A NEW COLOR! Now you have my attention…..
“The new pigment is formed by a unique crystal structure that allows the manganese ions to absorb red and green wavelengths of light, while only reflecting blue. The vibrant blue is so durable, and its compounds are so stable – even in oil and water – that the color does not fade. These characteristics make the new pigment versatile for a variety of commercial products.”
EDIT: Howard Lyon wrote to The Shepherd Color Company asking about the availability of the pigment to artists and received this reply:
Art Store Classes for the Taking!
The Art Store instructors are having fun in March inspiring and teaching our students. April will be no different. This upcoming month is offering a basic drawing class, basic painting class, pastel class (almost sold out, call for details) and sculpture sessions. To view April’s schedule, click the button below.
Our May schedule has also been released. This is including a new watercolor class on Sundays and the return of our basic drawing class. Also a possible June 2-day (details have not been agreed upon at this time) painting workshop with Robert Knudson. There are many other classes offered as well and these can be reviewed by clicking the button above and directing yourself through our scheduler. Look to the bottom right of the scheduler direct yourself from month to month.
“October’s Glory” 18″ x 24″ Oil, Knudson
Click the painting above to view more of Mr. Knudson’s portfolio.
The newsletter will release the final details of this workshop as the schedule is determined between the available studio space and the instructor/artist.
New at the Phippen Museum
The Marley Gallery has transformed for their new exhibition and sale, Inspiration to Creation: The Hidden Life Behind Bronze. On display through July 17th, this amazing collection of photographs by talented cousins and guest curators, Erik and Willie Petersen, feature images of some of the nation’s top Western sculptors, including: John Coleman, Ken Rowe, Susan Kliewer, Kim Obrzut, Fred Fellows, Deborah Fellows, Evelyn Fredricks and the current president of the Cowboy Artists of America, Bill Nebeker. 
Sculptures by these artists will also be on display, along with pieces by other talented foundry artisans. Members are admitted FREE and guests for $10 each.
For more information, please call the museum at (928)778-1385.
Namta* Convention Releases – 2016 Products New to the Art World!
TIMBr PAD
Awarded NAMTA 2016 Best New Product
Enhance your color and value gauging with the New Wave TIMBr PAD; the very first warm wood toned disposable paper palette. The TIMBr PAD is ideal for artists who prefer working from a wood toned surface, but without the clean up. The palette contains 50 sheets of extremely durable paper stock that are coated to make certain the sheets beneath stay dry. All models are glued on 3 edges, ensuring your pages stay fastened while you mix paint, and guaranteeing that your pages do not blow in the wind if painting outdoors. For use with all paint media, the TIMBr PAD is available in an 11×16 ergonomic hand held model, and two rectangular models, 12x16 and 9x12. Made in the USA.
New Wave
484.924.8619
Sales@NewWaveArt.com
www.NewWaveArt.com
Art Store Special Order Only – Not on the sales floor
Molotow Aqua Ink Pump Softliner
A New Way to Watercolor
Molotows Aqua Ink Pump Softliner offers a new, all-in-one way to watercolor. Featuring a special water based ink and equipped with a soft edged 1mm brush nib, this artist’s tool is perfect for watercolor techniques. With a patented pumping system and capillary technology, each softliner delivers ease of use and intense color.
Available in 12 vivid colors, this marker is refillable with an exchangeable nib making the marker a sustainable artist tool.
Empty markers can easily be used to mix personalized colors with the available 30ml refills and as a water reservoir.
Chartpak, Inc.
800.628.1910
info@chartpak.com
www.molotow.com
Empty Molotow Markers Now on the Art Store Sales Floor – Choose your favorite liquid watercolor and fill and refill it. Filled colored markers are by special order only at this time.
Introducing Copic’s NEW Art Case!
The new portable Copic Art Case has plenty of room for all 358 Sketch markers – with space left over for accessories. It’s never been easier to take your entire collection on the road than with this colorful and durable travel case.
Features:
- Lightweight
- 13.5″ x 18″ x 7″
- Rubberized foam interior
- Lockable latches with keys
- Comes with detachable shoulder strap
- Constructed of aluminum and plastic
- Available in Gray, Blue, Carmine Red, and Purple
Imagination International, Inc.
541.684.0013
imaginationinternationalinc.com
Case is available by special order only. Not on the Art Store sales floor at this time.
Sculpture Block & Sculpture Canvas
Sculpture Block® is a cost-effective new sculpting material from Europe available in a variety of sizes and also in a flat canvas format for creating 3D paintings. Extremely light yet strong, with Sculpture Block® artists can create highly refined and detailed artwork without the need for any preliminary or follow-up treatment. This unique low dust material can be quickly shaped with traditional sculpture and woodworking tools into an almost limitless number of designs. It can be glued with any type of glue, sanded and decorated with a variety of paints. More information is available on the manufacturers website. For pricing and availability please contact the U.S. distributor Armadillo Art & Craft.
