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.

How to Get Detail into Your Oil Paintings Without Getting Too Picky

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Because I am a helpless and impossibly hopeless collector of antiques,  I fell in love with this style of ceramics and began to develop a collection to use it as subject matter in my oil paintings. It is quite fun and challenging to paint because of the raised beading called moriage (pronounced mor-ee-ah-gee, as in gee-whiz). It is applied to the … [Read more...] about How to Get Detail into Your Oil Paintings Without Getting Too Picky

Joker in the Tulip Bed

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As many of you know, tulips are a favorite flower of mine. During the months (2006-07) of painting and researching for my Lessons from the Low Countries pigment project, I often incorporated tulips into my oil painting compositions. The reasons for this are simple. It is one of the most breathtakingly splendid flowers in the world and delightfully … [Read more...] about Joker in the Tulip Bed

Cannon Beach Arts Fest

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Scorching temperatures are predicted for this coming weekend, but you can beat the heat on the splendid Oregon Coast at the Cannon Beach Art Fest. Plein Air and More is a city wide event and all the galleries will be participating with artists all around town and on the beach doing and talking about their art. I will be at the Bronze Coast … [Read more...] about Cannon Beach Arts Fest

Big Sky Country

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For several months now, I have been experimenting with oil painting of landscapes, specifically moody dramatic sunrises and sunsets. This past Christmas holiday, we hauled out some old slides from a previous trip to the Grand Canyon and other points of interest in the Southwest. I was surprised to see that many of the images were quite nice and … [Read more...] about Big Sky Country