Preamble
This is the fifty-eighth post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed below all the posts in this new series:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part II
Limited or Restricted Palettes
Testing of Pigments - Part I
Testing of Pigments - Part II
Further Refinement of Pigments
Color and Light - Part I
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Color and Light - Part I [1]
The color of a pigment is not one of its definite, inherent properties, rather it is the effect on the eye produced by that particular substance under certain circumstances. For example, color blindness is an often misunderstood condition. Many assume because of its name that “color blind” means a person can only see in black and white. In actuality, the vast majority of people with color blindness do see color, but they see a much narrower range of color. It is estimated that a person with normal color vision can see up to 1 million distinct shades of color, but a person who is color blind may see as few as just 10 thousand colors (i.e., 1% of the normal range).
Images that simulate color blindness, like the ones in this blog it can give an impression to people with normal color vision of what color blind people see, or answer the question - "What does the world look like to a color blind person?" However, these simulations actually fail to give a realistic understanding of a color blind person's experience.
So, what are the actual effects of color blindness on vision? The primary symptom that color blind people experience is color confusion. Put simply, color confusion is when someone mistakenly identifies a color, for example, calling something orange when it is actually green.
When a dry pigment is mixed with a liquid, its color is changed to a darker or deeper tone. This is an optical effect, which may be explained in the following manner. Materials used as pigments differ widely in certain properties from liquids used as mediums. One of these properties is the amount of light a substance reflects and absorbs. All liquids and solids vary from each other in this respect, and each one has been measured and tagged with a number called its refractive index. Scientifically, the refractive index is a measure of how much light bends (i.e., refracts), when it passes from one medium into another, and it is defined as the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to its speed in that medium. It is a dimensionless number, with a higher value indicating that light travels more slowly and is bent more sharply. The refractive index is determined by the material's optical density and depends on the wavelength and temperature of the light. For example, it must be taken into account when spearing a fish. The fish's apparent position in the water is not its actual position as explained in the diagram below.
The difference of the refractive index of air and water is such that the position of a fish in the water from a fisherman's point of view is the different from its actual position within the water, as per diagram below, because the difference between the refractive index of air and water which therefore bends the light.
A sheet of glass is a transparent substance; when a ray of light strikes it at an angle, there is a varying amount of surface, or mirror-like reflection, depending on conditions; however, the greater part of light passes through its continuous, uniform structure and emerges refracted or bent, at an angle different from which it entered. The refractive index is computed from this change of angle, which depends in each case on the substance's power to impede light rays.
Glass slab is a substance, or sheet made of a glass material having three dimensions: that is length, breadth, and height. It is cuboidal shaped. It does not deviate, nor does it disperse the light rays passing through it. This means that the incident and the emergent ray emerging from the glass slab are parallel. The glass slab only produces a lateral or (sideways) shift or displacement to the direction of light.
When two substances of varying refractive indices meet (see the above two examples), the greater the difference in their refractive indices, the greater will be the proportion of reflected light at the point where they meet. When a pigment with a refractive index of 2.00 is dry, each particle surrounded by air (the index of which is 1.00) causing a certain amount of white light to be reflected. When the pigment is moistened with linseed oil, which has a refractive index of 1.48, much less light is reflected, since more is absorbed, and so the pigment appears darker or more intense in hue.
As the light enters a film, we want to prevent it from reaching the substrate and exiting; the pigments do this by interacting with the light. When light interacts with a particle, there are five possible outcomes, namely: refraction, diffraction, absorption, reflection, or no change. All of these are considered scattering, except for the ‘no change’ situation. Refraction is when the light path is changed as it passes through the boundary of the particle and surrounding media. Diffraction is when the light is bent by interacting with the edge of the particle. Absorption is when the energy of the incident light is attenuated by the particle, but not necessarily by all frequencies equally. Reflection is when the light that hits the film returns to the source. We want to maximize scattering and minimize ‘no change’ to optimize hiding and color.
When transparent glass is pulverized, the powder appears white. Water in the form of ice is transparent; in the form of snow it is white and opaque. The reason for this is that while light rays are easily transmitted through uniform, continuous mediums of ice and the sheet of glass when they strike powdered glass and snow, they are reflected in all directions from the myriads of tiny facets of the particles surrounded by air, and are bent from one tiny particle to another until they become entirely diffused. When such broken planes and irregular facets exist ony on the surface, as when when a sheet of glass has been rubbed with an abrasive material to produce a ground-glass or non-transparent effect, the light is broken up and reflected on the surface, creating a whitish or frosted appearance. However, since the light-dispersing particles lie on the surface of a thin layer, the rays are not entirely impeded and continue on through the glass, which is now translucent instead of transparent.
Light reflected from shattered glass.
