An Entire Day with the Golden Artist ..... part 7

Golden Fibre Paste

"A flexible surface with the look of rough handmade paper that is ideal as a ground or a texture." Our's were applied very thickly and given to us dry. It had a texture just like heavy handmade paper! (Like 300 lb cp arches paper.) But it definitely does not react like watercolour paper, though. I like how you can make a surface appear like watercolour paper but I think I'll take the watercolour paper.

An Entire Day with the Golden Artist ..... part 6

Oh, I love this one!

Golden Light Molding Paste

It's a mixture of marble dust and gel, dries fairly opaque and white. It's designed to create texture and hardness. On one side of the 5" x 7" mat board, we applied it thick and on the other side we applied it thin (with a knife). After letting it dry, we applied fluid acrylics. I used Irridescent bronze, Irridescent gold, quin magenta and carbon black. I am definitely going to frame and hang this one.

An Entire Day with the Golden Artist ..... part 5

Glass Bead Gel

"A clear textural gel made with genuine glass beads, offering a unique reflective quality." We learned how you can paint over the dried glass bead gel, and how you can also paint under it before applying. We saw how awesome the gel looks when applied to a decorative paper. I think it would look great over a window in a winter scene looking outside. It doesn't distort the original image, just softens it. It'd also make some awesome sand.

Here's a fast attempt at some waves and a closeup of the beads. Hopefully you can see the tiny glass beads in the closeup.

An Entire Day with the Golden Artist ..... part 4

Golden Crackle Paste and Gels

"Crackle Paste develops deep fissure-like cracks as it dries." We learned that if you apply it thick, the fissures or cracks are bigger and deeper than if you applied it thinly. We applied drops of fluid acrylics to a wet ground. (The crackle paste had dried before applying the water.)

Then we painted four squares on a piece of 8" x 10" mat board. Using different gels, we tinted them, applied them to one of the squares then scraped it off. Andrea said this is called Scraffito. It's fun! We used soft gel matte, regular gel, heavy gel and high solid gel. Andrea explained the many kinds available through Golden and showed us a lot of actual painted examples. Then we got down to painting our own and experimenting:

An Entire Day with the Golden Artist ..... part 3

Golden Acrylic Ground for Pastels

"Used to prime paper, wood, canvas and other surfaces to create 'tooth' for pastel, oil pastel, crayons, graphite pencil, coloured pencils and water media."

5" x 7", fluid acrylics on acrylic ground for pastels, on mat board.

I liked this - it felt almost like unglazed porcelain. It was different to paint on. You can create some very nice texture lines while applying the ground. The fluid acrylics react nicely to water on this.

An Entire Day with the Golden Artist ..... part 2

Micaceous Iron Oxide (Stainless Steel) is "a deep dark black gritty paint with metallic flecks." First we mixed it (in it's fluid consistency) with some fluid acrylics to discover how it radically changes the colours. Then Andrea gave us each a board (5" x 7") with the same paint (but in Heavy Body consistency) used as a ground, applied in a thick layer and dried. It's a very gritty feel, like sandpaper. She then provided us with pastels to try out on this. Here's my results:

An Entire Day with the Golden Artist ..... part 1

Today, I spent the entire day at a workshop here in town with Andrea Warren, Golden's "working artist" for the Ottawa area! It was a fantastic workshop! We experimented with Golden's products all day long. Andrea really knows her stuff and she explained and led us through their product line, with each of us experimenting hands on with everything. We had a break for a catered lunch, which was included in the workshop, received lots of goodies to take home as well as all our pieces.

(I am going to break this post up into several smaller ones because of the number of photos I'm going to include.)

Here's some of the highlights:

First, the goodies:

















Andrea explained the differences between the older mineral based paints and the newer ones and then wanted us to play with both. I chose to make two colour charts rather than paint something. :-)


































Andrea also explained about interference paints and showed us how and why they work.