By my 3rd session with the painting titled White Balloon, I finally have the entire surface covered with paint. One issue large paintings present (White Balloon is 40″ x 54″) that is not encountered on small canvases is coordination. It’s too easy to work out the details in an area only to discover the area…
I began my latest batch of leaded linseed oil on July 27, 2021–38 days ago. I protected the oil from debris with a cover. I gently rocked the tray periodically to prevent surface skin. When I checked the oil today, it was thick and sluggish which means it’s ready to decant and store. Forgetting to…
Last time I wrote about getting my painting titled White Balloon ready–the preparatory drawing and the first painting session. I am carrying the painting forward with this update. Here is White Balloon after my second painting session. You can better see the painting’s bones in this photo. It’s going to take time to put flesh…
My newest painting, White Ballon, is the standard size for me, 40″ x 54.” The drawing is simple–really the plan for the painting. I define the shapes and clarify the relationships between objects: light on dark, light on light, light on dark and light, etc. For large paintings like this, it’s immensely helpful to address…
People who are out of step with the prevailing authority practice ketman to avoid trouble. Ketman is a way to dissemble. At a minimum people practicing ketman must self-censor their speech. When silence isn’t enough, ketman-practitioners find ways to appear to actively support the regime. When ketman-practitioners cannot escape the oppressive regime, they develop ways…
I’m on my third Nikon camera. I bought my first one because the Nikon-produced photos that I saw excited me in ways that the photos from other brands did not. I have never regretted going with Nikon. I’m not a hotshot photographer but I use my Nikon cameras all the time. Since I use my…
I use my Nikon Z7 camera all the time. Nearly all my paintings include elements from my own photographs, typically mashups of several photographs. Summer is a great time to take photographs, of course. I stay alert for festivals, fairs, or other events that promise to provide a harvest of usable photos. Next week, I…
Thomas Crow is an American art historian. For a short time, his interests overlapped with mine, which is how I became aware of him. Some readers might know that I am a fan of the French artist J.L David. Early in his career, Crow wrote a book focused on David and his circle, Emulation: Making…
My next video about painter’s paintings is on van Goyen’s painting titled View of Emmerich in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Van Goyen is another artist from the Dutch Golden Age. He is a contemporary of Rembrandt and is from Rembrandt’s hometown, Leiden. I started making art-related podcasts a couple of years ago. Discussing artworks…
OK, the title of this post is a bit of misdirection. I mean to say ‘get the lead in.’ Quick-drying oil is very important for oil painting. Not only do quick-drying oils enable artists to finish paintings quickly, drying oils improve the way paint handles. It gives artists more control over the paint–an altogether good…
Yesterday, I determined to finish Woman in White-stripped Dress. Even though I failed, I was excited to get back at it again today. This afternoon, I ran out of gas before finishing it. Oh well. Sometimes I can force myself to continue after I’m gassed but there is a chance I’ll spoil the work when…
Serves me right. After I bragged about how rugged the Old Holland sable oil brushes are, this brush died, as you can see. It lost too many fibers and lost its usefulness. It lasted longer than most comparable oil sables, however, so I’ll buy more of them. In defense of Old Holland, oil kills sables…
The brands I use most often for the all-import flake white are RGH, Blue Ridge, and Utrecht. I crossed Utrecht off the list after discovering that they’ve added zinc to their Flemish white. I don’t buy the premier brands–Blockx, and Old Holland–anymore because the small manufacturers provide excellent paint at reasonable prices. Blockx is $92…
The painting on the floor, Arts Guild, is my newest painting. I’ve worked on it steadily this week. The underpainting is done and I started the first overpainting yesterday. It’s 40″ x 54.” Arts Guild is still a baby and has a long way to go before it grows up. On the left-hand canvas, I…
I explain why I banished Old Holland from my palette in this post. Even though I rate Old Holland’s oil paint the best in my Oil Paint Reference, their prices are so absurdly high that I refuse to use them. Besides, there is plenty of reasonably-priced vendors out there, such as RGH and Blue Ridge.…