Canvas by Elisa Choi

Painting Magazine featuring Artists around the world

Canvas SEPT-NOV 2012 ISSUE 1 VOLUME 1 $ 20.00

BE INSPIRED

In Living a Creative Life with Faye Hoover

FEEL

The Joy of Mixed Media Painting with Kathryn Costa

LEARN

The True Ways to Joyful Painting with Dana Barbieri

BE UPLIFTED

In The Practice of the Pause with Lisa Wilson

BE ENCOURAGED

That Anyone Can Draw and Paint with Lynn Cohen

Fall Edition

4 Living a Creative Life

Letter from the Editor

elcome my dear readers to the first issue of Canvas! This is an art magazine for the love of painting. It features passionate Artists from all over the world sharing their stories, techniques and inspiration, review of art supplies and upcoming workshops.

6 True Ways to

For this edition of Canvas I had the pleasure to collaborate with five amazing Women Artist. Armed with their dreams and love for painting they share with us their creative lives, processes and techniques.

Painting is love. I have started painting in watercolor last 2011 and since then I never stop. Sometimes I still struggle when face I cannot wait for you to read and be with a blank canvas, but I find it helpful to inspired by them. Happy painting! :) splatter random colors to help spark ideas. I find inspiration in my sketchbooks and on my walks with the majestic nature. As my painting adventure continues I experiment with different mediums. I adore mixed media!

Canvas Founder/Editor-in-Chief Elisa Choi Editorial Staff Jonathan Ang Ema Choi Ken Choi Contributors Faye Hoover, Dana Barbieri, Lynn Cohen, Kathryn Costa, Lisa Wilson

CONTENTS

10 Anyone Can Draw and Paint

14 The Joy of

Mixed Media Painting

16 The Practice

Creatively Yours,

Elisa Choi Canvas Founder Editor-in-Chief

Joyful Painting

of the Pause

{About the Cover} Dana Barbieri is an artist and designer living in New York. Ever since she can remember she has loved art and design. She believe she began as many kids do by coloring with crayons. She used to love getting a new box! Once she was in high school her love for paint began to take hold and there was no turning back. She went off to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC to earn a degree in Textile/Surface Design.

16 Rue Beethoven Paris, 75016 Tel: 43-08-34-55

It was a field that she loved as many of the designs were painted by hand. Sadly, it is no longer that way.

www.canvaszine.com Comments and suggestions please email: hello@canvaszine.com

She went on to have two beautiful children and left the design industry full time. She continues to paint regularly now as a place of joy and free expression. She shares her art and thoughts at www.danabarbieri.com. Fall

but my best watercolors seem to be large flowers.

Living a Creative Life by Faye Hoover

have some drawings I did in the first grade seventy-two years ago. The paper was fragile so I only look at them on very rare occasions. The teacher asked us to draw a turtle. I was not sure what a turtle looked like so my rendition was an oval body, four legs, a tail, and a small head with round ears. I treasure this because it was my start in arts and crafts. In high school I took three hours of art my freshman year and two hours my sophomore year along with the required English, Math, etc. My art teacher had done murals in Shelby County Tennessee for the WPA. I loved my art classes.

Lily The next few years were spent raising my son and daughter, attending the various extracurricular activities they were involved in. I worked a number of jobs, mostly part time. I taught school and later did several years of substitute teaching. I wrote for several newspapers and had a column of my own. My favorite job was director of homebound ministries for a large church in the Richmond Virginia area. I had 30 - 35 people I visited on a regular basis, some weekly, some monthly.

I considered myself a beginner in watercolors. I College was a time of getting serious about my have taken a few future and art didn’t seem to be a part of that. courses in I did little more than a few doodles every now watercolor painting and am and then for years. thinking of doing that again. In the 1970s I met an oil paint artist who did photorealistic works. She taught me to oil paint I have painted a few barns but I could readily see that photorealism was not my cup of tea. So I began to do my own style. I liked to paint barns and old buildings oil on canvas.

My art room was an unfinished area that had only wall board up when our house was built. My husband added paint, flooring, etc. I use this room mainly for crafts. My real art is making greetings cards to send to the sick, bereaved, etc. of my church. I use the watercolor block to do paintings so that I can transport the work to different parts of the house to work.

Faye Hoover Studio

I am retired and live in a countryside subdivision in the Richmond Virginia area, sharing my life with my husband, who has generously put up with my art mess for 55 years.

