Upcoming Exhibitions

I’ll have work in two upcoming exhibitions:

The Kinsey Institute 2012 Juried Exhibition
May 18 – July 21, 2012
Grunwald Gallery of Art
Indiana University Bloomington, IN

ReFocus on Art: 100 Pieces of Art for 100 Years
April 18, 2012
National Council for Jewish Women
New Jersey Arts Incubator, West Essex, NJ

Silverpoint Drawing Workshop – 4/21/12 – Remsen Street Studio

The beauty of a metalpoint drawing, particularly those in silver have a timeless quality that cannot be achieved in any other drafting medium. The delicate lines that are interweaved to build up tone patina over time to warm shades of sepia color, just like those in the metalpoint drawings of da Vinci, Durer, Raphael and Rembrandt. However the contemporary aspects of the medium can be blanked and used with color grounds, selective coloring, oils and anything you can imagine.

This one day 3 hour workshop will focus on getting you started in metalpoint – if you can draw you can transition to metalpoint with a few steps. We will go over a brief history of drawing with metalpoint, the materials used and how to prepare your supports, the techniques and adding other material to you work.  Each person will receive there own silverpoint stylus, two sheets of grounded paper and a bottle of liquid metalpoint drawing ground.

Saturday April 21, 10 am – 1pm

Remsen Street Studio – 188 Remsen Street, 2nd Floor, Cohoes, NY

$50. paid sign up before April 12, $65. after that. Payment by cash, check or credit card. Contact me at: jongernon at gmail dot com for payment and any questions.

Limited spaces (8)

New things abound!

Been awhile since I’ve posted. I finally have had a consistent studio schedual for the last couple months and am working on a few new pieces including a large metalpoint drawing (see image) that will either come out great or cause my death!

I also am honored to have been asked to be one of the contributing artists to write about my metalpoint drawing technique in Banjie Getsinger Nicolas’ new book on silverpoint “Silver Linings”. Other artists include Koo Schadler, Carol O’Neill, Tom Mazzullo and Dennis Angel. The book is now out and available through Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.

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The latest – "L." – egg tempera and oil on linen/wood – 19" x 25"

New metalpoint drawing

Finally finished this piece! Largest metalpoint I’ve done to date at 20″ x 30″. Approx 300 hours of work. This piece will be in the “Luminous Metal: Contemporary Drawings in Metalpoint” exhibition at the Clement Art Gallery, August 26-Sept 29, along with nine other excellent artists!

Heirloom Lace by Jon Gernon - 24k Goldpoint

Studio Notes: New mixed technique painting WIP

This year I’ve been stepping up the paintings. I’ve completed three pieces (hey that’s alot for me, almost two years of work normally!) in an effort  to get a show together for 2012 – CALLING ALL GALLERIES, I’M AVAILABLE! So I really started to do something I’ve always wanted to and experimented with in the past but never really was happy with: combining egg tempera with oil. I’ve done the last two paintings with egg tempera underpaintings of  grays and limited color and have been finishing them off with oil glazing. If you click on the image you can see the white egg tempera on the modeling of the face. The body has already received it’s first glaze of color. The lilies also are modeled in tempera emulsion at this point. The painting is at about the 1/2 finished stage. the modeling underpainting takes away all the guess work of shadowing and highlights, making the glazing process relatively quick. This technique called the “mische technique” was utilized mainly in the early 1500′s with the advent of oil paints  and slow drying oils. Masters such as Van Eyck perfected it by exploiting the incredible detail of the tempera mixed with the “stained glass” effects of oil paint. The tempera allows me to get to the color stage faster then building up the strokes of pure tempera color as I used to do. I can then glaze with oil to my hearts content and get some very nice “saturated” effects as the underpainting “peeks” through the glazes. I think it gives the painting a bit more depth. I also have been adding the  white tempera emulsion (a mixture of white pigment, a whole egg, some linseed and some damar varnish) between the layers of oil glazes to build up detail. This enables you to get very sharp details with a good small brush and dries to the touch in a few hours. I’ll post more about this technique soon.

This piece was completed using the mixed technique also. “The Red Ribbon” – egg tempera & oil on linen/wood – 17″ x 23″ – 2011 (c) Jon Gernon

New Website Launched

Finally have the new site launched and running. I’ll slowly start adding new and older works in the coming weeks.

www.jongernon.com

Open Studio

On Friday April 22 The Studio will be open from 6-9pm. I’ll have several metalpoint drawings on display including a new large piece measuring 42″ x 62″.

Wine Tastings and lite refreshments!

The Remsen Street Studio

188 Remsen Street

Cohoes, NY

www.remsenstreet.wordpress.com

In the studio

Here are a few images of some new pieces in progress for an upcoming show this July. They are both egg tempera under paintings and oil glazing on linen/ wood panel. I’ll update them as I progress.

In the studio - Painting in progress

In Progress - "The Red Ribbon" - 16 7/8" x 21 7/8"

"untitled" - ink underdrawing on panel

Tempera underpainting

A couple of new ……small paintings…..

I have always been fascinated by small, really small paintings and decided to make a couple to get some fresh things going.  First off I wanted the pieces to be just as legitimate and moving as a large piece. I  am not out to make a piece that’s  a gimmick, or “refrigerator magnet”.   When you visit a museum and see large works, most people walk by and never really get very close to the piece, I mean right up to it, as close as the museum guards will let you that is. So I wanted to make a piece that you have to go to and see up close. While I appreciate large paintings It’s the smaller works that I think the real mastery of the painter comes alive. Also, it’s really hard in my opinion to make a great small painting, there is only so much space for you to work on, so creating a piece that’s visually engaging is a challenge. Both pieces are oil on gessoed poplar wood,  1 3/4″ x 2 1/4″ x  1/2″. Click on the image and enlarge to see them.