Monday list thread

[swag]

eat a banana and an orange
mail bill payments
feel smug, i.e., self-satisfied
handle all quarter-end problems
handle all returning spring-break people problems (show people proper button to push)
em to recs to hold off on pf
int, mats
ratings
get a fucking walk in at lunch if the fucking weather permits
complete remaining validations
drink green tea
clothes shopping
throw out (or recycle) 20 pounds of shit

[FuzzySlippers]

1. Is this the same 20 pounds of shit

you keep meaning to throw out, or do you have 20 pounds of shit to throw out every day?

[swag]

2. I have a lag.

I think I have about 250 pounds of shit to throw out right now, but I tend to only discard about 1 pound of it each day while receiving 3 pounds of it per day.

[Heidi]

3. It's 5:34 a.m. Monday,

and here's the list.

- Coffee
- Take roast beef for Ginger out of the freezer to thaw
- Iron 13 Tibetan prayer flags (4 10 x 10, 4 20 x 20, 5 30 x 30 cm)
- Order clear gesso and 10 x 10, 400g2 watercolor paper (Boesner)
- Hike to wild asparagus, check status
- Happy birthday call to Heinz
- Find plastic dropcloth
- Prime 160 x 100 cm
- Finishing cutting down black/raspberries :cry:

[swag]

4. For what are you priming that big canvas?

[Heidi]

5. To paint on!

I don't like painting on the weave on a canvas that big; more of an eggshell finish is nicer. And (woohoo) my mother-in-law is going away for a couple of days, and told me I could use her studio while she's gone. :bounce:

[swag]

6. See,

this is why I should ask more questions. I never paint on an unprimed canvas. And I suppose I should give it a try some time.

What do you use to prime a canvas for an eggshell finish?

I just prime canvases using a very opaque white mixed with a bit of raw umber and extended with venice turpentine and pale drying oil.

I like it when painters talk to one another because when I tell painters something like this, how I prime a canvas for an oil painting, they invariably look at me like I'm fucking crazy, then go on to tell me how they do it, which invariably sounds insane to me. I wonder if any two people prime a canvas the same way. I'm beginning to doubt it. The doubt brings me pleasure.

[Heidi]

7. This canvas

is pre-primed with white gesso, and it's a very good quality canvas, but it's not smooth enough to suit me. I normally would make a painting of this kind of cradled MDF, but the big canvas was a birthday gift (from the same people who gave me the 4 x 4 cm canvas), so I have and I'm gonna use it.

Many painters, particularly portrait artists, warn against painting on canvas that isn't primed with real gesso due to archival concerns. But I paint all the time on grounds prime with acrylic gesso; when I'm gonna paint on MDF or real wood, I prime it myself, sanding lightly with 220-grade sandpaper between fully-dried coats. I've never had any problem with delamination and my work has hung in some pretty harsh conditions.

My view is, "Whatever works for you." For me, it's important that the painting surface have a certain "feel" to it, and that's why I prime the way I prime, despite the extra work involved. The difference in the way you do it and the way I do is primarily an archival concern, and if you don't care whether your work lasts 150 years, and you're comfortable with the way you're working, what business is it of anyone else's? :shrug:

Do you use turpentine regularly? I love the smell of it, but Ginger and Call Me Wesley hate it, so I use Sansodor (odorless mineral spirits).

[swag]

8. I use mineral spirits for cleaning brushes, knives, and palates.

I use standard turpentine with a rag for dealing with "trickling" and other build-up problems on a canvas, when I haven't calibrated my oil content correctly and pools build up on a canvas. I never use turpentine as a medium. I don't use it much, truth be told.

Venice turpentine I use as a medium, binding layers of glaze to one another, extending and enriching pigment, and acting as a drying agent. It yellows very little over hundreds of years. It's a derivative of larch sap. Very thick.

I varnish with damar when a painting has had a couple of years to oxidize. I never use damar as a medium.

I like the sick smells that waft up from my canvases. All the same, I don't put my hands near my face when I'm painting with oils. Too many nasty fucking chemicals involved.

But I love the sick smells.

[Heidi]

9. I think you glaze a lot more than I do.

I love the effect of glazing, but it's sooooooo time consuming, and I'm an impatient painter. :blush:

Do you know the work of Bouguereau? He did some beautiful work with glazes: http://www.artrenewal.org/museum/b/Bouguereau_William/mark_walker4.asp

[swag]

10. Thanks.

Did not know Bouguereau. Luminous.

What a good link.

[SeattleGirl]

11. My list:

Work until noon.
Got to the Mariners' 2:05 Opening Day game.
Goof off the rest of the day.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[swag]

14. I hope you have good weather.

The Mariners exhibition against the Portland Beavers (I did not name the team) Friday night was played in a monsoon.

Oh, but you don't care, do you? You have that roof that closes.

Have fun.

[Shine]

12. Yet another day....

fix the kids breakfast and get them off to school
10 loads of laundry
pay bills and property taxes
balance checkbook
write bd thank you notes and mail
stretch, yoga, exercise
pick up kids from school
fix dinner

:hi: swag!

[swag]

15. Hi, Shine.

What does the waving smiley mean to you?

[Shine]

16. It means: "Hi there, friend!"

:hi:

:)

[LSK]

13. ok

go to work
be bored for 9 hours
come home

[eyesroll]

17. Stay awake until 2 (Sunday daylight savings insomina)

Wake up at 3
Fall back asleep at 4
Wake up at 5 to the three-year-old calling me "Mama Dinosaur:
Fall back asleep at 5:42
Wake up at 6 to the alarm
Go home (yes, I do the Monday morning "walk of shame" for another week)
Shower
Feed birds
Drive to work
Eat some oatmeal
Meeting with boss
Work
Go to grocery store at lunch and get ingredients for chopped salad
More work
Go home
Load of laundry in "old place" washer
Take a carload to the new place
Go home
Make salad
Dinner
Do another run to the new place if not falling over dead
Fall over dead