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I Wet My Apatite
Journal entry for 27 Dec 2010 | Link
Hey Nineteen
From Nineteen, The Moon Fell On Me
Comics-type work (sort of) for The Talk That Walked completed, I can now return to The Moon Fell On Me. The latest installment is Nineteen. Enjoy, preferably with a sweater and a hot beverage. (Header title courtesy Steely Dan.)
Chillin', Chillin', Mindin' My Business
Abstraction in a Cold Climate is the title under which my first article for Artcritical appeared.
Kristin Baker is not to be held responsible for what the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston claims on her behalf. I noted this to myself as I read the website copy for Kristin Baker: New Paintings: "This collaged layering of streaked color evokes the acceleration of matter across a surface, light through space, and action over time in ways that blur conventional definitions of painting."
Poor, blameless conventions. I come to their defense in a piece that has received many appreciative comments, largely from artists who have tired of the curators and the language they wield.
(Header title courtesy, well, you have to figure out this one yourself.)
Apatite for Construction
As a little holiday treat to myself I ordered a sampling of watercolors from Daniel Smith's Primatek Line, which it grinds from semiprecious stones. Upon their arrival I painted a color chart, and since snow is falling for the eighteenth consecutive hour and I'm not going out anytime soon, I now share it with you.
Garnet Genuine
Garnet is everything you've ever wanted out of a Venetian Red, with an additional rosy oomph. Strong tint, opaque, dries evenly.
Hematite
Hematite—which is technically one of the many iron oxides, speaking of Venetian Red—is a very strong tinter, granular, and opaque. Like most of the granular colors, the tone that settles into the paper (what watercolorists informally call the "sink") has a different character than the overall wash that soaks the high points of the paper texture (the "lift"). Unlike most granular colors, hematite has a noticeably redder lift than the sinking color, and the effect is luscious.
Quinacridone Gold
This isn't a Primatek color, but it came as a sample with the order. All these quinacridone colors are dependable, vibrant, and handsome.
Tiger's Eye Genuine
Daniel Smith has labeled Tiger's Eye as a green. It possesses the greenish cast of raw umber (the hue leans a little in the direction of raw sienna), but this could be a confusing indicator for the average purchaser. I adore all of these neutrals and this is a nice one, but I don't see buying it again.
Green Apatite Genuine
Apatite, however, is the most beautiful green I've ever laid eyes on. A strong tinter, it has a yellow-leaning lift with a much darker sink that imparts a fascinating texture. This fills a need on the watercolor palette for a warm, dark, intense green that is not easy to approximate even with phthalocyanines, which look acidic by comparison.
Genuine Lapis Lazuli
Lapis turned out to be a big disappointment. Considering the allure of the stone itself, I expected a deep ultramarine with flecks of mica. Instead I discovered a mousy tinter with a hue that isn't preferable in any way to cerulean. On top of it, the texture of the paint is ropey to the point that it doesn't brush out well. It reminded me of Golden Tar Gel, which is not a consistency you want on your watercolor palette. The exception to the naming convention, with "genuine" before the name instead of after as in the rest of the line, offends my editorial pencil, but probably won't cause anyone else the same irritation.
Amethyst Genuine
On the other hand, my every imagining of painting with liquid amethyst was satisfied by Daniel Smith Amethyst Genuine. It has the tinctorial strength of dioxazine, the warmth and granularity of ultramarine purple, and motes of gold that show up in the scan above as glare.
Bloodstone Genuine
Bloodstone supplies a color out of the tube that I find myself frequently mixing up from quinacridone reds, ultramarine, and black. This might be a little redundant with the hematite, but it comes through as more of a genuine purple, with a pink lift and an attractive, dark, neutral sink. (They also make a Hematite Violet, which might split the difference.)
There are several other attractive possibilities in the series, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I picked up a sample of sodalite at the FATE conference in 2009, and I find that to be a useful and evocative dark. Green Apatite was so successful that I'm tempted to try their Blue Apatite. Azurite looks like a granular, transparent version of cobalt, which would be lovely, and for almost two dollars a milliliter it had better be. Piemontite looks like a beautiful scarlet with some of the crazy sink-lift differences of hematite. I would be tempted to try Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Genuine—ooh la la!—but frankly I feel a little burned by the lapis, and turquoise stone was replaced as an artist's pigment early on for good reasons. Several of the other greens look enticing enough that choosing Apatite was difficult. I question the need for Purpurite, Rhodonite, Sedona, Mummy Bauxite, or Fuchsite (wipes face) on the palette, but that doesn't stop me from wanting them.
A Reading
[A]s the Shaolin monk pointed out, kung fu embodies much more than fighting. In fact any ability resulting from practice and cultivation could accurately be said to embody kung fu. There is a kung fu of dancing, painting, cooking, writing, acting, making good judgments, dealing with people, even governing. During the Song and Ming dynasties in China, the term kung fu was widely used by the neo-Confucians, the Daoists and Buddhists alike for the art of living one’s life in general, and they all unequivocally spoke of their teachings as different schools of kung fu.
This, nevertheless, is awesome.