Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve Spring 2025 Artist in Residence Program

“Panacea” Oil on Panel, 10 x 8” 2025, Sold

I currently have a solo show up at Wild Basin Creative Research Center in Austin TX. This is my first residency program and I am so happy with the work that came out of it. It was a very special experience to get to visit the wilderness preserve once a week to create work, draw plants, listen to birds and hike for three whole months while spring popped off! My solo show is on view from June 1st – June 29th.

I made a variety of works for this show – I wanted it to feel like a visual lesson plan in learning to deepen one’s observational skills. This is why it’s called “A Spring in Stillness; Observations of Narrowing Focus”

“Engelmann’s Sage” Oil on Panel, 5 x 7”, 2025 $140

I chose to start the residency with wider view landscapes in oils and experimented with sketching on the trails as well with Crayola Crayons. Perfect for hiking so long as you don’t leave them directly in the heat of the sun, as I discovered. Then I moved on to wood panel pieces, narrowing my focus to the plants and birds I observed on the trails.

“Tributary”, Crayola Crayon on Paper, 9 x 12” 2025, Sold

“Possom Trail”, Crayola Crayon on Paper 9 x 12”, 2025 $200

Getting into crayon sketching on the trails was WONDERFUL. It is a little tricky and requires some planning for optical color mixing via layers, but I adore crayon sketching. I’ve made some master copies of oil paintings I love with Crayola Crayons over the years, I am especially fond of copying self portraits. I enjoy the challenge and having to plan how to translate oils into crayon. Interestingly, crayons were originally marketed to both school children and professional artists for outdoor sketching. I got to present a workshop on the technique to a group of adults and it was a fantastic time, and very well received.

This overall was an incredible experience and I loved doing it. I am so grateful I was selected for the program and I will be looking out for future residency programs!

You can view the exhibit at Wild Basin Creative Research Center M-F 8-3pm, Friday June 20th 6-8pm and a closing reception will take place Sunday June 29th 3-5pm.

Chelsea Florist/Shop Cat progress photos

It’s August of 2024! I wanted a place to put my progress photos from Chelsea Florist/ Shop Cat and get those off my regular website, since it’s no longer my “current work in progress” piece. It’s fun to keep that up to date, if I can manage it. So here’s the progression of the Shop Cat painting. 😀

This painting with other things going on, took me almost a year from start to finish. I am very happy with the direction it went and the discoveries I made while creating it. It’s 36 x 48” and sold.

The finished painting! ❤

Artists CV, Linda Wandt

(Please excuse my website at http://www.lindawandt.com, I am currently rebuilding a new website from scratch for 2022.)

Visual artist with nearly twenty years of experience creating and showing work since obtaining a B.A. in studio art in 2006, with experience lecturing on oil painting materials and substrates and teaching private and group lessons. My current studio is located at Canopy, located at 916 Springdale Rd, Studio119.

Education

• 2019 – Atelier Dojo, Austin TX, workshop with Felicia Forte
• 2019 – Atelier Dojo, Austin TX, Figure Painting with Karen Offutt
• 2018 – Atelier Dojo, Austin TX, Figure Drawing Classes with Danny Grant & Sam Woodfin
• 2016 – Coppini Academy of Fine Art, San Antonio TX- workshop with David Kassen
• 2016 – Intermediate Figure Painting Class with Jennifer Balkin, Austin TX
• 2006 – University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Art, Oil Painting

Select Exhibitions

2021

The Dougherty Art Center, The Art of Peace, Group Show, Austin TX

The Austin Studio Tour, East, at Canopy Art Complex, Austin TX

2020

A Generous Kingdom IV, Verum Ultimum/Gila Gallery Virtual Group Show, Portland OR

Georgetown Art Center, Ingrained, Group Show, Georgetown TX

2019

Leona Gallery Group Show, Austin TX

East Austin Studio Tour, Moon Gallery and Studio, Austin TX

Link & Pin Gallery, Go Figure, Group Show, Austin TX

West Austin Studio Tour at Neill-Cochran House Museum – Coordinator of 14 artist group show

