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| Making waves with Jackie Jones |
Our first meeting of the new TCAA year was held on Sept. 11, 2018 at Arts Center of Tolland. It was well attended with about 20 members, as well as 3 guests. Our guest demonstrator was Jackie Jones. She showed us how to paint waves using oil paints. First, however, our member news.
Art of The Month
We had seven members bring art for our art of the month. Jackie chose four paintings to be placed around Tolland County at various locations.
First plac
e went to Penny Brandt. She will be placing her painting at Monet's Table, 167 Tolland
Stage Rd. in Tolland, CT. 
e went to Penny Brandt. She will be placing her painting at Monet's Table, 167 Tolland 
Second place went to Rhea Sutter. She will be placing her painting at Hall Memorial Library, 93 Main St. in Ellington CT. 
Third place went to Emily Beckwith. Her piece will be displayed at Tolland Public Library, 21 Tollan
A big congratulations to all our winners. Support our businesses that have offered to display our works by stopping in and seeing them for yourself. We are also looking for suggestions from our members as to other places we might be able to display additional art of the month.
Member News
Our own Heidi Ludwig has some news. Currently she has numerous works on display at Arts of Tolland, 22 Tolland Green, Tolland, CT. She is sharing the gallery with Nancy Brunell. The works are running the gambit from traditional, to lovely abstracts. The works will be on display until the end of September. Refer to the link for how much longer you can see this awesome show.
Heidi has also been honored by Connecticut Women Artists by having one of her pieces accepted into their annual juried show at Tunxis Community College, Farmington, CT. The show can be found in the Barnes Franklin Gallery. The show runs until Sept. 28. Congrats Heidi for representing the TCAA and all we stand for.
Our Guest Artist
Now on to our artist demonstration. We were delighted to have Jacqueline Jones. She gave us a wonderful lesson on painting waves with oils. She began by showing us her limited palette, and she is able to get numerous combinations and shades from just a few colors. Her colors included Ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow light and viridian green.
Jackie began by toning a pre-primed canvas with yellow, thinned by turpentine. Using a wet on wet technique
she used a nearly dry rag to add the paint, then further dried it by taking up additional moisture with a dry rag.
Taking her ultramarine blue, yellow and red to get a green gray, she added some white and lightly sketched her main lines with a brush. In order to keep the paint thin, she added turpentine (turpinoid can also be used.) The rule is, fat over lean. Your undercoatings should be thinned with various mediums such as turpentine, linseed oil, or a combination of the two.
When creating a wave you want to vary left to right and top to bottom, to get the natural movement of the wave. Her advice is to stick to covering the whole canvas with thin paint before adding finished color.
You can vary shades by adding the opposite color. For instance, add a little cadmium orange to your green mixture to add warmth. Stick to colder colors (blues, greens) toward the top of the wave and warmer colors (yellows, reds) closer to the foam.
Pull your color from the top of the wave with a light touch, and add red when something is too green.
As Jackie mixed, tested and painted her underpainting, it just became more and more defined. It was miraculous to see this painting appear as she worked her colors from dark to light.
Time was running out, so Jackie got to the lighter part of the wave, leaving much of the foreground alone. She would ordinarily do the very lightest last, but we were all interested to know more of how she did the curl of the wave.
She started a new palette sheet with her white. If you use the older one, you will run the chance of pulling other colors into the white. You want to keep it as clean as possible. The lightest you want to go is pure white with a very tiny amount of yellow. |
| Scumbling |
recommended to create a translucent glaze over the underpainting is something called Gamisol gel. This allows you to maintain some of the under color. One of the wet on wet techniques she used to put thicker paint over her thinner paint is something called scumbling. This technique grazes over the thinner under coat and also leaves some of the orginal toned yellow to shine through. To scumble, you drag and press, using a light touch so as not to mix the undercoat with the white. You can also use linseed oil to create a glaze.
Too much paint? Not a problem. Using your brush, sculpt away some of the excess, which adds even more dimension to your wave, almost like impasto.
There was much more Jackie offered regarding color mixing, techniques and the general progression of painting the wave. It was very informative, and most feel that her instruction was very helpful. The audience was quite engrossed in all she had to say. A big thankyou for such a thorough lesson on making waves.
Coming Up
Our Tuesday painters commences on Sept. 18 at Arts of Tolland from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Bring what ever you are working on, or something new. I have seen people come with still lifes to set up before them, then paint or sketch. Some have brought pieces that need finishing, and others simply sketch or paint from a photo. It is great fun with tea, sweets, and conversation. We ask a donation of $2.00 per person to offset the cost of renting the building.
We will meet every Tuesday through at least November. Then we have a brief break, and will be back in January. Hope to see you there.
This Friday, Sept. 21, our group painters will be participating in our experimental fall plein air painting. We will be heading to Mill Pond Country Store, 220 East St., Stafford, CT. The store offers views of historic mills, a pond, cows, and the store itself is very interesting. The parking lot can be busy, but there is also parking on the opposite side of the store, overlooking the water. The store offers coffee, baked goods, and sandwiches if you are hungry. We will be meeting from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m, weather permitting. There should be a little color in the trees around the pond. Hope to see you there. For further info on future meetups, please refer to the What's New section of our website which is listed at the end of this entry.
Our next group meeting will also be at Arts of Tolland on Tueday, Oct. 9 from 7 to 9. Our guest artist will be Jane Penfield, who is a nationally recognized pastel artist. She will be talking about pastels and composition. For further information on any of our activities, please stop by at our website, at
