In the studio 4/12/15

I had another painting session with Graduation Day this morning, primarily on the pig-tailed girl. I spent a lot of time on her hands and the key chain she’s holding. I’m starting to like the pig tail. Most of the background is done in this painting–the sky, cars, buildings, and ground, although the right-hand mass of trees isn’t finished.

In the photo you can see, in addition to my usual medium and solvent cups, a second medium cup. I worry that my source for materials will dry and I won’t be able to acquire the materials I need. I’m actually paranoid about this; it’s happened to me many times in the past. This is why I stock up on the things I regularly use, like varnish and oil. My supplier for copal varnish, Groves, is still around but his is a mom and pop shop, so who knows. Anyway, I’m almost out of Groves copal  varnish and I’m testing others. Painting isn’t about testing materials so it’s a pain in the neck, but it has to be done. I’m preparing another order.

The unfinished painting titled ‘Graduation Day’ on the easel

There are plenty of good oil producers, so I don’t worry about that. But copal is getting harder to find and, unlike the soft resins damar and mastic, turning copal into varnish is not trivial. Damar can be turned into varnish by simply soaking the beads in turpentine. Mastic beads can turned into varnish by cooking them in turpentine over low heat. It’s easy; I’ve done it myself many times. Too bad I don’t like mastic-based mediums. Making copal varnish requires high heat. I really don’t want to become a varnish maker. Groves also makes the excellent lead-based Courtrai drier. With the war against lead, I worry about this drier disappearing too.

Sometimes my penchant for stocking up on materials backfires. I was able to get a lot of fat tubes of Bockx’ superb flake white awhile back and one of the tubes is messed up. The oil ran out in streams when i opened it. I’ve never seen that with the usually reliable Blockx before. The paint is extremely stiff and takes a lot of massaging to make it usable. I painted with it today but I should relegate to use in grounds where the stiffness won’t matter.