The People’s Gallery, Austin City Hall, Juried Exhibition

2018

Cherrywood Art Fair, Austin TX, Juried Show

East Austin Studio Tour, The Satellite, Austin TX

West Austin Studio Tour, Neill-Cochran House Group Exhibit by invitation                       

M2 Gallery, ATX2LR, Group show, Little Rock, AK, by invitation

Art City Austin, Palmer Events Center, Juried Show

2017

Cherrywood Art Fair, Austin TX, Juried Show

East Austin Studio Tour, Pump Project, Austin TX

Georgetown Art Hop, TX Statewide Juried Show, Georgetown TX

Art City Austin, Palmer Events Center, Austin TX, won Jurors Choice Award

The Female Form, Neofauve Gallery, Group show, Austin TX

2016 

East Austin Studio Tour, Pump Project, Austin TX

Raising Artists via Generous Art during West Austin Studio Tour, Austin, TX

Sunset Valley ArtFest, Juried Fair, Sunset Valley TX

Midtown Art in the Park, Juried Fair, Houston TX

2015

Georgetown Art Hop, Tx Statewide Juried Show

The Austonion, Austin TX

Austin Visual Artists Association, Austin Art Space, Group Show

Gallery 702, Group Show, Austin TX

2012

Co-Lab, Teenage Wasteland Group Show, Austin TX

2011

Through the Looking Glass Gallery, Georgetown TX

2010

East Austin Art Gallery, Group show, Austin TX

Awards

2020 – Portrait Society of America – Tuition Scholarship to Virtual Conference

2019 – Capacity Building Grant from City of Austin

2017 – Art City Austin, Juror’s Choice Award

Professional Experience

• Artus Co Show Organizer and store manager for holiday show in 2020
• Juror/Adjudicator- ISAS Arts Festival 2019, For grades 9-12. One day Juror role.
• Frame Shop Manager, Artworks Westlake 07/2018 – 09/2019
• Art Installer and Gallery Assistant, Artworks on W 6^th–  04/2017 – 07/2018
• Materials Lecturer and Private Art Lessons 2010 – 2021
  • The Austin Palette Club, Senior Activity Center in Austin, Austin Arts Marketing Meetup Group, Bacca Center Art Club in Round Rock, Demo lecturer at Jerry’s Artarama in addition to many private students in painting and drawing
• Studio Assistant to Court Lurie 04 -07/ 2017 – Part-time studio assistant to abstract acrylic painter in her studio. She left for a residency.
• Studio Assistant to Bill Kolb 2014-2017 – Part-time studio assistant to abstract acrylic painter in his studio.

Publications and Media

• Art Profiler May 2019 Feature Artist with Video Interview https://artprofiler.com/may-artist-linda-wandt/

• Voyage Dallas “Art & Life with Linda Wandt” November 2018 issue http://voyagedallas.com/interview/art-life-linda-wandt/

• Almost Real Things, September 2018 Issue “Top 10 to Watch” https://almostrealthings.com/2018/09/06/top-10-artists-to-watch-september-2018/

• Ekletikos with John Aielli 98.9 KUTX, April 9th 2018 for Art City Austin

• Art of Austin July 2017 Feature http://artofaustin.com/linda-wandt/

• Studio Visit Magazine, Vol 33 July 2016

• Brian Paul Scipione, “The Path of the Aspiring Artist”, Nu Magazine, Issue #4, April 2008, www.krossmedia.net/wandt.pdf

Web Resources

Blog – www.technicaloilpaint.wordpress.com

www.lindawandt.com

www.instagram.com/linda.wandt.art

www.Facebook.com/LindaWandtArt

Statement for the Ingrained Series

The Ingrained series is a newer body of work of clear coated wood panel paintings depicting various pollinators paired with succulents and carnivorous plants. These paintings originated from a group show with Alicia Philley, Caroline Walker and Thomas Cook at The Georgetown Art Center in 2020, which featured works embracing wood grain. This show challenged me to expand my series of small 8 x 8’’ honeybee paintings into larger and more complex works, and I look forward to continuing to expand this series into even more complex compositions in the future.

