Brush graveyard
My brush graveyard is getting too big. I throw out most of my worn-out brushes. I've also been known to snap in two misbehaving brushes. Those I also throw out. But my favorites I inter…
Category: materials
Transparent earth colors
Oil paint can be profitably judged for either its covering strength or transparency. This comports with some well known bits of studio wisdom: "fat over lean," and "thick lights, thin darks." Covering colors, often called…
Review: Michael Harding oil paint
In the past, I used enough Michael Harding paint to add it to my oil paint reference. My initial rating was "good." Later, I tried their titanium white and was surprised to discover that it…
Review: Van Gogh oil paints
When I started my oil paint brand reference, I excluded 'student grade' brands. The distinction between student grade and other brands was based on price. Everyone understands that you get what you pay for but…
The problem with blended commercial oil paint
The ideal palette consists entirely of single-pigment colors. Such an ideal palette provides artists with total control over values and tones. This is especially important for artists, like me, who use lead white. These days,…
Amusement park series
I visited Lake Erie's preeminent amusement park, Cedar Point, five times this summer. I am using the thousands of photos that I took from these visits as reference material for my new series--Amusement Parks. I…
Reader gift
For me, visiting the Utrecht store on 3rd Ave. in Manhattan was like going to Disneyland. An entire store dedicated to art supplies! Utrecht along with Pearl and other independent icons like David Davis made…