Summer Projects

The summer painting murals project has begun.  There are several garage doors available for painting on Litchfield Lane. Linda Feinberg, our former treasurer, who is about to leave for Idaho, completed this one, an homage to Van Gogh.  Anthony Williams, our Vice President has other garage doors already primed and waiting for the artists who signed up. Of course, the weather is a factor since we have to paint outdoors.

Anthony Williams completed his eagle for the Veterans Count project. Looks like Sylvester stayed out of the way long enough for Tony to paint.

New work from our members

On a wintry spring day, it was great to receive these photos from Debbie Curtin. I asked our members to send in some new work and she was the first one to respond.  Debbie had prepared these paintings for a class she was going to teach, then her class was canceled due to snow.  I feel sorry for her students. These are great paintings to learn from. Thanks, Debbie for submitting. These paintings are done with exterior house paint on luan plywood sealed with polyacrylic.

Meanwhile, I was tired of painting landscapes and decided to have some fun with abstracts based on Chihuly's glass sculptures.  I had taken photos of his sculptures when they were on exhibit in Boston a few years ago. These are acrylic paintings on stretched canvas, 11" X 14", by Linda H. Feinberg.

If spring ever gets here to NH, we have several mural projects to work on, primarily garage doors on Litchfield Lane.  I am looking forward to that and have submitted a proposal based on another fun painting I did in a Van Gogh style.  There are many free videos online and I followed one to create this image.

I think this would look great on Litchfield Lane.  While I will be moving to Idaho at the end of the summer, this blog will continue.  You can submit your information to me as usual until I move, then to our president, Stephanie Byrd at any time.

Honorable Mention

Judy Gelinas, pastel, "Fresh Clams"

 

Several of our members received Honorable Mention certificates at the Elliot Senior Center Annual Art Show. Congratulations.

 Anthony Williams, watercolor, "Early Morning at the Beach"

 

Frank Moulin, watercolor, "Gull Island"

Linda Feinberg, acrylic, "November Day"

 

Murals

Shirley Perry finished this big panel mural for Webster House. Great Job!

Shirley will be moving south soon and we are sorry to see her go, but wish her well in her new ventures. Thanks, Shirley, for all your help with our art projects this year.

Summer Updates by our members

Our members have been busy this summer.

Rollande Rousselle exhibited at Greeley Park in Nashua, NH.

She is also involved with a new gallery in Amherst, NH. Creative Ventures

Anthony Williams painted a 2' X 4' acrylic painting commissions by a customer in Chicago. "The History of Communism from its Inception to the Present."

The owner of the building where we had painted this mural in the past, painted over the graffiti on the walls. Our mural has not been tagged and it looks even better now. (720 Union Street, Manchester, NH).

Movable Mural for Webster House by Shirley Perry

Hi Linda!

I'm finally sending you some photos of the work-in-progress mural for the Webster House. I've learned how to sand, prime and paint the plywood to get ready for my mural! It's been interesting :-) and I learned a lot. I'm also glad I didn't sand in my house!

I've attached some photos. I still have to finish my quotes around some of the "paintings" and in the general space will be a quote that's very positive.

I've been working from 7 a.m. until it has gotten too hot lately. In fact, today, the paint dried so fast I couldn't even paint a letter in a quote because it dried too fast and wouldn't flow nicely on it.

I'll keep you posted.

When this is all done, Anthony Williams said he'd help me seal it. Then I'll get it back somehow.

I've learned a lot about stenciling! It took quite a bit of time to sketch out a quote and then arrange it around my painting so it looks even. The size of each sport paintings are  21" wide and 15" tall. I used my computer to sketch out my idea and see what spacing to use to make sure everything is "even/lined up." I will have final touch ups when the all the quotes are on the mural. With my first cup of coffee, I'm out painting!!! What a way to start the days lately!!!

Hope you are enjoying your summer.

I hope to see you soon,

Shirley

Guest post and photos by Shirley Perry. Thank you, Shirley. You're doing a great job and I think the Webster House people will be very happy with the mural.

Webster House Project (continued)

Thank you to Tina Gagnon and Deb Funk for this beautiful 4’ x 5’ acrylic painting. The painting has been delivered to Webster House and they are very happy to have it.

