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…
I worked on these three small paintings yesterday. I am trying to keep all three simple. Millie Talking, the painting sitting on the floor, is almost done. There are a few that still needs ‘saying.’ According to my Studio Journal, I notice that I’ve worked on the two landscapes at the same time, one after the…
This painting, Girl in the Purple Boots II, is typical of how I work these days. Like the earlier version, Girl in the Purple Boots I, the painting is based on a mash-up of several photos taken around the same time at the same location. In the case of the Purple Boots paintings, the photos…
I worked on several paintings over the past few days. I also applied the ground to the canvas on the right-side of the photo. The tone is burnt sienna, raw umber, and white. I used to use warm grounds based on burnt sienna but lately I’ve used gray. So I am reverting to my earlier…
This painting is still raggedy; some parts, such as the hair, are barely started. The thing I’m not happy with is the title: Phone Call on Main Street. It’s not so much a title as a description. I don’t like the raised edges that can occur where two carefully-painted areas meet. Beneath the bench, you…
After completing the cartoon for this painting, I transferred it to a canvas, as you can see in the photo. A cartoon, I remind you, is a drawing used as a template for a painting. Cartoons are made to the exact dimension of the target surface. Typically, they are used for large paintings and murals but are often…
I spent most of the day drawing, getting two new paintings ready. This afternoon I started stretching canvases. I plan to stretch 6. I’m a crackerjack canvas stretcher, I’ve done it so often, but even I can learn new tricks. I used to put the staples on the stretcher edge but I’ve started putting the…
I’ve stretched and gessoed a large number of canvases this week. Soon, my store of stretchers will be exhausted. I’m concentrating on several dimensions: 36″ x 48″, 40″ x 50″, and 44″ x 60″. I have 6-10 paintings in each of those dimensions in various states of finish. We celebrated my wife’s birthday yesterday–porterhouse steaks,…