Blondheim Art Original Paintings

NOTAN Painting of Paynes Prairie
2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
acrylic on Index paper

See My Paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE



Upcoming Events

November 1- "Country Roads" Leesburg , FL 5-7 PM
November 3- Linda's Annual Chili Bash 10 AM - 6 PM
November 4- Open Studio Class 2-6 PM


I have to take a few days off from blogging for various events. I will be posting again on Monday 11/5/07


Painters Tip


Study Supplies

An artist wrote to me yesterday asking about the supplies I use to do studies. As most of you know, I do many studies in preparation for my larger finished paintings. I like to use index paper, which is also called card stock. You can purchase it in any office supply store and it ranges in weight from 65 pound and up. The higher the number the heavier and thicker the card stock. It also comes in a variety of colors, so if you don't like painting on a white surface you can choose a color. Gray or buff would be good choices as an alternative to white.

Most of these study paintings are done in acrylic, but ink or watercolor would work very well, as well as tempera, casein and gauche.

It is also ok to use oils, but in order to have sellable paintings you would need to gesso the paper both front and back. If you are going to use the paintings as reference paintings only, oils are fine directly on the paper.

Another alternative is to use index cards or mat board scraps. I have done many nice acrylic paintings on mat board, but again, you need to use acid free archival board if you wish to sell the paintings on mat board. The other very nice board is illustration board.

The reason I like to use card stock is because I can punch holes in the paper and keep it in my NOTAN book if I wish to refer back to the paintings.

You can see above, one image is the series of 9 paintings before they are cut out and then another image of single painting after it is mounted on 4x6 inch mat board.

If you want to do studies on Masonite or canvas you can grid off your panel or canvas to do the studies. To cut the canvases you would use a straight edge with a blade to separate them, mounting them to mat board or acid free foam board. The Masonite would be harder to cut, but it can be done.

The paper is a fraction of the cost of traditional supports.