Orchids by F.W.T Burbridge (Botanical Illustrations)

Exploring the works of various Botanical Artists for the upcoming Botanical Drawing Workshop has been too wonderful not to share. When I stumbled across these orchid illustration by Frederick William Thomas Burbidge, a British explorer and botanist. The illustrations are from the volume Jennings, S., Orchids and how to grow them in India and other tropical climates, (1875) [F.W.T. Burbridge]. Looking at these beautifully colored images, one can almost smell the orchids. I wish I could find out more information about the circumstances under which they were painted, the exact medium used, and whether they were made on an expedition or in a conservatory. 

An incredible resource is the website http://plantillustrations.org/artists.php, and archive of Botanical Illustrations with many high res scans. Check it out and see what you discover!

Botanical Drawing and Watercolor Supply List

Here is the supply list for the upcoming Botanical Drawing Workshop.

For a guide on where to buy art supplies in Berlin, go HERE.
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- Paper: Hot Press Watercolor Paper (also called smooth, Glatt, Glad) 300 g, A4.

- Botanical Illustrators have traditionally used Hot Press Watercolor Paper for their work because its smooth surface is conducive to fine detail. 

- Watercolor paper can be purchased as a block (edges glued together so paper doesn't buckle) or as individual sheets. If you choose to work on loose sheets, you will need a board to tape your paper to.

Hot Press "Glad/glatt" Watercolor Block, 300g
purchased at Boesner - cost 7 Euro

- Brushes: 

These are the minimum required brushes. Look for the brushes marked for watercolor with the short handle. The larger brush must be real or synthetic sable - this is the fibre that the brush is made from and can be referred to as Sable, Kolinsky-Sable, Rotmarderhaar (de). Real Sable brushes are made from animal hairs are are superior to synthetic brushes.  

•  #1-2 round brush - for fine detail
•  #6-8 round brush - Sable, Kolinsky-Sable, Rotmarderhaar (de), or synthetic sable

- Watercolors: I recommend buying dry cakes of watercolors in a box (Aquarell Malkasten).

The fewest colors you can get by with would be these 6 colors below, the three primaries in warm and cool versions. If you have a watercolor set, bring that along and we can see if some colors can be substituted. Different brands also have different names for the same colors sometimes. 

PRIMARIES COOL COLORS WARM COLORS BLUE Cerulean Blue (or Pthalo Blue) French Ultramarine Blue RED Alizarin Crimson Cadmium Red YELLOW Lemon Yellow (Cadmium Yellow Pale) Cadmium Yellow

Additional Optional Colors:

Malkasten

Payne's Grey, Burnt Sienna, Violet, Greenish Yellow (Green Gold), Sap Green, Viridian Green, Yellow Ochre, Neutral Tint, your choice!

- White Gouache (opaque watercolor) 

- Other: 

• Pencils: HB, 2B and white eraser
• Notebook for taking notes
• Water cup 

- Optional:

• masking fluid
• masking tape  
• additional palette for mixing colors  
• pigment Liner 0.1 (artist archival ink pen)

If you have any questions, let me know!

Check out our GUIDE TO BUYING ART SUPPLIES IN BERLIN

Student Work: Mixed Media Winter 2015

I'm very proud to share some of the student work from the last Mixed Media Workshop! 

Many of the final projects pictured here originated out of the Found-Surface Assemblage class. 

Also shown here are a couple of paintings from the Movement as Mark-Making class.

Miguel

Janne

Kate

Anastasia

Anastasia and Janne

Miguel

Ori Gersht brings Cotán painting to life

In the Drawing Workshop we dedicate an entire class to the concept of negative space. One of the artists we look at, in order to better understand this concept, is Spanish painter Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560 – 1627). The lush black backgrounds in his still life paintings not only emphasize the negative space between the objects, but they bring an existential quality to the otherwise mundane still life.
See post: "Negative Space: from Juan Sánchez Cotán to Rachel Whiteread"

Juan Sánchez Cotán

Juan Sánchez Cotán

We didn't have time to look at this video in class, but it is a great follow up to Cotán's work. Contemporary Israeli photographer Ori Gersht has literally brought a Cotán-style painting to life. 

• How do you think Gersht's work effects the interpretation of Cotán's work?
• Does Gersht bring new content to the work, or further underscore the themes already at play in Cotán's work, for example: mortality, brevity of life, time, etc...?

Art Supplies in Berlin

Need a new pencil?

I have been meaning to get around to this for a long time now! Students ask me all the time where to go to buy art supplies in Berlin. Here are some of my recommendations, all in one spot! If you don't see your favorite shop listed here, leave your recommendations in the comments. Thanks!

1. Boesner

This is the largest art supply store in Berlin with the best selection of paints and brushes. Unlike most of our other recommendations, they are big and corporate - but if you want a one stop solution to your painting and drawing needs this is probably your best bet. But don't go there expecting help or advice on what to buy.

• Prenzlauerberg and Charlottenburg
• Marienburger Straße 16, Berlin
• 030 40504260

2. Planet Modulor
A wonderland of design and architecture paraphernalia! Definitely worth a visit, but not the best place for fine art supplies. Their selection of paints, brushes, etc... is limited and expensive. But if you are looking for a notebook, and excellently designed paperclip, a model making material you never new existed, or need to get something laser cut, go here.

• Prinzenstraße 85, 10969 Berlin Kreuzberg at Moritzplatz
• 030 69036200

3. Peter's Art
Located in Wedding and specializing in painting supplies. Their website is quite good and if you know what you want, they will deliver orders over 99 euro. They also make custom size canvases. Used by many professional artists in the city.