At that point I look critically at the painting to make sure my darks are dark enough and there is proper contrast. If that has not happened, I carefully darken the areas that will make the light places “pop”.

Usually when I am doing a real painting (as opposed to a doodle) I like to use Aquarelle Arches 140 lb. cold press watercolor blocks and Winsor and Newton paints. I often do a sketch on a fairly lightweight paper and refine that till I like what I see. Then I transfer the drawing to the watercolor paper. Mostly I draw from a photo that I have taken. Some internet artists have given me permission to paint from one of their photos. I am a beginner watercolor painter that is still finding my style.

When I am satisfied with the painting I go to my trusty Logan mat cutter and make a proper mat to fit the painting and the frame I have selected to display it all in.

Once my drawing is on the paper, I wash in a light layer of color just to see if I’m on the right track. I try to leave the white spaces and not rely on masking liquid. I usually work on the background first up to a certain point. Next I do the big flower itself in detail and then finish up the background.

Dogwood

Tulips

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Dana Barbieri Paintings

True Ways

“Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.”-Vincent Van Gogh

o me the above quote is exactly how I want to paint. Not just what I see but what I feel. The act of painting is my soft spot. I remember falling in love with it back in high school and have never stopped. There is nothing like mixing colors, putting brush to the surface, getting lost in the moment. Ahh....

We are going to explore painting for paintings sake in this exercise. We will mix the colors and play with brush strokes. We will discover what truly feels good to us, what brings us joy. Optional: If you would like please apply gesso to a couple of your pages.

by Dana Barbieri

to Joyful Painting

Painting Exercise 1: Painting for process

1. Pick 3-5 of YOUR favorite colors (or

more if you choose) + white and black and squeeze/pour it out onto your palette.

2. Apply each of these colors with your

brush to your paper. Rinse your brush in water between the color mixing so the colors don’t get muddy.

• Acrylic paints/ watercolor/tempera/ gouache • Watercolor Paper • Assorted Brushes • Palette • Old rag

3. Then begin mixing these colors on your palette and apply to your paper.

Dana Barbieri Studio

This is a very abstract exercise getting you into the flow with the paint, experimenting with colors and brushstrokes.

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Feel free to drip and drop the paint!

Painting Exercise #1 done by my kids

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We are going to do this same thing. Mixing up our colors to see what happens, applying it to the paper in whatever way we wish. You don’t need long to do this exercise but you may have so much fun you won’t want to stop. What you will learn is how to mix colors, what strokes you like, how you like to apply the paint and more!

“Painting is a blind man’s profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen.” - Pablo Picasso Get lost in the joy of painting. Painting Exercise 2: Paint what you LOVE

Paintings of flowers and colors that I love

Set up a still life or paint a portrait. Go realistic or abstract. I chose to paint flowers and colors which I LOVE! I truly believe that what you love and the passion and joy you feel for it will come through in your painting and that will lead you to a successful painting! Have fun!

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• Images or things you love • Acrylic paints/watercolor,/ tempera/gouache • Watercolor Paper • Assorted Brushes • Palette • Old rag

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” ― Vincent van Gogh 8

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Anyone Can Draw & Paint 1. Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?) I started drawing a few years ago after taking a one day class at the community college called: “For people who think they can’t draw” (or paint) actually the painting class came after the drawing class. But I was surprised and amazed that I liked some of what I did in those two all day classes. Then I later took a four hour workshop from a local artist here in town. In that class we did drawings outdoors of buildings in our downtown area. I remember being amazed at how good they looked, when after painting them back in the studio, the teacher framed them with a mat. Those were done using cheap acrylics from Michael’s, our local craft store. 2.What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings? I like ink pens and watercolor paints. I use fine point Sharpies, Castell-Faber PITT Artist pens, and ZIGs. I like XS, S and M sized pen points. My watercolor kit is flat paints (Talens) I got at a garage sale for $2. My paint colors did not come with fancy names I could not pronounce. I looked them up on line and they retail for $40. They serve me just fine. I use Canson drawing art journals with 90 lb- 130 lb paper. Yes,

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3. What is your favorite thing to paint? Why?

Interview w ith Lynn Cohe n courtesy o f Paint Party Frida y (PPF)

it curls a bit when wet from paint. My latest art journal has thin brown paper. I like trying new things. I do not use pencil first and I do not erase. It’s just my personal preference.

