Good day after a bad day.
I was so excited to get into the studio yesterday, I was mixing my medium at 5:30 AM. I make my medium fresh every day. It’s very drying and if I prepare it beforehand, it’s too firm. But I do prepare one of the ingredients in advance–the varnish. I had enough varnish for one more day.
I clumsily spilled the remainder of my varnish. Not a problem. I have plenty of the varnish components on-hand. I prepared enough varnish for a month and then used it to make the medium.
The painting session went slowly. Really, really slowly. I was fighting the surface. I was fighting the paint. I was fighting the medium. I was at a complete loss. Then it dawned on me. I’d improperly prepared the varnish! I pitched the bad varnish in the trash (I hate such waste!) then prepared another batch, this time making sure to follow my usual practice.
I studied my work. Not good. I put denatured alcohol on a rag and wiped the morning’s work off the canvas and started over. It’s been years since I’ve done that. In fact, I can’t remember the last time.
I spent all day working on the same painting–Sub Rosa (the painting on the easel). After the reboot, things went well. The medium had been the problem. After the disastrous start, I made good progress the rest of the day. Behind Sub Rosa is the recently finished Euclid Avenue #1 and another painting.
I planned to continue working on Sub Rosa this morning but I decided to put it aside and let it dry. I’ll take it up later this week.
The RGH extra fine flake white continues to perform well. I will certainly order more from the boys at RGH.