Crimson Lovers, by Allison Green

Earlier this month, Gamblin Artist-Rep Jordan Graw and I visited the home studio of Allison Green in Jersey City, NJ.  Allison contacted us months ago, requesting an individual consult regarding oil painting materials, techniques, and studio safety tips.  What followed suit was a three hour visit covering such topics as painting mediums, fat over lean, varnishing, and children’s books. 

It was a pleasure to see Allison’s beautiful work as she prepares for her first solo exhibition next month at Susan Eley Fine Art in New York City.  Congrats, Allison! 

To view more of Allison’s work, please visit: www.allisongreen.net.

- Scott Gellatly, Gamblin Product Manager

Allison Green studio

Gamvar Picture Varnish

In his recent blog post, Seattle-based landscape painter, instructor, and author Mitch Albala writes about Gamblin Gamvar Picture Varnish at: http://blog.mitchalbala.com/?p=1604. 

Albala’s book, Landscape Painting(Watson-Guptill/Random House, 2009), is a “must have” for landscape painters at all levels.  Albala includes examples of paintings from a broad range of plein air and studio painters alike, coupled with a fresh approach to sharing his own painting techniques and notes on color palettes and materials.

Landscape Painting, by Mitch Albala

To view Mitch’s artwork, please visit: http://www.mitchalbala.com/.

Stop by this terrific shop, or give them a call at 812.332.0025, to inquire about a tube of this unique color! 

Kiki

Kiki Cool Yellow being mixed

Kiki Cool Yellow - exclusively at Pygmalion's!

Prints for PICA event in Portland, OR Photo: Patrick Leonard

Earlier this month, Gamblin Product Managers Briana Ball and Scott Gellatly pulled some monotypes at the annual Prints for PICA event in downtown Portland.  Hundreds of monotypes were produced by local artists and put up for sale to support the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (www.pica.org). 

Gamblin supplied both Relief and Etching Ink for the event, which gave us a chance to talk shop with some of Portland’s most exciting artists.

Photo: Patrick Leonard

More often than not…it’s true.  This is one of those color mixing anomalies that painters come across early on and incorporate into their “bag of tricks.”  Many landscape painters have used this pairing to create natural looking greens with a limited palette.   It’s quite effective.

Recently I responded to a painter about this phenomenon, and he urged me to share this info with a larger audience.  So, Monsieur Bart in France, here it goes…

First, let’s not blame Black.  It’s not Black’s fault.  Let’s look at Yellow and add a little color science into the conversation. 

The color wheel is generally presented, graphically, where each hue family (or piece of the pie) is the same size.  This simplifies color theory a bit for communication. 

But, if we look at the spectrum of visible light, we see Yellow and Orange, are really quite narrow compared to, say, Red and Green:

So, when we take this into consideration, the color wheel may look like:

In this revised diagram, we see how little the Yellow slice is compared to Green and Red, so it is easy for yellow to get “pushed” into other hue families in color mixing.  When we take into account that black pigments tend to shift cool in their tints and mixtures, we can begin to understand how yellow is “pushed” into the green hue family. 

Here is our Hansa Yellow Light (a cool yellow) mixed with Chromatic Black, Ivory Black, Van Dyke Brown, and Manganese Violet:

As you can see, the two blacks “push” yellow into the green hue, and to a slightly lesser extent, so does the warm Van Dyke Brown.  The warm Manganese violet has enough red in it to “push” the yellow into the orange category.  

So, in the end maybe we should have a bit of sympathy for Yellow…always being pushed around… 

Isn’t color mixing great?

Scott Gellatly

 We will be attending our first MAPC conference next week – with more than 500 printmakers participating, it’s sure to be exciting!  The schedule is jam-packed with lectures, demonstrations and exhibits. 

One don’t miss event is the “Printmaking Pig Circus” which will entail printmakers printing woodblocks, etchings and lithos on shirts and paper for conference attendees.  Portland Intense Black Relief Ink and Portland Cool Black Etching Ink will be joining the circus as demo colors.  It will be a great chance to see the inks in action and take home some artwork too!

If you will be at the event, please stop by our booth at the vendor fair and say hello.  We are looking forward to answering questions about our etching and relief inks.  Samples will be available for anyone who would like to test-drive them.

Some of our favorite art materials retailers will also be attending the vendor fair if you would like to take some ink home with you or have some shipped.  McClain’s and Takach are a great resource for shipping materials.  Wet Paint and Utrecht have our materials on hand locally.

For more information about our Printmaking materials please visit http://www.gamblincolors.com/printmaking-materials/index.html.

To learn more about Mid America Print Council and the upcoming conference visit https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/mapc2010.

They also put on a one-day show from their extensive print collection right here at the factory.  Their print collection is full of incredible prints from artists working throughout the United States.  I highly recommend taking in a DBP talk or show if you get the chance. 

Oh yeah, and they have a press in their car!  Truly impressive to see a fully functional print shop set up in under half an hour.  Many thanks for printing everyone the great shirts too . . . we love them.

To learn more about Drive-By visit www.drivebypress.org.

For more information about our Printmaking materials please visit http://www.gamblincolors.com/printmaking-materials/index.html.

Still Life by David Shevlino

I have admired David Shevlino’s work for years, after being introduced to a number of his paintings at the DFN Gallery in NYC.  It was a pleasure when he contacted Gamblin seaking support for his latest project, his self-produced video detailing his oil painting practices.  It is truly a fascinating insight into an artist’s process.  David narrates his painting process from many different angles – from his materials to developing compositions, to capturing the spirit of his subject matter – in a manner that is as fresh as his brush work.  This is an inspiring video for painters of all levels. 

To view more of David’s work, please visit his website at: http://mysite.verizon.net/davidshevlino/index.html.  For more information on his video, In the Studio – The Artwork and Painting Methods, please visit: http://mysite.verizon.net/davidshevlino/dvdpage.html.

Scott Gellatly – Gamblin Product Manager

David Shevlino at work

Scott Gellatly, Gamblin Product Manager

SCAD’s Art Materials Trade Show takes place on the first weekend in October and is open to the public.  For more information, please visit: http://www.scad.edu/news/2010/art-materials-trade-show.cfm

Gamblin Artist-Rep (and SCAD alum) Anna Fox Ryan

Painting from the Laguna Cliffs, Dana Point, CA

Dana Point, CA -  What an amazing event!  This is American Artist’s second annual Weekend with the Masters event -drawing artists from all over the country to work with some of the premier figurative and landscape painters working today.  I am fortunate to participate in the event, and rub shoulders with some amazing painters! 

This event also has served as a platform to sample all of the participants (over 400 of them) with our new FastMatte alkyd oil colors, Neo Megilp, and our pre-mixed Gamvar picture varnish.

When I wasn’t demo’ing materials or talking shop, I was able to get out and paint in some of the workshops.  For the bulk of the day on Friday I painted over-looking the coast at Dana Point, sitting in on Scott Chistensen’s plein air workshop.  I found Scott to be a very articulate and generous instructor, as well as being a terrific painter.  For more in Scott’s work, visit: www.christensenstudio.com.  

For more on American Artist’s Weekend with the Masters event, please visit: www.aamastersweekend.com.

- Scott Gellatly, Gamblin Product Manager

Students in Scott Christensen's plein air workshop