A flat or mat effect on a paint or varnish is always due to the fact that the surface consists of a thin layer of such irregular construction. When such a surface is moistened its opacity is temporarily diminished. In the same way, alumina hydrate, a white, opaque powder when dry will become colorless and transparent when wet with benzol, because particles are then surrounded by a medium which has a refractive index very close to its own. The effect of liquids upon the color and opacity of pigments varies greatly in each case, depending on the difference between the two refractive indices concerned.
Dry Alumina Hydrate.
If a pigment which appears transparent, or translucent, in a thinly applied layer is piled up or applied to a surface in a thick layer, it appears more opaque because the light then travels through a greater number of separate particles, each one of which impedes its progress by refracting it and also because there is more reflection of light from the points where the pigment particles and their surrounding medium meet, and because more particles absorb more light. Intensity of color also decreases the transparency or increases the hiding power of a pigment.
A thick application of paint appears more opaque because it can block more light, while a thinly applied layer is either translucent or transparent. While impasto is a technique that uses thick, textured paint for a dimensional effect, glazing is a technique that uses thin, transparent layers over an opaque base to create depth and luminosity.
The above section is a thin application of paint, whereas the section below is a thick application of the same paint. Note the difference in opaqueness.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
Preamble
For your convenience, I have listed below other posts in this series:
Paisley Patterns - Part I
Paisley Patterns - Part II
Paisley Patterns - Part III
Paisley Patterns - Part IV
Paisley Patterns - Part V
Paisley Patterns - Part V [1]
How did Paisley become involved in the shawl trade, and even more interestingly, became a world leader in shawl manufacture? Perhaps the blame can be laid at the door of revolutionary France and Napoleon Bonaparte. The wars with France had drained British resources, and attempts to beat the French navy's blockade were confined to more essential imports rather than raw silk. As a result many of the highly skilled weavers in Paisley found themselves without work in the early years of the nineteenth century. Manufacturers in the town were desperate to find a new product, which could revive the weaving industry. Around 1805, or so the story goes, an Endinburgh shawl manufacturer by the name of Paterson had taken on too many orders for shawls. His own weavers were unable to match the demand; so, remembering the pool of skilled weavers in Paisley, he sent them some work. The Paisley workers soon realized that good profits could be made from shawl weaving, and before long, several had set themselves up as shawl manufacturers.
Though first introduced some thirty years previously, the British shawls were still fashionable. In fact they were to remain part of the fashion-conscious females wardrobe for the best part of a century. This was due in no small measure to their versatility. Not only could the colors and designs be changed to suit the tastes of the age, but also the actual size and shape of the shawl could be adapted to suit the garment worn beneath.
The costumes of the early nineteenth century were based on classical Greco-Roman lines. Sleeves were tight-fitting, the dresses fell from beneath the bust, and the skirts were straight. The lines of the costumes were extremely severe, and so the softness of the draped shawl, combined with the touch of the exotic pattern, provided the perfect complement. By the 1820s, a change had occurred in dress design. The 'waistline' had dropped to something like its actual anatomical level, skirts had begun to flare out slightly, and the shoulder line was greatly emphasized. The leg-o'-mutton sleeves had arrived. In response to this trend, the shawl changed in shape from a rectangle to a square. Folded across the diagonal, and worn around the shoulders to accentuate their width, with the point of the triangle highlighting the narrow waist, the shawl once again proved to be an ideal accessory.
A gauze print design, ca. 1850s, with beautiful sprays of tiny flowers separating the Paisley motifs.
The gauze print design, ca. 1850s, was stamped 'J. Huntingdon, Dessinateur, Paris.'
A delightful small-scale border design from pattern book of 'Print Designs 1853-1860,' which was donated to the Paisley Museum (Scotland) in 1941 by one of the last of the Paisley textile manufacturers.
This individual motif is taken from a book put together by a unknown manufacturer of 'Gauze Print Designs, French and English' (dated 1850-1860). It is certain that this is not a scrap book, but did belong to one manufacturer, because throughout, in the same hand, are instructions for which machine was used for each design. This pattern was destined for the 'No.1 machine.'
Design for a printed shawl, painted on tissue paper. It may have been intended for roller printing.
Design ca. 1855 for a printed shawl, probably a silk gauze.
A border design in an untypical subdued color scheme. It probably dates to the 1830s.
Design for the border of a gauze print shawl, it was drawn by J. Huntington, perhaps in Paris, but has been overstamped with his London address of Queen's Road Works, Holloway. It is a curved edge block for a 'Glasgow Shawl.'
This small pattern is from the volume entitled, 'Designs for Gauze Prints, French and English, 1850-1860.'
