Owner: Belinda Del Pesco Fine Art Blog URL:http://belindadelpesco.blogspot.com Join Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:51:09 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: ART in Process - ART for Sale: Daily Watercolor Paintings, Etchings, Monotypes, Collographs, Woodcuts & Linocuts Site statistics:Click here
Graphite Sketch: My Favorite Spot 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is my buddy Spot. He was my friend KR's horse for over 20 years. He was good in front of a camera or a sketchbook, and his easy temperament made him a pleasure to sketch. He's buried in a grassy meadow where he spent the last decade of his life, riding trails and showing off for the mares. Barbaro's death this week made me think of Spot. People have relationships with their horses for 20-30 years. Losing them must be incredibly difficult. I've been thinking about the folks that worked and played and lived with Barbaro. My heart goes out to them.Study for My Favorite
Spot, 5 x 7 Graphite
on paper (Private Collection)
Woodcut Triptych: The Three of Us 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is three birch blocks cut from a larger piece, to make a small triptych based on an old family polaroid taken in the 60's.The Three
of Us, 7 x 10 Woodcut
& Watercolor Read more:Triptych
Woodcut Process: Staring at the Sky 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I started this little woodcut on Shina wood earlier this week after looking at, and getting inpired by Jessie Willcox Smith's illustrations.Simple set up to make a relief print at home...Using a speedball brayer and water based speedball ink on the carved block.Pulling a proof print after rubbing the back of the paper with a speedball baren.The block and the print.Making some adjustments.The first proof print, tinted with colored pencils. Staring
at the Sky, 3x3.7 Woodcut
& Prismacolor on Zozo paperAvailable for sale here.The topic for Illustration Friday on Feb 2, 2007 is Sprout. Read more:Process
Woodcut: Communion 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I spent a lovely, rainy day making art with my friend JMC earlier this week. We carved on shina - a first for me - and I loved it. Soft, porous wood that cuts beautifully along the grain.Printed with water-based black ink, on Arches Hot Pressed, with the back of a wooden spoon as a baren. Communion
4 x 6 Woodcut
with colored pencil (#1 of 10)Available for sale here. (Sold)
Back in the Studio 1970-01-01 00:59:59 After holiday festivities in the West, and a whirlwind trip East, I squeezed some painting time in on the plane (above: airline tray tables are really quite dinky). It's splendid and lovely to be home, and exciting to be starting the new year. I'm grinning with anticipation to be back in the studio - I've got oceans of ideas in my head for new art. Provence Cypress, 3.25 x 6.75 Watercolor on paper. Available for sale here. (Sold)
East Coast Trees & Rocks: Skinner Park 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is the 2nd watercolor doodled on a Southwest Airlines tray table two weeks ago. Skinner
Park is a 390 acre State Park on Holyoke Mountain in Western Massachusetts. It's a beautifully preserved area with a breathtaking view of the Connecticut River Valley.I have photos and sketches of the park begging to be painted; some of them are 20 years old. (I should get started, eh?)One Down, Four Hundred more to go.Skinner Park 3x7 WatercolorAvailable for sale here. (Sold) Read more:Coast
, East Coast
, Rocks
, Trees
Monotype & Colored Pencil: Santa Monica House 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I found an old photo of a house in SantaMonica
, taken in the early 1950's in my Great-Uncle Nick's photo album. I've sketched it, and painted it, and I'm still looking at it, so I figured it was time to make a print of it.No one in the family can remember who's house it is, but I'm pretty certain, based on multiple images, that they all spent time there. It's funny how we document our lives with photos, and then forget to label the moments, trusting our memories to hold all that data.Santa MonicaHouse
, 4.5 x 5 Monotype
& ColoredPencil
Available here. Read more:Colored Pencil
Watercolor: Map Reader 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is my Italian friend Carlos, reading a map in the afternoon sun, in Massachusetts. He was getting ready for his first drive through the New England countryside in the Fall.Map Reader
, 4.5 x 6.5 Watercolor
(Sold)The topic for Illustration Friday this week is Red. Carlos looks good in red...
