I recently bought some of Rublev’s Lead Oil Ground. I’ve had mixed results with Rublev products. Their oil paint is excellent. Their burnt sienna is top shelf. However, much of their stuff is less than wonderful. They purport to be experts but I don’t see any evidence for that claim. They sell a lot of thick,…
It’s hard for me to understand this but until this week I never used Utrecht brand oils. I’m not sure why this is. I’ve visited their shops in NYC and Cleveland and ordered plenty of other things from them. True, I was disappointed with the easel I bought from them, but that was recent and doesn’t explain…
I placed a paint order on RGH’s website, and the agile boys at RGH promptly shipped two 250 ml jars of Paynes gray to me. Unfortunately, I’d ordered two 250 ml jars of flake white. I probably haven’t used more than 40ml of Payne’s gray in the past five years. I checked the RGH website. Sure…
I spent the day working on Picnic. I’ve written before about how I stalled out on Picnic. The issue was predominately the background figures. I put them in; I took them out; I put them back in again. I use ultramarine violet a lot, it’s especially useful for cool grays. I used ultramarine violet on the shirt of the guy at the…
I wrote before about some of my experiences with Lukas 1862 oils. I wanted some more time with the paints before completing my review. With these recent sessions, I’ve had my fill of Lukas oils. Typical for me, I set up the palette on Friday morning (first photo) and used it over the next two…
I used some of the Lukas 1862 oils I wrote about before. I’m still not ready to add the brand to my oil paint reference because I need more testing. In their marketing material, Lukas emphasizes the ‘smooth, buttery’ quality of their paint. Virtuality all low-end brands make this claim. I can attest that…
Along with Winsor Newton, Blue Ridge and RGH oils get a lot of use on my palette. The categories I use to rate manufacturers in my oil paint brand reference–low-end, mid-range, and high-end–are based on price and quality. While there is a lot of churn in the low-end category, most brands are student-grade and…
This photo shows painting cups in front of my custom-made palette. I always use this selection of mediums and solvents when I paint. In the left-most container is my medium. My medium is very drying which means, among other things, that it is very rough on brush heads. Not only does it dry out the brush hairs,…