 I am interested in exploring and sometimes altering these natural forms so they fit together like puzzle pieces, while maintaining a sense of reflection through symmetry. Aesthetically, ink blot symmetry is satisfying the part of my process that enjoys delving into the subconscious, and that fascination has led to the structure of these pieces. The various pollinators explored, such as hummingbirds, a moth and a bat, allow for a sense of variety while focusing on the growth and birth side of the life cycle. The carnivorous plants, on the flip side, allow discovery and contemplation of the decay side of growth, as these highly evolved systems are plants that digest their prey, evolved to succeed in nutrient-poor environments. The two sides of the cycle reflected upon the background of wood grain deepens the meditation with the added layer of visible growth rings, the striations of the substrate itself being a part of the cycle.

The pollinators are depicted larger than life to allow the viewer to contemplate the beauty of their forms in relative safety to the predators they are shown with. Instead of creating an atmosphere of threat, I wanted to keep the paintings focused on the detail of forms, of how they fit together in my imagination to create pleasing images, and to allow the viewer a sense of calm to marvel at the intricacies of nature and evolution. The mirror element of these pieces, which I see as meditations, allow me to reflect on the IN (the pollinators, growth part of the cycle) and the OUT (carnivorous plants, decay side of cycle), as the breath cycle is a pleasing metaphor that has grown along with my contemplation through creating this series.

To continue expanding and growing this series, I intend to use larger panels for more space to create more complex compositions also incorporating succulents and vines into future pieces.  These paintings are titled after the Genus of either the pollinator or the plant for educational exposure and because I find the Latin names to be rather poetic in modern times. I try to keep them somewhat simple, but in the case of Capensis Euphoria, the title is a combination of both the sundews and beetle pictured. Below is the newest piece,”Osima”, The Blue Mason Bee, with a hybrid Butterwort that does not exist – the plant shown is immature, the pinks fade as it grows and it looks very different by the time a single flower is produced from the center.

See the other works here.

Osmia, Oil on Panel, 2022, 24 x 18” Getting some varnish. Sold.

Euphoria Mural for private home, Acrylic and Latex Paint on Wood Fence, 6 x 10.5′, 2021

Ingrained at The Georgetown Art Center

Sitting down and figuring out an entire series before making the first piece is not a challenge I have ever risen to before this show. I have the other artists of Ingrained, a group show I was invited to participate in, to thank for this experience of truly enhancing how I create. This show is scheduled to open July 24th at The Georgetown Art Center in Georgetown, TX. The other artists are Alicia Philley, Aimeé Everett, Caroline Walker and Thomas Cook. We all have very different styles and topics but we all work on wood panels for this show, allowing the grain of the wood to play a role in our imagery or message. Check out our IG @Ingrained_ATX to see everyone’s work. We are working toward a website too, here.  Due to the pandemic, we are exploring virtual options for an “opening” or at least getting some great video and stills of the show. It will never replace seeing an art work in person, and we are hoping we can do some by appointment viewings as well.

On to the process for this series. As of this writing, I am about to begin the last two panels. I was invited to participate in this show because of my honey bee series from 2014-2016 (which I just made one at a time, as i felt like it around other projects.).

Bee IV (Leon) 8 x 8” 2015 Oil on Panel by Linda Wandt

Theses panel paintings were all 8 x 8” with a very rare 12 x 12”, little pieces that I could basically hold over my lap and in my face as I worked on painting each little hair with a tiny round sable brush. They took 6 or so layers to complete and the detail involved was really satisfying to me, painting one of these was a very trance like, zen experience of hyper focus and mainly paying attention to how much oil was in my paint. So my fellow artists asked if I wanted to work with them on a show where I could make this type of painting, but BIGGER. I said HECK YES. Bigger, more complex and pushing myself to explore new things? Into it.

The bees come from a painting that also had venus fly traps in it. I took this theme up again, but wanted to explore other pollinators and other carnivorous plants – there are some truly amazing, curious evolutions of these plants. While representing something not fully understood and delicate, they also, to me, represent how short and brutal existence can be. Watching video of a critter falling into a pitcher plant is definitely distressing. It’s the cycle of life, but it’s hard to watch and makes me very grateful to be so high on the food chain. I am fascinated by them, and in awe. I wanted to explore mirrored compositions that touch on art deco designs, with lots of leaves, but simplified due to time constraints. Well into this series, I realized an aspect of the inspiration for their look is the opening credit sequence for a Netflix show called ‘Dark’. Inspiration comes from every where,  it sneaks in and sits, waiting, even if I don’t even realize it til way into the game.

