Free watercolor painting demo -- Kayaks

Here's the finished painting from my demo! I cleaned up a few edges, and I added in two extra kayaks in the background. I made the kayaks in the background lighter in value, color in temperature, and grayer in intensity to depict distance through atmospheric perspective. 

 If you missed my live online demo the other day, don't despair -- I just uploaded it to YouTube! It's one hour long from start to finish. Be sure to check it out, and subscribe to my YouTube channel to get all the latest updates. Better yet, follow me on Facebook, too, then you can watch in real-time when ever I paint live online!

 

I used my favorite art supplies in this demo -- Sennelier colors, Dynasty brushes, and Hahnemuehle paper. These are my "go-to" supplies that I recommend to everyone! 

More koi and other news

I'm thrilled to announce that my painting "a Tug at my Heart" is juried into the Kentucky Watercolor Society 43rd Annual Aqueous Exhibit! This is my 3rd acceptance which earns Signature Status in KWS. It is the 16th Signature Status that I've earned, although I still have not earned it from the Big Three societies. 

I wrote an illustrated tutorial for Plaza Art Store with this painting, you can see it online. 

I also worked on this small painting of Koi last week, using my Water Lily brushes from Dynasty Brush on the Leonardo CP paper from Hahnemuehle. 

The Water Lily line of brushes from Dynasty Brush are a soft synthetic hair that resembles natural Kolinsky sable more than other other synthetic brush available. The hairs are extremely absorbent and have a nice spring that is neither too firm nor too soft. Besides being vegan, they have all the characteristics of Kolinsky, but with the durability and affordability of synthetic. 

The Leonardo line of paper from Hahnemuhle is 280 pound watercolor paper that comes in rough, cold, or hot pressed surfaces. It is bright white and the cold and rough have wonderful textures. I prefer blocks, and this paper comes in handy blocks of 10 sheets. I seldom treat myself to a heavy paper, so painting on this 280 pound paper was a real luxury for me that I greatly enjoyed. 

Hahnemuehle Watercolor Blocks

Awesome news! Hahnemuhle is sponsoring my next workshop in Charleston by providing a 9x12 block of their Cezanne line of watercolor paper to each student in my workshop! I love the Hahnemuhle Cezanne papers, and this is a wonderful treat for my students to each get their own block of paper! 

Cezanne watercolor blocks by Hahnemuhle 

Winter Semester Classes at the Community Art Center in Wallingford start next week. There are still a couple of spaces left in my watercolor class, so hurry and register if you want in! This class fills fast with returning students so there is very limited space for a few new artists to join in each semester.

Annie's students at the CAC

And in other news, there is just ONE SPACE left in my plein air trip to France with Sennelier! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for artists to go to Brittany on the invitation of the Sennelier company. There will be a wait list, and there is always a chance that a few artists will be selected from the wait list to go on this trip.

Summer School

Every summer I teach a semester of classes in my own studio in south east Pennsylvania. The curriculum is painting and drawing lessons that are completed in each session, and students can come for a day or a half day, and pay by the lesson -- instead of committing to a whole semester. When the students arrive I usually give them a choice of lessons, and let the day's class decide which lesson we will cover that day.

This week, our lesson was one about color theory, and each of them painted a couple of complementary paintings based on their own palette colors. Pigment properties are always part of every lesson, as is composition, perspective, drawing, etc.

My summer classes are sponsored by Hahnemuhle, who has generously provided my students and me with 12x16 blocks of their Cezanne watercolor paper. I've lost count of all the times that Hahnemuhle has sponsored my classes and workshop! They make amazing papers for artists, printers, and photographers, and the papers are so wonderful that it's hard for me to pick a preference! My students were totally thrilled to get a fresh new block of paper at the start of the class!

My demonstration paintings from this week's classes...

Testing New Watercolor Papers from Hahnemühle!

I recently received a new paper to try out from Hahnemühle USA, the Harmony 140 lb. cold pressed block. The best way I know of to test new paper is to put it through all the paces -- heavy washes, lifting, masking fluid, and other forms of abuse that I inflict upon my paper in the course of creating a painting. Here's a step by step tutorial of my koi painting, and a review of the paper in the process.

