Author Archives: esanford

Mystery Technique #114

April 20, 2022 – 6:23 pm

Curious about the techniques used here? You can learn more next month if you’ve signed up for email updates!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #113:

Amazing things can happen if you use lots of water on unstretched paper! Instead of drawing the edges of shapes with pencil, I defined them with plain water, blotting with a dry paper towel to make corrections. Next I added a lot more water to make the paper buckle into hills and valleys before dropping in diluted acrylic ink. As the water slowly evaporated, it left behind a record of its interaction with pigment and paper, echoing the traces water leaves behind in the landscape. After this layer dried, I added more dark to increase depth and painted the background. Can you spot the places I used watercolor pencils to mimic the linear patterns that naturally occurred?

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April Workshops & Walks!

March 31, 2022 – 7:03 pm

Signs of spring are popping out all over the woods, so it’s a great time for a Forest Bathing walk! Come join us this Saturday afternoon at 1pm to slow down and unwind while enjoying the peaceful beauty of Beaman Park. The weather looks great; just email beamanpark@nashville.gov to register.

Hope you can join me on April 9 for Art Inspired by Nature! First we’ll stimulate creativity on a slow and relaxing guided walk through Judge Fulton Greer Park; then we’ll move inside to the Franklin Recreation Center and explore open-ended approaches to painting. For more details or to register, visit: https://apm.activecommunities.com/wcpr/Activity_Search/art-inspired-by-nature/17492

I’ll be back at the Franklin Recreation Center on April 30 for The Secret Side of Books! We’ll make easy structures with pages that change shape or appear and disappear as if by magic. You can learn more and sign up here: https://apm.activecommunities.com/wcpr/Activity_Search/secret-side-of-books/17491

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Mystery Technique #113

March 20, 2022 – 10:07 pm

This painting has a secret. Find out more next month if you’ve signed up for email updates!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #112:

The secret ingredient in this painting is acrylic gloss medium. I painted branching shapes on the paper with water, then added diluted medium. After it started to dry, I added more water to the branching shapes, which pushed the remaining medium to their edges. When this layer dried completely, it acted as a partial resist to the watercolor I painted on top, creating ghostly shapes that fade in and out of the paper and add different degrees of depth. Here’s another closeup:

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