Reference:
[1] V. Reilly, Paisley Patterns, Portland House, New York (1989).
Preamble
For your interest, I have listed below, other posts on this blogspot that center on the use of Batik to create wearable art:
Nothing Is The Same I & II (Els van Baarle, The Netherlands)
Batik ArtCloth from South-East Asia
Batiks from Kintore
Batiks From Warlpiri
Historical Israeli Batik ArtWorks
A Brief History of Batik
A History of Javanese Batik - Hindu Influence
A History of Javanese Batik - Islamic Influence
Traditional Batik Clothing
Introduction
Traditional Javanese costume is still worn today. When garments, which are no longer worn, are mentioned in this post, specific note is made of this fact.
Traditional Batik Clothing [1]
The Sarong
The 'sarong' is the everyday dress for men and women. The ends of a length of cloth (110 x 220 cm) are sewn together. This skirt is pulled over the head and adjusted to the correct width with a pleat. The 'sabuk', a band wrapped several times around the waist, holds the sarong in place. A characteristic of the sarong is also the 'kapla' (i.e., edge). See the following three images.
This child is wearing a sarong on which half a kapala is visible.
The strip, originally woven, with a different pattern and is worn at the front or the side, is called kapala (head). This consists of two rows of tumpal motifs (triangles) with rows of seven small stars between them. The points of the triangles do not quite meet. At the upper and lower edges of the sarong there is a narrow decorative strip with kemadas (i.e., short cross stripes).
A part of the kapala strip can be seen on the sarong of this rongeng dancer from Batavia. Both boys are wearing batiked trousers.
Photographed around 1880.
The kain panjang
This loose cloth (110 x 250 cm) wrapped around the waist several times constitutes the festive costume for men and women alike. The end is folded into an uneven number of pleats in the front ('wiron'); these pleats open gracefully when walking. The body and waist are tied with a sash ('setagen'). The kain has an uneven pattern over its entire length. At the upper and lower edges a strip is often left white (see picture below).
A former administrator of Surakarta with his five sons. The men are all wearing very richly patterned kain panjangs.
The Dodot
This garment of state for princes, dancers at court and high dignitaries consists of two cotton lengths of equal breadth, sewn together lengthwise before being batiked. The total size is 220 x 350 to 450 cm. Often the dodot is decorated in the center with one color rhomboid, the 'tengahan' motif, and a fringe along one side edge. Today it is only worn in Central Java by noble bridal couples.
The edges of the tengahan motif, on official dress as well as on a breast cloth, are often decorated with cemukirans (diagonal pointed motifs).
The Kemben
This breast cloth (50 x 250 cm) is often the same patterning as the kain panjang and together it gives a sense of unity. The kemben is often decorated with the tengahan motif. The four edges are usually richly decorated. Only brides of noble birth wear this breast cloth today with a dodot (see the two photographs below).
While women used to leave their upper trunks uncovered, they would just pull the kain up over their breasts when visiting. Probably from this custom the breast cloth developed. This Javanese woman is wearing it above a woven sarong.
Part of a richly decorated breast cloth edge. The center piece of the cloth is decorated with plangi, a tie technique.
The Slendang
This article of women's clothing serves as a decorative or carry cloth. It probably had its origin from the breast cloth and has the same measurements and edge decoration. Originally the cloth was divided into a central and two sided areas. The latter were often decorated with 'tumpal' motifs.
The slendang used here as a baby-sling, contrary to the usual area division, has the same patterns of tambalan motifs over the entire length. The Javanese woman on this old photograph is also wearing a breastcloth and a woven sarong.
The Slendang Lokcan
This silk slendang was mainly worn by Chinese women on the north coast of Java. The lokcan (loktjan) has an even all-over pattern and rich edge decorations, often with pretty fringes. The word 'locan' can be traced to the Chinese word 'lo', meaning blue, and can (tjan), meaning silk.
The Iket
This square, men's headcloth (1 m2) was an important item of clothing, particularly in Central Java. From it one could tell the rank and position of the wearer. It is hardly worn today. The middle of this cloth, too, was decorated with a single color tengahan motif, to which sometimes the cemukiran (tjemukiran) motifs were added.
These Javanese card players are all wearing a head cloth for men, called iket. The single color tengahan motif above the temples can be seen on the man on the left and also on the man sitting in the middle. The draping and method of wearing the cloth use to vary in the various principalities and were greatly dependent on the influences of the current fashion. The men are also wearing kain panjang, recognizable by the narrow white lower edge.
Tambalan
The term tambalan refers to the pattern (see picture below) on this short jacket with long sleeves. It was worn by animist priests in the Tengger mountains in East Java. The patchwork pattern can be traced back to the early Buddhist priests who were required to clothe themselves with patched garments made from rags.