Armadillo Art & Craft
(908) 874-3315
sales@armadilloart.com
www.armadilloart.com
Products are available by special order only. Not on the Art Store sales floor at this time.
* N.A.M.T.A. is an international non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the art/creative materials industry. Members include retailers, manufacturers, distributors, importers, and independent reps from around the world. NAMTA’s mission is to provide members with the products, services and information needed to grow and prosper.
Art Store Promotions for March & April – $ave some paper on paper!
For the early spring promo we are offering a great sale on Richeson sketchbooks at 50% off the MSRP as well as Arches Oil Paper in 3pks at 50% off the MSRP!
Customer Appreciation Weekend is near…..
Fools for Paper Unite!
For the first weekend of April (1st, 2nd & 3rd), the Art Store will be lifting its “limit of one coupon per day” of our receipt printed bounce-back coupons. These are the black and white coupons printed out after a purchase of $30 or more from our sales floor. For the weekend listed, you will be able to use more than one coupon per paper bought that day. Some you have been collecting these for months, now its time to appreciate our customers!
Papers included in this promotion are sandpapers, sketchbooks, drawing books, printmaking papers, acrylic paper, watercolor paper, decorative paper, rice papers, drawing papers, vellum pads, tracing pads……if its a paper, its eligible.
Exterminart! Exterminart!
History of paper
Of all the writing materials mankind has employed down through the ages, paper has become the most widely used around the world. Paper has a long history stretching back to ancient Egypt in the third millennium BC.
Although our paper may not be recognizable to the Pharaohs, paper has retained its essential characteristics down through the ages and today’s diverse offerings remain as natural, essential and precious as ever.
The word ‘paper’ is derived from papyrus, a plant 
that was once abundant in Egypt and which was used to produce a thick, paper-like material by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Papyrus, however, is only one of the predecessors of paper that are collectively known by the generic term ‘tapa’ and which were mostly made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry, fig and daphne trees.
Paper as we know it traces its roots back to China at the beginning of the first millennium AD. Traditional Chinese records give the credit for its development to one T’sai Lun (about 105AD). He was subsequently deified as the god of papermakers!
The craft of papermaking spread throughout the world and remained a relatively small-scale, artisan activity until paper production became industrialized during the 19th century. Originally intended purely for writing and printing purposes, a dazzling array of paper products are available to today’s consumer.
To read more about paper and the history for the reasons of a paper anniversary click the image below. 
New Art Papers have Arrived!
Black Ink Papers are some of the best papers to experiment with in your collages.
The above abstract collage has many different materials including faux leather, lace paper, corrugated paper, beehive paper from Black Ink papers, and metallic acrylic paints. It can be hung vertically or horizontally.
Click here to view all artwork from this talented artist.
Cootie Catchers Step by Step
Click the image above to learn how to fold your future
Vanishing da Vinci Portrait Could Be Saved by Science
A new technique could help save a famous Leonardo da Vinci drawing that is vanishing with each passing day.
The mysterious da Vinci portrait, widely considered to be a self-portrait of the artist, was drawn with red chalk on paper in the early 1500s and has since been fading.
The new analysis could be used to help preservationists assess the damage to the painting and, in turn, help them decide which restoration techniques are most appropriate. [Anatomy Meets Art: See Da Vinci’s Drawings]
Aging masterpiece
The enigmatic red-chalk-and-paper drawing has fueled speculation for centuries. The depiction of an old man with flowing white locks and a long beard was likely first completed in Turin, Italy, sometime between 1510 and 1515. While many think the painting depicts da Vinci, the Renaissance man was only in his mid-50s at the time of the drawing, whereas the portrait’s subject looks closer to 80 years old. That has led many experts to wonder whether the drawing is of da Vinci’s uncle or father.
The chalk portrait was drawn on paper composed of linen and cotton fibers and hemp rags, the researchers said. Once complete, the portrait’s history was a mystery, until it was acquired by a Sardinian king in 1839 for the Royal Library of Turin. For decades in the 20th century, it was framed and displayed publicly, where it was exposed to sunlight, study co-author Mauro Missori, a researcher at the National Research Council in Italy, told Live Science in an email.
Centuries of poor conditions have led to the characteristic yellowing that is so common in ancient works of art. The yellowing reduces contrast with the red-chalk of the painting, making the image seem to vanish over time.
As a result, the portrait was too fragile for general viewing, and since 1998 has been locked away in a temperature- and humidity-controlled vault at the Royal Library of Turin.
New technique
In 2012, the authors got a rare chance to inspect the masterpiece. The researchers quantified the level of chromophores, or light-absorbing compounds, in the cellulose that forms the paper. Chromophores preferentially absorb blue and violet light, and tend to scatter, or reflect, reddish and yellow-hued light, which gives old documents a yellowish tint.
