Showing posts with label casein. Show all posts

Round up - Final CSA work

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Sunday, January 20, 2013 | , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Barn Raising, Acrylic on Instant Film
 Here's a round-up of the final paintings that I created for the CSA exhibition-- enjoy!  View larger images and details on my website: jamieribisi.com
The Next Generation, Acrylic & Ink on Instant Film

First Frost, Casein & Wax Pastel, 18" x 18"

Wilted, Casein, Wax Pastel, & Graphite, 24" x 24"

Milk-fed, Casein & Graphite, 24" x 24"

Erasing the Land of the Arches, Casein & Wax Pastel, 18" x 18"

Final CSA Shows and New Work

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Thursday, December 27, 2012 | , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Our cabbage paintings side-by-side
I love how in-sync we were this month! Working on new paintings at our own homes without talking about them at all, we wound up using the same subject matter!  Kim and I had looked at the cabbage growing on the farm in October but hadn't painted them until this week.

Kim and I have been working non-stop on the CSA project-- we have our 3 final shows coming up in January!  With the addition of those new exhibits to the 2 already on display, we'll be showing in 5 places at the same time (!!!).  Hectic, but a nice problem to have as an artist.  It's really made me be very productive so that I have a fresh supply of new work not only to give to the venues, but to be excited about and share via the blog and Facebook.  It would be boring to me to ask people to come out to a new venue to see the same old work no matter how cool I think it is :)

So, here's the newest work so far-- they can be found at the following venues on the following dates -- think of it like an Easter egg hunt:
Savory Maine Dining and Provisions, Damariscotta, ME through February 5, 2013
Crosstrax Neighborhood Deli, Unity, ME through January 26, 2013Maine Farmland Trust, Belfast, ME January 4-February 27, 2013 (opening 1/4 5-8pm)
University of Maine Hutchinson Center, Fernald Gallery, Belfast, ME January 4-February 27, 2013 (opening 1/4 5-8pm)
Frontier, Brunswick, ME January 11-February 24, 2013 (opening 1/11 5-8pm)

My newest paintings:
It Was Always Waiting There, Casein and Wax Pastel, 18" x 18", November 2012
Do Over, Casein and Sharpie, 18" x 18", November 2012

End of the Day, Acrylic, 18" x 24", October 2012

On Display, Casein and Graphite, 18" x 24", October 2012

Cabbage Patch, Casein and Wax Pastel, 18" x 18", December 2012

And Kim's newest pieces:

Cabbage in the Grass, Acrylic and Sharpie, 12" x 14"

Vegetables in the Barn, Watercolor and Graphite on Canvas, 11" x 14"

Barn House, Acrylic, 11" x 14"

SOLD! - Guard Dog, Acrylic and Wax Pastel, 6" x 6"


Using Caran d'Arche Neocolor II pastels

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Monday, March 19, 2012 | , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Caran d'Arche Neocolor II water soluble wax pastels

I've been asked a few times to explain what these wax pastels are that I've been using lately.  They are Caran d'Arche Neocolor II water soluble wax pastels, also called Aquarelle Artist Pastels.  Now, be sure that you're buying Neocolor II and not I-- Neocolor I pastels are water resistant.  they still do very cool things but under different circumstances and with different media.  I've been using the NII pastels in mixed media pieces, mostly with casein and acrylic paint.  


In the images above, I simply scribbled some NII into the areas that I wanted to use as a thin paint. The pigment in the pastel is so concentrated that it really works well either on its own or blended into other paint.  If you're working on top of casein, the water will reactivate the paint and your colors will blend.  If you are working on top of acrylic, as I am here, then you will make semi-transparent layers of paint on top of your color.  Use it on its own for a nice underlayer of color.

You can also lay down some paint and, while it's wet, use the NII to scratch into the paint to reveal the colors underneath. Vary the heaviness of  your hand to reveal deeper layers.  Things get interesting when the color from your NII is left behind in your marks.  If you want to increase the likelihood of this happening, wet your NII before drawing. 

 
I like to paint/draw/paintover/draw/paintover/draw/paintover ... until I feel like it's done.  This is the beginning of a small painting I'm working on but thought it was ok enough to share for purposes of explaining the Neocolor II pastels.  

It's hard for me to pass up a colorful art supply I come across-- I'm glad that I picked these up to experiment with!

The Chicken Chick

New Paintings in February

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Saturday, March 3, 2012 | , , , , , Leave a comment

Despite my camera's best effort to foil my documentation (I completely blame technology, not myself), here are some new paintings from last month...