Webster House will be having a reception for us when all the paintings are up. We are still waiting for the completion of the last painting.  Two other smaller paintings that we had in storage were also donated to them, from our former president, Colleen O’Connor.

We have purchased an E-Z up tent, complete with sides, sandbags and lights. If you are a member of our organization and would like to borrow it, please contact our treasurer.

We do not have any April meetings scheduled, but if you would like to get together, just to chat, to draw or paint, just contact us.

Please remember that all paid-up members are entitled to promote their exhibits, classes and current paintings on this blog. We would love to hear from you.

Color Charts for Painters

It’s easy to make your own color charts with your own paints. The photo above shows one method of making a color chart.  These are Winsor & Newton Artisan water mixable oil paints.  The company puts out a chart too with teeny tiny photos of the colors.  I drew straight lines with a ruler and permanent marker on 9” X 12” gessoed canvas paper (these come in a pad and are not too expensive).

Since I was just interested in seeing what the colors looked like in a larger view, I did one chart for each group of colors. I also did one for the neutrals, but it is not shown here.  Across the top row I wrote the color name and noted if the color was opaque (“O”) or transparent (“T”).  I painted the actual colors in that color family on the second row.  On the third row down, I added transparent white to each color.  On the fourth row down, I chose yellow ochre to mix with it on some of the charts.  The other rows vary depending on what I wanted to see. (You can enlarge the photo above by clicking on it).

I took a color mixing class in acrylic paints a few years back. The charts we made there were more about color mixing. These were done on acrylic paper. (photo below)

Top left chart shows primary colors, red on left in box 1, yellow in middle box 3, blue on right in box 5.  Other charts are variations on color mixing.  Most of them show the first row had one color on the left (box #1) and the one we wanted to mix it with in box #5 on the right. Then we mixed the two colors together 50/50 and put that mix in box #3. Again mixed box #3 with #1 into #2; then #5 (original color) and mix #3 into #4.  The second row down were the top row mixes mixed with titanium white. The third row down contained the first row’s mixes mixed with neutral gray; and the fourth row down contained the top row’s mixes mixed with black.  These can be done with any medium, not just acrylic paints. I added some other mixes in box #6 to see what they looked like.

Basically, most of us know that when we mix blue and yellow, we get green. But with pigments there are many yellows and many blues, so we will get many shades of green.  Making color charts will help with decision making when you are painting.

On my own, I decided to try to figure out what my paint tubes looked like, which ones were transparent and which ones were opaque.  I made another series of charts (below).

In these my first column contained my artist grade paints. The second column contained my student grade paints and the last column contained some craft paints I also had from other projects.  It was interesting to see the differences in the different grades of paint. The black line down was to help me determine which paints were opaque (full coverage) and which ones were transparent.

These are tedious exercises, but worthwhile and you will have your own color charts with your paints to refer to for every painting.  If you are really serious, you can note down your mix ratios too (as can be seen in books about color theory).

Happy painting!

Next Friends of Art Manchester regular meeting is on Thursday, March 19^th at 7:00 p.m. We will be meeting at a different venue this week. For more information contact blogger and treasurer LindaFeinberg.

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas/Happy Chanukah/Happy New Year. Whatever holiday you celebrate, FOA wishes you peace and creativity this winter.

Our winter project will be creating four 4’ X 5’ canvas panels for Webster House.  We have 6 artists committed for this project.  If you are interested in painting, please contact our treasurer, Linda Feinberg, for design guidelines. LHFeinberg@yahoo.com Initial sketches are due January 15th.

When the canvases are finished, we will need help mounting and hanging the panels. If you are not a painter, perhaps you would like to help with that. If you are a photographer and would like to see your photo as a painting, please contact Linda for guidelines. If you have materials (or cash) you can donate for creating the panels, that would be appreciated too.

