IN-STORE DEMO (FEB 13)

[Every Saturday here at Jerry's we bring in a special treat - A local Austin artist comes to the store and shares their knowledge and experience with you, providing lessons about whatever it is they specialize in. It happens on Saturday from Noon-3PM and best of all, it is free! Come learn with us!]

UPCOMING:
02.13.10 / RACHAEL DOBOS / OIL PAINTING THE DOBOS WAY

Rachael Dobos is an abstract oil painter. Come see her demo and learn how she uses oil paint to make her own unique style of abstract painting come to life. Come in to listen, watch, and ask questions. Or all or three - but most importantly just have fun!

Rachael is currently showing some of her work at Bay 6 in Austin, TX.

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Last week's demo was brought to you by Dana Brown. Here are some photos!

ART SHOW TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow night (Feb. 6th) at Bay6 Gallery & Studio come see amazing new work by these talented artists:

snarko!
Linda Wandt
George Sanchez
Dion Dill
Mando Gonzalez
Derek Brewer
Brittany Stracke
Catherine Hart
Kelly Newhouse
Robyn Filkins
Tessa Lane
Lisa Gorski
Michelle Devereux
Matthew Kemp
Joshua Saunders

The opening reception is tomorrow, Saturday, February the 6th from 7-10PM.

There will also be a wall dedicated to Andrea Burden (an Austin Artist who recently passed away). All sales from this wall will go to help her family. For more information go to andreaburden.net.

The show will be up from February 6th through February 21st. Hope to see you there!

IN-STORE DEMO (FEB. 6)

[Every Saturday here at Jerry's we bring in a special treat - A local Austin artist comes to the store and shares their knowledge and experience with you, providing lessons about whatever it is they specialize in. It happens on Saturday from Noon-3PM and best of all, it is free! Come learn with us!]

UPCOMING:

02.06.10 / DANA BROWN / ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OIL PAINT

Dana Brown is an artist living and working in Austin, Texas. His artwork addresses issues of family and community through the use of discarded materials. After receiving a Bachelors degree in painting from the University of Northern Iowa, he has shown in exhibits across the U.S. Dana has worked in various capacities in the arts and art materials industry, including five years at the Gamblin Artists Colors factory in Portland, Oregon and 3 years at Ampersand Art Supply in Austin.

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Last week's demo was brought to you by Joshua Saunders and covered collage techniques. Here are some photos!

Museum Wax, Gamblin Oil, Electric Erasers

COOL: MUSEUM WAX. Imagine if poster tack actually worked? It had Brittany jumping up and down and sticking silly things (including the product itself) to walls with glee.

Made from a blend that includes Crystalline wax, it will secure framed and unframed work onto any waterproof surface so it can't keep become slightly crooked when you're not looking. Just knead into soft balls and place on back of frame and to secure it to the wall, or use under your pottery so your cats can't topple it.

Removable completely with mineral spirits, though your own fingers can get off most of it.

GAMBLIN OIL COLOR and mediums now back in stock. One of the lowest-toxic oil paints in the isle, made in the USA, with pure color and linseed with amazing working properties. To use them to the ultimate and see what I'm saying in person, don't miss Dana Brown's demonstration on Saturday.

PS: Get to know Gamsol. The poor model on Monday at an art session I attend collapsed from turpenoid fumes (she's okay).

NEW: QUICK-FIX BATTERY-POWERED ERASER for fast fixes and quick Shamwows.

Did I actually just make that a verb?

On sale through February.

Upcoming: Derwent watercolor pencil open stock, Copic markers, decorative paper.

IN-STORE DEMO (JAN 30TH)

[Every Saturday here at Jerry's we bring in a special treat - A local Austin artist comes to the store and shares their knowledge and experience with you, providing lessons about whatever it is they specialize in. It happens on Saturday from Noon-3PM and best of all, it is free! Come learn with us!]