First, I had to explore the materials and see how it would go scaling up from 8 x 8” to the 30 x 30” I wanted to work with. I’d have gone larger if my studio space and time had allowed it. I did some small experiments and painted one pitcher plant two times – one as direct color, and one with a grey scale underpainting to compare the finished results. I decided to do the majority of the work with the grisaille – grey underpainting with glazed color on top. I sat down and did so many thumbnail sketches. It was not as painful as I had been expecting it to be. I worked out most of the details of what pollinators I wanted to focus on and what carnivorous plant I wanted to pair them with and played with the compositions – some fell into place perfectly, others took a much longer time to get right. The moth one that I am about to start was the most difficult when moving to the full sized sketch. I tried several different things before realizing I should stick with my instincts in the thumbnail.

Here’s the progression in detail; thumbnail to hours of research and prep sketching to learn forms, how the creature/plant occupies space and has volume, to full size sketch. Panel clear coat prep, then transfer of original sketch via tracing paper that’s flipped back around, so both sides are used. First layer grey scale, allow to dry. Second layer greyscale, allow to dry. Finally, color glazing that happens in layers as well. VIOLA! 😀

Bombus – genus of Bumble Bees

 

Is the moth one my favorite so far?

 

Layer one moving into layer two

This experience has truly enriched my scope and I’m excited to work this way in the future. (P.S. Sorry about my awful photography! Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions!) See the rest of my Ingrained series, finished up HERE! There’s 8 in all. 

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Bombus, 30 x 30” Oil on Panel & Capensis Euphoria, 30 x 30” Oil on Panel

Varnish and OMS, and why I dislike dammar

I recently posted a video of pouring varnish out onto a painting on IG and I used the hash tags #gamvar and #varnishporn. Varnish day is the best! You get to watch the dried and often dulled colors refresh and pop back to life, as pigmented as the day you applied the color. Umbers especially dull out, as it absorbs the oil faster then some other pigments. Varnishing for me, holds a similar kind of magic that working in a dark room produces – the same joy of experience of watching a latent image appear on the paper. This naturally lead me down the rabbit hole of watching varnish application after varnish application from painters all around the world. I watched an entire slew of videos and what I saw inspired me to write this post.

I’m not trying to be a commercial for Gamvar but after trying multiple products, it’s the one I like the most. It doesn’t reek, so it doesn’t get me high, it doesn’t have dammar in it, and it’s therefore removable with OMS (odorless mineral spirits, a petroleum distillate*) instead of actual turpentine (a product of pine trees, like it’s dammar counterpart, from Asian Dipterocarpaceae trees). Dammar replaced mastic as the the favored varnish in the 19th century, or perhaps in the 20th century thanks to an artist suppliers marketing. I don’t feel it is the most appropriate varnish now that newer ones have been synthesized. I was informed to use damar back in college, and to mix mediums from it as well, only in 2006, but now I refuse to touch the stuff.

Dammar is a pale yellow resin, obtained from trees. As a genuine resin, in accordance with its properties, it will yellow with age, and real turpentine is the stuff strong enough to dissolve it. It’s functioned fine for a very long time as a varnish for artists paintings, but is why after a long period of time, paintings need to be stripped of the blackened varnish, then cleaned and the varnish replaced. My problem with this, despite not having 50 years of information about products like Gamvar, is that we know factually that dammar gum yellows and that the harsher solvent of turpentine is needed to remove it at all.

I use OMS in my studio and am sensitive to turpentine. Recalling my experiences working in darkrooms with photography chemicals, I knew the day in the darkroom was over after about 6 hours, because my gums would start to go numb from exposure. Turpentine produces the same effect, a tingling in my gums, after about 5 minutes of exposure. I’m not overly concerned with studio safety, to be honest. I think most people do not understand the materials, and think they are much more dangerous then they really are. ** Although I paint without gloves and use paints that contain heavy metals and lead, I put my foot down when it comes to turpentine. I don’t want to use it or be around it.