The Harmony 140 lb CP watercolor block from Hahnemuehle. 

Here's my drawing of koi with masking fluid protecting parts of the paper. I also outlined the koi with a thin line of masking fluid to allow me to work the background really wet and control the flow of water better. The masking fluid reserves the white of the paper, and the thin outline helps to keep my heavy wet washes from running out of control.

I used a variety of dark colors for the backgound, and a lot of palette mud, too. You can see from the puddles and sheen how wet the paper still is at this point. While the paper was still damp, I splashed a few drops of water onto it to create a few tiny spots of blooms. 

Next I painted my lightest values on the fish, the yellow colors. Notice my background wash is still wet -- I used a lot of water!

Here I added my medium values to the koi, namely the orange and red colors -- cadmiums, vermillion, quinacrodone rose, violet, and a little sepia for the darks. Notice how light the background appears in this photo, compared to the previous photo? That's because it is now dry. I used a lot of water to create the background, and the more water you use, the lighter the watercolor paints will dry. Adding water to watercolor paint is akin to adding white paint to oils or acrylics -- it lightens the colors. 

More dark values are added using ivory black, sepia, indigo, and violet to create form and roundness to the fish. The masking fluid comes off easily, revealing perfectly preserved paper on which I can now paint.  

The koi have a freckled appearance to them, which I added with my darkest colors of ivory black. I scrubbed and lifted some areas that I had previously painted, to show some of the lighter patterns in the fish's colors.  

And finally, this is my finished painting of the koi. 

The Harmony paper from Hahnemuehle responded beautifully, and held up perfectly despite my abusive painting techniques. It naturally buckled under my heavy washes, but then dried flat. I really gave it a workout and didn't expect it to perform as well as it did, and I was pleasantly surprised that the paper far exceeded all of my expectations. The texture is quite nice, slightly toothy. The paper is surface sized and the amount of sizing appears to be quite generous, giving that the amount of water that I used and the lifting techniques all worked quite well. The color is soft white -- not overly bright, but no hint of any yellow or cream color. 

This paper is new, and is currently available at Art Materials Online. It will be available at other retailers soon. 

Keep up with all of Hahnemuehle latest products by following them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Plein Air Essentials for Watercolor Painters!

I paint en plein air often and teach classes and workshops, and my new students often ask me what gear they need to come join me on these excursions. I first started painting outdoors back in the early eighties, when I worked as a State Game Warden in the Florida Everglades. Back then, I kept a small box with my painting supplies in the back of my truck so I could sketch and paint the landscape around me.

Later, when I lived in California I organized some artist friends to join me on weekends to paint the breathtaking scenery of the valleys and coastlines. Back then, we called it painting outside or paint outs -- "plein air" was not used as a noun until recent years.

The supplies I carry with me haven't changed much over the decades. Paint, brushes, and water are the essentials. I prefer pan watercolors and I keep a penknife, pencil, eraser, sandpaper, salt, and travel brushes with the folding palette. The travel brushes have self-storing handles that protect the brush when not in use. I like to use a watercolor easel such as this one, but when I was younger I would just sit on the ground and hold my painting on my lap as I worked.

I show a selection of water containers in this photo, and they all have one thing in common -- they collapse. The dog bowl holds enough water to paint a larger painting, or the smaller camping cup can can be tucked in a bag with a sketchbook to be handy for impromptu sessions. The red rectangle in this photo is a value finder. Looking through it helps artists to see values, and both in their subject and in their painting.

The right paper is a major component of painting. I like a small sketchbook such as this spiral bound one from Hahnemuehle for sketching on the go and small studies. For full size plein air paintings, I use 140 paper mounted in block form, such as this 12x16 block of Cezanne paper from Hahnemuehle.

Annie Strack teaching plein air painting in Spain

More Plein Air!

A few more paintings from last the Brandywine Plein Air festival last week!

Frolic's Ford, 8x10 oil 

Pasture at Big Bend, 8x10 oil 

 During the exhibit at Winterthur, I demonstrated plein air painting in the main tent to entertain visitors. Here I am with my half-finished watercolor demo on Saturday. The painting sold before the paint was dry!

