A New Web Friend From Brambleberry Cottage

Only this one I met in person first!  I was shopping with a couple of friends last weekend and found the perfect stroller for our little rescued Maltese in a thrift shop in a neighboring town.  I'd just paid for the stroller when another lady came up with a cute little Yorkie to inquire about the same stroller.  I found out later that her name was Liz and that she has a gorgeous blog here on Blogger.

We exchanged pleasantries and I gave her one of my business cards with the painting of CiCi on it (you know I can never resist showing off my baby!)  Today she left a comment on my blog here as well as emailed me. 

To make a long story shorter, I've spent the morning looking at her beautiful blog and came across a post of hers on "Morning Glories" http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com/2011/08/glories-of-morning.html.  The photos are spectacular but I think she may have some bindweed there instead of true morning glories (sorry, Liz!)

I've long been enamored of the bindweed that runs rampant on our farm and even painted some a few years ago.  I entitled the painting "Glorious Strangler" because that's what bindweed does to any plant around it.  Not only does it strangle out plants but it also puts out some sort of substance from its roots that helps prevent other plants from growing around it.  Not a plant that plays well with others but very, very beautiful nonetheless.

Please go take a look at the way Liz has arranged and photographed these flowers and you'll probably agree with me that their beauty far outweighs their nasty nature!  Thanks so much for the photographic eye-candy, Liz!

Finally!

Bindweed Blossom
copyright
Jan Gibson

Well, I've finally done something with the new Open acrylics by Golden I bought. It's not a masterpiece by any means but just a sort of doodle to see how the paints handle. I have a lot more practice to do to learn how to make smoother transitions and blend better but I'm very pleased with these paints and hope to do a lot more with them.

I'm working on a couple of paintings with these paints right now and I hope to learn more with each one I do. I was getting a little frustrated because I couldn't get the smoothness I wanted with them so mixed in a little of the acrylic inks that I have and that seemed to help a lot. I've used the thinner and the medium that I bought with the paints, but neither gave me the results I wanted. The inks seemed to thin the paint without thinning the color along with it thus making the paint more manageable without the streaky look that the regular thinner gives.

The drying time for the paints is perfect for me. They've lasted a very long time on my plastic palette - some about nine days, covered, although I've mixed more paint into those original globs and also have very lightly misted the paints on some days. As far as drying time on a painting, it has ranged from just a relatively short time to overnight for a thicker application and depending on the support used.

Speaking of supports, my favorite is the gessobord so far. I've also used paper and canvas and would use those again depending on what kind of texture I wanted for my painting.

All in all, I heartily recommend these paints and that's something from someone who never liked to use acrylics in the past. These are so much easier to use and are a perfect solution for those who like the blendability of oils but want a shorter drying time.

I'll post more acrylic paintings as I do them. I'm moving slowly (and am fairly slow at painting anyway) but hope to eventually do many paintings in this medium.