So the team measured how much light was reflected and absorbed from the ancient painting at different wavelengths of light, which correspond to different colors. They then compared those values with ones from modern and ancient pieces of paper aged in various conditions.
The team found that the extreme yellowing likely resulted from the portrait’s storage in a moist environment — perhaps a closed, dank space. As a follow-up, they’d like to do a second analysis to see whether the painting is continuing to degrade, or whether its fading has stabilized now that it is kept in better
conditions, Missori said.
By quantifying the level of damage, the new study can help preservationists map out the best road to save this disappearing masterpiece. It could also help scientists assess damage to and preserve other ancient documents.
For now, the fate of the mysterious portrait is up in the air.
“A lively debate among scientists, conservators and restorers is taking place about the opportunity of performing a restoration intervention on Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait,” Missori said. Some want to avoid further damage by treating the portrait with chemicals or water-based solutions to remove chromophores and other byproducts of aging. But others are afraid that current methods for restoring ancient works of art are still too unproven, and would prefer to wait until preservation techniques improve, he said.
19 Hotshots Memorial Frame
We were recently approached by Donna from Whiskers Barkery in downtown Prescott to frame a very special photo. This photo, of one of the Granite Mountain Hotshots buggies with fallen hotshot Eric Marsh’s dog and boot on the bumper has an important meaning for those of us who live in Prescott, Yarnell and the surrounding communities. You see, on June 30th 2013 we lost 19 of our brave firefighters in a wildfire near Yarnell that caught them undefended. We miss them still… So, along with Donna and Whiskers Barkery, we wanted to make a fitting 19 Hotshots Memorial frame from The Frame & I to display and preserve this precious photograph.
Fi
refighters from all over the southwestern USA will see it at the Arizona Wildfire Academy at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University over the next few days. It’s at the Eric Marsh Foundation’s booth. We are hoping for a successful and educational Academy this year, as well as a lot of support for the Foundation.
The 19 Hotshots Memorial frame is framed in Angus faux leather and reclaimed wood, with the names of the 19 fallen hand tooled into the top and bottom panels. Tiny 
clavos (nails) adorn the frame to add a rustic element and to unify the design. All work done at The Frame and I. Framing it was a team effort between Francine Hackerott and Ida Kendall (although Francine did the lion’s share of the work with the hand tooling). The photo is courtesy of Donna at Whiskers Barkery.
We’ve donated this frame at Donna’s request, to the Eric Marsh foundation, whose mission “is a non-profit organization created to support survivors of wildland line-of-duty deaths as well as living wildland firefighters”. They have brought a great good out of a terrible tragedy, and for this we are so inspired and thankful to them.
With hard work, perseverance, community support and a little luck, the foundation will sell copies of this wonderful photograph to raise money to continue its good work supporting the survivors of wildland firefighting related loss, as well as living wildland firefighters. Are you inspired? You can donate here. A big thank you to the foundation, and to Donna from Whiskers Barkery, for all of your awesomeness. We are honored to have been included in this project and we hope our work honors those we’ve lost.
In our hearts forever. We thank God for those who serve and protect us, every day.
Thank you for reading!
Ida Kendall
This blog was posted on the Frame & I’s website, if you wish to receive their posts realtime, feel free to visit (click logo below) their website and subscribe yourself to their wordpress site.
Artist Gets Exclusive Rights to Blackest Black Ever Created
Is it innovation in art or a publicity stunt?
Verde Valley Comic Expo
April 9 @ 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
NAZCA at the Verde Valley Comic Book Expo
April 9 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
llustrator/Creator/Writer/Cartoonist Jan Marc Quisumbing and Anne Roberts of the Cottonwood Public Library share an exciting event, Verde Valley Comic Expo. Jan Marc is also with the Northern Arizona Cartoonist Association. The event will be held on Saturday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Cottonwood Recreation Center! The entry fee is $5, $3 if you bring two cans of food. Kids under 10 are free. Proceeds will help fund the library’s Summer Reading Program!
Artists, writers, creators, vendors, and cosplayers will be at the Verde Valley Comic Expo to show and sell their work, and to share their talents and skills with people who love comics. A cosplayer is a person who dresses up like a character from comics or manga. We are going to have several cosplayers at the Verde Valley Comic Expo. The Justice League, Harley Quinn, — we also will have a special raffle of a $50 gift card from Amazon.com for people who come to the Expo in costume.
For up to date information about this event, become a friend on their facebook page at “verde valley comicon“.
Time to Toot Our Own Horn
Ida Kendall took the time recently to inspire future generations to become artists. Sacred Heart Catholic Church was very appreciative to have a local artist and business owner be part of their career fair. Ida had fun with the event, especially meeting all the kids.Inspiring Boy Scouts
