The CA3 Newsblog

The CA3 Newsblog

ca3  //  CA3 is "Le Cercle des Amis des Arts d'Argentat" - a group of friends who have a love of art, - and the practise of painting and drawing in particular.
CA3 est «Le Cercle des Amis des Arts d'Argentat" - un groupe d'amis qui a un amour de l'art, - et surtout la pratique de la peinture et le dessin.

 
May 12 / 5:39pm

Portrait in acrylic

by Michael Durant

I meant to come to St Martial this afternoon to finish my portrait but I awoke this morning with a cold (!) - so anyway, I finished it this afternoon at home.

Here it is, - Georgy Porgy surrounded by some of his favourite things.

Pict0396

Mike

 
Mar 14 / 3:08pm

My first 'Nature Morte' for years

by Michael Durant
Painted in Acrylics on MDF at 46x27cm. I found the smooth mdf easier to work, and faster, than canvas.

Pict0225_2
Still Life with pears 

Mike

 
Mar 10 / 12:38pm

Some new acrylics

by Michael Durant
I've been trying out different supports and different sizes.

This first one is small - 41x27cm ("6P" in french format which is actually meant to be for horizontal landscapes), on canvas board.

Pict0223

 

 This second is much bigger and on 10mm smooth MDF - 46x62cm


Pict0224

 

 I find that the former is hard work due to the 'key' of the canvas surface and makes me feel I must get some better acrylic brushes to work more in impasto

The smooth mdf is easier to utilise glazing techniques (partly transparent layers).

Mike

 
Mar 9 / 3:35pm

Règles de composition dans la peinture occidentale - Wikipédia

by Michael Durant
Aha! - It appears that the french sizes I discussed in the last blog are based on 'Rules of Composition'.
The Wikipedia explanations are in french here:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Règles_de_composition_dans_la_peinture_occidentale

..and Google translated them into English thus:

I haven't looked through this yet - be my guest.

Mike

 
Mar 9 / 2:16pm

Painting sizes and Framing

by Michael Durant

We all know how expensive framing can be. So, it pays to paint or draw on supports which are standard sizes so that cheaper, off-the-shelf frames could be used. The trouble is, 'standard' means different things to different nationalities.
Look at this site:

http://www.lucyart.co.uk/size.php

This shows sizes on sale in the UK. But beware! - the centimetres are approximate, the inches are precise.
Here in France we can get metric shapes, as shown at the bottom of this table, but here you will also come across 'traditional' sizes, often codified as "5F" or "6P" etc. where "F" stands for "Figure", "P' for "Paysage" (landscape), "M" for "Marine".

Screen_shot_2011-03-06_at_10

Also -look at this site:

http://alain.joly91.free.fr/paged_accueil_tailledestoiles.htm

I've been trying to trace the historical basis for these French traditional shapes but haven't got very far. Does anyone have any info on this subject, I wonder?

Mike