Lynn’s sketch of her husband

I heard about a plein air art contest in a town about an hour’s drive from my house. I decided to enter the contest. Since I really had never done plein air painting before I had to get past a lot of fear first. I started practicing in our down town area. I bought a fold up camping chair with a fold out tray and took it, my sun hat, water-bottle and art supplies and sat outside and started Red Brick Vic painting. My two favorite paintings from that foray are two Victorian houses. I used a lot of mask to make the bricks of one of the houses. I went on to paint several other historic buildings in our downtown area. I really pushed through the fear by going to that other town and joining many accomplished artists in that contest. I did not win any ribbons, but I won self respect and new courage to draw in public. Right now I am enjoying drawing/sketching people in restaurants when I go out to eat. I started doing this in November 2011. I particularly like a Mexican restaurant near my office where I go for lunch once or twice a week called Taco Jalisco’s. I have become friendly with the owner’s son, who happens to be an artist and who has his paintings hanging on the walls in this family run business. He saw me drawing

there and told me about a guy who used to come in and draw. That guy selfpublished his book of drawings (nothing like mine), which gave me the idea to draw there for a year after which time I intend to self-publish a book of my drawings of the people who come and eat there. (Projected date is Dec. 2012.) I sit at the table. I take out my drawing journal and pen. I draw the people at the next table or two or three tables away from me. I try to capture the mood, body postures, expressions, but I don’t think much about what I am doing, I just do it. I am definitely “in the zone”. I have a finite amount of time to finish a drawing and they can be done in 20 minutes. If I stay a full hour I’ll usually have finished two pages in my art journal. I’m fast. I use pen directly and do not erase. I eat a few bites while drawing. Sometimes the food gets on the page. It adds to the texture, mood. I also write on my pages to tell the story of what I am seeing or at least to note where I am and when it is done.

The Couple

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I do the painting later at home. The more I do this the more comfortable I become doing it. Very few people have even noticed what I am doing. Fewer have come up to me to talk about it. I feel pretty invisible. I also draw at the downtown bakery where I go for lattés and cookies and sometimes lunch. The town square, other restaurants in town, the farmer’s market, the city park, waiting rooms, waiting in line for gas all have been spots I’ve chosen to draw. I take my art journal everywhere I go, as anywhere can be a drawing opportunity.

4. What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far? I really got excited when a watercolor and ink painting from a photo I took of four girls walking in front of me was accepted into a juried art show at our local art gallery. It won second place. The teacher who had taught that 4 hour workshop won first place! I was starting to think I could draw and paint. This has been my proudest painting moment to date. (It also won 2nd place at the Dixon May Fair 2011)

So for now people in these settings are my favorite thing to draw…and they are definitely sketches that may or may not actually resemble the people I am drawing. I think they have a cartoon quality to them. The people are wonderful models because they sit fairly still while they are eating and talking. And I have the accoutrements on the tables down well too: basket of chips, salt and pepper shakers, napkin containers, glasses and straws.

Some of these can be seen on my blog. (July 12, 2012 post and a few before and after that one are from our most recent trip). I have enjoyed seeing my progress over the past year or two and am excited to watch it grow as more time goes by. You can see what I drew in 2011 and some of what I have drawn in 2012 on slide shows on the sidebar of my blog. I encourage people of all ages to pick up a pencil or pen and start to draw. Like I said in the beginning I did not know I could do it. I just knew I was getting old(er) (now at age 71) and wanted something more to fill my life and this was my venture. The more I do the better it gets and the opportunities are endless. I think of myself as a Grandma Moses, who also started her art career late in life. I am Grandma Lynn. And I am ARTIST! Hear me roar!

Full house at Taco Jalisco’s

Class of 2011 5. What’s next in your painting future? Like I said, my next painting venture will be the book(s) I produce from my weekly drawing/paintings at the various restaurants. In the meantime, I also draw nearly daily the things around my house, office and anywhere else I happen to be. It’s become a true passion! I make trip journals when we travel. It’s a great way to save the memories of what I experience and a fun way to pass the time especially when we take long road trips across the country.