• Gottschedstraße 26, 13357 Berlin Wedding
• 0177 7068615 or info@peters-art.de (to place an order for delivery)

4. CYM Kunst- und Zeichnenbedarf

This is a cute little shop specializing in drawing and painting supplies. They are usually happy to advise you on what to buy and prices are reasonable. The Planufer store is generally more for drawing and Dieffenbachstr. is more for painting. But it's just a short walk between the two locations if you need to visit both.

• Planufer 96 & Dieffenbachstrasse 16, 10967 Berlin Kreuzberg
• Telefon: 030 / 691 29 43
• Hours: Mo-Fr 10-6pm, Sa 11-4pm

5. Malstoff

As recommended by Keir, former participant of nearly every workshop available at the Berlin Drawing Room. And he got all of his supplies here!
"Super friendly shop with really fantastic stock, particularly good for the pro end and really good quality stuff." - Keir Edmonds

• Warschauer Strasse 20, 10243 Berlin Friedrichshain
• Hours: Mo-Fri 10-6pm, Sat 10-3pm

6. Edelhoff KREATIVKAUFHAUS

As recommended by Kate Perets, another regular at the Berlin Drawing Room! Fine art and craft supplies.

• Rudolf-Seiffert-Street 3, 10369 Berlin (near S-Bahnhof Storkower Str. )
• +49 30 99499061 or info@edelhoff-kreativkaufhaus.de
• Hours: Mon-Sat 9-8pm

Assemblage with Found Surfaces

Mixed Media class: scroll down to the bottom of the page to get tips for your upcoming assemblage assignment!

Pablo Picasso, La bouteille de Suze (Bottle of Suze) 1912
movement: Synthetic Cubism

The assemblage is a truly modern phenomenon. The technique of assemblage is the incorporation of everyday objects and surfaces into a composition, either 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional. The intention is to bring elements of everyday life directly into an artwork.

Assemblage started with Synthetic Cubism, a movement that further flattened the space of Cubist painting by introducing recognizable collage elements. Fragments of newspaper, product labels, wallpaper, etc... were used not only as a formal element of texture and color, but also as familiar objects - undisguised.  

The absurdity that could result from decontextualizing everyday objects within an artwork was enthusiastically explored by Dada and Surrealist artists. They saw a world that no longer made sense, at least not in the old way. Industrialization meant that machines were replacing humans and WWI sent home soldiers that were literally pieced back together. 

Max Ernst, "Fruit d'une Longue Experience" (Fruit of a Long Experience) 1919
Movement: Dada

Kurt Schwitters, "Merzbild Rossfett" 1919
Movement: Dada

American artist Robert Rauschenberg continued the technique of assemblage in the 1960's. He referred to these hybrid painting-objects as Combines. Like Schwitters, he developed his own visual language through the combination of everyday found objects and painting. The compositions often have the feeling of being psychologically charged. Although very influenced by Dadaism, one difference that I see with Rauschenberg is that while the Dada artists were more concerned with deconstructing meaning, Rauschenberg seems to be building meaning. His Combines are like sentences that cannot be quite deciphered, but lead one to imagine to that with the right key they could be. 

Robert Rauschenberg, Combine
Movement: Abstract Expressionism 

Robert Rauschenberg, Combine 

** For the Mixed Media class this Sunday, please bring a collection of found surfaces that can be used for an assemblage. Look for surfaces with interesting textures, for example a weathered piece of wood, a rusted piece of metal, or a torn poster. Choose objects and surfaces that reflect your everyday life! Maybe something you find in the recycling bin of your work, a label from an oft used product, objects found on your daily commute. Look out for materials when you are walking on the street, this is probably the best way to find stuff!

Winter Painting Workshop Gallery Tour

Billy Childish at Neugerriemschneider

Last weekend we explored some of the offerings in the contemporary art galleries of Berlin. Believe it or not, but sometimes it can be tricky to find good painting shows in Berlin. But we did manage to visit three very different and interesting painting exhibitions. Combined with the sunny weather, strolling through Mitte, this made for a great Painting Workshop field trip!

First stop was the gallery Peres Projects, where we saw the exhibition My Heroine and Her Mate by the artist Dorothy Iannone. Although Iannone is best known for her feminist erotic drawings, we were treated to some of her earlier abstract paintings. Although precursors to her later works were to be spotted in this painting, "The Sea Where Cleopatra Bathed" from 1964. We learned that this American artist was born in 1933 and lives in Berlin.

The Sea Where Cleopatra Bathed, 1964
Dorothy Iannone

The next stop was Reena Spaulings Later Seascapes at Galerie Neu. We were confronted with an at first glance cryptic press release, which we eventually realized we could take in the most literal sense. The paintings were physically painted by an iRobot Scooba 450, a robotic vacuum cleaner, and they claimed to reference seascapes by JMW Turner. "Spaulings channels the senile-visionary late later Turner in the robot's drone-like way of attacking the canvas like any vacuum floor," states the press release. Some of us were quite entertained by irreverent personality of the show, while others found it to be overly smug and ironic. But definitely thought provoking!

Later Seascapes by Reena Spaulings at Galerie Neu
© Reena Spaulings - Photo: Stefan Korte, Berlin
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Neu, Berlin

The last stop was at Neugerriemschneider to see the work of painter, poet, musician Billy Childish. Here we saw beautiful and nostalgic oil paintings on linen, contemplating man's relationship with nature and family, and his place the world. The paintings also contained many art historical references and influences, including Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and contemporary painter Peter Doig, among others. 

Billy Childish