After a marathon 13-hour session with The Picnic, I think I’ve wrestled it to the ground. The Picnic has fought me since day one.. First, the canvas, from a sub-par batch of cotton duck, wants to sag against the cross bar. Worse is the lousy ground. I’m always looking for efficiencies and this time it backfired. After preparing the ground in my usual way (several coats of GAC 100 followed by 3 coats of acrylic gesso [all sanded]), I tried something different. Instead of a final coat of oil-ground, I applied a coat of warm acrylic paint. The resulting surface is awful: it lacks tooth yet drags the paint–yeech.
Now, after many paint applications, the surface is nearing something half-way usable. The only part still needing painters first aid is the central figure along the bottom edge. After that, the under painting will be done. The shortcut doubled the time it normally takes to finish an under painting.
The unfinished painting titled ‘The Picnic’ on the easel
In the photograph’s lower-right you can see my homemade palette. The palette has the usual mix of colors and premixed tones I use.This glass palette is very easy to clean. I scrap up the dead colors with a razor blade, which would kill a traditional wooden palette. When I’m not painting, I store the palette in a covered butcher’s tray. This preserves the colors and extends their life. When a color dries, I simply scrap it away and replace it; I don’t have to clean all the colors at once. This morning, for example, the reds and blues on the palette were still fresh although everything else was sticky and dry and needed to be replaced.
The paint cups by the palette hold turpentine and my medium. I mix the medium fresh every day. I use driers in the medium and if I store the medium, it becomes progressively thicker, which I don’t like. I like my medium to flow; so I avoid thick or sticky mediums.