Backstays; Acrylic, Casein, Graphite, Wax Pastel; 18" x 18"

Let It All Hang Out; Acrylic & Wax Pastel; 18" x 18"


This Is Where I Hide; Acrylic, Casein, & Wax Pastel; 18" x 18"


Where do you start?

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Monday, December 5, 2011 | , , , , , , 2 Comments

"Talked Into It" casein & wax pastel on arches watercolor paper mounted on cradled board 6 x 6", available here
The other day, my friend, who has known my paintings for a few years, asked me about my process, "Where do you start?" An interesting question that I never had asked of me before! 

Right now in my current paintings I start with a ground color, since I know I'll typically scrape away parts of the painting to reveal it. Then I think about a general color palette, knowing full well that it'll change as I paint. And I just go from there, drawing, painting, scribbling, scraping, layering, until I'm happy with where it lands. Sometimes I draw shapes, sometimes words usually from things I'm thinking or a conversation with myself, or what I'm watching on tv or something my husband says. Sometimes it turns into an inside joke with myself and I name the piece after that.

Anyway-- I'm thinking of all of this as I continue to post my new small paintings in my Etsy shop.

So tell me, where do you start?

New work

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Tuesday, June 14, 2011 | , , , , 1 Comment


I really have had a great time loosening up and working on this newest grouping of paintings on paper. They helped me work through the larger paintings on board that I've been doing while being completed paintings of their own.

Throughout my years of painting, I've almost always done representational paintings. It's how I learned to paint. It's pretty much all I've known. But I've been so drawn to mark making, movement, and color. And I've also been very moved by non-representational art. I've been wanting to make the move to creating pieces that took the familiar representational aspects out of the composition and just focus on the movement and the color. I'm happy with what's developing and anxious to see where it takes me next.

I've always been a very deliberate painter. I'm happy to let that go and to let the paint and the moment tell me where to go next.

After completing the works on paper I'm holding in the images here, I created this casein painting on cradled wood. It's called "Haywire" and is 16" square.


I'm really excited about this painting -- the layers of casein paint mixed with graphite, litho crayon, and water soluble wax crayons really were fun to work with. There are subtle colors popping through the marks and I'm hoping to explore that more in future paintings.

Never know what will develop at the next studio session!

Casein paintings on paper

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Monday, May 9, 2011 | , , , , 4 Comments

A closer look at my new paintings on paper- these are all Casein & Graphite on Arches paper. I've been making them for the Gardiner Art Walk this Friday, May 13th from 5:30-9pm.
If there are any left after the Art Walk, I'll be listing them on my website and Etsy shop.








Painting with Casein

By Jamie Ribisi-Braley | Sunday, March 27, 2011 | , , , 1 Comment



The life of a blog tends to have its ups and downs, the moments of dead air and moments of frantic energy. I'm sure you see it in the other blogs that you follow. There are always the "I've been neglecting my blog" posts and they happen every so often for just about everyone that I know.

For me, it happens because I'm working on something new and I'm not yet ready to share those moments and talk about them. I want to see where they go organically and not because I'm forcing myself to share and talk about them.

"So what have you been doing lately," you ask? So glad you asked :)

I've decided to explore yet another antiquated medium-- casein. Casein paint is a material derived from milk protein. It's water soluble and very fun to work with. The flow feels like a hybrid of watercolor and acrylic but it is certainly its own beast. I chose to explore it because I was beginning to work drawing into my paintings. I needed something that dried relatively fast but would play nicely with graphite both in the wet and dry phases.

I've been working on both virgin wood and a prepared ground (I'll note the difference in the images posted here); I've found that I prefer the finished look in the ground. Working on a virgin wood, the paint absorbs extremely fast, which is ok but challenging at times. You certainly have to chase the painting a lot harder. Working this way created a pleasing atmospheric quality but the wood wound up getting little areas that were similar to fuzz on a good sweater. Not the look I was going for.

Working on a ground is my preferred way to paint with casein (for now, anyway!) because it gives the painting a luminosity that is unattainable on the bare wood. It also makes the paint flow like a dream. Plus, I really love applying ground to wood. That's my new favorite prep activity. Taping off the edges on the other hand... don't care for it too much.

(above: My Black Eye, 6" x 8"; no ground)

Aggregate, 20" x 24"; ground

Breaking Off The Middle Part, 16" x 16"; no ground

Salad (Tosser), 20" x 24"; ground

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