Take a moment to enjoy this beautiful prayer. Deep Peace video with Judy Collins and Richard Stoltzman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRejYkJOYJM

Presentation

 www.PaintingsbyAline.com and www.EastColony.com

Presentation counts when you are trying to attract customers.  These beautiful paintings are by Aline Lotter. Notice the frames when you go to a gallery, art show or museum.  These are oil paintings and do not need glass.

http://www.lindafeinberg.com and http://avisiblevoice.blogspot.com/

Another example of frames. The two large paintings at the top are on "float" or "floater" frames. These are acrylic paintings by Linda Feinberg. Framing stretched canvases in this type of frame is easily accomplished with screws, a screwdriver and wire.  If you have been painting for a while, you know how expensive it is to frame your works (photography too).  There are courses available on framing and they are a worthwhile investment of your time and money.

Other frames in the example above are one with a linen type liner (the white looks a little like a mat) and a standard frame from a local store.

Watercolor and pastel paintings require a bit more work to frame, but look beautiful with a mat and glass. Even a simple pencil or pen sketch will become "professional" looking with a frame and more so with a mat and frame.  You can test this out easily by using a program like Photoshop (or even Microsoft Word) by adding a frame to your image.

Please submit your suggestions for future postings to our blogger. We are looking for guest bloggers too. Thank you.

More boxes for sale

Loved these covers. Left to right, boxes by Frank Moulin, Anthony Williams, Rollande Rousselle.

Another view, showing the sides as well. Left to right, boxes by Frank Moulin, Anthony Williams, Rollande Rousselle and Shirley Perry.

Boxes will be on sale this weekend in New Boston at the Annual Ciderfest

The Cider Mill Gallery

(603)487-5522

24 Francestown Road

New Boston New Hampshire 03070

More boxes

Boxes for our fundraiser in October. Boxes and photo by Eileen Belanger.

Left to right: Snowman by Linda Feinberg, Barn by Stephanie Bogalis Byrd, Flowers by Bea Bearden.

More next week!

Fall Fundraiser

Our artists have accepted the challenge of painting small canvas boxes for a fundraiser.  They will be for sale soon.  This box was painted by Linda Feinberg.

We plan on selling the boxes for $12.  More photos and information will be posted when available.

If you have ideas for winter projects for our artists, please let us know. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, October 22nd.  We would enjoy working with students on murals.  They could be on movable panels instead of on walls.  Our artists completed three outdoor murals this summer and we would enjoy designing and painting indoor murals for the winter.

One of our artists has sent in a proposal to the city on a building that might be available and could be used as an art center. Stay tuned . . .

Mural Painting In Progress

Our artists have started painting the mural at 720 Union Street, Manchester (between Harrison and Brook).

Lady Slippers by Rollande Rouselle

Scene on left by Eileen Belanger. Scene on right by Deb Curtin.

Turtle (middle panel) by Deb Funk. Unfinished fruit and vegetables by Shirley Perry.

Butterfly on left by Daniela Edstrom. Caterpillar on right by Anthony Williams.

Paintings on the theme of "Nature in the City" by Friends of Art Manchester. More paintings will be up next week.

Please note that Families in Transition will be having a reception on Thursday, August 7 to celebrate the new design updates at their Douglas Street Housing in Manchester. These updates include paintings by our artists. Please contact our treasurer, Linda Feinberg, if you would like an e-mailed invitation.

Libraries and Spring Projects

Three of our members have works displayed at the Derry (NH) Public Library for the month of March. The exhibit is free and open to the public during library hours.

Rabbi Y'Shia by Linda Feinberg
acrylic, 8" X 10"

Mount Washington by Deb Funk, Watercolor

Red Leaves by John Mitchell
Photograph

Two landscape paintings by Linda Feinberg

Good news for spring projects:

We have a commitment (and a donation) for a mural on a building on Union Street.  The mural area of the wall is 30’ long  X 3’ high. We are accepting donations for this project at this time.  Anthony Williams will be in charge of the design and supervision of the painters.  We will be starting the design work this month and hope to do the cleaning up and priming of the wall in the spring.  The actual painting of the mural will probably be done in the late spring or early summer.  We have several artists who will be painting as well as two charter schools and their students who will be helping out.  Please consider making a donation with Paypal or by check to cover the costs of supplies for this project. Thank you.

Our winter project for Families in Transition has been completed and all the paintings were delivered to them for their men’s residence.  They will be having a reception for us when they have completed some interior work in the residence and have our paintings on the walls.