I support varnishing any oil painting. It evens out the sheen, and protects it from say, an exploding can of spray paint nearby. It’s how I learned to always varnish, occurring in the home of the first painting I ever sold. The painting was ruined, and they were too horrified to tell me about it for a really long time. Here’s some thoughts on why to varnish, straight from a treasure trove of technical information, Gamblin.

I don’t work for them. I just like what they do enough to use a brand name, it’s possibly the only time I will ever do so on this blog, and specifically for varnish. Dammar based varnishes tend to bubble and I can’t stand being forced to brush bubbles out, my face right in those nasty fumes! So, what about those videos I watched inspired this lengthy post of technically inclined ranting, you may wonder? People using synthetic brushes, people pouring waaayyy too much varnish, and people using a product against the manufacturer’s instruction. I’ve also had several painters question my love for the product because they had, or heard of someone else, have an experience with “beading up”. Everything you need to know is out there! Varnish should not be a thick layer, and natural bristles will brush it down to a thinner layer then a synthetic brush. Really, the goal is to scrub a thin layer down. The longer you brush it, the less shiny it will be, and you have a whole 15 minute window before it starts to tack! What’s not to love??

I use the gloss varnish because I want my colors to remain. I don’t wish to matte them down with wax in the varnish. At first I fell for the intrigue of less shine, sure, I think most of us do when we start out. Wax is the substance that brings down the shine, it cuts down on light reflected from the surface. Why would I want to matte down my colors, put wax between the eye and the paint? What’s not to love about the slick allure of wet seeming oil paint?

Finally, also, allow me to please beg you to not varnish your paintings with alkyd resin, an alarming trend that’s happening right now. By definition, a varnish is a removable layer. Products like liquin and galkyd (okay, this is the second and last time I drop names) are not appropriate final coats. Both manufactures state the products are not for such use. They are fine to oil out with if you are putting more paint down, but a final coat needs to be removable in case, you know, spray paint happens. Or fire/smoke damage, or any number of things.

*OMS is a safer option then turpentine, but not it is not SAFE it is SAFER. Just because you can’t smell the fumes as strongly does not mean they are not there – you should expose yourself to as little as possible, meaning use a smaller container, close it when you don’t need it, (say during breaks) and work in a ventilated space, or at least a space with air flow. The fumes from OMS might not be as damaging as turpentine, which shrinks your internal organs over years, but don’t think it’s “good” for you either. And for goodness sake, please NEVER EVER dump OMS down the drain. That goes into our drinking water and environment. To properly dispose of it, you let it evaporate slowly while using it. When using OMS, you have two jars. Once the jar you use while working is really dirty, you pour it into a second jar and let it sit until the paint sediment settles into the bottom. You’ll be left with clean OMS on top. Pour that back into the jar you use while working. Repeat, and you’ll never have to technically dispose of it. Should you ever need to dispose of it, take it to your municipals hazardous household materials disposal site.

** I hear a lot of other painters worry about their paints being “toxic”. Oils are not toxic, it’s a really overused word! When working with OMS, cadmium, lead or cobalt, cover any open cuts on your hands or wear gloves if you have open wounds. If your skin is fine and unbroken, it’s not a big deal if the paint or some OMS sits on your skin for a bit. Be sure to wash your hands at regular intervals, don’t ingest the paint while smoking or eating, and you’ll be just fine. If you have small children or pets in your studio, then perhaps it’s best to not use them, but it’s also not needed to stare at me like I have two heads just because I love lead based white paint. It makes for the most lovely, not chalky, skin tones, and dries faster then titanium white when working in layers. I’m not eating it, it’s all fine!

Please, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or stories to share, or if you want to chat about any of these topics!