The jacket shown above, made of squares composed of triangles, used to be the correct clothing of priests from the Tengger mountains. These priests also wore batiked jackets in a pattern, derived from this patchwork. The batik patterning shown in the slendang two pictures above that is used as a baby-sling is also an example of this.
The two dancers in the middle of this wayang topeng scene (topeng = mask) are wearing batiked sheaths with parang rusak pattern of the nobles. The man standing back left is wearing a sheath with the same pattern, but enlarged, called parang barong.
Bandung, ca. 1890.
A central Javanese bridal couple, 1975. Men wear the dodot over tight trousers made of cinde cloth. The higher the status or class, the more these trousers are visible. The dodot trails a little at the back, falling over the dagger sheath and is lifted by several train carriers. The dagger (kris) is held in a wide belt called pangsit. The head is covered by a stiff Persian cap called kuluk. The upper trunk is uncovered. Women wear the dodot over the kain panjang, the upper trunk slightly bound with a breastcloth. The draping is carried out by selected servants and follows strictly in accordance with a prescribed ritual.
Reference:
[1] M. Spée, Traditional and Modern Batik, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst (1982).
Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below posts on Margaret Preston.
Margaret Preston and Printmaking
Margaret Preston, Woodblock Prints - Part I
Margaret Preston, Woodblock Prints - Part I [1]
The term 'woodblock print' was frequently used during the period when Margaret Preston began experimenting in relief printing. It described woodblocks cut along the grain (often printed in the Japanese manner), as well as those cut on the end grain blocks. Preston usually used this term to describe her relief prints.
Japanese woodblock prints: a mass medium.
Although Preston produced more prints using the woodblock process than any other printmaking technique, it is ironic that we have no firm evidence of when or where she made her first experiments in the process.
Her husband, Bill Preston, claimed that she had made many woodcuts while in Munich in 1903; in his book "The Story of Australian Art," William Moore stated that she exhibited color woodcuts in 1913; and Preston claimed in 1919 that she had previously exhibited examples at the New English Art Club and the Royal Society of Women Artists, although there are no prints recorded in relevant catalogues. The artist certainly taught the craft of woodblock printing to shell-shocked soldiers at Seale-Hayne Repatriation Hospital, Devon, in 1918 and examples were used to illustrate a magazine (at present unlocated) by the soldiers. The only evidence that Preston produced woodblock prints before her return to Australia in 1919 is recorded in the catalogue exhibition held at Preece's Gallery, Adelaide, in September 1919. Of the four prints listed, only one has been located - Still Life and Flowers (c. 1916-1919 cat. no. 8) has been sighted in a dealer's photograph. Given the paucity of the information, it is perhaps best to outline the influences that may have led Preston to produce woodblock prints.
When Margaret Preston returned to Australia in 1919 after living in Europe, she called for a truly ‘national art’ founded on the imagery of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Preston was influenced by Indigenous art as well as by international contemporary art and European art history. In Stenocarpus – Wheel Flower - she refers to the traditions of botanical art, showing flowers in various stages of bloom, but diverges from convention by reducing the level of representational detail in favour of an emphasis on design, pattern and color. Moreover, Wheel Flower is a hand colored woodcut on brown made paper. It is 44.2 x 44.7 cm in size but irregular and is held at the National Gallery of Victoria (Australia).
Preston grew up in an era when wood engraving was the most prominent form of book, journal and newspaper illustration. Her constant exposure to illustration may have preposed her to the medium in later years. At about the same time as the twelve year old Preston was deciding to become an artist, a most ambitious publishing project was being undertaken, namely, The Picturesque Atlas of Australia which made use of over 700 wood-engraved illustrations and employed many of the most gifted young Australian artists, including Tom Roberts (1856-1931), AH Fullwood (1863-1930), Julian Ashton (1851 – 1942) and WC Piguenit (1836 - 1914) to produce these illustrations.
The American engraver, Horace Baker, who supervised the project encouraged a new sense of professionalism in the trade and reproductive wood engravings began to appear in art exhibitions alongside artists' etchings and black and white work.
Materials used in wood cutting, showing woodblock inked ready for printing from Art Australia October-November 1930.
When Bill Preston was interviewed late in his life, he stated that his wife had produced many woodcuts in Europe, particularly in Munich during her first trip. Althogh Preston attended an illustration school in Munich that taught woodblock printing, she was more interested in the new processes of drawing for photographic reproduction. Of the artist's teachers in those years, only one - Paul-Emile Colin (1877-1949) - produced woodblock prints.
Paul-Emile Colin.
Nevertheless, Preston would have seen many European exhibitions that included woodblock prints.