Watercolor on Yupo: Pink & Yellow Turban 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Yupo paper can be a real challenge to work with, but I sure do enjoy experimenting on it. Since the paper is non-absobant (100% polypropelene synthetic) watercolors just lounge on the surface and intermingle (it's a pool party). The water evaporates (quickly, here in the desert) which leaves the pigments - in all their full power purity - laid out like colored cellophane on bright white tile.If you touch the dry areas with a wet brush, the pigments on the paper re-wet again, and lift off the paper down to white. If you don't like what you painted, just wash the whole thing off and start over.Pink & YellowTurban
, 4 X 4 Watercolor
on Yupo (Sold)Available for sale here.
Woodcut & Watercolor: Flirt 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Here's another little block of shina wood, toned with indigo watercolor, and drawn with a sharpie marker.By toning the top surface, I can see the shapes of my carving more clearly.The block after printing a proof.The first proof print was very light, so I added watercolor washes to test a few adjustments I'll make to the block before printing the edition.Flirt, 3 7/8 x 3 9/16, Woodcut
& Watercolor
Available for sale here.
Woodcut & Watercolor: Two Boys 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This image was cut from a piece of scrap plywood I found in a parking lot. The figures are two of my brothers, visiting me from California when I was a college student in New England.Two Boys
5 x 5.5 Woodcut
& Watercolor
Available here.
Monotype Ghost & Colored Pencil: Connecticut Pasture 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is a small zinc plate wearing faint remnants of ink after three trips through the press. The top print is the darkest, and the two ghost prints under it are waiting for an art supply spa treatment.The lightest ghost was printed on Arches88, a smooth, bright white, printmaking paper with no sizing in it. You can't use watercolor on it, unless you like to paint on paper towels, since it's about that absorbent.It's a lovely paper for colored pencils - the plate-finish is silky under the pigments, and you can layer the colors on the sheet almost like watercolors.ConnecticutPasture
, 3 x 6 MonotypeGhost
& ColoredPencil
Bid on it here. Read more:Colored Pencil
Monotype & Watercolor: All in Green 1970-01-01 00:59:59 After inking the plate to make a monotype, I lay a thin sheet of paper on top of the wet ink, and draw the beginnings of my image on the paper. The pencil-to-paper texture is familiar to me, and the pressure of drawing collects a line of ink on the back of the paper as my pencil bears down on the cover sheet. When I peel the paper sketch off the plate, the faint line work that stayed on the back of the sheet is a map in the ink (above) to get started with, *and* there's a wet-ink line drawing on the back of the paper I peeled off the plate. That sheet of paper can be used to make a trace-monotype print if the wet-ink-side is pressed against printmaking paper. This is the result.Adding Watercolor
washes... All in Green
5 x 4.5 Monotype
& WatercolorAll in green went my love riding on a great horse of gold into the silver dawn.e e cummings
Trace Monotype & Watercolor: Capistrano Mission Bell 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is a trace monotype of the San Juan Capistrano
bell tower, from a photo taken inside the mission courtyard. (The dark field monotype I pulled when I made this one will be posted later in the week, after the ink dries.)The ink lines are about the same value as graphite, but they have a dotted quality to them from the tooth in the printmaking paper (Arches Cover), and I like the way they look around and underneath the watercolor pigments.Capistrano Mission
Bell, 4.5 x 6.5 Monotype
& Watercolor
Available for sale here. Read more:Trace
Monotype: San Juan Capistrano Bell 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A glitch in my blog subscription was repaired this morning. Subscribers have missed the last 10-12 posts. (Darnitt.)If you want to scroll through them on one page, go here.This is a 4 x 6 zinc plate, rolled with Daniel Smith oil based black etching ink. In these shots, I'm wiping, scraping, smearing & pulling ink off the plate, based on a photo of the San JuanCapistrano
Mission.This is the plate I referenced in yesterday's post about trace monotypes. And below is the resulting monotype. I haven't added color yet, but I'll post it when I do. San Juan Capistrano
Bell, 4 x 6 Monotype
Linocut & Watercolor: Cat in a Birdbath 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is a mini linoleum block print of my buddy Allie. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and it's quite hot there in the summer time. A birdbath is a perfectly acceptable water bowl, and it sets the whole garden a flutter with noise and objections from the feathered locals.Cat in a Birdbath, 2 x 3 Linocut
with Watercolor
Available for sale here. (Sold)
Monotype & Mixed Media: California Mission 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A monotype of the Mission
at San Juan Capistrano (printed in reverse of the actual lay out of the grounds), which came out a bit too dark for my liking.After watercolors and colored pencils, it's lightened up a bit, and adjusted.California
Mission, 4 x 6 Monotype
& Mixed
MediaBid on it here.