On Sunday I demonstrated watercolor painting again, this time using a photo from my recent plein air workshop in Calella de Palafrugell as my reference. Both my demo paintings are on the "Cezanne" 140 lb rough watercolor paper from Hahnemuehle. I was demonstrating alongside my co-organizer of  Plein Air Brandywine, Yvonne Mucci; and I invited my house guest Gerilyn Gaskil to join us. I gave each of them a block of the paper to use, and both of them loved it every bit as much as I do.

Plein Air Painting Workshop in Pennsylvania

 September proved to be the perfect time to teach a plein air workshop in Pennsylvania! The weather was mild with temps in the 70's and the sky was clear when my students and I gathered at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. The location was perfect, as well. I chose a spot under the canopy of trees where my students could take advantage of the shade and the picnic tables, and had a wonderful view of several compositional subjects to from which to choose.

My students, working hard on their watercolor plein air paintings. 

My demo painting from my plein air workshop.

  The tower that I chose to use for the subject of my workshop is not "made up" -- it's an actual folly in the garden of the Art Center, as you can see in this photo!

 Al of my students use Value Finders. Here, Carol is looking at me to see if I have any values...

 More photos of my workshop students working on their paintings...

My next class at this location begins in January. Be sure to follow my updates to get the latest info.

All of my students worked on these 12x16 blocks of "Cezanne" watercolor paper provided by Hahnemuehle. I love when companies send products to me to try, and I love it even more when they send products to all of my students! I love the paper, and my students all got to try it out for themselves and experience the nice texture, outstanding brightness, and perfect sizing of this paper first-hand. Thank you, Hahnemuehle!

New Paintings and Plein Air Workshops!

It's been a busy Spring season for art, with workshops, demos, classes, and shows every week. I've conducted so many events that I can't post them all in one blog post, so here's just a small sampling of paintings from recent events. 

SS United States, 6x6 watercolor on panel $75.

The SS United States is an old derelict ocean liner on the riverfront in south Philadelphia. Every time I drive by, I stop and marvel at it's beauty. This 6x6 painting is mounted on panel and displayed in a floater frame. It is a bargain at $75, but there's a catch -- the painting is not available for sale until 10am Saturday, May 20, in my studio during the Chester County Studio Tour. So if you want it, you have to come and get it, and -- be first in line. But there will also be 4 other artists displaying and selling their paintings in my studio that day, so you can also find great deals on fabulous artworks by Jeanne Kirby Bruneau, Tom Dempsey, Karen Frattali, and Carrie Barcomb. The studio tour is Saturday and Sunday, so be sure to stop by! We'll have wine and nibbles, painting demos, door prizes, and great artwork! The studio is at 105 Kabob Lane, Kennett Square, PA.

Chilly, $195. 11x15 watercolor on 140# CP Stonehenge Aqua paper

 More great paper has arrived from the awesome folks at Legion Paper! They sent me a case of the 300# Stonehenge Aqua to try out and share with my students. I loved the 140# paper they sent earlier, and didn't think it could get any better -- then I tried the 300#, and it's twice as nice! This paper is bright white and holds up better than I thought was even possible. No buckling or warping at all, not even with the heavy wet washes I used to create these paintings of skies and seascapes. The bright white color of the paper keeps my colors vibrant, clean, and fresh.

Sunset, $95. 11x15 watercolor on 300# CP Stonehenge Aqua paper

 I taught watercolor workshops for the Art Educators of New Jersey and for the Baltimore Watercolor Society last month, and used the new Stonehenge Aqua paper and also gave away free samples to all my students in both of them. I haven't photographed all the paintings yet, so there's still a few more besides these!

Beach, $125. 11x15 watercolor on 140# CP Stonehenge Aqua paper

 Last weekend, I conducted a plein air painting demo for the Audubon Society during their grand re-opening of their museum. This is John James Audubon's house at his farm "Mill Grove," in Audubon, Pennsylvania. The house is a museum and has been closed for the last couple of years for renovations, but finally reopened last month. Tons of people came to watch my demo, and I had a wonderful time painting in perfect weather at a beautiful location!

