Trekell fails
Lately, I’ve been spammed a lot by the independent brush manufacturer, Trekell. Oil paint is murder on sable brushes so Trekell’s decent quality sables coupled with modest prices led me to past purchases. I have over 20 of their brushes. I also like their linseed oil soap. Readers of my Brush review know that I
Starting another painting
The drawing is transferred to the canvas for the new painting I’m calling The Entertainer. The Entertainer is 40″ x 50″. I applied the warm ground with a rag. I was careful to keep the ground thin so that the drawing shows through, as you can see in the photo. There are 12 figures in
Goop nope
After talking with Robert Doak, I followed his recommendation and purchased some of his Painting Goop. I shouldn’t have. I normally stay away from thick painting mediums, but I enjoyed my far-ranging conversion, and everything I’ve purchased before was top-quality, I thought, “Why not?” Goop is thick, resembling toothpaste. When thinned with turp and worked
St. Charles’ good book
Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters by Sir Charles Eastlake is the best resource–by far–for information about painting methods and materials. Just like the title states. The older studio traditions had already faded into the past when Sir Charles published the first volume in 1847, so the book is a
Robert Doak
I was marveling about how good the sun-thickened oil is that I got from Robert Doak. Like everything I’ve ever purchased from him, the quality is excellent. I’m not out of the sun-thickened oil yet but I only have a half-bottle left. I hate to run out of supplies and I tend to stockpile them,
Turpentine diaries 7/21/19
The first day painting on a new design is always exiting. True, paintings almost never live up to the vision in my mind’s eye, but I start every new painting with the same anticipation. I can’t wait to get started! This photo shows The Green Umbrella after a four-hour painting session. There’s a long way
Turpentine diaries 7/6/19
After several days of drawing, I spent the last 5-6 days working on The Lens (unfinished painting on the easel). I started with the over-painting today before running out of gas. My main palette, the rectangular one on the white cart, contains my colors and mixtures: cool and warm grays, and values of burnt sienna.
A look at Rublev oils – video review
Link to the review on Turpentine diaries YouTube page. Last week I finally got off my behind and started podcasting, and this week I’ve produced my first video. In this video I look at two oils from Rublev: Sun-thickened Linseed Oil, and Sun-bleached Linseed Oil. Rublev produces a lot of art materials, some good, and