Turpentine journal 11/19/17
Upsidedown. It’s useful to look at your paintings in mirrors or upsidedown, as I’ve down here. The old rule-of-thumb maintains that a painting should be balanced when looked at normally and…
Turpentine diaries 12/16/2018
I finished Bench by the Lake in a short session yesterday. I hadn’t looked at the painting for months before yesterday’s session. It’s not unusual for a painting to be…
Retouch varnish
When you work on an oil painting over an extended period, colors sometimes become dull. The upper paint layers merge with an earlier layers. This process is called sinking in.…
In the Studio Oct. 14 2012
Another lifelong habit I have is working on several–sometimes very many–painting simultaneously. I will put a painting aside to be taken up later any number of times. I might work…
In the studio 9/7/14
Fourteen figures are in this 40″ x 56″ oil. Main St. #2 is a scene from our hometown’s annual Festival of the Fish (Main st. #1 is another scene from the…
In the studio 3/22/15
I don’t think I’ve shown this painting–Sunday Parade–before. According to my studio journal, today’s painting session is the fifth. It was too raw. Still is, really. The underpainting isn’t finished;…
In the studio 9/13/15
I put 10 hours into Washington Square today. I planned to spend just a single hour on it before turning to other paintings. I have one I’m itching to get back…
In the studio 4/24/16
My work today on Spring was all blues: ultramarine blue-violet on the blouses of the outer-most figures; cerulean blue and black on the pants of the middle woman. Magnesium blue and Veronese…