Had Margaret Preston produced prints in Europe, she would have surely exhibited examples in her 1907 Adelaide exhibition, which included poster and process work, or in 'The First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work,' in Melbourne in the same year. Violet Teague (1872-1951), who had been a fellow student at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, certainly exhibited woodblock prints in the Melbourne exhibition. Between 1906 and 1912, while Preston was living in Adelaide, she apparently had no interest in the technique.
William Moore records that Preston first exhibited woodcuts in 1913 at the Women's Art Society in London and a newspaper article of 1923 states she had been making prints since 1914. Considering that her interest in the technique probably developed as a result of the artists she met and the exhibitions she saw between 1912 and 1913, the year 1914 - by which time she had settled in England - seems more realistic.
On her second trip to Paris, in 1912, the Union Centrale de Arts Décoratifs presented a series of exhibitions at the Pavillion de Marsan, which seems to have directed Preston's thoughts towards the possibility of prntmaking. Included were a general exhibition of Japanese prints, an exhibition of the poster art of Jules Chéret and the inaugural showing of the Société de la Gravure sur Bois Originale (which inluded contemporary woodcuts from both England and France). It was undoubtedly at this time that Preston also studied Japanese prints at the Musée Guimet.
Still life and Flowers ca. 1916-1919.
The color woodblock print (printed in the Japanese method).
Courtesy of National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (cat. no. 7).
English speaking art students in Paris tended to maintain close and supportive friendships with each other. Preston probably knew of the group of American women who congregated at Mrs. Whitelaw Reid's Club for American Girls at 4 rue de Chevreusel. A member of the group, Etheo Mars (1876-1956) had learnt the basic technique of the color woodblock print from Arthus Wesley Dow (1857-1922) before she arrived in Paris in 1906. Mars exhibited regularly at the Salon d'Automne and served on the jury for the graphic section. Her exhibition of decorative color woodblock prints at Mrs Whitelaw Reid's in 1913 attracted other women to the technique. Mars' students included Ada Gilmore (1833-1955), Mildred McMillen (1884-1940) and Margaret Patterson (1867-1950). Also in Paris at that time was Edna Boies (1872-1937), who had become familiar with the technique in Japan in 1902. All of these women were later associated with the "Provincetown Printers.' One of the technical characteristics of this group was printing in colors from one block, a process Preston was to later explore.
It was probably through these American women that Preston became aware of the writing of Dow, whose influential book, 'Composition,' was avaliable in both English and French editions. Dow was a leading teacher and exponent of the American Arts and Crafts movement. His book championed the importance of structure as the basis for composition, and emphasized the significance of Japanese art. At his schools he taught his students the rudiments of pottery, batik, weaving and woodblock printing, and he discussed aspects of these subjects in his book. Preston acquired most of the books that Dow recommended on Japanese and Chinese art.
Reference:
[1] R. Butler, The Prints of Margaret Preston, A catalogue raisonné, National Gallery of Australia (2005).
Preamble
This is the fifty-seventh post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed below all the posts in this new series:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part II
Limited or Restricted Palettes
Testing of Pigments - Part I
Testing of Pigments - Part II
Further Refinement of Pigments
Color and Light - Part I
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Further Refinement of Pigments [1]
The following outline is intended for the use of painters or groups of painters who may have occasion to use pigments free from water-soluble impurities in sufficient quantity to warrant the trouble of washing pigments which are otherwise of high quality. The instructions are not given as recommendations for common use.
The impossibility of the average color manufacturer's producing pigments especially for artists' use has been mentioned in a previous post. Some of our permanent pigments contain small percentages of impurities which do not detract from their ability in common industrial applications or even in the ordinary artistic techniques, but which are undesirable in some cases where requirements are more exacting - for instance, in fresco paintings.
The restorers of Sistine Chapel work, "Daniel", assumed that the artist took a universal approach to the painting, so they took a universal approach to the restoration. A decision was made that all of the shadowy layer of animal glue and "lamp black", all of the wax, and all of the overpainted areas were contamination of one sort or another: smoke deposits, earlier restoration attempts and "painted definition" by later restorers in an attempt to enliven the appearance of the work. Based on this decision, according to Arguimbau's critical reading of the restoration data that has been provided, the chemists of the restoration team decided upon a solvent that would effectively strip the ceiling down to its paint-impregnated plaster. After treatment, only that which was painted "buon fresco" would remain.
The usual impurities in these cases will be small amounts of water-soluble salts, acids, or alkalis, which can be removed by subjecting the pigments to a few additional washings in hot water, using such simple inexpensive apparatus as employed in the laboratories of the color makers for their small-scale experimental batches. The manufacture of pigments in general does not require very complex equipment (except in the case of special furnaces for those pigments which are made at high temperatures), and jars, beakers, little tubs, and filters may be considered as miniature color factories.
