The Year That Wasn’t

When 2020 began, I had high hopes for a wonderful, exciting new year. I’m sure most of us welcomed the new year with great anticipation. Little did we know what lay ahead.

As an educator, I found closing the schools earlier in the year a big concern. It’s good we have virtual learning, but that is not the same as in-class instruction with teachers there to motivate and inspire, especially for the youngest children.

I missed attending art openings and getting to mingle with other artists and with patrons. The last event that I attended early this year was an opening at Gloucester Arts on Main called “Winter Blues”. That was back in January. Other open house art events have taken place more recently with attendance limited, but we are being quite cautious. On my computer, I’ve enjoyed watching virtual tours of Crossroads Art Center open house activities.

Virtual Zoom meetings as well as virtual critique groups have been helpful. I got to see the juror, Paul di Pasquale, for the Metropolitan Richmond Artists annual juried show up close and heard his remarks clearly by way of Facebook. I was pleased that my painting, “Desert on Xanadu” received an honorable mention in the show. This photo was taken of my computer screen as the juror discussed my painting in the show. Technology is amazing!

Paul di Pasquale, juror for the MRAA show

 

Standing in the Studio I Study the Paintings on the Wall

Art Studio ©Mary Montague Sikes

Sometimes when I visit Crossroads Art Center in Richmond on a quiet summer's day, I enjoy the serene setting filled with more art than I can hope to take in during one visit. For a few minutes, I go to my studio space and study the paintings on the walls.

My work there is a bit of a cross-section of the many loves I have--color both subdued and bright. Work created on Yupo with all the aspects of color movement and appeal driven by experimentation. It is on the Yupo that I most enjoy using the Robert Doak watercolors filled with intensity and power. A work on canvas also features the Doak paints, but that gessoed surface dulls and softens the look of the work. I enjoy the softness that speaks to me in a spiritual way.

The acrylic painting at the top of the center wall both haunts and attracts me. The strength of the iris reaching toward the sky in "Upreach" depicts nature forever pulling and leading us to a better understanding of the world in which we live. Perhaps it represents the spirits we cannot see.

An acrylic painting on the right wall takes me back to Sedona, Arizona, one of my favorite destinations in all the world. "Rhapsody in Red" on the lower right, center wall conveys both the motion and the sound of music. It takes me to a happy place.

There are two encaustic oil paintings in my studio now. I want to touch and polish them. Occasionally, I do use a soft cotton cloth to brighten and shine the wax in these paintings.

Visiting the studio I have there and going into my studio at home bring me joy. I respond to the artwork I've done, and I hope others will find happiness visiting them as well.

What do you see and feel when you visit art galleries and museums? Do you understand what the artist is saying with their work?


Upcoming Workshops with Mary Montague Sikes

Gloucester VA Arts on Main
August 20 - 22, 1 to 4 p.m.
"Bringing in the Magic"

Hilton Head SC Art Academy
September 10 - 12, 1 to 4 p.m.
Oil/Cold Wax Painting

There's Something About Cold Wax Painting

"On the Crowded Streets" - Oil, Cold Wax - ©Mary Montague Sikes

There's something about Cold Wax Painting that intrigues me. I started out long ago, first working in pastels and then oils. The buttery quality of the oil paints was nice. I liked that they didn't dry right away, so changes could be made later on with the paint still wet. That it didn't dry right away was also a quality that I disliked because the paints easily got muddy.

In those days, I was mostly doing portraits and figurative art. Because I used turpentine to thin the paint and to clean brushes, an annoying dullness became part of the images. I also disliked the odor of turpentine that permeated our house when I painted. It was with great excitement that I discovered acrylic paints. I eventually gave up oils completely and never looked back until recently.

After reading a lot about the cold wax medium, I decided to try it. When I took a workshop at Crossroads Art Center in Richmond with Lisa Boardwine, I was completely hooked. I loved building up layers of oil paint mixed with cold wax--Lisa calls it creating history, then using a variety of tools to remove portions of the surface. More layers of paint add to the history, and then begins the mystery of discovering the imagery that lies hidden beneath the colors.

Mixing cold wax and oil is really a fun way to paint. Best of all, cleanup is with odorless mineral spirits. I can incorporate my love of making a textured surface by using the cold wax over the heavy professional grade gesso I can still get from Utrecht. Experimenting with Cold Wax Painting is truly intriguing. I'm excited about my new work that includes "On the Crowded Streets" above.

Learning More About Yupo - A Different Painting Process

"Tangled on Xanadu" (right) ©Mary Montague Sikes

When I work on Yupo, I get lots of questions about the process. After all, Yupo has a slick synthetic surface completely different from the usual look and feel of watercolor papers such as Arches.

The painting on the right in the photo, taken of one of my gallery walls in Crossroads Art Center in Richmond, Virginia, features Yupo attached with matte acrylic medium to a gallery-wrapped canvas. It is an experimental painting in many ways because of my methods of applying intense Robert Doak watercolors to the Yupo and because it is on canvas and not under glass.

I discovered Yupo in the mid-1990s while taking a workshop with Mary Alice Braukman in Williamsburg. At the time, we experimented briefly with alcohol inks dripped on the surface and moved around with alcohol sprays. The color shifted and moved as it dried, making it fun to watch. I was hooked on the paper that wasn't. I did some research and found that Yupo, used for printing, was manufactured in Chesapeake, Virginia. Since it was not far away, I went to the plant and was given a variety of samples of some very large sheets of Yupo in all the different weights they made at the time. I was thrilled. The experimentation continued.

It was not until I discovered Mary Ann Beckwith in 2004 that I uncovered the most exciting aspects of working with Yupo. She introduced me to the amazing and intense Robert Doak paints that he created in his Brooklyn, New York studio. Playing and spraying paint on heavyweight sheets of Yupo produced art pieces like nothing I had ever seen before. I loved it. Mary Ann used her background in chemistry, inspired by her chemist father, to lead her students to the discovery of exciting creative results using a variety of materials.

Thanks to the wonderful teachers I have encountered along the way and the growth of the Yupo market, my journey in experimental work has grown and expanded. The more I learn about working on Yupo, the more my joy increases.

"I Love Yupo" is the title of the demonstration I plan to give at Crossroads Art Center in Richmond during the Open House on May 18.