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.

Historical Pigments

A Basilisk and a Rooster Walked into a Bar

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Many of the quirkiest stories I have told have been right here in this blog during my Lessons from the Low Countries series.  Remember the one about the red haired man and the basilisk? If you recall, a basilisk is the legendary reptile, hatched by a serpent (or toad, depending on the source) from a rooster’s egg, and is so revolting, if it gazes … [Read more...] about A Basilisk and a Rooster Walked into a Bar

Spider Woman Meets Wedding Planner

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The first painting in this Southwest themed project, Lessons from the Spider Woman, is finished. The entire painting, actual title, and size will be revealed as time draws closer to the exhibit date. My artistic license is used lavishly here not only in the Spider Woman mythology but also in the imaginative depiction of the story. Spider Woman is … [Read more...] about Spider Woman Meets Wedding Planner

The World Over

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One enduring concept has become clear to me during my years of historical pigment research. The colors used in world cultures throughout the ages are many of the very same pigments. The earth itself over thousands of centuries has created a harmonious palette of archival and readily available colors to create some of the most beautiful and enduring … [Read more...] about The World Over

Festival of Panathenaea

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Well, here is the great unveiling. For the past many months, this 30x30 stretch of canvas has been my labor of love.  After much research into topics for use as a theme, the Festival of Panathenaea became an easy choice because the possibilities for subject matter were so colorful, plentiful, and titillating.   As mentioned before,  … [Read more...] about Festival of Panathenaea

Uber Umber

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There are several colors I could not do without on my palette. This is a splendid very dark burnt umber from Cypress. It is very dark almost black with a warm undertone and is easy to make. There are many versions of this pigment, but this dark one is my favorite. One terrific and useful characteristic of this pigment is the drying quality; … [Read more...] about Uber Umber

Challenges

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Many attempts and many methods were tried and aborted before this beautiful surface was achieved on my painting, shown above. Initially, I used a wet on wet technique by applying a mixture of yellow ochre, red iron oxide, and white to replicate the actual color of the clay on the Greek vessel. Then, atop the wet surface I applied a mixture of black … [Read more...] about Challenges