I finished this large study for a painting I plan. Studies like this help me clarify my thoughts. When making a study, I almost always filter out elements–hardly ever add new ones. That’s what happened this time too. You probably can’t tell from this photo but I’ve removed several background figures as I worked on…
No, I haven’t lifted my boycott against Old Holland. But a comment on this related post sent me looking at my dwindling stock of Old Holland supplies–things I bought pre-boycott. This photo shows my bottle of Old Holland Oil Painting medium. The ingredients are nowhere found on the label. Based on smell it contains linseed…
After reading some of my disparaging remarks about stand oil, a reader asked me if there was something wrong with stand oil. The short answer is no, there is nothing wrong with stand oil. The longer answer is, well, complicated. An ancient and still common method to improve oil is to heat it. Heating oil…
If you are looking for art instruction videos, YouTube is loaded with them. That’s the good news–videos for every taste and interest. The bad news is that the quality is–to put it charitably–spotty. You get what you pay for. Of course, you know this, so why am I taking the time to discuss something so…
This is a photo of my new painting room. It has a lot of north-facing windows so it’s great in that regard, but the ceiling is a little low as I think you can tell from the photo. It hasn’t been cold enough this winter to start a fire in the fireplace. The large painting…
Normally, a new drawing isn’t important enough for me to write about, but the drawing I completed today is noteworthy for its large size–30″ x 36.” “Three Sisters” is from a large roll of Canson paper. This paper is new to me and I tried different mediums some of which, charcoal for example, are ill-suited…
Whenever I have time, I prepare new canvases, consequently, I have a large stock of canvases and boards for painting. I prepare canvas boards by sanding the supplied surface and applying additional layers. I like smooth surfaces for painting and find that my canvas boards serve well for drawing. These surfaces also provide a large-format…
I don’t fit into the intended audience of most contemporary fiction reviewers so I try to avoid them. But a recent YouTube reviewer had one of my favorites, Blood Meridian, on his top fiction list so I stupidly followed one of his recommendations. If I had researched contemporary author Ottessa Moshfegh better, I would have…