Catherine Schwab

My mum passed away late last month, and this is my first Art Day since then. I'm going to have a lot of feelings today, and I'm just going to take those as they come.

In the afternoon, after filing away some sketches for future work I did while travelling for Mum's funeral, I did some preliminary work on Bombshell III: prepped a swatch sheet with raw and gessoed canvas so I can figure out the background colour, and made a quick study on paper to help me work out the design. Here, I'll show you the study:

My mum passed away late last month, and this is my first Art Day since then. I'm going to have a lot of feelings today, and I'm just going to take those as they come.

Respirator, NIOSH approved for organic solvents: ordered from Home Depot ✅

Nitrile gloves: ordered from Home Depot ✅

Goggles or face shield: found a pair of old safety goggles I had, either from high school chemistry or art school shop, but they did NOT fit over my current glasses (and they're pretty scratched up). I considered a face shield, but I was worried it wouldn't fit properly over or be comfortable with the respirator, so I found a pair of big googles with soft sides that will hopefully fit over these glasses and ordered [them] from Home Depot ✅

Protective clothing: dug some old yoga pants without pockets (therefore otherwise useless to me) out of my closet, and dug an old button-up shirt of my husband's out of the scrap fabric box ✅✅

The shirt was perfect except that one of the elbows was blown out, so I patched it with these cute bats from an old fabric mask:

My kids love it.

I never used to iron fabric patches before sewing them on, and I'm so glad I started because it makes the entire process dramatically easier. If you're like past me and you're thinking, "It's just a simple patch, it'll go on fine, I don't want to waste my time," please give it a chance, it really is worth the effort.

That took up most of my day, and I spent the rest working on the design for Bombshell III, using coloured pencil on graph paper!

Today I have to watch some videos about using varnish. I had been avoiding varnish, largely because I don't like the finish it gives paintings, but the series I'm working on needs to be varnished to protect the fluorescent paints I'll be using from fading due to UV exposure, and to create a uniform texture (the fluorescent paints dry very matte compared to satin-glossy texture of normal acrylics). And unfortunately the preliminary research I had done made me more knowledgeable already than the Opus employee who helped me when I went varnish shopping, which I don't judge them for—I'm a decade removed from art school and still don't know this stuff myself.

Here are some of the things I read:

Info about the varnish I'll be using, Golden* MSA Varnish with UVLS

Solvent compatibility info for that varnish

An "Introduction to Varnish" from Golden

I got some nice little bits of helpful information from this "Tips and Tricks" article

Safety Data Sheets for the varnish and solvent

I wasn't planning to bother with an isolation coat but over the course of today's research I think I have changed my mind

And videos I watched:

A couple of isolation coat application demos from Golden: for small paintings and larger ones

A varnish thinning demo

"MSA Varnish - Brush Application to a Smooth Acrylic Surface", which is what I'll be doing

I watched a few other YouTube videos about varnishing acrylic paintings but was largely unimpressed and in some cases concerned by the lack of PPE and ventilation being used with products that need them

Next steps:

Acquire PPE (respirator for organic solvents and nitrile gloves; I think I can use my goggles from chemistry labs, if I can find them; and I'll have to designate some protective clothing just for varnishing)

Figure out the logistics of actually varnishing in my garage in my limited time

I couldn't get to Opus again before today, so the first thing I did was go pick up some new gesso, another canvas for a "leftovers" painting since I decided the last one I got was too tall, and some watercolour paper for my kids.

I've now put an extra coat of gesso on two pre-primed canvases for "leftovers" paintings: one 24" × 30", which will be hexagons; the other 24" × 36", which will be roses. I will probably do one more coat of gesso on each and then not sand them to see how that works out. The point of these paintings is to use up materials, and do more playful experimentation. The roses and unsanded gesso are both departures for me.

Once that was done I tried a few different black and blue combinations to make a background colour for one of my Bombshell paintings, and landed on a suitable mixture that just needs a bit more work to finalize the proportions.

Yes, I'm having my January art day in February. It was originally scheduled for yesterday, which was January, but my husband and I decided to move it to Sunday because the kid activity logistics on Sunday are easier for one parent to manage alone.

I'm proud of myself for going art supply shopping even though I didn't want to ask for advice about varnish or bring canvases home on the bus in the rain!

Not only is my yogurt tub of diluted gesso moldy, my big tub of undiluted Stevenson (RIP) gesso I've had since art school is also moldy! And I was at Opus today! I could have gotten more if I had known! Now I have to wait until my next art day to get more! (Or perhaps I can stop in on the way home from my younger daughter's next gymnastics class....) Injury! Insult! Tragedy! 😭😡💔😤

Yes, I'm having my January art day in February. It was originally scheduled for yesterday, which was January, but my husband and I decided to move it to Sunday because the kid activity logistics on Sunday are easier for one parent to manage alone.

I'm proud of myself for going art supply shopping even though I didn't want to ask for advice about varnish or bring canvases home on the bus in the rain!

Not only is my yogurt tub of diluted gesso moldy, my big tub of undiluted Stevenson (RIP) gesso I've had since art school is also moldy! And I was at Opus today! I could have gotten more if I had known! Now I have to wait until my next art day to get more! (Or perhaps I can stop in on the way home from my younger daughter's next gymnastics class....) Injury! Insult! Tragedy! 😭😡💔😤