UPCOMING:

01.30.10 / JOSHUA SAUNDERS / COLLAGE TECHNIQUES

Mr. "Gluey" will show you multiple collage techniques... from the time-tested Modge Podge to newer acrylic mediums and photo transfers in between. Also, he will go over management of your objects yet to be recognized.

Color Mixing and Matching, Texture without Limits, Pastel Primers

COLOR WHEELS ARE IN! This only happens twice a year, so don't miss out.

From the Magic Palette line comes two new additions worth checking out for your color mixing and matching delight.

NEW: The Color Matching Guide eliminates the question, "What color did they use?" Set includes 36 pure artist's tube colors printed on individual cards with 144 tints and shades to help professional artists identify colors with greater ease and consistency.

NEW: The Mixing Color Guide shows a world of color possibilities... and just how to get there! Take out the guesswork: 324 colors explained from just 18 tubes of paint.

Cool: MATISSE DRY MEDIUMS. Yeah, some of the effects are achievable through acrylic mediums sold by various companies: but what if I don't want my glass beads in a gel medium? What if I want to use it with oil painting?

If you are acrylic, quite frankly from using them, it's just cooler the medium isn't as "manufactured" looking in the end when you've mixed it yourself. My favorites:
Glass Beads in two different sizes. Far more useful for a variety of textures than glass bead gels.

Ferrous Powder is a water resistant dark grey magnetic coating. You experimenters will love it: I recently got it to repel all oxides on a painting to a non-achievable-otherwise effect. If you figure out how to get it to rust (a warning of how "not" to use it), let me know. I'm still trying to get it to do it.

Wollastonite can be used to create a superb textured surface for pastels, pencils and charcoal. Wollastonite produces a more uneven texture than other acrylic primers for pastels that we carry, making it perfect for harder pastels.

Yes, we carry several ACRYLIC PRIMERS FOR PASTELS. For those who like sanded papers without the work, we carry Sennelier and Kitty Wallis sanded papers. But for those who'd like to create their own--or draw or paint with pastel over an underpainting--we offer several acrylic options that open the doors to limitless multi-media possibilities:

GOLDEN Acrylic Ground for Pastels is the finest tooth we carry. It will produce a similar tooth to the Sennelier or Kitty Wallis. It can be combined with other medias to make it more coarse/less even.

MATISSE Transparent Gesso is a bit grittier but better for colored pencils or hard pastels. It can be combined with any Matisse background color for limitless color options.

GET TO KNOW A STAFF MEMBER... TESSA LANE

Q: State your name for the record.

A: Tessa Michelle Lane.

Q: How long have you worked here at Jerry's for?

A: Since June the 6th of 2009.

Q: What is your favorite thing that we sell?

A: Nujabi. It's so good. Best heavy-weight paper ever that's handmade. Trust me... it's fabulous.

Q: Do you make art?

A: Yes I do in fact. I have always had a place for art in my heart.

Q: What kind of art do you make? What does it mean?

A: Mostly watercolor and I do a little marker work. It can mean all sorts of things. Art means a lot of things to me... like emotions and life. Check.

Q: Where do you buy tacos?

A: I buy tacos from Torchy's. They got the Democrat over there... Delicious.

Q: Anything you would like to add?

A: Buy art supplies from Jerry's Artarama and you can come meet me.

Q: Creepy..

A: Creepy? How is that creepy?

IN-STORE DEMO (JAN 23RD)

[Every Saturday here at Jerry's we bring in a special treat - A local Austin artist comes to the store and shares their knowledge and experience with you, providing lessons about whatever it is they specialize in. It happens on Saturday from Noon-3PM and best of all, it is free! Come learn with us!]

UPCOMING:

01.23.10 / KATHLEEN MCELWAINE / WATERCOLOR

Kathleen is no weekend painter; she has created art every day for the past 30 years. Most recently... on the bus. On her daily commute to and from work, she creates beautiful watercolors with life and imagination. She will be joining us here at Jerry's this Saturday, the 23rd from Noon to 3pm.

