Janice Paine Dawes Art

Unforgettable art advice

| JP Dawes Artist

Paint ( draw, sketch, sew, render, create) what you see; paint what you love; paint what trips your trigger; paint what you have an emotional response to; paint what is in front of you; paint with your heart. I am sure I left a few things out but I think you get the drift.

Three Sisters. This painting was created in gouache on a very wet camping trip in early spring. The trees were in front of me and the sun had finally come out. I love trees! The stark white tripped my trigger so I wanted to capture the image. The painting can have a lot of interpretations by the viewer. I won’t bore you with what it means to me, but I am one of 3 sisters. Can you guess which one?

My studio has been shelved

| JP Dawes Artist

I needed shelves or ledges on my studio wall. I found these 4 new in package wooden ones at the local Goodwill store. They are a start to build on. The beauty of them is that I can display oils without knocking holes in the wall. A plus is that I can also use them for oil paintings to oil out. I will keep an eye out for a few more of these ledges.

Oh I love a mini

| JP Dawes Artist

Teeny, tiny minis. They all are painted from photos I took while painting en plein air. I like to have these on hand for purchase anytime I sell in person. They are easy for people to grab for a corner in their home, to liven up their cubicle at work or to slip into a padded envelope to mail to a friend.

Back to my first love of oil painting

| JP Dawes Artist

I received my first oil painting set when I was 15. I had been taking art classes in high school and learned how to build the frame and stretch the canvas. Then of course I had to prime it. The inexpensive way we did that in the class was with white house paint after it had been wet and dried to get the wrinkles out. Those were the times when exterior paint had lead in it. Not exactly what I would want to use now.

Thankfully gesso is reasonably priced now and there are also plenty of options for commercially prepared canvases. There are primed stretched canvases, primed canvas boards, canvas or linen covered panels, primed birch panels and unprimed birch panels. If you aren’t a traditionalist there are lots of choices for you now.

Pastel Box Carry-All

| JP Dawes Artist

There are still a few things to do on my pastel carry-all. It is going to be useable as it is which is a good thing because we are going to the river and I plan on some creative time. At least one day is predicted to be 100 degrees but there is always early morning and evening when it will be cooler.

I discovered a few things like I have holes in my color range, especially in the violets and blues. Since I do a lot of landscape and nature work those colors are important. I also have holes in my lightest values. This box does not hold all my pastels so I need to make a few more of these. I really like that I can cover them, cinch them together and go but can still easily use them in the studio. There is enough room to put my hardwood backing board and papers under the cinches, making it an all in one. Just grab my easel and go

Remember, Ron and I are not woodworkers or furniture makers. We use what we have and make do as we need to.