Monotype & Watercolor: Dandy Sargent 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Removing ink from a plexi plate: reference photo of John Singer Sargent and a rough line sketch in the back ground.Pulling the print off the plate after a trip through the press...Dandy
Sargent, 6 x 9 Monotype
& Watercolor
(Sold)
Monotype & Mixed Media: Blumen 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This started as a viscosity monotype (layering blue, rubine red and process yellow). I didn't care for the result after pulling it - a little more pressure on the press would have yielded more color blending. So, this one was in the Goof-Off pile. I played with it using colored pencil and watercolors last night.Blumen
, 6 x 9 Monotype
& Mixed
Media
Watercolor: Blue Kimono 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Watercolor in process... transparent washes of color & temperature.Blue Kimono
5.25 x 4.25, Watercolor on paperAvailable for sale here.(Sold) Read more:Watercolor
Five More Minutes - Monotype & Watercolor 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is a 4.5 x 6 inch monotype ghost print & watercolor titled "Five More Minutes". A few people have asked about the process, so I'm posting more details here.Monotype
s can be created with any medium that will transfer from a smooth plate to a sheet of paper. You paint on a plate, and press the wet painting against a sheet of paper, either by using a press, or by hand with a brayer, or a baren, etc. There are lots of mediums to try.... oil paints, etching or relief inks, water soluble crayons, etc. In this piece, I rolled black etching ink onto a smooth zinc plate with a rubber brayer. This shows a reference sketch, and the plate after I moved and pushed and wiped the ink around to make my sleeping figure.After rolling the plate through the press against a sheet of BFK Rives printmaking paper (below), I'm pulling the print off the plate (on the press bed). The image will print in reverse of what's on the plate. The photo on the left shows the print, next to the plate I pulled it Read more:Watercolor
Watercolor: Uncle Nick 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is my Great-Uncle
Nick. He's had MS for more than half of his 83 years. Wednesday, he said it was a 2-ton day, even though he only weighs 152 lbs. He couldn't lift his hands, so I dropped junior mints in his mouth. Uncle Nick, 5 x 7, Collection of the ArtistThe topic for Illustration Friday on Feb 16, 2007 is Gravity. Read more:Watercolor
Watercolor: Corinne 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This started as an abstract doodle while I was in my friend LG's studio in New England last month. I picked it up yesterday on a whim while listening to a live performance by Corinne
Bailey Rae with her band, and my brushes plotted their own course, and morphed the features into something a little closer to Corrine's.Corinne 3.5 x 6.5 Watercolor
Available here.
Monotype & Colored Pencil: Duomo 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is a monotype done with black etching ink on a zinc plate. After the cityscape was pulled out of the ink, I top-rolled a thin, transparent film of golden ink over the plate. All the areas I cleared down to the metal filled with this color. Before I printed the plate, I wiped the sky clean, so it would be the only area without the gold tint.After the ink was dry, I added color & details with colored pencil. The view was through an apartment window on a trip to Florence, Italy.Duomo, 4.5 x 6.5 Monotype
(Sold) Read more:Colored
, Colored Pencil
, Pencil
Watercolor & Colored Pencil: Attentive 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This painting started as a sketch from a photo, back-lit by a cloudy-day window in Rockport, Massachusetts in the 80's. The drawing has been in my flat files for that long too. I like working on older art; there's an inherent permission to goof off and experiment with line, color, temperature, atmosphere, etc..Attentive, 10 x 9 Watercolor
& ColoredPencil
on ArchesAvailable here. Read more:Colored Pencil
Watercolor & Colored Pencil: Reading on Sunday 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This little watercolor was mistakenly done on drawing paper (no sizing), so the first washes of color spread like beads on a wood floor. No edges and faded color after the pigment sank into the paper. Time for colored pencil playtime.Reading
on Sunday
, 4.5 x 6.5 Watercolor
& ColoredPencil
The topic for Illustration Friday on Feb 23, 2007 is Communication. Read more:Colored Pencil
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