Master Copies with Crayola Crayon

It’s been 4 years since I’ve completed one, but the Crayola bug has bit me once again! I recently was fortunate enough to be able to make it over to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston to see the van Gogh exhibit there – it was wonderful, and really, really packed for a Tuesday. I shudder to think what it was like to visit it on a weekend. There were several pieces I’d never seen before and some sketches as well. Seeing these paintings in person is sort of like hitting a ‘reset’ button for me. The daily monotony of working and then painting is pretty tiring sometimes, and seeing others’ art refreshes the well! It’s ecstasy to drink in these pieces in person! The MFAH has an incredible permanent collection as well, and it’s always a treat to visit with some of my favorite paintings in that collection. Last time I was there I was taken in by Georges Daniel de Monfreid’s self portrait, and it was so lovely to be able to visit it again. Another piece that captured me on this visit was František Kupka’s “The Yellow Scale”.

The Yellow Scale, František Kupka, 1905

The first is my photo at the museum. In the second, sadly, much of the pinks are washed out.

Sometimes you see a piece of art that simply floors you, that sucks the air right out of your lungs and everything else in the room ceases to exist. You make a beeline for it, as if magnetized. This painting did that to me. Kupka eventually went on to make abstracts, and this self portrait makes me a little sad about that, even though it makes sense as he was primarily interested in color theory. This study of yellow is a commanding portrait. An artist friend of mine said “The sheer arrogance of it almost knocks you over.” It’s well said. You can’t help but to wonder as to what this artist was like in person and what he was thinking as he posed for himself for this piece. It strikes at the heart of what is so compelling about self portraiture – how intimate the self portrait is. While I believe that in its way, every piece of art made is a self portrait of the artist, literal self portraits are brazen and boldly open, honest and revealing. They are exciting and fearless, as personal and daring as an artist can get. To make one and then to share it, to remain in the world past your years as a picture on a wall for countless strangers to connect with you is a compelling act. This painting in particular, with Kupka presenting himself in his robe, holding out his cigarette, staring at you as if to dare you to look at him – this is pure gold, pure connection, an intimate stare into the human condition. He challenges you to accept or deny him, to really see him if you are willing to look. This is why when I copy master paintings, an invaluable tool for learning from those before you, I prefer them to be self portraits. I prefer to spend time with the artist, this allows me to converse with them in a more personal manner, going deeper then their composition, color choices and brushstrokes.

Georges Daniel de Monfreid “Self Portrait” 1905 and Henri Mattise “Self Portrait in a Striped T-Shirt” 1906 (See my earlier post “Painting at the start of the 20th Century” for more on that topic.)

My choice to do the majority of my master copies with crayon is also a deeply personal choice. It’s a challenging medium, an unforgiving medium. It’s hard on my hands, too. Every single one I have done harbors mistakes that can not be covered or hidden from view. They do not aim to create a copy that is indistinguishable – they celebrate their mistakes and differences. I enjoy the challenge of translating the medium, even when thick impasto brushwork must be sacrificed. Color correctness must also be sacrificed, the range of crayola colors is limited and requires extra thought into layering to achieve something that’s sort of similar. I could buy a wide range of fancy, adult artist crayons, ones with more pigment and colors with familiar names, but there is something soothing and reminiscent of the pureness of drawing as a child that I enjoy, the olfaction is a large part of it. The act of drawing with crayons keeps alive that sheer joy of just sitting and exploring with waxy color. Applying the drawing skills I have as an adult to the medium of early childhood is something deeply satisfying, it feels like coming full circle as a celebration.

My aim, over time, is to complete a series of 20 self portrait master copy drawings. On my list for the next drawings are Ludwig Meidner (second attempt), Gwen John, van Gogh (of course), and if I’m feeling extra fancy, Kahlo and Lucien Freud.

My Sister Subconscious

My Sister Subconscious, 2019, 24 x 36 in

 

A philosophical topic that used to really capture my interest was the mind/body question. What bridges the gap between who we are and the physical transport we are housed in? What spark makes me ME, what binds soul to body? Over the last decade, I’ve slowly come to think that it may simply be explained by the electrical impulses and transfers of neurons, I find ontological queries much more captivating with an agnostic eye. I find the incredible world we live in to be full of natural wonders and mysteries in their own right, I find awe in that which we can see and in the prospect of what we have yet to learn.

