"The fire inside" mini canvas' #8 4x4" © 2010 Shayla Perreault Newcomb.
"Thin Red Line" 20x16" oil
Good lines. I was running out of good lines. My trees are symbols so I keep them simple, not realistic looking. That's why I don't observe a tree as a general rule when I paint, but instead let my body gestures and arm movements dance out a tree. They're more like stick figures. The Creative Everyday theme on nature got me thinking. They were starting to all look like three pronged forks, so for a little variety I went back to the source to observe. I took about 20 photos of trees that to me expressed triumphant lines- no weeping willows in this shoot.I did a series of gesture drawings with conte crayon and taped them to my studio wall. These were very messy and loose. I practiced refining favorite trees in my journal and wrote some words from my artist statement underneath to guide me.
Then I came upon the perfect tree shape in a romaine lettuce leaf. Triumphant looking, yes? When I showed Jason I demonstrated it's perfection by singing my version of this. "Yes, the leaf is singing opera, Shayla." He didn't even lift an eyebrow. A benefit of living with another creative is they understand instead of having you put in a straight jacket like a non creative might be tempted to do.
A series of lettuce leaf "trees" followed. Lastly, inspiration from my new stretch video (major help energy wise). The setting is in the Canadian Rockies and the pines there are taller and thinner as opposed to our wind whipped, squatter trees. The wind whipped trees felt like isolation and trials to me. These tall trees look regal. In my last sketch, I've combined the Romaine "trees" with the pines from the Rockies and I'm pleased with these lines.
I made this card yesterday. Three squares may not seem like a lot of work, but I've been experimenting with card design for about two years and have come up with all kinds of awful stuff. Sometimes it's what you don't put in that makes the piece work. I was considering using a cool tree stamp I made and am itching to use, and was brainstorming how to use all the elements together when I realized I needed a brain break. The end result was a simpler piece. I'm learning to respect those limits, but the artistic payoff still surprises me. Who knew? We really don't have to suffer for our art ;) The squares are also made from my stash of "batik" papers that I made up last year. I tried a glue stick- which believe it or not- seemed perfumed. Why put perfume in glue? Liberty of Moving Beyond MCS recommended this better non toxic glue, which I have to try. 
P.S. Congrats also go out to Dennis Austin Reid mentioned above for having a painting purchased by the Canadian Art Bank this year.
The journal page above was made with pastels, watercolors marker and pencil. It's an older piece when I was testing out all of my supplies for a sensitivity reaction. The pastels became an irritant, for now anyway, but I had some great news this week. Celebrating!! Oil paints seem to be going well. There are certain colors that irritate, but the cool gold I want to use is working beautifully. Not only that, but they perform so well. I'm not using solvents, just linseed or walnut oil for thinning so it takes a long time for my layers to dry. There probably won't be anything to show here from that batch for at least a month. It's an interesting rhythm. Slow food, slow blogging, now slow art. Guess I needed to slow down :D
The painting above is the last painting I made with my old acrylics in February. It's recycled. The painting underneath was gold, so to limit use of paint and fumes, I put two quick coats of color, then scratched out the trees and lines, letting the gold and white show through. This still gave me a nasty list of symptoms. Even if visible symptoms don't show up for everyone, it's easy to be affected without knowing especially if the supplies aren't used safely. That's why I'm sharing my top five list of safer alternatives.
1. Natural Pigments. When looking for safer supplies, people often recommend natural pigments as the first choice. Natural pigments are an advantage because you have complete control over what goes into your paint. You will find greater variety in colors and will have the satisfaction of a signature palette. Why is this important? This allows you greater creativity and expression. Also, various chemicals and fillers can be bypassed. Your binder can even be a food grade material like milk or egg. These paints are also good for decorating your house. Here are a few companies that sell natural pigments: Kremer, Earth Pigments, Kama, Natural Pigments and Sinopia.
One word of caution about natural pigments: they are dusty to work with. Artist supply gurus, Dennis Austin Reid and Darlene Teahen from the Art Shack used to make their own pastels. They told me that no matter how careful you are, how slowly you pour, even when wearing safety goggles, and a mask, you will inhale some of the dust unless you work with a glove box. Tiny particles, even non-toxic ones, are hazardous to the lungs. Several universities also recommend working with a glove box if mixing your own pigments. For more info see here and here.
2.Dispersions. Dispersions are pigments already in a liquid, so you can bypass all the concerns of inhalation hazards, but keep the benefits of vibrancy and purity. They are very concentrated, and work with all water based media. An added bonus is that they are not only of great quality, but a better economy. Check out Kama Pigments.
3.Earth Safe Acrylics The website talks about the benefits of low to no Volatile Organic Compounds in their acrylics plus all the nasty stuff that they don't put in their paints. Their recipes are said to be safe even for high risk such as the chemically sensitive, post chemo patients, and for children plus they don't contribute to global warming like regular paints. They have professional artist products and decor product to paint your walls.
A note to those who don't paint, but who love to decorate: one of the reasons for poor air quality in the home is the paint on the walls. It can off-gas, causing various health problems, for quite some time. These don't.
4.Rublev Artist Oils. These oils are hand ground in small batches and contain pigment and linseed oil only. Think of them as artisinal, or gourmet paints. The benefit here is that you know precisely what is in the paint, there are no additives so you skip all the chemicals and fillers, plus you can use some of the same formulations of the old masters. Oil paints have a bad reputation for fumes. The smell from oils is the rancidity of the oil and that means it's drying. Concern over oil rancidity is only applicable for your salad. While it's possible to be sensitive to anything it's likely not the linseed oil that is causing a reaction, but perhaps the solvents that cause physical problems. There are alternatives to the strong solvents. Another advantage of oils is that they are not made from petrochemicals.
5.Nature's Flavours These are natural as opposed to synthetic food grade dyes made from ingredients such as turmeric, beets, elderberries etc. Several artists I've spoken too have projects that are years old without any fading. I put a sample of the turmeric paint in the window to see if it would bleach out and found that it was very light fast, in fact better than many watercolors. These are versatile. Try using them with egg, or milk as a base. Here's a recipe for homemade watercolors.
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One more safety tip, no matter which kind of paint you choose (except natural flavorings), get the Material Safety Data Sheets. Some colors, the pigments themselves, are poisonous. It is understood that the artists are aware of the risk and how to use them safely, but this is often not the case. Here is an article that lists of some colors that affect human health. She even lists safer alternatives that work just as well and has special info for pregnant artists and safety concerns.
The switch to safer supplies can take some time. There can be a learning curve if you're changing mediums (grrr! no I'm not tearing my hair out yet), but the exciting thing is that many of the products may out perform what you're already using. Mixed media lovers and supply junkies have a whole new range of goodies to experiment with and all of us can feel better about taking better care of our health, the health of those who breathe our studio air, and a better environment for everybody.
