I recently read Dan Chaon’s 2017 thriller, Ill Will. This is my first book by this author, which reinforces my resolve to ignore online reviews. Can it be that they’re all fake? These days I’ve replaced my Kindle Oasis with a Kobo Libre 2. I reviewed the Kindle and I’ll provide a review of the…
I am in the midst of another fiction-consuming binge. When I tire of listening to podcasts I fire up an audio book. Between listening to books and reading them with my Kobo e-Reader, I go through a lot of books. The fantasy novel Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen Donaldson is the first book in the…
In the past, I trolled titanium white users–zinc white users too. These whites, inferior as they are, provide the only competition for the champion of oil-paint white, lead white. Actually, it isn’t even a contest; lead white wins easily on every metric that matters: blending, body, and all-around handling. Titanium white is so unnaturally bright…
I am testing the excellent Michael Harding brand Cremitz white. It really is good stuff. Along with Kremer’s Cremitz white, it’s among the best lead whites that I’ve used. Of course, the lead whites from all the manufacturers still providing the all-important paint are excellent. By the last count, there are eight art supply manufacturers…
I am a fan of RGH’s cremnitz white and regularly use it in my paintings, Like their cremnitz white, RGH’s Flemish white is lead-based. Regular readers know that I only use lead-based whites in my oil paintings. Flemish white is made with lead sulfate. There are many ways to make lead paint which is not…
I recently finished the science-fiction trilogy The Remembrance of Earth’s Past, by Chinese author Cixin Liu. The first and most well know book in the series is The Three-Body Problem. The team that produced The Game of Thrones is making a Netflix series about the trilogy so you’ll probably learn about the series soon if…
Part of a recent paint buy included a tube of Cranfield’s King’s blue deep, which I’d bought in order to review. The Cranfield brand is new to me and King’s blue is not a palette regular but I like to try new paint brands and colors. Cranfield is a British firm that originally produced printing…
I got my tube of Maimeri Puro Naples yellow with my last paint purchase. All paints purchased that day were unrated on my oil paint reference. I’ve used this brand before and put it on the list but I hadn’t used it enough to rate it. I’m not sure why I haven’t used it before.…