Award Winning Folk Artist Tim Campbell of Keane, NH

I consider myself fortunate to share not only two gallery spaces with award winning folk artist Timothy Campbell of Keane, NH, but to also count him as a friend. His whimsical and highly creative pieces are featured in Sturbridge Yankee Workshop's catalogue, along with being available at the Charles-Baltivik Gallery and Roots in Provincetown, MA along with numerous other locations. Today's piece is entitled, "Lady Liberty with Mary Tyler Moore Hair"!

The Finished Piece

Today I bring you the finished piece entitled "Devon". The details and final shading have been added with conte' pencil. Conte' pencils are similar to color pencils except that the pigment is more highly concentrated and the presence of abrasives allow for excellent toning and stumping qualities. Stumping is the process of using a tightly spiral-wrapped paper stick that allows the blending and smoothing of pigments and graphite.

I've been asked, do you ever mess up a painting!? And the answer is, "More times than I care to admit to!" Working with gouache it is very easy for a painting to become muddled and acquire a flat and lifeless feel. Sometimes it can be saved, other times it ends up in the recycle bin.

I felt this started to happen with this piece, the left side of the painting was becoming heavy and appearing dirty rather than the mysterious shadow effect I was striving for. To rectify the problem I cropped the piece down to a 5" x 5" and I believe it brought the piece back to life, placing the emphasis on the facial features.

I hope the process has been interesting and informative for you.

The Process Continues

The painting of Devon is beginning to make the change from a rough draft to an actual painting at this point.

The layers of gouache have been added creating a soft, natural look and texture to the skin. Shading and highlights have been added to the facial features in preparation for the final details. ... The first stage of the background color has also been added.

At this point approximately 8 hours of labor have gone into the 5" x 7" piece. The finished piece will require at least another 3 to 4 hours to added the final details.

When most people think of watercolors, the image that comes to mind is a very "loose" style of painting with washes of translucent color giving an implied image with a large portion of the natural paper showing through when finished.

In my paintings I strive for photo-realism that uses shadow and light to give the paint...ing a sense of depth and life. The combination of traditional translucent watercolors and "gouache", and opaque water-base paint helps achieve the desired result.

Today I have begun to take the painting from the sketch stage to the painting stage. I began by wetting the previously applied watercolor pencil to blend the colors and create a base for the subsequent layers of gouache.

The facial features begin to come to life and develop a three-dimensional feel. Once this layer has dried I iron the paper to reduce curling or buckling of the paper which would cause running and puddles resulting in distortion of future layers of paint.

Happy New Year!

A New Year begins and this is going to be a great year for myself and the studio. I already have two exhibits planned and several others under consideration. It has been great to hear the comments and praise from the community over my work. It is, after all, for you that I create the art.

People have asked about the process of bringing a painting to life from the first stages to the finished project. Over the next few days I will show how the realistic male figure is achieved.

In this first stage the major elements are laid out with watercolor pencils. As subsequent layers are added the watercolor pencil will liquefy and blend in so that there are no harsh pencil lines.

The model for this piece is named Devon and the actual size is 5" x 7" and is being painted on 100% 140# cold pressed watercolor paper.