Flow diagram for the production of blue pigment from kaolin.
The actual manufacture of pigments from their raw materials, however, calls for a high degree of skill and much specialized experience - an inexperienced person cannot expect to manufacture small batches of color that will equal the commercial pigments either in purity of color or in pigment properties.
Note: Professional pigment manufacture focuses on consistency, stability, and high pigment load, often involving industrial processes to create synthetic pigments, while amateur production is more focused on natural, historical, or unique colors, and the process itself is more experimental and less consistent. Professional methods prioritize durability, lightfastness, and cost-effectiveness for mass production, whereas amateur methods prioritize artistic control and customizability, often accepting lower durability or higher cost.
There are lots of blogs on the internet that show you how to make pigments from rocks that you have locally sourced.
Dry pigments are mixed with water, preferably distilled water, boiled, allowed to settle, the clear water poured off, and the procedure repeated until all the purity is dissolved and washed away; then the mixture is filtered and the pigment dried and pulverized. The washing may be done in laboratory beakers of 500 to 1000 mil capacity depending on the quantity of color needed, and an ordinary large glass funnel and folded filter-paper may be used for filtering.
G3 Buchner Funnel Filtering Kit Laboratory Vacuum Filtration Distillation Apparatus with Sand core Filtration Funnel and Erlenmeyer Flask (2000 ml).
A more satisfactory filter, however, is one assembled from a common laboratory vacuum (aspirator) pump, which is a simple affair made to be attached to a water faucet, and connected by a rubber tube to a suction-flask with a rubber stopper into which is fitted a Buchner funnel. The funnel and the suction-flask come in various sizes; the funnel is made of porcelain, and has a flat perforated surface within it, upon which is laid a sheet of coarse filter paper. After the pigment has been boiled with several changes of water, it is poured onto the filter, prerferably just before the pump has extracted all the water so that the remaining filter-cake becomes cracked and the noise of suction changes, it is washed again by pouring boiling water upon it. Then, after the pigment has been sucked free of superfluous water, the funnel is disconnected and the pigment turned out on a piece of paper and allowed to dry at ordinary room temperature or with a mild steam heat; strong heat may make it cake too hard. The washing vessel should be large enough so that the settled pigment occupies only one-fourth to one-third of its capacity, and the suction flask should be large enough so that it does not have to be emptied too often, which is incovenient.
All of this equipment is of the commonest kind and is available at any laboratory store. If beakers are used they should not be heated over a direct flame but should rest on the usual asbestos discs. If enamel pots are used, they should be of the best quality acid-proof white enamel.
It is best to know the nature and the extent of the probable impurities so that the wash water can be tested for their presence, by simple qualitative methods; acids and alkalis are detected by the use of litmus, phenolphthalein, or other indicators; and the presence of salts by adding a few drops of the usual test solutions.
Components of Vacuum Filtration Apparatus
(i) Buchner Funnel: A round or conical funnel with a flat perforated plate at the bottom. Its purpose: to hold the filter paper and support the filtration process.
(ii) Material: Usually made of porcelain, glass, or plastic. Filter Paper: Placed inside the Buchner funnel. Purpose: Separates the solid particles from the liquid. Selection: The pore size of the paper should be chosen based on the particle size to be retained.
(iii) Filter Flask (Vacuum Flask): A thick-walled flask, usually with a side arm for attaching a vacuum source. Purpose: Collects the filtered liquid (filtrate) and maintains pressure for the vacuum.
(iv) Vacuum Pump (Standard Vacuum Filtration Pump, Anti-Corrosion Diaphragm Vacuum Pump): Purpose: Creates a vacuum by lowering the pressure inside the filter flask, speeding up the filtration process. Types: Mechanical pumps or water aspirators can be used depending on the setup.
(v) Rubber Stopper: Used to form a seal between the Buchner funnel and the filter flask. Purpose: Ensures that the vacuum is maintained without leakage.
(vi) Vacuum Tubing: Connects the side arm of the filter flask to the vacuum pump. Purpose: Transfers the vacuum pressure to the filter flask to create suction.
(vii) Steps Involved in Vacuum Filtration: Setup: Insert the filter paper into the Buchner funnel and moisten it with a small amount of the solvent to form a seal. Place the Buchner funnel on top of the filter flask, securing it with a rubber stopper. Filtration: Connect the side arm of the flask to the vacuum pump using vacuum tubing. Pour the fluid to be sifted into the Buchner funnel. Turn on the vacuum pump, which creates suction to pull the liquid through the filter paper.
(viii) Separation: Solids are retained on the filter paper, while the filtered liquid (filtrate) collects in the vacuum flask.
