Trying out some new art supplies!

It's been a busy month with classes, workshops, and art shows! A ton of people came by for my monthly Open Studio event, and I also had some great students in my workshops and online classes this month. It all kept me very busy, but I still found time to go to the beach and paint en plein air last weekend. I had a lot of new art supplies to try out again, and I share a lot of my supplies with artists who come to my studio for classes and on my Open Studio events.

I haven't had a chance to try out these Mission Watercolors from Martin F. Weber yet, but I used this new tube of cobalt in the seascape I painted at the beach last weekend. It was a very cold day, and the paint stayed very fresh and soft. It didn't tighten up from the cold at all.

I've been tucking this new Stillman & Birn sketchbook in my bag along with my travel set watercolor pans. It's a nice size for traveling and the paper is very bright!

This is the oil I painted at the beach last weekend. It was a vey cold, wet, windy, grey, day -- but I enjoyed painting on these new Fredrix paint boards so much that I hardly noticed the weather!

New Fredrix Art Boards

I just received a couple of cases of the new archival painting panels form Fredrix, and I'm looking forward to getting some paint on them this weekend! It's been much to cold this week for painting en plein air, but the forecast is for slightly warmer weather this weekend, although there's a chance of rain. Fredrix has asked me to make a video with these new boards, so I'm off to the nearest beach paint en plein air and do a little filming. I really like these new boards -- they are lightweight and yet extremely strong and durable. The core is a post-consumer foam material, an it's covered with cotton canvas primed with a multi-media ghessoe. And, it's even gallery wrapped. The result is the perfect panel that I can use with any medium -- including watercolors. So I plan to paint both oils and watercolors this weekend on these boards. I might even use these for some muti-panel watercolor paintings! So if you're at the beach this weekend and you see an artist painting on some rather large boards with some videos cameras set up, it'll probably be me.

In other news, I'm also having another one-day workshop in my Kennett Square Studio next Friday, 10-4pm. Secrets of Watercolor Painting class is all about learning how to use a variety of special tools and secret techniques to create special effects in watercolor. This is a great opportunity to learn the top secrets of watercolor painting, you need to sign up now before you miss it! Class size is limited, so email me now to register!

Also, the December/January issue of Professional Artist Magazine is now out -- be sure to stop at your local newsstand or bookstore and pick up a copy to read my article "Keys to Clear Communication." And, thank you once again to all the artists who provide quotes and photos for my articles. I always love to hear from my readers, and I love it even more when I can feature them in my articles!