Chickadees and Mounting Paintings with Roslyn Levin - May 13th, 2023
Artists are always interested in painting birds, especially in the spring when many return. Chickadees are a favourite. Artists also like to know how to mount their paintings so that they can frame their paintings for shows. Roslyn Levin began her workshop by demonstrating how to mount paintings.
Turn your art over and wet the back.
Spread the acid-free glue to the back of the art. Spread from the centre outwards.
Put the backing paper on the back of your art.
Roslyn Levin added glue along the edges of the backing paper to hold it to the wood board that it dries on.
Once on the wood board, put a straw under the edge and blow on it to prevent the backing paper from sticking.
Roslyn Levin has pioneered a way of presenting sumi-e rice-paper art on a wood frame.
The details of mounting sumi-e art are covered in The Brush Dances by Roslyn Levin.
Many photos of the chickadee helped artists attending the workshop.
The small bird has a black cap and a black bib beneath its beak. No eye was added though it is imagined easily within the cap.
With a dry brush, Roslyn Levin added the wing and outlined the edge of the breast.
The breast itself is white; that is, unpainted.
A twig was added to the painting.
Berries were added to the twig. Acrylic paint can be used to brighten the berries.
Another painting showed the chickadee from the front.
Artists had two chickadees to guide them in their practice.
Painting chickadees was absorbing work for the artists.
Roslyn Levin provided some tips.
The mounted painting created earlier had dried and Roslyn Levin showed the result.
A flying chickadee was next.
The flapping wing was painted with a series of side brush strokes.
Two flying birds completed the demonstration.
Everyone wanted to study Roslyn Levin's birds.
Artists created their own birds at the workshop.
Their creations were close reproductions of Roslyn Levin's chickadees.
You can learn more about Roslyn Levin in the links section.