Scots Pines by Alan Watson Featherstone

A unique international art collaboration for Caledonian Forest has been unveiled in Edinburgh on behalf of Trees for Life. It has been organised by Trevor Jones who says in his notes to the exhibition:
“This is a fantastic opportunity to support a great cause and to own an original work of art. Moreover, every artist is very generously donating 100% of the sales to Trees for Life! The United Nations declared 2011 International Year of Forests and early next year Trees for Life aims to plant its one millionth tree! This would be an amazing achievement and we want to help make this a reality by raising £10 000 through this exhibition.”

Each artwork is available for £45, with all the proceeds going to Trees for Life. For more details, see http://treesforlifeexhibition.blogspot.com or call Trees for Life on 0845 458 3505.

Trees for Life is an award winning conservation charity working to restore the Caledonian Forest and all its species to a large contiguous area in the Highlands of Scotland.
Jackson’s Art Supplies has been supporting Trees For Life for two years.

Tip for sketchbooks: if outdoors use an elastic band, paperclip or similar to stop pages flapping in the breeze.

To get straight lines in paint try brushruling. Steady a ruler with one long side on the surface and one tilted up in the air with your fingers curled under it. Run your paintbrush ferrule along the edge.

Shadows do not have to be plain grey. Try chromatic greys in complimentary colours to the object. A lemon could have a violet-grey shadow.

If you find your work too fiddly and tight then as you progress through the painting from large brushes to smaller brushes, try staying with the large brushes for longer and only using the smallest brushes at the very last.

Patchings Art, Craft and Design Festival is from June 9 to 12
hours: daily 10am to 5pm; Sunday until 4.30pm

The country’s finest practical art, craft and design event,
celebrating 18 years, set in 60 acres of Nottinghamshire countryside.

dusting/drafting brush

A friend passed on this link to The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies.

It is a compendium of submitted images of  “artistic tools, machinery, gadgets, etc. that you feel have bitten the dust.”

Most of the items have gone out of common usage because they were used for graphic design and so much of that is done on the computer these days. The packaging is nostalgic and makes me think of drafting boards and hand applied letters, wasn’t so long ago really.

And- we sell some of these still.
Some of what we stock looks just like the pictures. Perhaps the original use of some of the items has been subverted for use by painters and sketchers now. I went through the images and found these that we sell at Jackson’s:

-Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pens
-Ruling pen (used by painters to apply masking fluid and by screen printers to apply drawing fluid or screen block.)
-Knives and swivels knives
-Kneaded eraser – also called a putty rubber – we sell loads of these. (They erase coloured pencil especially well.)
-Airbrushes
-French curves
-Drafting brush
-Portfolio
-Art-o-graph projector
-Calligraphy/lettering books
-Metal erasing shield
-Electric erasers
-Tortillions/stumps
-Mechanical/propelling pencils
-Inks and dip pens
-Sandpaper block
-Design Markers
-Mouth atomiser
-Saral paper and graphite paper
-Dr Martin’s Hydrus and Radiant colours
-Colour wheels
-Mannequin
-Winsor Newton inks
-Cutter with break-away blades

It is great to know that we have both the cutting edge supplies everyone is after and the old reliable ones a few people still depend on!

-We are pleased to be able to offer Daler-Rowney stretched canvases at 60% off list.

Daler Canvases

-We are also doing an extra 10% off the regular discounted prices on our own Jackson’s oils, Jackson’s acrylics and Jackson’s Shiro hog brushes.

Jacksons 10% offers

-We round off this selection of painting offers with 10% off of our DIY frames for canvas – six styles in a selection of neutral colours that are the size to accommodate paintings on stretched canvas.

DIY Frames

These offers will end on Dec 20th.

This will be the last chance for oil and acrylic painters to stock up on supplies before the VAT increase in the New Year!

The materials are divided into the following sections:
Glitter Glue
Kids Craft Kits
Paint By Numbers
Reeves Redimix Liquid Tempera
Snazaroo Face Paints

Related departments:

Reeves Value Range
Hobby and Craft
Children’s Art Books

Reeves Air Dry Clay

More kid’s art supplies to come in the future. Yay!