(ix) Completion: Once the filtration is complete, turn off the vacuum pump and release the vacuum before removing the funnel to avoid breaking the apparatus.
(x) Advantages of Vacuum Filtration. Speed: Faster than gravity filtration, especially for viscous solutions or when fine particles are involved. Efficiency: Gives a more exhaustive division of solids from liquids. Improved Drying: The vacuum helps remove moisture from the filtered solids, aiding drying. Common Applications: Chemical Reactions: Used to isolate precipitates after a reaction. Purification: Evacuating undesirable solids from a fluid mixture. Environmental Testing: Filtering particulates from air or water samples. A vacuum filtration apparatus is essential in laboratory devices, offering a quicker and more efficient method for separating solids and liquids.
Dryness
In large-scale factory procedure, after washings, the moist pulp color from the filter press is broken up and spread on open trays of screening or lath and either air-dried, steam-heated, or put through a mechanical drier, according to the nature of the pigment. It is then pulverized and packed into bags or barrels; so long as it is fine, smooth powder with no tendency to form hard cakes, it is universally considered bone dry for practical purposes and is within the range of tolerance for normal painting techniques. Some artists preserve their pigments in glass jars with ground glass stoppers in order to exclude atmospheric moisture but for all practical purposes the less expensive screw cap jars and friction top cans will serve just as well. In reasonably well-conditioned rooms, they may even be stored in paper bags. When absolute dryness is required for very special cases, the pigment must be desiccated by chemists' methods. A harmful or abnormally high moisture content would be apparent by a tendency of the pigment to form itself into firm cakes or lumps.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
Preamble [1]
'Melbourne Now' was an art exhibition mounted by the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) in 2014. It took as its premise the idea that a city is significantly shaped by the artists, designers, architects, choreographers, intellectuals, and community groups that lived and worked in the midsts of this multi-cultural city. The aim was to explore how Melbourne's visual artists and creative practitioners contributed to the dynamic cultural identity of this city. The result was an exhibition that celebrates what was unique about Melbourne's art, design, and architectural collectives.
The intention of the exhibition was to encourage and inspire everyone to discover some of the best of Melbourne's culture. To help achieve this, family-friendly activities, dance and music performances, inspiring talks from creative practitioner's, city walks and ephemeral installations and events made up the public program.
This and other posts in this series concentrate on the participating artists, rather than on other features of the exhibition event such as the family-friendly commissions developed especially for children and young audiences that was aimed to encourage participatory learning for children and their families in general.
For your convenience I have listed below other posts on this blogspot that features Melbourne Now exhibitions:
Melbourne Now - Part I
Melbourne Now - Part II
Melbourne Now - Part III
Melbourne Now - Part IV
Melbourne Now - Part V
Melbourne Now - Part VI
Melbourne Now - Part VII
Melbourne Now - Part VIII
Melbourne Now - Part IX
Melbourne Now - Part IX [1]
Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits is a collective comprised of artists Gavin Bell, Jarrah de Kuijer and Simon McGlinn. Formed in Melbourne in 2008, the group produces a variety of work through outsourcing and minimal interventions as a form of information management. Interested in the gathering speed and increase in communication, the collectives focus is on a culture created by the environment, characterized by immediacy, instinct and renewal. Greatest Hits have exhibited in various solo and group shows both internationally and locally, including Untitled, The Projects Melbourne, and FX, Center for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne.
In Untitled, 2012, Greatest Hits brings together two well-known tropes: the Japanese beckoning cat 'maneki-neko' and the representation of the black cat as an ill omen. The common associations of the icons - that of invting good and bad fortunes respectively - set the stage for a pseudo logical argument that attempts to rid itself of meaning. Taking its cue from the voiding effects of exposure to excessive information, the work engages with the language of surface culture, in which depth and focus is increasingly replaced by montage and movement.
Title and Year of Creation: Untitled (2012).
Helen Grogan, Shelly Lasica and Anne-Marie May
The collaborative practice of Helen Grogan, Shelly Lasica and Anne-Marie May brings choreography and movement into the gallery context, mediated by layers of projection, sound and objects. Sharing interests in process, collaboration and intermedial practices, the artists draw on credentials in varied art forms: Grogan studied philosophy, choreography and art curatorship and since 2003 has exhibited as an installation artist; Lasica is a choreographer and dancer whose work is characterized by cross-disciplinary collaborations and the presentation of dance in various spatial contexts; and May studied painting, her twenty-five-year practice concerned with the interplay between different materials and processes.
