Margret E. Short Fine Arts

Portland, Oregon artist Margret Short - a modern day master of 17th Century Dutch art using the chiaroscuro technique to create still life and floral paintings.

A Mystically Beautiful Combination

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Time is of the essence now as the big Spring Unveiling event is approaching quickly. May 6 will be here faster than my paint strokes can dry on the canvas. Sneak peek #3 is now revealed! For this 8×6 vertical composition, I have used two blues that complement each other beautifully; ultramarine blue and cobalt turquoise blue. This cobalt hue is reminiscent of the turquoise water we saw from the glass bottomed boats off the coast of Florida, so crisp and clear.

Two for the Price of One

Synthetic Cobalt Turquoise Blue from Kremer Pigments

As I have mentioned, ultramarine blue is the modern synthetic replacement for the very expensive lapis lazuli. It is modestly priced and commonly used by most artists as their go-to blue on the palette. The cobalt turquoise blue is less known, and I know you guessed it, I just happened to have a jar from Kremer Pigments squirreled away in my pigment stash.

For this project, I used the ready-made Michael Harding brand of ultramarine blue, and I hand-made the cobalt turquoise blue.

Michael Harding Ultramarine blue, straight from tube, mixed with Utrecht Flemish White
Paint making habiliments. Palette knives, gloves, dust mask, muller, pale drying oil binder, empty jar for paint, all placed on a grinding slab that has been roughened with graphite. Hide and seek……a cordial glass used in #3.

Safety First

Always be mindful of safety measures when making paint from scratch. Find a spot in your studio with no furnace or air conditioning vents and no open windows with a breeze. I wear protective gloves and a dust mask. Once the powdered pigment is mixed into the binder, it is confined and no longer airborne. And now……….

Another Hilariously Tiny Sneak Peek

Quintessential Blue – Painting #3

Spring Unveiling coming May 5 through 7,
Cannon Beach, OR

Quintessential Blue

Chiaroscuro Painting

Oil painting with the chiaroscuro technique illuminates the focus area with a strong light. All other areas are painted with less detail, lower values, and intensity of color giving a mysterious appearance. By putting one or two objects in the important focus area, a strong but simple composition will emerge. Combining these oil painting techniques with a selection of superior natural pigments and oil paints result in the beautiful and evocative quality known as Chiaroscuro Painting.

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Comments

  2. As usual Margret your fluid joy of painting is wonderful. I always respect your alchemical curiosity that leads you to new discoveries. Wonder, beauty and even, as you used the word, mystical are essential to your art. Kremer’s 45750 is lovely and a touch bluer and brighter than Daniel Smith’s tubed Gr.50, Cobalt Teal. (From one pigment geek to another!)

    • For sure, Sander, I do consider myself a pigment nerd, but also somewhere along the way my mad-scientist-self raised its uncontrollable persona. For as long as I can remember, I have loved the ‘behind the scenes’ techniques, methods, materials and mediums, oils and such used by artists since antiquity, as I know you have too. It is endlessly intriguing.
      Currently, I am reading Daniel Silva’s, A Portrait of a Woman. The author incorporates into his story much of this very topic including art forgery in its finest form. I have not used the D. Smith Gr.50 Cobalt Teal. Kremer’s 45750 is luscious to look at and to use. Always good to hear from you and glad to know you are continuing to follow my pigment journeys.