What’s that, A bunch of squares with a white background?

Gah! I could do that. My two year old brother did that!

Maybe, but I guarantee you he didn’t color in the lines and no one paid millions of dollars for his drawing.

Image a world with no concrete or asphalt sidewalks for skateboards, where the only art that was considered art was either a Landscape, Portrait or an Illustration, no Manga or Power Puff girls existed.

Enter Piet Mondrian. He was born on March 7, 1872 in Amerfoort, Netherlands.
He mainly painted landscapes and trees. In 1911 he moved to Paris to be a cubist, 6 years later he moved to New York and founded the De Stijl magazine and Neoplasticism.

Here is what he painted before his time in Paris.

Here is an example of what he was painting as a Cubist.

Basically he stripped down his color and concentrated on the structure of trees. He turned them into “scaffoldings” for leaves.

After he moved to New York he stripped everything down to it’s most essential parts, colors and lines , and developed, Neoplasticism.

I have to admit, I never thought anything of his work. Then I realized he was the originator of the concept, then it made more sense to me and I started really liking his analytical thinking. Consequently at the same time the electron microscope and the concept of atoms was being discovered.

Mondrian mostly painted with primary colors.

• Mars Black
• Titanium White
• Cadmium Yellow
• Cadmium Red Medium
• Cobalt Blue

Here at Utrecht we provide the colors and the professionals that help you to create your master pieces. So jump on your skate board, and head up to Utrecht and let us help you develop your art into more then just an attitude, we’ll even give you a Utrecht Knit cap to prove your the real thing.

DeLeva

Utrecht is having an amazing sale on boards! Foamcore, museum, illustration, bristol, mounting, railroad, chipboard and more. Sale ends April 18th, so come now while supplies last.

Introduction to soft pastels with Kim Eshelman: Learn about different types of pastels, papers and surfaces, fixatives, tools, different techniques of applying pastel to your surface, storage of your finished pastel paintings, and more! Check out Kim’s website. kimeshelman.com

Saturday March 13th at 1pm. Always Free!

Can’t find the commercial sketchbooks, with just the right paper? Then learn how to build your own. In house artist Tom Workman will demonstrate two simple and historic bookbinding techniques, with which you will be able to design and create your own books.

Sunday March 7th at 1pm. Always Free!

Imagine Caravaggio in the 16th century, skate boarding down to his local Utrecht, with his hat on sideways and his pants falling down, picking out paints in spray cans.  Yeah, I don’t think they even had paint in tubes at the time let alone skate board wheels.

My point is, Caravaggio had to make his own paint or he had an apprentice do it for him.
You and I have the luxury of a store like Utrecht, where we can by consistent quality paint at a great a price. We have a plethora of permanent colors that were never available to Caravaggio and I for one love using them.

When you look at Caravaggio’s work you first notice the drama, contrast and the use of lighting. Caravaggio painted thin layers of paint over each other. This process is called glazing. He first painted the whole painting using a mix of 2 colors, a dark and a light. Raw Umber and Titanium White would work great. Once the image was laid out, he would then paint thin washes of colors on top of the darks and lights. You can see that the thinner the color the brighter the effect, letting the white underneath reflect the light.
For this painting I would suggest these 6 colors:
Mars Black
Yellow Ocher
Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone Red
Titanium White
Raw umber or Burnt Sienna
Sap Green
Come on in and I’ll help you pick out colors for your next painting. You might want to bring a photo and we will work from that.
Cheers,
DeLeva

In house artist Chris Rollins will be conducting a block printing demo on Sunday March 14th at 1pm. He will be showing the tools and techniques necessary to make a multicolor linoleum print with a press.

Along with our amazing canvas sale, we are offering addition saving on specific sizes of 1.5″ deep cotton canvas.

36 x 60 - was $78.99 is now $46.99

36 x 48 - was $61.99 is now $36.99

30 x 40 - was $50.99 is now $29.99

These prices are only good for our in stock supply.

January 31st is the last day to enter the Utrecht Student Art Contest.

Check it out - www.utrechtart.com/studentcontest

Utrecht is looking for experienced energetic artists for in store demonstrations.

These demonstrations are generally held on weekends in the afternoon, but we are very flexible in our schedule. They are generally between 1 to 2 hours long. Although some past demos have been screen printing, canvas stretching, canvas priming, oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel painting, we would love to showcase your unique specialties and techniques. In exchange for your work, we offer a Utrecht gift card with store credit. If you are interested, please contact Chris at store11@utrecht.com

This Sale is Madness! Shop at Utrecht on Saturday January 23rd between noon and 4pm and save 20% on your entire purchase. There are hundreds of items that will be marked down!

This Sale does not apply to Best Buy or Sale items.