of the Athanasius Kirtcher Society – has to be one of the weirdest sites I’ve found on boingboing, with an emphasis on antique instrumentation and oddities
**The Great Spaghetti Monster – I’m sure I spotted it myself in a tree
A really cool optical illusion
Dozens of panoramas including the Himalayas
Plime arts – always has some good links
**Dictionary.com’s word of the day archive – an indefagitable apologia for fungible but ineffable words. Don’t be a flaneur! Study words!

Art stores online

FramingSupplies.com – best prices on cut mats I’ve found – full line of Crescent mats, acid-free are $1.52 each for 16×20 if bought 4 each with minimum of $100. Frames are Designer Mouldings, a few Nielsen, and Framing Supply brand. I have had some trouble with orders – wrong frame profile or length, but they replaced it quickly. You still can’t beat their prices but be sure to order early and check the order carefully if you have a deadline.
Jerry’s Artarama – now has a Tempe store so you pay tax and shipping. shipping is pretty high, but prices are low.
Dick Blick – Not as cheap as Jerry’s, but has some different things. Now has M. Graham paints, but not as good prices as Art Purveyors
Art Purveyors – Full line of M. Graham (usually 50 percent off) and Silver brushes. Flat rate shipping is reasonable.
Digital Art Supplies – haven’t tried them, but recommended in a news
group.
Inkjetart.com – Great source of inks and papers and a lot of good info. Very prompt shipping.
Red River papers – Looks like average pricing on inks, and some good papers.