Salsa Dances

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Lynn draws her husband while he drives them to Colorado

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The Joy of Mixed Media Painting by Kathryn Costa

The journal is where I experiment with different colors and techniques. I then take these experiments and work to create posters or works of art. I begin with painting paper. Once I have a collection of painted paper samples I may do one of two things: cut and combine or scan and manipulate.

y interest in painting started about five years ago when I began my first art journal. An art journal combines words and images and often uses mixed media and collage. Art journals are a wonderful way of experimenting with different materials and techniques. There is a ‘low risk’ involved as there isn’t an expectation that the piece will be for exhibition or commercial use. This sense of freedom gives me permission to play.

The first technique, cut and combine, has been used for a series of posters to celebrate Religious Education Month. The source paper for this project was photocopied pages from a Bible. The Scripture was copied at various sizes for interest. Paint was then applied to cover the pages but allow the words to show through. The colorful painted papers were then cut, scanned and arranged to illustrate the posters. The second technique is to scan the painted papers and then combine them with photographs that I’ve taken. Using Adobe Photoshop the painted layers are blended with the photographic images. Just as I approach painting in an intuitive manner, my work on the computer is also intuitive. I often feel like I’m revealing something that already exists as I play with the images before me.

Gypsy

Whether I’m working in my journal or creating a work of art to hang on the wall, I love the creative process. I get into a very relaxed state where I lose a sense of time. There are no worries, no pressures to perform, or bills to pay – there is only the colors, shapes, and feel of paint as it moves across the page.

Beacon of Love

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Religious Education Month

Costa Studio

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The Practice of the Pause

I am an Awareness Artist with a short history of study in traditional art and a life-long history of creative expression. I’ve only entered into my more traditional art study in the past few years and assumed the title of “Awareness Artist” within the past year. So much of where I am now has arisen, I’ve discovered, from those times of feeling in the flow and those times of feeling stuck…and how I’ve learned to navigate the inevitable cycle.

by Lisa Wilson

As an Awareness Artist, I focus on mindful awareness of life as it is in this very moment and in the creative process of each experience. It is a dance between being and doing, experiencing and expressing…the pause and the creative movement.

The pause. That pause that seems to go on forever, when all of the brilliant ideas you had in the shower that morning are suddenly gone. There are no words that come to mind, no images ready to paint, no messages ready to be shared. You are simply stuck.

Follow Me

For an artist, these times can feel insanely debilitating. An artist expresses, and when there is nothing to be expressed, the artist cannot do her work. Feeling like one has nothing to express creates stress, which makes the situation even worse. (Stress tends to keep our minds busy with “shoulds” and judgments, carrying us even further away from the voices we long to hear and to share.) So what is one to do?

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Lisa Wilson Studio

My methods of expression have taken many forms, but the most recent and perhaps most fascinating to my artistic senses is the art of Encaustic. Encaustic art uses beeswax and other waxes (generally pigmented waxes mixed with a damar resin), which are heated to a melting point and painted onto a surface, with each layer being fused through an additional application of heat. The result is a gorgeous luminescent and textural form of art. Encaustic art is extremely versatile, allowing incorporation of oil points and countless other materials. (My answer to many creative questions? Dip it in wax.)

Lost for Words

e all know the feeling. Mid-morning, after breakfast has been enjoyed and the clock signals it is time for work, or mid-project, when the outline has been made and the words are waiting to be written….Suddenly, there it is.

Working with wax requires a certain capacity of letting go. As with other media, melted wax doesn’t always tend to respond in the ways the artist would hope or expect. There is a great deal of play and acceptance in how the wax melts and cools. There are many times when I’ve gone to my substrate expecting to create one image, only to have the wax melt or pool in a completely unexpected way. And when this happens, there is always the pause. The question, “now what?”. My life is part of my art, my expression of my experience. And a large part of my life are my two children. There often comes times when my children will ask me a question, or start to throw a fit, and look at me waiting for a response. That same feeling arises, that same pause, that same feeling of being stuck and having no idea what I’m going to do. The same question arises in my mind, “now what??”. So what do I do? I become aware of what is. I quite literally say, “I’m stuck”. I acknowledge where I am, without judging myself or the situation. If I’m staring at a blank canvas and have no idea what to paint or staring at my children and have no idea what to say, I take a split second and recognize the pause. If my thoughts try to run away with a judgment or fear (“You HAVE to think of something or you will waste your day!”), I simply come back to the phrase, “Huh. This is interesting”, and release the rest

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of the thoughts.

