The first session with my new painting, Fork, mangled a new brush. Fork is a large painting, 54″ x 66″. Because it’s so large I am not transferring a cartoon to the canvas but drawing directly on the surface, as you can see in this detail. The lower third of the drawing isn’t actually finished…
So you’ve embraced the two related studio aphorisms I discussed in this recent post: fat over lean, and make the lights thick but keep the darks thin. In practical terms what does this mean? Oil paint, tube paint, is stiff and unmalleable. Adding oils and solvents to the paint makes it manageable. But these additions…
This morning I finished the first painting of 2019, Along 4th Street. Today’s session was the 14th with this painting, which is par for a painting of this size, 40″x 50.” I used my normal medium throughout except for some of the lights, such as the those in the large orange bag. I added a…
David Davis was an art supply dealer in New York. He closed before the turn of the century–well before, so I have no idea how old this Venice turpentine I found this morning is. At least 20 years old. At one time, Peal Paint and David Davis were art supplier royalty in NYC. I spent…
Oil of spike lavender fills the studio with its strong and fragrant aroma. Oil of spike is more powerful than the other common solvents–turpentine, and mineral spirits–but it’s also slower drying. Because it is slow drying, paint stays open longer. This means that thin layers remain workable longer than other solvent-thinned layers. This feature is…
Two finished paintings today–a good day!
Sunshine has been rare in NE Ohio. The sunlight lighting the studio is cheery and warming–and winter has barely started. Yes, I have five computers on my desk. I am using three of them to investigate Linux distributions–CentOS, Manjaro, and Ubantu. I spent the morning drawing, then applied an oil ground to a new canvas,…
Normally in my Turpentine Diaries posts, I include a photo of an unfinished painting after having worked on it. As regular readers know, I’m not shy about criticizing my work–far from it! There are always things that bother me; problems that need addressing. While I frequently whine about these problems in a general way, I…