Now that we are in the right frame of mind, this painting, My Sister Subconscious, has been maturing since 2010. This is the 5th iteration of the image and there will be one more before I am done with it.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The original, My Sister Subconscious, 2010 and two studies from 2017, attempts to transform the figure with realism and a choice to move towards moon vines in place of the geometric shapes that hide that magical, mysterious place where the conscious and the subconscious meet in a shadowed hallway of the mind. The night blooming flower, Ipomoea alba, while not technically a Datura, still of the Solanales Order, can easily be used, leaving the possibility for symbolic amalgamation. Conjuring the Datura is desired, but I could not resist the night blooming aspect of the Tropical White Morning Glory.

Our subconscious protects us. It functions to store memories and to filter out expansive experiences and information that allows the conscious mind to find presence, to get on with the business of living daily life. The amount of information (correctly stored or not, but for the sake of brevity…) kept there and how our conscious mind taps in to it or doesn’t – that is something that I find endlessly fascinating. What do we hide from ourselves? Is anything better left unexplored? How can we access it when we have the desire? I firmly believe living a life of introspection, which creatives must, and all people could, means exploring the hidden recesses within us. It means going to the hidden places, understanding our processes, revealing the cogs that churn into each other – the subconscious and consciousness, symbolized also as the seeing eyes peering out from behind the glazed over conscious mind. When we don’t look below the surface, when we live without examination and curiosity, the conscious mind gets away with a lot of bad behavior. Compassion is born of connection, of humility and of understanding we are mere repeating patterns in nature. It’s the kind of work that is never finished, human condition and all.

I may return to the conscious mind’s eye being totally blind in the final version as it is in the studies. In the 2019 version, I wanted to experiment with the figure being more accessible, more whole, then the original concept of a mysterious nocturnal creature with a split face. This removes the bud hiding the point of connection, however, removes exploring a pin point in philosophical and physical space that I will probably never stop fully questioning.

“Visual Reality” – A nod to Magritte

I just finished a piece that I’m very excited about, and as a fellow (and much admired) painter put it – Making an Art Joke. It is an art joke, and also dropping a big heavy anvil clue as to one of the artists I’ve drawn a great deal of inspiration from over the years. So much so, it crept into my psyche to the point where I wasn’t even thinking about it consciously as this piece progressed, up until it was a chuckle over how obvious it was. That is why I decided to just chuckle to myself, have fun painting, and stick a floating rock in the background. The rock is from Rene Magritte’s “La Bataille de l’Argonne” (The Battle of Argonne), and I relished in getting to have something of a conversation with him during this “master copy” inserted into my own work.

This idea for this piece was born in a PetSmart. I was browsing languidly to buy a food bowl, and stopped to look at the beautiful tiny birds for sale, and was struck by their gorgeous coloring and stripes. I took a bunch of photos deciding to paint one of them. I’d been thinking about making a painting exploring and weighing the concepts of Free Will vs The Law of Causality. This is a topic that has haunted me since college philosophy classes, which spun me around and pulled me in two directions at once while I struggled to blend the two ideas into something I could live with. As I age, I keep leaning more and more into Causality being the responsible party for our lunch choices and more, tugging at the strings of our hearts with a cold firm grip. But let’s keep it light, shall we?

Originally, I decided the live bird would represent Free Will and a stone bird to represent The Law. I thought about this for a long time before even sitting down to sculpt the stone bird (which turned out a little derpy to be honest, so the painted stone bird does not resemble the prop I made) for my model to hold during the photo shoot. The model is my friend Katrina, someone who works tirelessly to help those around her, supporting and building up her community of artists and volunteers.

WIP Detail of looser paint application attempt!