The installation 'INSIDE VIANNE AGAIN,' 2013, continues a collaborative project exploring the context of performance and its presentation. For Melbourne Now, dancers Deanne Butterworth, Timothy Harvey, Jo Llyod and Bonnie Paskas were recorded performing the work VIANNE, choreographed by Lasica, in the National Gallery of Victoria (Australia) space. This footage is projected back onto the space itself, including sculptural objects. Thus the work creates slippages between layers of representation, time, architecture and bodies - of both the performance and viewers who navigate the space.
Helen Grogan, Shelley Lasica, Anne-Marie May, INSIDE VIANNE AGAIN (2013).
Michelle Hamer
Michelle Hamer is an architect-turned-textile artist whose work interrogates the vernacular of Melbourne's civic landscape. Since 2005 Hamer has produced small-scale needlepoint tapestries that reference forms of text and signage in the urban environment. From road signs to graffiti to billboards and advertising, Hamer's interest is in language and meaning, and her tapestries are a kind of social cartography. Journeying around specific sites, Hamer first takes endless snapshots before sifting and sorting through them, formulating a visual hypothesis which she later executes in material form.
Hamer's contribution to Melbourne Now pairs works referencing local signage, such as 'Blame and punishment the individual' (2013). While the contrasting palettes and particular nuances of typography, built architecture and native vegetation point to specific times and places, when amplified and dislocated Hamer's chosen text suggest a more universal narrative of perplexity and turmoil. The artist describes these powerful distillations as 'revealing the small in-between moments that characterize everday life.'
Michelle Hamer, Can't (2013).
Treahna Hamm
Melbourne-born Treahna Hamm was disconnected from her Yorta Yorta family in early infancy, but grew up in her ancestral lands Dhungala (the Murray River), upstream from Echuca. In 2001 Hamm return to Barmah in order to trace her living connection to this Country. She participated in a coil-weaving workshop led by Yvonne Koolmatrie and embarked on didjirri (deep listening) in communication with female elders. Hamm's subsequest woven fiber and sculptural work has issued from a resolve to re-claim the cultural stories, objects, designs and philsophy previously hidden from her.
Hamm's work for Melbourne Now is a zinc breastplate that subverts and transforms objects of disquieting and ambivalent status made by British colonisers as a way of labelling, rewarding and pacifying their colonised subjects. This deep crescent-shaped object references metal breastplates, such as that of "king Billy' (William Barak), which belonged to Hamm's Indigeneous family. The intricate curvilinear motifs incised in the breastplate expresses her peoples resilient culture and indelible connection to Dhungala Country, which the tide of history cannot wash away.
Treahna Hamm, Cummeragunjah, Breast Plate 2 (2005).
Courtesy: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Brent Harris
Brent Harris was born in New Zealand and has lived and worked in Melbourne (Australia) since 1981. A painter who also workes extensively in the prints and drawings media, Harris is well known for his explorations of human subjectivity in images that hover between figuration and abstraction. His work has undergone several radical shifts over the course of his career, and an important new direction was signalled by the group of monotypes begun in 2012. Intimate and experimental, these brooding nocturnal scenes evoke a fantastic nether world of supernatural creatures and aging figures inspired by the artist's reflection upon the psychology of death.
Since Edgar Degas' time, the monotype has been prized by artists as a medium particularly suited to improvisation. In "The Fall" (2012), included in Melbourne Now, Harris has exploited this to the full, intuitively reworking and resolving his imagery on the plates before printing them. The enigmatic imagery in Harris monotypes - tumbling figures, ghoulish heads, skulls, inky skies and dark, mysterious bodies of water - speaks to our deepest fears concerning mortality and the absurdity of the human condition.
The Fall (no. 9), 2012.
Courtesy: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Reference:
[1] T. Ellwood, Director, National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia).
Glass slab is a substance, or sheet made of a glass material having three dimensions: that is length, breadth, and height. It is cuboidal shaped. It does not deviate, nor does it disperse the light rays passing through it. This means that the incident and the emergent ray emerging from the glass slab are parallel. The glass slab only produces a lateral or (sideways) shift or displacement to the direction of light.
As the light enters a film, we want to prevent it from reaching the substrate and exiting; the pigments do this by interacting with the light. When light interacts with a particle, there are five possible outcomes, namely: refraction, diffraction, absorption, reflection, or no change. All of these are considered scattering, except for the ‘no change’ situation. Refraction is when the light path is changed as it passes through the boundary of the particle and surrounding media. Diffraction is when the light is bent by interacting with the edge of the particle. Absorption is when the energy of the incident light is attenuated by the particle, but not necessarily by all frequencies equally. Reflection is when the light that hits the film returns to the source. We want to maximize scattering and minimize ‘no change’ to optimize hiding and color.
Light reflected from shattered glass.
Dry Alumina Hydrate.
The above section is a thin application of paint, whereas the section below is a thick application of the same paint. Note the difference in opaqueness.
