Gear Junkie

I have a problem. It's not a BAD problem and I would guess it's likely a common problem with other artists. I'm a Gear Junkie.

People may think that artists don't really have 'gear.' It's all brushes and paints or pencils and paper. Oh no.

Specifically I realize I am on the quest for the perfect Plein Air painting equipment. It's becoming an obsession. I started years and years ago with a full size, Julian French Easel. It is classic. It is great, it holds everything. It is on the heavy side... but, in the French defense, it HOLDS EVERYTHING. No need to carry additional bags full of paints, brushes, knives, view finders, wrenches... you name it. It fits. So yeah, she's heavy.

Next came the Half French. I went on a 10 day painting trip to France back in 2001 and wanted something simpler to pack. I bought the 'Halfy.'  All the same benefits of the full French, just narrower and a little lighter. It did the trick.

Over the years as I painted more and more, I wanted something more nimble. I bought a 6x8 Guerilla Pochade by Judson. It's so cute! It's really small. Really light. Very packable. You do have to bring an additional bag with all your necessary gear, but I did, and do! still love that you can put it ALL in a standard backpack, tripod too! I've only painted on 6x8 or 8x10 on this pochade, but I like painting small sometimes.


I liked my little Guerilla so much that I thought I'd get a bigger version. (You see a pattern developing by now...)  I bought the medium French Resistance. It's still light. The paint mixing area is bigger, which I really liked. (About 6x9 I think. I should measure.)  There is a divider on the palette that separates the paint mixing area with a small area for maybe a tube of paint or whatever, otherwise the mixing area would be even bigger - which I'm needing these days.

So, in this time of need. "NEED!" I went bigger. I've been Plein Air painting a lot lately. Really consistent and am therefore more aware of what's working and what's frustrating. I've gone back to my full French Julian. The Guerilla FR was wobbling a bit and I was wanting more stability. I think it is a Tripod issue but haven't investigated.

I had a slightly damaged wood box in my studio that I bent in half. Basically I bent the hinges until the lid separated from the base. I then put a piece of glass from a photo frame I had in the house into the base of the box and duct taped all the edges. Yes. I built my own traveling glass palette with wood and duct tape! and you know what? it is AWESOME.

Of course this got me thinking a real glass palette would be great. I discovered online this thing called a French Companion. It is like a thin wooden suitcase that you can open to lay flat across the open drawer of your French Easel. Brilliant! I saw some envious photos of artsits with their Companion on their easel, and thought I should have that.

My Richeson French Companion arrived.

Stay tuned...
because there is more gear. A lot more.

For now though, here's a shot I took in Monterey in February of the gear of the day:

Full French Julian easel (inside are palette knives, scraper, view finder and white oil paint.)

A homemade glass palette (a wood box bottom, glass from a picture frame and duct tape!)

A wet panel carrier made for me by my friend Chuck Norris (yes, that's his real name)

A Timbuk2 Messenger bag that holds: water bottle, turp in a spill proof can, paper towels, sunscreen, brushes, gloves, scarf, bag for garbage and some large strong clips.

Also inside the bag is my FineArtTech paint palette, which I bought over Christmas and am really enjoying!

Plein Air Mondays

Now that I am a full time artist (re: no longer working at Yahoo! and working as a freelance painter and Icon Designer) I can finally, FINALLY, join my Plein Air Painting group for Monday paint-outs!!

I joined the LGAA, Los Gatos Art Association, about 2 years ago, specifically because they had regular, organized Plein Air outings. In my excitement, if I'd bothered to carefully read the fine print, I would have seen that these outings were on Mondays. Not conducive to a full-time work schedule.

Now, post Yahoo! layoff... I am free free free to finally participate. And I am loving it!

One of my favorite recent outings was a visit to the Santa Cruz harbor and the SeaCliff lighthouse:

Each visit out I am learning more about light, composition, paint application and equipment! I am still fiddling with which pochade, which turp, which gear to bring out on these Mondays. Here I was using my Guerilla Pochade, French Resistance, with a plastic palette tray. This is a my go-to set up, on a standard camera tripod. Not heavy. Not too small. Not too big.

The next week I decided to try out my half french easel.  I haven't used this easel, except in my studio as a table top easel, in a long while, so in an effort to carry less and also wanting to use my new Fine Art Tech palette, I packed up the Julian Half French.

It's still a great system. I do love the French easels!
On this Monday we met out at Coyote Lake near Morgan Hill. I used a piece of plexi-glass for my palette. I prefer a glass palette so knew I'd have to work on that later. Otherwise, the system worked pretty well. I did forget clamps to hold my turp as well as secure my garbage bag for soiled paper towels. I put that all in a note-to-self to remember for next time.

Here's my set up and my finished painting from Coyote Lake:

"Miss Infinite Hat"

Has it really been since December since I posted anything?

Well, I have been busy - so that is a good thing ;)

A client who commissioned a painting from me a few years back wrote me an email asking about another piece. Yeah!

I have a series of little paintings, all 6x6 and acrylic, that I made in 2008.  I was about to do my first Art Fair and wanted some new work that was all the same size and hopefully easy purchases ;)  I sold a handful that day and was pretty happy. Little did I know that one of those paintings, "Miss Infinite Hat" would be seen on my website and someone would ask me to paint it for them... larger.

So, back in October I was commissioned to recreate that painting 16x16".

Work in Progress, new piece and the original

I've been juggling my days between painting in the studio on the commission, creating icons for web and mobile for various clients, and getting outdoors to do plein air painting. In other words, I've been having a wonderful time!


And now she's finished! Always a mix of emotions at this point.  Happy with the painting, thrilled to meet my deadline, relieved the varnishing went on flawlessly, sad I don't get more time with the piece, hopeful I took at least a few great shots of her with my various cameras, anxious that FedEx will deliver her on-time and un-damaged and of course wondering if the client will love it. What a soup of emotions!

Off she goes to NY, NY!!

Finished! 'Infinite Hat' ©sara mordecai

Hanging Local Artists...

That's part of the URL to the article that came out today about my painting at Starbucks ;)

Once again, the writer Mary Gottschalk has done an excellent job describing the situation, she always gets it right.  I so hate having official portraits and photos taken, and the lovely Jaqueline Ramseyer makes it so much easier. Thank you Jaqueline for choosing a good shot from all your options!

Here is the article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/willow-glen/ci_22189663/starbucks-san-joses-willow-glen-hangs-local-artists

The Store is Open!

One of the things I'm working at being better at is the promotion, PR, marketing, social media, merchandising, selling, etc. etc. part of being a working artist.

On that note, I'm opening the doors wide open, drum roll......

Hello, Starbucks!

Excited to share that my newest painting is now installed at the Willow Glen, San Jose, Starbucks.
I think it really brightens up the back wall of the store!

Just as with the intention for the original painting (see blog posting from September 1, 2011) I wanted to capture a slice of daily life in a local neighborhood. Focusing on the community, the locale and the relationships between people, rather than a branded experience. Fortunately, that was exactly what Starbucks wanted as well!

Bye bye paintings!

An exciting and sad and happy day. The original, large painting for Starbucks and the new painting for Starbucks, were both picked up today! They are gone!

The large one will be installed in the corporate office for Starbucks in San Francisco.
This new one will go in the local Willow Glen store.