I think my favorite part of the entire painting, to be honest, was solving the puzzle of painting lots of little braids. I still think they look a bit like dreads (which I’ve painted before and adored every moment), but I’m happy enough with the results. I had to figure out both the color and the application technique – darks down first, then mid tone, then highlights. Solving this was vexing at first, but as it started to click things flowed smoothly, and the experience was joyful. A lot of my painting time is trying to solve problems and failing! I go through a long list of what doesn’t work before finding something that does. The most vexing part of the whole piece was the clouds – I painted them several times, and now have a photo file of cloud reference photos, because making them up didn’t work out quite how I wanted. My clouds will evolve to be certain, needing a lot more practice! But those are fluffy and floaty and do fine for this piece. There will be more clouds in the future. Finally, I really enjoyed the flesh tones recipes I used here, but think next time I paint these wonderful tones I will use the limited pallet to develop more broken up color. The colors here are off a base of yellow ochre, cad orange, b. sienna plus titanium white, with the reminder that lead whites make for less chaulky mix.

Exploring Color

I just posted a new color chart on my Instagram @linda.wandt.art and it got some comments from people saying they wanted to do the same! That makes me so happy, so here’s a new technical post.

I paint with oil because I adore what can be achieved with them, and I’m sort of addicted to the tactile sensations of working with oil paint. Beyond that, the colors are vibrant and luscious – if you are working with professional grade paints. Color is such a crucial part of painting, and I’d like to go into that a bit by talking about some of my favorite color charts and explorations into color theory – the caveat of this is understanding that I still have A LOT to learn about color theory, but I do want to share some of what I’ve explored so far.

The charts I’ve found to be most informative as a starting point are from the book “Portrait Painting Atelier” by Suzanne Brooker. I can not recommend it highly enough. For more detail, check the book out!

Taking a good look at your colors and understanding them by Hue (color family), Value (light or dark) and Chroma (intensity) will help you a ton and facilitate the choices you make. If you have never made your own color wheel (as an adult), I recommend doing that before this. For value, you can buy a grey-scale chart, but I recommend creating your own for the experience and deepening your understanding.

My grey scale and blacks chart. Mine has a mistake! I recommend your scale goes to 11, so your mid-value is actually, you know, mid.

For this exercise you need a 16 x 20 sheet of canvas paper or canvas, which you grid out with pencil and ruler into 1 1/2 inch squares, seven across and about 9 blocks down. I like to add a block at the end (making 8) for notes – the pigment number, it’s opacity rating, and what I used to neutralize it. I also label the hue and brand. This chart takes time – be prepared for that, this is a labor of love! I also recommend you date your chart on the back, for more information about the colors you are using over time. I use a 3/4” flat synthetic brush. The first square is the color straight from the tube, the second is the tint (mixed with white). Next is tone (mixed with mid-value grey), then Shade (mixed with black.) Next you Warm the color, and in the next square you want to cool it. Finally, create a neutral by mixing the color with its compliment. This chart can now serve as a reference and builds your memory of altering your colors. If the colors being mixed are too dark, I sometimes add a teeny tiny bit of white to the mix to show its properties better.

New Blue Chart I just made. Compare it to the old one below, and you can see the advancement of my understanding about creating neutrals – here, the color in hue remains, it’s still blue in the first neutral column. The second neutral column is a sometimes a chromatic black, since I used orange, the compliment of blue to neutralize my mixes.

This is my blue chart from years ago. I wanted to revisit my charts for the experience and with the paints I am currently using. Notice how green some of those “neutrals” are!

Here is a chart I just made from Al Gury’s “Alla Prima” – (another book I can’t recommend highly enough.) It’s basically a tint chart with some color interactions to show how one color can affect another by being next to it. It also starts to show the properties of earth reds that can be selected as flesh recipe bases, but I’m working on a more thorough chart of that and it’s not done yet. Want even more? Make charts like the value scale, but with the colors’ compliments ranging from (for example) alizarin crimson to viridian green with the chromatic black in the center. Play with other color interactions! It’s fun and hands-on learning!

Check out this link for Munsell color information.

Let’s talk real quick about creating form and the two ways to do so – through value, or temperature. We are all familiar I think with value change, but a really important aspect is temperature change. Remembering that warm colors pop forward in space and cool colors recede is invaluable for creating the illusion of forms in space, in addition to neutralizing colors to look farther away.

What are your favorite color theory books? I’m waiting for a classic Joseph Albers (this link is great!) to arrive by mail, and would love to hear what other people have found most informative! Thanks for reading, and don’t be shy, keep in touch!