Turpentine diaries 9/4/17
I started working on the painting on the easel, Along 4th Street, yesterday. I’ve had two long sessions on it, but it still needs a lot of work. I’m careful about cutting off figures by the canvas edge. One of my teachers, Pearlstein, is well known for cutting figures. He used the device to
Turpentine diaries 8/27/17
The finished painting on the floor in this photo, Dare, is another painting of my son Keith standing in front of an earlier painting with him as the subject. Dare is 24″ x 30.” The large, unfinished painting on the easel, Picnic, is the last painting from my batch of poor-surface paintings. And it’s the
Turpentine diaries 8/13/17
I finished the small painting sitting on the floor this morning. I thought I’d finished it last week but something about it bugged me this morning, so I couldn’t resist taking-up the brush. Sometimes when I look at one of my old paintings, I’m transferred back to when I worked on it–like a time machine.
Turpentine diaries 8/6/17
The Delegate is 36″ x 48″. It still has a way to go. It’s another painting with an annoying surface. I’ve written a lot recently about painting surfaces, I know. I bought a large roll of canvas two years ago, which enables me to monitor how changes to the painting surface can affect performance. All the
Turpentine diaries 7/30/17
Sub Rosa, on the easel, is part of the Main Street series. I’ve been using RGH’s ultra-fine flake white regularly, which can be seen in the middle of the palette. I like it. Last week, I used the last of a tube of flake white from Blue Ridge, which is also excellent paint. I was
Turpentine diaries 7/23/17
Break is finally done. I struggled with the surface from the beginning which resulted in more sessions than usual. I won’t bore you with the details; the surface isn’t awful–it’s perfectly sound–but it’s not to my liking. Not nearly smooth enough and like any rough-surfaced canvas, it eats brushes. I like surfaces that are smooth and
Turpentine diaries 7/16/17
I decided to work on my backlog of unfinished studies and small paintings. I worked on all of the paintings in the photo today, the bottom-left one last. One small study, not shown, has a problem and I’m trying to decide how to resolve it. Before I work on a painting, I always wipe it with
Turpentine diaries 7/9/17
Grand Army of the Republic Highway is part of a series called Main Street, which is about, well, Main Street in out town. The town is a vacation destination and things happen downtown all of the time–festivals, street parties, concerts. I am adding pages to the site about my current series, Playhouse Square, and Main