JoSonja's week long Floral class was wonderful as always, but especially because I was able to finish the three designs; all of them lovely! Below you will find JoSonja adaptations of country tin painting, old Flemish (tote), and Venetian style (box). In my classes we are doing a small piece of student's choosing with the old Flemish. Very fun! The Country Tin design is the same class Jo taught in Atlanta for the National Museum of Decorative Painting. You know, when they honored her as a Living Treasure. Very, very special. My pot was painted with burgundy over black so it appears darker than the original design. Love those cherries!
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| Cherries Jubilee |
JoSonja always has words of wisdom for us, so I'd like to pass some on to you.
About Paint:
*Don't store your palette in the fridge
*Don't let your palette/paints be in direct sunlight or near a heat source
*Don't let them freeze
*Paint can become contaminated, pour out only what you need and don't return unused back to the bottle.
*If your paint "smells" throw it away, it may have mold in it.
Most of these are common sense, but reminders are always good, and I admit to pouring extra varnish back into the bottle on *several* occasions :-)
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| Grandma's Floral Tote |
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| Venetian Summer Florals |
Because she paints daily, Jo keeps a long 1" flat in a small container of water, essentially rarely washing it. She uses it to varnish and then returns it to the small container which has just enough water to cover to the bottom of the ferule. I have been employing this tip as I had many items to varnish last week and found it to be very convenient! The container should be short enough to keep the brush at an angle so that it doesn't bend. I'm using an antique creamer. We just need to keep painting so that varnishing is regularly necessary and the water doesn't evaporate.
This leads to another tip JoSonja tells us every year--paint every day, even for only a small bit of time. It is a proven fact that the body can rest and heal from stress (physical, mental, emotional) if we can just allow ourselves to escape into our right brain for a while each day.
More on Brushes: besides always keeping them clean, the sables need a little soap or egg white in the clean tip to keep them shaped properly. You can keep a small jar of just egg white for this purpose. Jo says it will last a long time. I'm just using a small bar of hotel soap at this time. I am finding that even though they are synthetic hair, my pointed round blenders benefit from the shaping as well.
So, let's get to painting, right?
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