by Toni Watts | Jun 19, 2015 | Blog, Materials and Techniques, Workshops and demonstrations
Just a quick post to let you know that I’ll be doing a (potentially messy!) practical demonstration for the Fine Art Trade Guild on extracting pigment from rocks, roots and berries at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry in July – booking...
by Toni Watts | Jun 29, 2014 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
As far as traditional art materials are concerned, charcoal must be one of the oldest. Easily made from willow or vine stems, it makes a hugely expressive (if messy!) drawing medium. I have recently enrolled on an...
by Toni Watts | Apr 9, 2014 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
I thought I would just update you all about the state of my verdigris pigment production. Well, the good news is that it’s going well so far. This photo was taken the first time I had the copper out of its pot. This was about a week after starting, and I was...
by Toni Watts | Mar 25, 2014 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
Having learnt the techniques of extracting pigments from natural sources, I thought I would see if I could find stone locally that might give me a new colour. What stone did I use? Just along the road from us there was,...
by Toni Watts | Mar 13, 2014 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
Cennino Cennini, in his wonderful text Il Libro dell’Arte, describes verdigris as being ‘manufactured by alchemy, from copper and vinegar’. So I thought I would try my own bit of kitchen windowsill alchemy. I...
by Toni Watts | Mar 11, 2014 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
The old masters, working in the fifteenth century, used a painting technique – the so called ‘Flemish Technique’ – which combined the advantages of both tempera and oil paint. Egg tempera dries fast but has a matt finish, making it suitable for...
