Sunday, February 1, 2009

More on sketch books....

.....one of the things I do to all the pages in my book is cover them with Demco Artists Grade gesso. It bulks up the page and gives a good ground for many mediums. In fact, I have been surprised at how differently things react on the gessoed paper. I have come to love it.
On days I don't feel *artistic*, I coat pages. It is meditative and lets me think I am accomplishing something of value! This is a combination of pencil, craft acrylic and quilters template marking pencil on the gesso ground. There is probably some fluid acrylic in there too, can't remember. The ground lets you push paint around, the pencil almost becomes water-soluble and if you choose to use a rough brush, you have extra texture also.
The painting is from a photo I took in New Orleans, a typical house in the French Quarter; the little balconies rich and verdant with foliage and flowering plants. Ferns grow out of every crack and crevice that can hold a bit of the silty soil always blowing in the air from the Mississippi. It is a cramped part of the city rich with varied life. Yet two stories up, everything is different. Gardens in the air. Most enchanting.
The owners water every morning, and there is something delightful about walking under the wrought iron canopies in the already devilishly hot sun, feeling a few cool drops of water falling upon you.
That was what I felt working on this---that languid, time-standing-still sense of the city that I so love.

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