Challenges of staining colours

Ever notice that some paints are more difficult to lift or leave stains on your plastic palette.  Once applied on paper, these colours will sink quickly into the fibers of the paper making it difficult to “lift” or remove.

Some colours such as phthalo blue or dioxazine violet stain quite heavily.  No amount of sizing can change the fact that the paint is difficult to lift.  Apparently many of the staining pigments are synthetic organic or inorganic pigments.  It appears that recent manufacturing methods produce pigments that are more staining and less transparent.

It might take some time to learn which colors are staining. To speed up the process you can easily test them by painting squares of color on paper  and allowing them to dry completely.  Then run the paper under water and use a clean brush to gently scrub the paint swatches and rinse off the paint. Any colors that sit on the surface of the paper will come off, but those that sink into the fiber of the paper will leave a stain.

The easiest way to identify a staining colour is to read the labels on paint tubes.

Today's artist find is Dan San Souci

Have a great week,
Danielle

Inventory of your paintings

If you've been painting for a couple of years, it's likely that you have a few paintings around the house or studio. As a result, you have probably said to yourself  that it’s time to make a list of your paintings for a number of reasons including  making sure that the works are adequately insured and know what has sold for how much. Keeping an inventory of your paintings could appear to be a daunting experience and you might have been procrastinating about it.

In reality, preparing an inventory of your art is not that hard to do, as long as you understand it takes time and as long as you have a system.

So where do you start? Here are some of the information you should keep

• title;
• date of creation;
• measurements;
• sale status;
• client name if painting has sold;
• exhibits where painting has been exposed; and
• small image.

Some people suggest numbering all of your paintings.

All of the above can be easily stored in an Excel spreadsheet for tracking purposes. There are also online service for inventory of your art.

In addition, some artists have labels to the back of their paintings to provide some of the information you are looking for.

This week's artist find in Matthew Bird:

Have a great week

Danielle