Medalion Painting
by Pat Irving Home Page Link FTP Lib Link



I have had a great interest in painting for many years. In the past I have used oils, acrylics, and watercolors. I have also done computer art paintings using the DPaint program on our Amiga (That's our other family computer.) That was great fun! Recently I have taken a new interest in watercolors because of their lightness and spontaneity. I particularly enjoy painting florals and landscapes. Some of my favorite watercolor artists are Michael Atkinson, Jan Kunz, John and Edith Maskey, and Michael Ewing.


Painting Mediums
The three mediums are oils, acrylics, and watercolors. (Yes, artists say "mediums" instead of "media".) Each medium has its own special characteristics, and artists will choose a given medium based on the effect and feeling they wish to capture. There are no "right and wrongs" in art and no "formulas" for choosing one medium over another. In fact different mediums can be used in the same painting. For example, watercolor and acrylics are often used together.

Oil paints must be mixed with an oil-soluble product such as linseed oil. Because they can be applied "thickly", they are excellent for obtaining a rich and textured look. In addition, the paint is by nature "nontransparent", so that if a second color is applied over a first layer it will cover it completely. This allows you to easily modify the painting as you go along. (It's as close as you can get to "Undo" on the computer!) The brushes must be washed in turpentine afterwards.

Watercolors are in some ways the opposite of oils. They are mixed and applied with water instead of with oil, and many of the colors are transparent. Layering of transparent colors allows multiple colors to "shine" through and can give the painting warmth and life. Traditionally parts of a water color painting are left unpainted allowing the white of the paper to add to the brightness. Watercolors tend to have a mind of their own, and will often run together in unexpected ways. Sometimes this can be great fun -- sometimes it's just plain awful. Mistakes are much harder to "undo" than with oils. Most watercolor artist will tell you, however, (and I agree) that the rewards of watercolors are well worth the heartaches!

Acrylics fall somewhere in between oils and watercolors. Acrylics are waterbased, but they are not transparent like watercolors are. If you apply the paint thickly (without much extra water), acrylics look and act more like oils. However, if you mix in lots of water acrylics tend to act more like watercolors. I have done many paintings using this versatile medium. Acrylics are lots of fun!


Pat's Gallery (just starting)
We are just starting to build our Web gallery of my paintings. Most of them are too large to fit on our optical scanner directly, so they will have to be photographed first. Here are a few of my watercolors that were small enough fit on the scanner. We will post more later.

I have a lot of acrylics to put in my gallery, but our attempts so far to photograph and scan them have not turned out well. Look for those in the near future


Painting Resources
I will eventually be putting files in our FTP Library. For now this link is mostly a place holder.

There are many Internet resources for art and painting. Here are some good starting places.

There are also hundreds of excellent books on the subject. A good place to start is your local art supply store. They often also have classes available.



Irving Family Web Pages
Pat Irving ([email protected])

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