Colorado Artist Robin Coalson

Changing Direction

2010-11-09T11:28:00.003-07:00

Well, it's official.
After 15 years of mural painting, I'm climbing down off of my ladders and scaffolding to spend my creative time in my studio. Nerve damage from working with my arm up over my head for so many years has finally forced me to head in a new direction.

Change isn't exactly my favorite thing. I usually go kicking and screaming all the way into a new season, job or place to live. But, as you know, sometimes change...even unexpected change, can turn out to be a nice, happy surprise.

I can still paint in my studio, but I've recently started to carve... and I love it! I'm carving wood, gourds and eggshells, and it's just about the most fun I've ever had in all of my creative endeavors. Learning something new has it's challenges, but it's also an enjoyable journey.

So...here's to the new paths in life....Cheers!

Slow Dry Acrylics

2010-06-22T15:29:00.002-06:00

I've been playing around with the relatively new "slow dry acrylics" by Golden. I almost always work in acrylic, and I figured it would be nice to have more "open time", so I motored over to the art supply store and bought a few tubes of this "new" product.

Now, I haven't spent a ton of time working with these, but....my findings so far are as follows...
1. Does it stay wet as long as oils? Noooooooooo. To be fair, it does stay wet on the palette for about a day. That's nice. You don't end up wasting a lot of paint. When actually painting, though, it stays wet for possibly 8 minutes. I work with thin layers of paint....so...it would probably stay wet longer if I was using really thick applications.
2. You can "reactivate" the paint after it has dried to the touch with either water or the product that you're supposed to use with this paint....and that was a hoot.
3. It made it much easier to blend areas together. Nice.

4. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok...here is a tip. I work in very thin layers of paint. When working in acrylic (I usually use liquitex), I usually just use water to thin my paint down and "glaze". I did the same thing with the Open Acrylics....but....when I went to varnish the painting....the paint lifted and smudged all over the place....and some areas lifted completely. AHHHH!!! Ut oh. Sooo....I "fixed" that painting and then I tried the paints again, this time thinning them with a combination of water and matt medium (about 3:1). That time, I didn't have any problem with the paint lifting on me whilst varnishing.

Sooo....these paints seem fill a nice "niche" between acrylics and oils. Use them for more open time and better blending, but don't expect them to stay wet like oils or to move around like oils.

Waldner Gardens

2009-03-04T13:23:00.001-07:00

I just finished this mural. It was actually more difficult than I had envisioned. The clients had a painting that they loved, and they wanted me to "extend" the painting into a mural. Matching the colors exactly was a bit time consuming, but I think it worked out well. I used: Ultramarine blue, Cerulean Blue, Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre, a tad bit of Cad. Yellow medium, Dark Burnt Umber, Burnt Umber, and Alizarin Crimson. The base color (the color I wash in over everything at the beginning) was mostly Raw Sienna with some areas of Yellow Ochre.

I love painting gardens and flowers, so this was a great project. :-)

South Dakota Summer Memories

2009-01-20T14:13:00.002-07:00

I just finished a commissioned painting for a client of her mother's childhood home....a farm in South Dakota. Her mother provided some old black and white photos of the various farm buildings (house, barn etc), but none of the photos showed the entire farm , and all of the building photos were from different angles. Trying to piece the various photos and angles together into a convincing scene was harder than I had anticipated.

I took some photos of the creative process...(from gathering the photo reference to sketches and value studies to painting) and put them in video form.

2009-01-20T14:02:00.001-07:00

I finally finished and varnished this painting....

Studio work

2008-12-18T11:11:00.003-07:00

This is week 3 of the "virus from hell". I've been sick for 3...yes...3 weeks now. Really. On the upside, I've spent time in my studio working on painting some things I've been wanting to try. I love reflective and transparent surfaces. These are the first 2 stages of "Which One of Us is Thinking Clearly?" . The first stage includes the sketching of the light bulbs and the glass bowl...stage 2 is the "blocking in" stage where the basic forms, colors and values are established.

