I made progress on Euclid Avenue I this morning. Progress on the 48″ x 60″ painting has been slow at times. This canvas is from a stock of ‘professional grade’ canvases I bought some time back. The surfaces on these ‘professional grade’ canvases are very poor–execrable. I’ve had to spend a lot of time correcting them and still the…
Not so much flavored as customized. My medium is very drying, which I like immensely. I use it everyday but it has one minor flaw. When I’m painting a large area, my medium is sometimes too drying. One method I use to address this is to add some balsam, like Venice turpentine or Canadian balsam,…
I’ve been working on paintings that take a lot of time recently, such as the lower one in this photo. The drawing in the bottom painting was done with pencil and then fixed with ink. Everything was drawn several times. The drawing in the top painting was done directly with OMS-thinned paint over a neutral…
The Break is 40″ x 50″. I stretched a lot of 40″ x 50″ canvases last year and The Break is one of them. Some of the background is done, but the painting still has a long way to go. My medium dries very quickly, as I’ve written before. Its only limitation is that its fast…
With over 30 figures in its 44″ x 60″ space, Picnic wants to careen into confusion. Which I do not want, so we argue. The central figure, by turning her back to us, adds her voice to the argument. That’s alright. I’m not off-put by rambunctious offspring and I am patient. I’ve always been suspicious of accidents, accidents of light…
Several busy days in the studio. I worked on 10-12 paintings over the past few days, including Sunday Parade. Sunday Parade is finally locked into a good place (even though I still haven’t settled on its name). It felt like I was pushing it uphill for a long time. I’m on the downward side now. Artists…
In my Oil Paint Brand reference I ignore Lukas oils, assigning them to the student-grade category. Recently I purchased an assortment of their 1862 line, which is their premier line. The prices for the 1862 line is inline with affordable professional brands such as Blue Ridge, RHG, and Winsor Newton. After I put them through their paces,…
On the Square is part of my Playhouse Square series–a series of paintings with subjects taken from Cleveland’s Playhouse Square. At 4′ by 5′, On the Square is at the outer limit for an easel painting. Any larger and you need a heavy-duty easel (or two) or a mural-style one. I don’t own one of those. When I…