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Editor = Aline Barker / POC = LaVerne Arkenberg

If you are a teacher, you never stop teaching.   In this series of essays on painting, I plan to cover areas of what make a good painting.  I will talk about subject matter, design, rhythm, proportion, texture, value, technique, and a few other topics such as entering competitions. I will think of other subjects or maybe members might like to suggest a subject. I am open and do not mind doing a little research if necessary. 

Aline Barker

Bio of Aline Barker

I think being an artist is something that was born in me.  My great grandfather was a wood carver in Bavaria.  When I think of him, I remember the beautiful bas-relief woodcarvings a friend had bought in Germany.  In this country, he was a builder as were his sons.  My father’s sister was a seamstress. She made and designed dresses for me and my sister as well as many of her clients.  This generation it is me. My two daughters both paint, one in oils and the other in all media.  Now I have a great granddaughter doing just what I was doing at the age of ten. She is drawing constantly.  She wants to be a clothes designer. For ten years of age, her drawing skills are great.

My fourth grade teacher discovered my ability. She gave me the job of decorating the top twelve inches of the blackboards.  I loved her. From her I learned manual skills such as lettering, sign making and drawing.  But she also taught the history of art, my favorite subject.  The other art teacher was Lucy Diecks, one of Louisville’s best-known painters.  From her I learned oil painting.  During study periods, I went to the oil studio and painted, squeezing a little more art into my school day. I did not go to college. My father was a practical man and sent me to business school.  My college was later in life when I took  classes in what I wanted to know such as more accounting and history of art classes.

I had a few years inactivity as an artist. I was busy raising two daughters. I helped and encouraged them. But my younger daughter pulled me back into painting, so I joined the Palette Club, a local all-media organization.  I did art fairs, which I dearly loved. I took watercolor workshops and at one of these workshops, it was suggested that we form a watercolor society. And so the Kentucky Watercolor Society was created.  I was the first recording secretary followed by Aqueous Chair, President, Treasurer, and have over the years held many other offices.

I have also taught art classes. I was asked to teach a watercolor class at Louisville Visual Association (at the water tower). I taught those classes over twenty years, ending with the closing of Artopia and LVAA’s classes. I loved teaching and still have a few student-friends who paint with me.

I entered competitions, winning my share of awards. I loved art fairs--such a great way to get to know other artists.  In my old pop-top VW Camper, I have gone as far as Atlanta and Destin, Florida. It has been a great life.

Painter or Artist?

Painter or artist, which are you?  We are all painters.  The work of an artist is original, your own work.  It is creative. It has a lot of you in it.  A work  of art consists of three elements: a surface for painting, pigment, and YOU.  YOU are the most important element that goes into a work of art.  When you put yourself into a painting, that is what puts life into the piece.

If you are a painter, there must be an artist inside you striving to get out.  You know that artist is in there and this is why you paint and paint and paint. You release that artist by studying with other artists. You go to museums and exhibitions.  There are hundreds of “how to” books available.  Browse through them. They all have something to say, otherwise no publisher would print them.  Learn new things and adapt them to your way of thinking and painting. Some of these things will be instilled in you. You will become more creative and that artist in you will emerge.

Aline Barker KWS
8-22-10

 

Recently a student came in with watercolor paper she had soaked. She had mounted it on a wet cloth towel (dish towel size) on her painting board so that it would stay an even wetness while she painted it. This was new to her and to me--a first time experiment. It worked wonderfully. It was too wet for her to take home from class that day, but the next day it had dried flat!

Contributor: Aline Barker; KWS

8-22-10

 

Some lessons are hard but necessary, otherwise we would not remember and learn from them. When I did my first watercolor, it looked more like an oil painting. Having done oils and taught them for at least 20 years before I decided to seriously TRY to do watercolor painting,  I did not know how to get white by letting the paper show through, (which is the white for watercolor). I looked for instant gratification. Also I could not figure out why someone would want to paint on a piece of paper that looked like ocean waves when you painted a section. All the paint ran down into the valley and left the peak nearly bare. I gave up many times. However being very frugal and having invested so much money in supplies, I could not let them go to waste. It took a great instructor to show me how (and why) to wet and stretch your paper, let it dry and when you wet it again with paint or water it would not look like a washboard. Since my main obstacle was learning the medium, I have not regretted but thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Contributor: LaVerne Arkenberg; KWS

8-22-10

 

I had just finished a watercolor that had a lot of white background. I wanted to kill that white. I decided to wet the background and think on it. I wet the background. The same water I used was the water I used for cleaning my brushes. It was extremely dirty. That dirty water applied loosely was all the painting wanted. That water had a concentration of the pigments used in the painting.

Contributor: Aline Barker; KWS

8-22-10