Yesterday I headed along to the City of Greater Dandenong Council's 9by5 exhibition opening at the Drum Theatre and was genuinely impressed. The foyer was packed with both a large crowd, and also with 225 works on show spanning a huge range of styles and media, from a few beginners right through to very experienced artists. Each artist could enter up to two pieces, and having everything the same size (9" by 5") made for a really cohesive exhibition. The organisers did a wonderful job fitting it all in.
My work ended up down the back (as usual), but I was pleased to find a red sticker already on one of my watercolours!
It was great chatting with some of the other artists. Everyone was enthusiastic and grateful for the opportunity to show their work. A point that kept coming up in conversation was how wonderful it is for people to be able to see and buy affordable original art, and I couldn't agree more.
The exhibition runs until 1st. May If you're on the south-east side of Melbourne, it's well worth calling in. and if you can't make it in person, the most works are also available to buy online.
The quest to find the ideal surfaces for my 9X5 inchartwork for the 2024 VAS Exhibition continues! I'm planning to create two
pieces, one in watercolour and the other in soft pastels. To test out different
surface preparations, I made three variations for each medium on some scrap
plywood.
Let's start with the watercolour surfaces:
W1: Just plain white acrylic, which behaved a lot like Yupo
paper.
W2: White acrylic topped with a thin coat of regular gesso.
This improved colour intensity and gave sharper hard edges compared to the
acrylic-only surface.
W3: White acrylic with a 50/50 mix of transparent gesso and
regular gesso. This surface had the most texture, but the paint went on nicely
with great intensity, and it was easy to lift off.
Both W2 and W3 seem promising, except that the watercolour washes picked up brush marks on all the surfaces. For the next trial, I'll need to apply the gessos with a foam roller.
Now, onto the pastel surfaces:
P1: Just an old layer of Derivan background paint (China
Red). This added a nice tooth to the surface, and the coloured ground made the
pastel colours sing.
P2: White acrylic with standard gesso on top. The least
successful option.
P3: White acrylic with the 50/50 transparent and regular
gesso mix. Good coverage with a light pastel touch, but the colours looked pale.
I tested various pastel marks, from very soft to hard, and even Conte pencils. Getting details on such small panels is going to be a challenge,
and I need to experiment further with different "background" paints and "watercolour ground".
Stay tuned for more experimental fun on the road to the
perfect 9X5 surfaces!