Visit her website.

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Last week's demo was brought to you by John Mosteller and covered screen printing with Speedball products. Here are some photos!

Walnut Oil, Colored and Clear Gesso, Silly Putty

You asked, we sought, and it's finally delivered:

NEW! CHARVIN WALNUT OIL. This is the palest of the oils used in paint manufacturing. It too has a similar effect on slowing the drying rate as compared to using linseed.

It is made from nuts, so anyone with an allergy to nuts shouldn't use it: the rest of you, go nuts!

Other Charvin mediums you don't need to be an alchemist to figure out how to use also now in stock.

SILLY PUTTY back in stock. Who doesn't love Silly Putty?

COOL: MATISSE BACKGROUND COLORS & CLEAR SEALER. Despite their names (Aussies are weird sometimes, like that crocodile hunter or the dude on the Animal Channel that wrestles sharks or the rugby team that jumped from above my third-story apartment into an eight-foot pool; one broke her arm), both are some of the best gesso I have ever used.

Background Colors are colored gesso--available in 40 colors--that dry quickly, spread like a dream, and have excellent binding properties. Thin but highly pigmented, used directly from jar they dry to a flat (no sanding!), velvet base for both oil and acrylic painting.

Light colors need only one coat; darker you may want two. Either way, a little goes far: mixed with water, excellent for underpainting.

Clear Sealer is not a top-coat; it is a clear gesso and the perfect solution to "seal" any picky substrate: new wood that still has tannins, concrete, stone or terracotta that water is trying to penetrate (common in Texas), glass, steel, marble, plastic, more.

A single coat on wood or cement will leave it looking just as it was, but now your paint sticks to it without peeling off. Works under oils as well as acrylics.

Hello, what do you do?

[Hello and welcome to a new reoccurring bit for this ol' blog called "Hello, what do you do?" We will introduce you to a special product from Jerry's shelves and try to explain its uses and applications. Check back often and learn something new!]

COLOUR SHAPER/CLAY SHAPER

Picture this: You find yourself meandering through our paintbrush section on some sunny afternoon, searching for the filbert with a perfect mix of Orangutan and Bandicoot hairs (which we are currently out of, sorry!) when all of a sudden you come to a small display full of paintbrushes that are made with no hair at all! You pick one up and wonder to yourself, "What could it be for? Is it a strange eraser? Is it a small, oddly-shaped spatula?" No, my friend. It is neither of those things. What you are holding is a Colour Shaper!

A Colour Shaper is an exceptional tool made in the UK by Royal Sovereign Ltd that can be used for a variety of applications. Like a paintbrush, it has a long wooden handle, but unlike a paintbrush the Colour Shaper has a tip made out of solid silicone. Jerry's Austin currently carries the traditional Colour Shaper and the Clay Shaper.

The traditional version can be used with an assortment of painting mediums, including acrylic, oil, alkyds, and gouache and is great for applying, removing, scraping and moving the color around on any surface. The silicone tip does not absorb color and is cleaned simply with a wipe! They can also be used with pastels and watercolor. The Colour Shaper comes in two different styles, firm & soft. The gray tipped "brush" is the Firm one and is sturdy enough that it gives a good amount of resistance, while the white tip (Soft) is much more malleable.

In our sculpture aisle you can find the Clay Shaper, which has a black silicone tip and an extra-firm flexibility. Perfect for adding details to your clay pieces, the sizes go all the way from tiny (zero) to large (sixteen), so you can manipulate the clay with very fine lines or with much larger lines.

Both kinds of Shaper come in five interesting shapes: Flat Chisel, Taper Point, Cup Round, Cup Chisel and Angle Chisel. With the five different tips and the different flexibilities, you're bound to find an intriguing way to put the Colour Shaper or Clay Shaper to use on your next masterpiece.