Lapis Lazuli for Daniel Smith PrimaTek colours

Here is what Daniel Smith have to say about their DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolors:

“Our exclusive PrimaTek colors are unique paints made with pure, authentic mineral pigments that are mined directly from the earth and each one has a story. These colors have captured the imagination of artists for hundreds or even thousands of years. Their diversity is amazing, see the following for details about some of our favorite shades.

Our Minnesota Pipestone is the real thing. There is a national monument at Pipestone Minnesota where the stone is quarried in small amounts and made into pipes and other objects by native carvers. We purchased some of this mineral and converted it into pigment through our proprietary slow grinding process. Minnesota Pipestone has intriguing layers of granular texture. Radiant pink overtones accentuate an underlying golden glow that adds a new dimension to artwork.

Vivianite, named after the English mineralogist F.G.Vivian, is a rare mineral of secondary origin that exhibits an intense dark blue masstone with a slight reddish blue undertone. It has been identified in medieval paintings in Germany and in English medieval plychromy. The school of Cologne used it to depict skies in the 13th and 14th century.

Lapis Lazuli has been prized for its beauty, its mystical and healing properties, and its perfection as a pigment. Ancient civilizations believed that the veins of glittering pyrite found in the Lapis were actual gold, driving up its value. The stone’s expense today, as in the ancient world, results from its hardness, which makes extraction difficult.

Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, a unique and vibrant blue; it comes from Sleeping Beauty Mountain in Arizona. Lightfast and permanent, with none of the transient color fade that plagues most turquoise, this is truly an extraordinary color. As a mineral, turquoise has a unique molecular structure. In watercolor, its porous nature encourages interaction with other pigments and produces granular washes like no other paint. From the very first test, artists feel its powers. Juicy washes flow easily from the brush, while drybrush work has the intense texture found only in a mineral pigment. Washed alongside a warm, staining pigment, it is almost three-dimensional.”

Tigers Eye for Daniel Smith PrimaTek colours

Click here for Daniel Smith Watercolour at Jackson’s Art Supplies.

Daniel Smith Watercolours

With over 200 colours, the sheer range of possibilities these paints offer is endless and unparalleled in the industry. The amazing selection spans the spectrum from the historical to the boldest colours modern technology has to offer. Daniel Smith were the first to use quinacridone pigments for artists paint, they are pioneers! A unique feature of Daniel Smith watercolours are the “PrimaTek” range of colours which are made with authentic mineral pigments. They also do interference and duo-tone colours.

Until we get it on our website the transparency and pigment information is available on the Daniel Smith website.

Here is what they say on the Daniel Smith website:

“DANIEL SMITH currently offers 247 different watercolors, with more in the works every year. The sheer range of possibility they offer is endless and unparalleled in the industry. Our amazing selection spans the spectrum from the historical, to our natural earth and PrimaTek colors, to our Quinacridones, the brightest and boldest colors modern technology has to offer.

Dan Smith started his business in 1976, dedicated to bringing the highest quality inks to the print-artist community. In 1993, Dan set out to create a line of watercolors with one goal in mind: to bring the watercolor artist the very best product available. His dream came to fruition with the introduction of a hugely innovative collection of 27 paints that just happened to change the world of watercolors forever. Our pigments may come from every continent except Antarctica but our paints are manufactured in Seattle, Washington.

The DANIEL SMITH paint making lab is neither big nor impersonal. It is a world of machinery and color, where the air smells of linseed oil, and everyone’s clothes are splattered with paint. The manufacturing R&D lab is the soul of the company, a place where ideas are shared, artist’s voices are heard, and new DANIEL SMITH colors are brought to life by a talented and dedicated production team. Artisans making paint for artists, they have your complete satisfaction in mind.

Each year more of our chemist’s inventive creations are introduced. Early on, DANIEL SMITH Inc. was the first to offer Quinacridone pigments in artists’ paints. These fantastic, powerful colors, originally created for the auto industry, gave artists new and vibrant choices perfect for glazing. A buying frenzy ensued, and since then, these colors have been copied by other paint manufacturers. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

Click here to go to the Daniel Smith Watercolours at Jackson’s Art Supplies.

Daniel Smith

The staff here at Jacksons rate these palette knives very highly!

Jackson's Painting Knives