I have quit my gallery in Portland and have no shows to work towards or gallery duties to perform so I have decided to explore a medium that has always intrigued me: casein paint. I read a little about its characteristics and how it has been used traditionally. It is a quick drying, waterbased paint that dries matte and flat with muted colors. Once dry it is fairly permanent so can be painted over without fear of lifting the bottom layers like most waterbased paints. It can be opaque or transparent, although even when painted opaquely still can show the under painting somewhat. It was traditionally used for illustration and fell out of favor when acrylic paint became commonly used.
This winter I did a 30 day program developed by Cheryl Taves in her business Insight Creative. The program is called the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge. Here’s a link if you want to check it out: LINK. It was the perfect way for me to dive deep into casein paint, as it got me in my sketchbook working daily on ideas that were for my eyes only. This allowed me to make a mess, try something new and possibly fail without being accountable to anyone (except myself of course, but my only requirement was to just show up every day for 30 days). And believe me, I did some bad art in there, but that was the beauty of it! I could make some bad art on my way to learning but also make some beautiful moments happen that excited me and got me on the way to working with casein.
I really made progress after one of the program challenges that included using collage to get started. Any of you with a familiarity with my work know that during that first covid year (and actually after) I did collages made from old prints. So collage was very comfortable for me, and was something I enjoyed. Here is a two-page spread from my sketchbook.
I make the collage and then paint over it with casein. It’s that simple. But what this allowed me was a way to learn for myself what this strange new medium does, and how it can work for me, but gave me a starting point I was familiar with and comfortable doing. I was on my way.
Since then I have left the sketchbook (although return to it to try out something I want to experiment with before going further on paper or panel…such as my plan for today which is to use to sketchbook to try out a looser and more open way to work with the paint as the collage does lock a person into a composition, more or less).
This is what they look like when I start out.
I under paint with a solid color and then add the collage on top. This one hasn’t been glued down yet.
And here are some 8x8’s after I have painted on top of the collage.
And so the experimentation continues. Here is one that is larger, like 16 x 11.
So stay tuned for more from me about this amazing and interesting medium. And in the meantime if you have any questions please contact me through the “contact” tab on my website. I’ll do my best to answer.
Thanks for reading!