knowing far deeper than we are able to comprehend. By releasing the expectations, And then I listen. There is so much noise in our we open ourselves to the beauty of a lives and in our minds. The practice of listening beginner’s mind. has shown me this, over and over. It can be frustrating to try and listen when all you can We learn to live in the questions instead of in hear are the voices of teachers or friends telling pursuit of answers. you what to do, or past fears creeping up to warn you away from a path. This is always a practice, an ongoing exploration. We become aware, listen, and But the more you practice, the easier it flow beyond expectations…then find ourselves becomes. When you can hear your own true sitting stressed and frustrated again in front of voice, the next step is always apparent. It is a blank canvas. It is what it is. an immediate knowing. The color that needs to be chosen, the words that need to be said But it is in the practice that the beauty lies. seemingly magically appear. Next time the pause arises, let yourself take a breath. Look around, notice your environment. And yes, this sounds far too easy. For those not Without judgment, notice where you are. ready to take the next step, it is too easy…and Listen to any noise, in the room and especially often ineffective. in your head. Keep listening until that idea pops up that just calls to be acted upon. Becoming aware and listening only work to Release any judgments of where that action facilitate your expression if you are willing to may take you, and just respond. Answer, write, let go of expectations. paint. We live in a world of Shoulds. We all have our In the pause, find your art and find beliefs and our ideas of how things should look, yourself. how life should be lived, how art should be created and displayed. These shoulds clutter our minds. The expectations of how things should be silence our intuitive knowing. When that pause arises, that feeling of being stuck in any situation, the “should” answer is usually the one that pops up first. In the studio, even if we become aware and listen to a voice that tells us to do one thing, the should almost always counters with an immediate alternative. If we go into our art expecting it to be one thing, we are no longer able to hear that immediate answer that comes from a

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The Bedroom by Vincent van Gogh

“If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint”, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” ― Vincent van Gogh Whisper

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About the Artists Featured in Canvas Faye Hoover is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She has been married

THI S HO LI DAY S EAS O N

S U PPO RT LOCA L

AN D

I ND EPE N D E N T ARTI STS, D ES I G N ERS AN D CRA F T ERS

for 55 years. She thinks she must have been born with pencil and crayons in her hands since she has always loved painting and drawing. In recent years she is trying mixed media and digital art, but paper arts are still her favorite. http://hastingshall2.blogspot.com/

Dana Barbieri is an artist and designer living in New York. She has loved art and design ever since she can remember. She went off to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC to earn a degree in Textile/Surface Design. She continues to paint regularly now as a place of joy and free expression. www.danabarbieri.com Lynn Cohen started to blog in 2007 after learning to make a quilt, which led to her growing creativity in the textile world of art quilt making. More recently she has learned that she can draw and paint too. Her time is taken up with plein air painting, the very occasional art workshop, and drawing. http://lynn-nonameblog.blogspot.com/ Kathryn Costa (also known as the Collage Diva) knows transformation and has experienced for herself the deepest meanings of personal connection. She knows the power of forgiveness and the art of loving kindness. She’s found peace and wants to share the transformative practice of journal keeping with the world to help others live a harmonious life. Kathryn writes on topics from love and gratitude to letting go, forgiveness, and courage. http://collagediva.typepad.com/ http://collagediva.typepad.com/truenorth/ Lisa Renee Wilson is a full-time mom and Awareness Artist, practicing from her home in beautiful Southern Indiana in the United States. As an Awareness Artist, she invites, challenges, and supports others in a mindful exploration of day-to-day life and in creatively expressing their stories. Focusing on art as, “expression of experience”, she encourages all to engage with paint, thoughts, and the dishes with equal fascination. www.LifeUnity.com

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The voice that tells you, ‘Who are you to do that?’ doesn’t disappear when you get to your dream job. If anything, it gets louder , because it’s frustrated that you’re there.

You only hear voices of doubt like that when you actually start to do things that you’re called to do. a flat, common life where you don’t take risks, [ If you’re living where you don’t live out of your heart, you won’t get bothered by those voices that much. ]

You need to do the thing that if you didn’t do it would be killing you. There’s definitely confirmation, but for me… the biggest thing is being obedient to that thing I have inside me that I feel that God has given me. I’m going to write, because that’s what writers do. I’m going to speak, because that’s what speakers do.

If you allow feedback from other people to be the thing that eventually drives you, when they stop giving it to you, they essentially tell you to stop dreaming. That’s a really powerful control to put into somebody else’s hands.

Jon Acuff