Audubon House, $95. 9x12 watercolor on 140# Stonehenge Aqua paper

 The Audubon House plein air demo painting is on the new Stonehenge Aqua watercolor paper, which now comes in blocks! I absolutely love painting on blocks -- the pad of paper is gummed on two sides, which firmly holds the paper down flat while painting. The blocks are ideal for plein air painting, as it provide a stable support for the paper and makes it easy to place on the easel or carry around to painting locations. I've packed several of the blocks in my gear to take to Spain later this week for my plein air workshop. In fact, it's the only paper I'm taking, so I suppose we can say that the Stonehenge Aqua blocked paper is the Official Paper of the 2017 Annie Strack Plein Air Painting Workshop in Spain! I also found out that this workshop also sold out last month, so my long standing record of filling every workshop still remains unbroken!

New watercolor blocks of Stonehenge Aqua paper!

 Here's some of the art supplies I've packed for my plein air workshop in Spain -- in addition to the Stonehenge Aqua paper blocks, I'm also taking a sturdy easel and umbrella, spare glasses, value finder, and the usual paints and brushes. I always bring gifts to give to my students, and one of the items that this class will receive is small spiral bound sketch books that they can each fill with the scenes from places we visit and paint during our workshop, and keep as a wonderful memento of our trip!

Packing for plein air painting in Costa Brava, Spain!

I'm fixing to leave out for Spain now, and I'll catch up with more news when I get back. See ya then!

Canson's Moulin du Roy Watercolor Paper!

I'm very excited to try the new Moulin du Roy line of watercolor papers from Canson! These papers have a nice surface and are available in the usual array of weights, sizes, and textures. The big difference with this paper, is that it's sized with starch -- not with gelatin. That makes it completely vegan! Using 100% plant-based materials (it's also 100% acid free cotton, too!) makes it less expensive than papers using gelatin for sizing, and artists will happily notice that those savings are reflected in the low retail price of this product.



Canson also sent a whole lot of sample packs of this paper to me, and I'll be giving these away (along with lots of other great freebies!) at my painting demonstration for the Delaware Watercolor Society on Tuesday, November 10th. Everyone is welcome to come watch my demo, you don't have to be a member to attend.  I hope I see you there!

Watercolor Painting Tutorial, Boats and Reflections

I started this painting a couple of months ago, but then I got distracted by classes and workshops and I didn't get around to finishing it until Friday at my Open Studio event. I had quite a crowd coming and going all day at my studio, and I always seem to get more work done when I paint in public!

Drawing the details. I draw as much as I can see, and a few things that I can't see but I know have to be there. I draw a suggestion of the reflections, but that is always likely to change as I paint.

I masked out the boats and painted in the sky and the lightest values of the water, using magnesium blue, cobalt, and payne's grey.

I used a wet into wet technique to create the dark background of the trees with indigo, payne's grey. sepia, yellow ochre. I also splattered paint, and dropped some intentional water blooms into the background to move the paint around and add interest.

As I worked on the trees and background, I also worked in the reflections at the same time, while I had the same  color on my brush to match the background.  

I used a Faux Squirrel Reservoir Liner brush from Dynasty Brush to paint the cypress trees in the background. The brush made it easy to loosely paint the branches and moss.

At this point, I wasn't happy with the vertical lines created by the reflections, so I wetted a few spots and wiped the paint out. I then went back and added more of the blues. It worked, and the water now appeared to be more "wet."



After the water and the background were done, I peeled off the masking fluid and began to paint the boats. I used my Faux Kolinsky from Dynasty Brush for this -- the brush has lots of spring and it's very responsive, and it keeps a fine point while holding los of water and paint.  

Some of the boats in my reference photo are different colors, with varying trims and canvases. I decided to make all the hulls white, and all the trims and canvases ultramarine blue.  

To add the focal point, I used the complimentary cadmium orange on a kayak in the "sweet spot" of the painting.  It looked a little off, so I added a red life ring on the boat next to it so that the orange didn't seem so isolated.

Lastly, I added the reflections of the orange and the red in the water, and this is the finished painting! I haven't titled this one yet, and I'm open to suggestions. This 14x20 painting will be going off to juried art shows soon, but it is available for pre-sale at $1095.