May 2021

Only two painting projects to visit for the month of May.

I am happy to add another pet portrait to the gallery this month. This one I am calling “Two Cunning Canines,” a portrait of Sam and Charlie. It is all acrylic done with no limits on my natural tendencies towards details. I used ample glazing medium to create overlapping thin washes of acrylic paint. A technique that is closer to colored pencil and watercolor and feels within my comfort zone with those familiar processes.

For a process demonstration, I chose to attempt again to loosen up in oil painting, the tiger I am still trying to tame. I made a charcoal sketch from my patio and was happy enough with the composition and arrangement of shapes and values to proceed.

The process of taking on the blank canvas with a line sketch in thinned down paint is as intimidating a feat as anything I do. Every fiber of my being wants to draw it out in painstaking detail with a detailed pencil drawing as I have always done in colored pencil or water color. And perhaps, in the end colored pencil or watercolor will be where I return, But for now, the oil painting process is the tiger I have chosen to tame. So, here is the process I followed. A spontaneous approximation of the placement of the major elements is done in Burnt Sienna thinned with mineral spirits, followed by the block-in process: “mapping out” where the darkest values are with a thin mixture of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine. My goal, from this point, was to lay down approximate colors where they go and to do it as quickly as possible in a mixture of pure paint and a touch of mineral spirits and a medium to aid in the flow of the paint (Neomeglip). The goal is to quickly make adjustments to colors and values in the alla prima way. I have yet to achieve this skill which I see, at this point, as a lofty goal: pure alla prima. I am still such a novice with the process that I continually refine and refine and lose what is so special and distinctive about alla prima; the loose brushwork. It is such an acquired skill. It requires a supreme confidence to “place” the brushstroke with the deliberate freshness the technique requires. It grows out of experience, I can only assume. Still a goal for me.

Admittedly, the subject presented challenges. The spindly stems and leaves call out for a small brush and a detailed approach. My solution for this was to be bold and relatively careless in the placement, knowing that the edges could be refined with darker, thicker paint “cut in” around the leaves and flowers. And so I did. The cutting in helped tremendously in thinning those stems, leaves and flowers but perhaps came at a price as the final piece has clearly lost its looseness. The art journey continues…