Gamblin Studio Notes


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Monotype: The Painterly Print #26
Why paint on a printing element and then print it to paper? Monotype has its own unique form of expression and certain types of marks and imagery can only be achieved using the monotype process.
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Take Your Painting Further. Gamblin FastMatte Alkyd Oil Colors #25
The purpose of this Studio Note is to introduce FastMatte Alkyd Colors and share some ideas and techniques that may be helpful to your painting process.
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Black Inks: Matching Your Ink to Your Technique #24
One of the most frequent questions printmakers ask us is: How can I tell which Black ink is "right" for my work? This Studio Note is intended to help you select the Black ink that is most suited to your printmaking process and best serves your final printed image.
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Getting the White Right #23
The most important color choice we make is the white we bring to our work. This Studio Note is intended to help you select the right white for your work. And in Part Two of this Studio Note, we report the results from our on-going study comparing our whites with those of other American and European companies.
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Choosing Painting Mediums: A Focus on Working Properties #22
This newsletter aims to take some of the guess work out of choosing the right painting medium by focusing on your own artistic intentions.
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Oil and Solvent: The Proper Balance #21
This newsletter focuses on the role that both oil and solvents play in painting mediums and in creating the sound structure of an oil painting.
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Evolving Earth #20
This newsletter takes a look at the rich history of the world's oldest group of colored material – earth pigments – and how artists have used these colors for over 40,000 years.
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Mineral and Modern Pigments #19
This issue of Studio Notes looks at Gamblin’s organization of their color palette and the division of mineral and modern colors. This information gives painters an insight into the makeup of pigments from which these colors are derived, as well as some practical information to help painters create their own personal color palettes.
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Local Palettes #18
As the mercury rises, summer travel plans are penned in calendars and, with any luck, the plein-air painting equipment is dusted off in preparation for another excursion. This issue of Gamblin Studio Notes considers regionally-specific palettes of four plein-air painters as they capture the diversity of the American landscape.
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Controlling Surface Quality #17
In our frequent conversations with painters, the issue of their paintings’ surface quality comes up often. This edition of Gamblin Studio Notes addresses this issue in greater detail. Included is our first, online video demonstration!
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Chromatic Black #16
The Gamblin Studio Notes has a tradition of being used as a technical resource and not as a sales vehicle. This edition is an exception to that approach. We want more of you to know about a color we added to our palette a couple years ago. We think that many of you who have not yet discovered Chromatic Black will thank us for the suggestion that you give it a try.
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Raw Materials—Linseed Oil #15
The origin of the most common paint binder used before WWII is pre-historic. We know the Nubians made Linseed oil varnishes to seal their boats and the Egyptians wove linen into cloth. Although we do not have written records, processing flax plants must have been an important industry. And, in that ancient industry, we find the origins of artists' paint making.
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Tips for Traveling with Artists' Materials #14
Many artists contact me with questions about the best ways to take art materials on aircraft. I have been flying with oil painting materials for 25 years. I have logged about 400,000 miles with my paints. Here are some suggestions.
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Studio Safety and Artists' Pigments #13
Understanding proper use of painting solvents and contemporary painting mediums is the number one key to working in safe studios. While toxicity of solvents and mediums is critically important for oil painters, I would like to focus this issue of the "Gamblin Studio Notes" on artist's pigments.
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Why Classical and Contemporary Paintings Look So Different? #12
In November, John E. Buchanan, Jr., executive director of the Portland (OR) Art Museum, invited Robert Gamblin to give a public lecture on WHY classical paintings look different from Impressionist paintings. This is the text of his lecture plus illustrations that highlight a wonderful group of French Baroque paintings on exhibit - "The Triumph of French Painting" - at the Portland Art Museum during the Fall 2003.
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Defining a Personal Color Space #09
This issue of the Gamblin Studio Notes is about how to define personal color space by assembling a unique palette of colors. Over many years of painting and making paints, I have had the opportunity to experience the more subjective qualities of color. The "Cadmium Red Medium" oil paint that I see pouring over a triple roller mill in the Gamblin factory is a raw material that artists combine, mix, transform into different colors. Visiting studios, I see how hundreds of painters define their personal color space...
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Artists' Attitudes Toward Art Materials #08
The history of oil paint making is 500 years old so I am not surprised that so much confusion has accumulated. I hear too much myth and magic when artists describe how they choose materials. Making 150 antique oil colors for the Smithsonian Institution showed me that painters today can choose to use art materials that would indeed make the Old Masters envious or they can choose to use junk. I suggest you only select art materials based on how the material or collection of materials contributes to creating your images. As you change the materials, you change the image...
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