For some reason, I've been wanting to paint light bulbs. For me, they are symbolic of ideas. It occurred to me, especially during the elections, that everybody has their ideas...their opinions...and everyone seems convinced that THEY are the one who is thinking clearly. So, I painted one clear light bulb and one frosted bulb. I do believe everybody thinks they are the clear bulb...and if you disagree with them, they consider you to "not be thinking clearly".

Whirlwind

2008-08-05T11:16:00.002-06:00

When I began blogging, I was sure that I (unlike other artists) would keep my blogs up to date...uh huh. Since my last entry...in March...life has been a crazy, swirling whirlwind of debris. Now that the wild winds have dissipated, I can sift through the events..pick them up and put them in perspective.

The mural work has been fantastic for the last four months. I painted lots of things in a new Mexican restaurant.... "El Padrino". I'm tellin' ya...that was the most fun I've had on a job in eons. Everyone I worked around was just a hoot. We all had a lot of work to complete, but everyone was a riot. I was rather sad to finish that project. Such fun.

The next big project (multiple murals and a wee bit of faux) began immediately after the El Padrino work was complete. This work was for Stonegate homes...for one of their houses that will be on the Parade of Homes starting next week. A great job...working for great people.

During all of this work activity, my mother in law...one of my favorite people on the planet...was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I really thought that if anyone could beat this terrible disease, it would have been Wanda. She fought right up to the end....and she maintained her humor and grace through what had to have been the most terrible challenge of her life. Her memorial service is this weekend in Ohio. Her absence leaves an enormous black hole in our lives.

My cat of nearly 20 years is in the process of dying. She's had skin cancers for years now, so she's actually lived longer than I expected. Even so, that doesn't make it any less painful.

On the up side, my parents took everyone in the family on a cruise in July. We had a festive time, and it helped to get our mind off of the depressing events back home.

Now that things are settling down a bit, I find I'm feeling rather lost. This happens to me every time I'm involved in a large project. I work like a crazed painting chimp for weeks and weeks, and then.....well....there's sort of a let down. I readjust quickly, though. :-) I'm looking forward to puttering in my studio over the next few weeks.

Play list for the European vacation mural

2008-03-21T18:08:00.002-06:00

I spent the entire two weeks of this mural painting time listening to classical music from various composers, the "Phantom of the Opera" soundtrack, the soundtrack from the musical "Wicked" and "Beauty and the Beast." It all seemed rather "European" to me.

Notre Dame, day 2

2008-03-21T17:34:00.007-06:00

I worked on Notre Dame for about 9 hours total. The wall was textured, making it difficult to paint straight lines......and as you can see...there are a bazillion straight lines. I tried to get every tower, every window, every spire absolutely correct. The finished detailed area was about 4.5'x5.5'. It was actually fun to really, really observe all of the detail in the building. There is a crazy amount of ornamentation on just about every area of Notre Dame, and I can't imagine the time and focus it must have taken to actually build such a structure.

Notre Dame

2008-03-21T17:24:00.004-06:00

I'm starting on the West wall. Right now I'm working to the right of the dresser in the previous post's "before" picture.

I start by sketching the building in raw umber. I've got photo reference taped all over the place. Good googly moogly, those Europeans put a wicked amount of detail in their architecture. As I'm starting to really look at the photo reference, I'm thinking this is going to take longer than I had anticipated.

After sketching, I washed a thin glaze of Burnt Umber over the entire building and the sky...varying the amount of glaze here and there and adding some white for clouds in the sky.

Now I can start the fun part...detailing out the architecture.

European Vacation

2008-03-21T17:15:00.004-06:00

I've never been to Europe, but Lara has....and she loved it so much, I'm going to paint a European mural in her room. She's picked out her favorite landmarks in London and Paris...The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Arch de Triumph...Big Ben , and Buckingham Palace.

