{"id":7380,"date":"2011-05-04T13:21:56","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T18:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=7380"},"modified":"2011-05-04T13:31:31","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T18:31:31","slug":"%e2%80%9cchair-ity-art%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/05\/04\/%e2%80%9cchair-ity-art%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cChair-ity Art\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Laura Cramer\u2019s Peony Chair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Artists have begun painting cast-off and Adirondack chairs in earnest for the upcoming \u201cChair-ity\u201d Auction, June 3 and 4, during the ArtRageous on Main festival. The only rule is the chair must be functional so that people can sit on it.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a better combination; a work of art you can use to either brighten a dark corner or to add a focal point to an outside living space and to totally surround yourself with beautiful art!<\/p>\n

On this quiet Sunday morning the sun is coming out and with it the artist in me. I know, in the garage there is a \u201cchair-canvas\u201d and acrylic paints quietly waiting and persistently nudging me. I am trying my hand at a child\u2019s chair and hope some interesting illustrations come out of my ideas. Some well-known area artists are painting chairs this year, including Doug Fiely, Laura Cramer, (famous for her mega-images of peonies) Linda McCann, Kay Sluterbeck and Pat Rayman. Pat has chosen a student desk chair and is off to an intriguing start. It will be fun to see the different art chairs developing!<\/p>\n

Our 55th<\/sup> Annual June Show prospectus has been mailed to artists. There is still time to pick one up here at the art center, call us and we\u2019ll mail you one — or you can download a pdf form from out website.<\/p>\n

Time is running out to visit the Wassenberg Art Center and check out our current exhibits, \u201cIt\u2019s In the Cards\u201d and \u201cThe Art of Therapy\u201d which focus on two very different types of art which both encourage interaction.\u00a0 These shows, sponsored by Vancrest Health Care Center, will run through May 7.\u00a0 Exhibit hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays) and admission is free.<\/p>\n

The Wassenberg Art Center is located at 643 S. Washington Street in Van Wert, Ohio.\u00a0 Contact us by phone at 419.238.6837 or by e-mail at wassenberg@embarqmail.com.\u00a0 Check the calendar on our website, www.vanwert.com\/wassenberg, for current activities.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blacks, whites, depth and whales<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Kay Sluterbeck<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ever so often in this column we answer a few questions that have been asked of Wassenberg Art Center instructors.<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 I\u2019VE HEARD THAT IT\u2019S NOT GOOD TO HAVE BLACK PAINT ON MY PALETTE, BUT I SHOULD INSTEAD MAKE BLACKS BY MIXING OTHER COLORS.\u00a0 WHY?<\/p>\n

A.\u00a0 First of all, it\u2019s perfectly all right to have black paint, or any other color, on your palette.\u00a0 However, people who aren\u2019t sure how to mix colors sometimes use black to darken everything, which seems logical, but doing this can leave your painting with a flat, uninteresting look.<\/p>\n

You can make lively blacks by mixing colors.\u00a0 Try Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna.\u00a0 Another good mix for black is Alizarin Crimson and Winsor Green.\u00a0 You can adjust the amounts of each color to make your black mixture warmer or cooler.<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 I WAS TOLD THAT IN WATERCOLOR I SHOULD USE THE WHITE OF THE PAPER AS MY WHITE.\u00a0 HOW DO I DO THIS?<\/p>\n

Using the white of your paper, rather than white paint is up to you.\u00a0 One of the beauties of watercolor is that you CAN leave areas of blank paper as whites, and you can let white paper glow through transparent pigment.\u00a0 To save the white of your paper in watercolor, plan light areas before beginning to paint.\u00a0 Then use a masking agent to preserve them, or learn to leave them alone.\u00a0 If you aren\u2019t comfortable with masking or painting around whites, there\u2019s nothing wrong with using white acrylic or white gesso.<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 HOW CAN I GET DEPTH IN MY LANDSCAPES, SO THINGS LOOK LIKE THEY ARE OFF IN THE DISTANCE?<\/p>\n

A.\u00a0 A common problem for many people is that they want to paint every leaf on the tree, even if the tree is a half-mile away.\u00a0 When you are outside painting and you look at a tree in the distance, do you see details like bark and leaves?\u00a0 No, you only see the shape and color of the tree.\u00a0 Our minds tell us there are leaves on the tree, but we actually don\u2019t see those leaves.\u00a0 Just tell your mind to get out of the way and paint what you see, not what you think you see.\u00a0 Colors should also be lighter and cooler the farther back you go.\u00a0 If you want to show depth, use warmer colors in the foreground with darker values (values = lights and darks) and more details, and use cooler, lighter colors in the distance with less detail.<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 WHAT ARE THE RULES OF ART?<\/p>\n

A.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to answer this with a story from Catherine Anderson, a California workshop instructor and author, who says that before a class a student, Mary, handed her a small painting — a beautiful landscape of what looked like a little pond, like nothing she had done before.\u00a0 \u201cLook what I did!\u201d Mary said with pride.\u00a0 Catherine loved the painting and praised Mary on her wonderful job.\u00a0 Catherine thought the painting was finished, but it turned out that Mary didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to ask your opinion on something,\u201d said Mary.\u00a0 \u201c\u201dI was thinking about putting a whale in the middle of the pond.\u00a0 What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

Catherine was speechless. It took her a moment to respond.\u00a0 \u201cGod, help me come up with something!\u201d she prayed.\u00a0 Then she thought about all the art she had seen in museums and galleries — at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc. — everything from old mattresses hanging from the ceiling and wrapped in bungee cords to a hearse covered with tar that had all kinds of objects stuck to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is art all about, anyway?\u201d she thought.\u00a0 At that moment she realized that there really are no rules.\u00a0 To criticize Mary\u2019s idea would stop the creative process and keep Mary from expressing what she wanted to express.\u00a0 \u201cWho am I to tell anyone what or how they should paint?\u201d Catherine thought.\u00a0 She handed the painting back to Mary and said, \u201cMary, put the whale in!\u201d<\/p>\n

In art, there are no real rules or formulas.\u00a0 Instructors may make suggestions to guide you, but there are no laws.\u00a0 Anything goes.\u00a0 Put the whale in!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace Artists have begun painting cast-off and Adirondack chairs in earnest for the upcoming \u201cChair-ity\u201d Auction, June 3 and 4, during the ArtRageous on Main festival. The only rule is the chair must be functional so that people can sit on it.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a better combination; a work of art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wassenberg"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 03:49:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}