Tricky Yupo!

I doubt there is any middle ground with Yupo paper.  One either loves it or hates it.  The “haters” are those artists who demand control of their paints, and always work with an unflappable agenda in mind.  These folks create beautiful works of abject realism, and often artists of palpable realism are highly trained and amazingly gifted—especially if they achieve high end realism in watercolors.  Everyone knows that chasing watercolors is a bit like herding cats.

I am neither highly trained nor amazingly gifted, and fortunately the art I love the most does not fall in the category of abject realism.  My favorite artists, the French Impressionists, Post Impressionists, Les Fauves, etc. who worked largely in oils were realistic to a degree, but always with an intensely personal voice.  For anything other than “personal voice” I would use a camera—and for me, that wouldn’t be half as much fun as getting out the Yupo and letting the paints fly hither and thither.

Last week my good friend and fellow artist, Vikki, and I shared an art day at our dining room table.  We began on Yupo.  My rendering was, for starters, terribly generic and dreadfully similar to stacks of other paintings I’ve done:  tree – space – tree – space;  leaves and blossoms on tree – space – etc; and plomp – plomp – plomp – ad nauseum.

Now I detest—and desire to always eschew—the plagiarizing of any thing or any person, including myself.  So that night I looked over this Yupo thingy, almost upchucked, sprayed it with my trusty water bottle, pressed plastic clingy food wrap onto the entire surface, and went to bed.

The next day I removed the cling film and VOILÀ!  Something I could further develop and live with:  the suggestion of a Viking ship* with sails, and lots of turbulence all over the place.  So much better than plomp – plomp – plomp!

I added delineation and definition via gouache to the vessel and its surrounding sky and water—leaving a plethora of confusion, color, and turbulence in the sails as if the depicted journey was, like many of life’s journeys, fraught with distractions, dead-ends, and disasters.

However I am always a positive-note person, so then I named the piece:  “Heading for Home the Last Time”—reflecting my blessed assurance in a glorious destination through it all, and eternal joy in the presence of my Lord Jesus.

Margaret L. Been, May 2017

*Because this painting is matted and framed to 12″ x 16″, it was too large to entirely fit in my scanner.  Thus the ends of the ship do not completely show on the print.  The original in its full size is more representative of an actual Viking ship.  Since my husband is descended from Vikings, and loves ships, I wanted to be somewhat realistic.  🙂

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In Celebration of Gouache

These a only a few of my watercolor paintings which have been enhanced with gouache, a water soluble medium which is opaque unless greatly thinned with water.  Gouache does not dry permanently, as does acrylic paint; thus it really is a watercolor and it needs to be preserved behind glass.  But gouache adds heft and body, when desired.  In fact, gouache is also called “body color”.

More and more, I am adding some gouache to my foundation of transparent watercolors:  either a touch here and there, or larger areas built up to accentuate texture and brushstrokes.  My goal is to achieve a resemblance to the richness of oils.

I do have water-soluble oil paints, and have used them on occasion.  But the lengthy drying time puts me off, as I don’t have a lot of excess space in which to store works in progress.  Also, I don’t want to completely abandon transparency.  So transparent watercolors and gouache are the perfect combination for me.  And I think I have fallen in love with gouache!

Margaret L. Been — January 26, 2016

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Inspiration is everywhere!

As a writer I’ve always been baffled by people who say they’d like to “take up writing”, but they don’t know what they would write about.  One doesn’t really “take up writing”.  Whether starting at an early or late age, a writer is a writer.  I suppose “taking up writing” means that one has finally begun to write—but the writer was always there, whether realized or not.

Likewise, I cannot say I’ve “taken up painting”, because the painter was always lurking inside me—waiting for the courage to materialize.  And as far as knowing what to write about, or what to paint, it should be obvious.  Life is all around us.  Inspiration is everywhere—in the scenery outside our windows, in the people we see, in the music we love, and in the books and poems we read.

Sometimes I will see, hear, or read something, and then set out to paint my impressions of that subject.  But more often, I begin with colors on wet paper and the subject emerges—reminding me of something I have read, heard, or seen.  The above mystic water craft sailed into view from a blur of color on YUPO® paper and immediately reminded me of Alfred Noyes’s poem “The Highwayman”—where “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas”.  Since “ghostly galleons” (either in the form of a moon or actual ships) frequently appear on YUPO paper, I named the above rendering “Ghostly Galleon I”—knowing there will undoubtedly be more of its kind.

Here is an added thought on “inspiration”.  Sometimes we don’t feel “inspired” to paint, write, sculpt, bake, or whatever our art may be.  Yet it is good discipline to spend some time on our calling, even when we don’t “feel” like it.  At least a few moments everyday will prevent dry rot from setting in.  Even if the urge to produce is not prominent at the moment, as soon as we overcome any sluggish tendancies and “go to it”, something invariably happens.  The work takes over and creates itself.  Some of the paintings I like best were done at times when I didn’t feel like painting—until I sprayed some water on the paper and picked up a brush!

Margaret L. Been, ©2012

Note:  I am aware that real galleons do not have sails like the one pictured in this rendering.  As I’ve said before, I am not into photo realism!  🙂  MLB

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