Sunlit Pears

The painting posted with my first blog (below) is entitled “Sunlit Pears” and is painted in casein on watercolor board. The set up utilized a tablecloth crocheted by my grandmother.

Up until a little over a year ago I was content to paint in nothing but watercolor. Then we had a speaker at our Watercolor Society who gave a demonstration of something called casein; I had never heard of it, but it looked somewhat interesting, and it stayed in the back of my mind.

In the meantime I decided to give acrylics a try, bought a basic set of a few colors, and it proved to be somewhat of a disaster. I thought they would be very “watercolor-like” but found them to be anything but! Dried too fast on the paper, dried too fast on the palette, changed color the wrong way (dried darker, not lighter); didn’t handle the same way at all. Thought I better stick with the watercolors.

Then I remembered the casein. So, once again, I bought a basic set of a few colors. But I liked them from the start! More watercolor-like and even though they dried quickly on the paper, they didn’t seem to dry out as quickly on the palette.

So, an order placed to Daniel Smith for another possum palette; then an order to Jerry’s Artarama for more paint; then a trip to the local art store for some paper palettes.

After some trials and tribulations with some small paintings, “Sunlit Pears” was born. It was the first painting I have been proud of from the start. I absolutely love it, and I’m not one to “toot my own horn”.

I entered it into a few regional shows and then into Viewpoint 2007, a national juried show sponsored by the Cincinnati Art Club. It was accepted, and even though it did not win any awards, it did sell!

Then last spring I decided to try acrylics again, but this time the fluid acrylics I was hearing so much about. And I decided to go with DaVinci, since overall I am happy with their watercolors, and they were less expensive than Golden. I placed an order for them, as they were just coming out, and I waited and I waited and I waited . . .

Finally they arrived. I had purchased some colors that I have in watercolor, so I figured they would blend about the same, and I was happy to see that they did. Then, you guessed it – another order to Daniel Smith for another possum palette and another order for more paint.

It’s no wonder I have no money for anything else!

So now when I paint I’m finding out what so many other artists have known for a long time – it’s great fun to decide what medium to use on what support!