A productive day with a lot of good sunlight. I finished two self-portraits this morning (a gouache and another pastel-gouache), almost finished the drawing for a new still life (oil), then worked on the oils in the accompanying photo this afternoon.
Why so many self-portraits lately? It’s not because I’ve developed a new found self-fascination–hell no! It’s because I’ll sit still for as long as I need. I plan on hiring some Cleveland area models to relieve the monotony.
The pastel-gouache was almost lost, by the way. It started life as a gouache on canvas board, then I worked it up with pastels. After finishing it, I deiced to fix it with spray varnish. All pastels and charcoals need this, of course, and I also do it to some gouache pieces. I used a brand new to me by Utrecht. Mistake! The damar-based “retouch” varnish obliterated the soft pastel work–crap. So I worked it up again but used my standard Krylon varnish this time which worked fine. The Utrecht is only fit for small oils and gouaches.
The painting in the foreground is “Jane Hudson and Her Father,” which–knock on wood–will be done soon. On the second easel in the background you can see “The Hug” and above it “Princeton Canal,” which I finished yesterday during a terrific snowstorm.