I've spent about four hours just trying to find decent photo reference....and I think I've printed out 35 pictures to work from. The landmarks are going to by hyper detailed, so I needed good, close photos...not that easy to find.

This is a photo of the west wall before starting to paint. The whole mural is going to be painted in sepia tones for an old world look.

Studio Work

2008-03-17T18:52:00.003-06:00

"Spring Fever" 6x6" on board

I've been spending some time working in my studio this week. My last mural was hyper detailed, and sometimes I just need to play in the paint and do some abstract works. I varnished this piece with 3 coats of super thick varnish, which gives it a very slick, cool look.

The wall across from the "Throne"

2008-02-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

This is the small section of wall directly across from the "throne". This was the final detailed portion of the mural. After this dragon was complete, I put the towel bars back up, removed the tape and cleaned up my mess.

The wall above the "Throne"

2008-01-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

This wall takes up space directly above the "throne" in the bathroom. This wall was very difficult to paint as there wasn't enough room for my ladder on either side of the toilet. I ended up standing on the "throne" to paint the walls. I'm short, so reaching all the way to the ceiling was a bit of a stretch.

Very sad day...

2008-01-29T10:35:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend, our cherished 10 year old dog Nikkie passed away very suddenly. Her departure from our lives has been even more devistating than I had anticipated it ever would be. The house seems so empty and sad without her loving and entertaining energy. I have some work to do, but I just don't want to start on any of it.

Play list for the Castle Mural

2008-01-25T09:02:00.001-07:00

For some reason, I've always enjoyed reading about the play lists professional athletes listen to while training. I always take my Ipod along on a job, and each mural ends up having it's own unique play list.

"Sir Dillons's Castle" play list.....
Diana Krull....the entire "From This Moment On" CD
Sheryl Crow..."Lifetimes"
Lyle Lovett ..."If I had a Boat"......I love this song!
Talking Heads...."City of Dreams"
Counting Crows...."Rain King"
Sheryl Crow..."Shine Over Babylon"
David Arkenstone.....lots of tunes..especially from his Celtic Book of Days CD. I listen to his music most of the time when I need to concentrate on detail work.

Wall opposite the hatching dragon.

2008-01-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

This wall is directly opposite of the hatching dragon wall, to the left of the sink. The same process was used as noted in my previous post. 1. sketch in the design. 2. wash in a background color 3. finish the stone work. 4. complete the focal art.

This wall was also difficult to paint because of its location. I had to bend over the sink for hours to complete the stone work and the torch. There really wasn't enough counter space to kneel or stand on the counter top.

I was really jazzed about the feeling of space the mural was creating. The stone work reflected in the mirror really added visual dimension to an otherwise small bathroom.

East Wall Step by Step

2008-01-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

This wall is to the right of the sink and is reflected in the mirror. It's also one of the main walls you view if sitting upon the "throne" in the "castle", so I wanted it to have an interesting focal point.

In the first step, I sketched the design lightly in pencil, then went over my drawing with watery burnt sienna paint. The sketch phase required me to work out the stone block size and placement, which...I must admit...isn't my favorite task. I also worked out the spacing for the beams that were to be painted across the ceiling. The entire room was sketched in at the same time.

In the next phase of the painting process, I finished all of the stone work in the room. This required about 6 layers of paint. realistic looking stone work is very time consuming, but it's worth the effort. I used Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna washes. The Celtic cross "carving" and the other designs were completed at this time.

After all of the stone work and the ceiling were completed, I worked on finishing the detailed art.. (this is always my favorite part of the painting process...bringing out the detail).The first area I worked to completion was the dragon hatching out of the egg. It was a bit difficult to paint this area because I had to bend over the sink, and I didn't have a direct, head on view of what I was painting. I was pleased with the way the little guy turned out.

Castle mural

2008-01-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm starting on a new project. A small bathroom will be transformed into the interior of a castle, complete with dragons and celtic carvings. This is going to be a fun mural to paint. Here are the "Before" pictures.