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.

Pigments: Historical and Modern

There is a distinct difference between modern day pigments and the natural pigments used prior to the middle of the 1700s. In the past, artists had apprentices who ground the colors for them throughout the oil painting sessions. Because they were made by hand, the pigments retained a natural grittiness and consistency with larger particle size. Today's oil paint manufacturers make synthetic colors in huge vats where the end result is exceptional smoothness. Prior to the middle of the 1700, natural pigments came from dirt, minerals, and even plants.

Pots, Black on Black

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Detail of black on black pottery in painting #2 Painting black on black pottery on canvas is tricky, in that, the darkest coolest black is quite dark and dense. For this I used ivory black with just a tiny addition of burnt umber dark to facilitate the drying. The Burnt Umber Dark  from Cypress is the darkest I have found. As you remember, … [Read more...] about Pots, Black on Black

Meeting of the Minds

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On July 9th on Artists Mentors Online, I listened to the captivating discussion with Michael Harding and Tony Pro. Mr. Harding talked about the making of his line of paints and how he became interested in this topic. There were intelligent questions asked by artists via email and telephone. As you know, one of my favorite pigments is natural … [Read more...] about Meeting of the Minds

Red Hot Chilis

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The chili peppers on painting #2 for the Lessons from the Spider Woman series is painted with natural cinnabar and some madder, heightened at the very end with flake white on the highlights. The stems are a simple mixture of yellow ochre and black, which makes a dazzling array of greens. Right at the finish, heighten with a little white on the … [Read more...] about Red Hot Chilis

Spider Woman’s Cross

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The Spider Woman is one of the most important goddesses in the Southwest Native culture. She is multi-faceted and has amazing power over her people. There are geographic landmarks named for her as well as constellations, myths, and stories of all kinds. As I have said, she is the equal to Isis in Ancient Egypt and Athena in Greece. The row of … [Read more...] about Spider Woman’s Cross

Amazing Amazonite

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One of the most exciting things about my Lessons projects is unearthing new pigments heretofore unknown. Amazonite is one that I discovered sometime back, and it's sold through the Daniel Smith company in Seattle. They do not sell it in the powder form, which I would have preferred, so I bought a tube of the oil shown here pure from the … [Read more...] about Amazing Amazonite