Studio journal 2/26/17
I’m late posting this journal entry. I actually posted a later version of the bottom painting, Girl in the Lavender Dress. That painting plus the painting on the easel, Break,…
Turpentine diaries 2/18/20
More Playhouse Square work. This one is creatively titled Trip to Playhouse Square. This (still) unfinished painting is 40″ x 50.” I like the size and recently ordered enough stretchers…
Wrong again?
A reader said he tried sun-thickened oil on my recommendation but it didn’t demonstrate the handling quality that I’d claimed for it. Sun-thickened oil has the happy quality of maintaining…
Sable brushes
Sable brushes are the best. There’s no debate about this. Sure, there are some use cases where the benefits of sable are irrelevant. The fine control provided by sables is…
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…
Drawing is always the solution
The question is, “How do I fix my stuck painting?” The answer is always drawing. When one of my paintings stalls, drawing is the cure. My most successful paintings started…
Lawrence’s Annoying Paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art
I have nothing against Thomas Lawrence, indeed, I like his work, but—good grief!—he could make some annoying paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art has two of the offending paintings hanging…
Poem: Why do I remember this?
Why do I remember? I’ve carried this, and now–see?–here it is. Guided by a compulsion (that has never left me) I painted the walls of my mother’s house the entire…