Posts Tagged ‘oil and cold wax’
Fourth of the four paintings
Today, I finally got the chance to go up and work on the last of the four oil/cold wax medium paintings I started in Dallas at the first of the month. I really liked this combination of colors… magenta, red, orange,gold-ochre, etc. But the painting was not finished.
I didn’t know whether or not I would do what I did with the last one and almost totally re-paint it or not. I slathered a little cold wax medium on the top of the fairly dried paint and used a few oil paint sticks……opened up my palette to look at the colors I had there that might work with this one. I did use some sticks but also brayered them down a little softening the edges that I made with the sticks and an occasional brush mark or two.
I kept looking at it as I tried to keep layering some more paint on the other paintings wooden panel edges………finally, I decided this is where I am leaving it, at least for now. It is a blessing and a curse like pastels that you can keep coming back and painting more later if you wish without much difficulty as long as you don’t put a final varnish on top. AND cold wax medium and oil paintings generally do not have one unless you want a glossier finish.
I even started thinking of titles………. This one… Out of the Clearing 2.
This is the way I left it in the studio today.
Out of the Clearing 2, oil on 20 x 20 x 2 inch wood panel
The painting below is where I started……..
Working with different mediums
As some of you know, I went to a workshop with a wonderful artist… Rebecca Crowell in Dallas earlier in the month. Before I left I started the last painting……..very large one, too, so I had to complete it before I got back to working with the panels and oil paintings that I started at that workshop.
Today I have finally been back at work on these ‘starts’…. or I call them that. Who knows, the starts may look better by the time I get through than the finished paintings. One thing about working with oil and cold wax medium is that it is very easy to just keep getting a whole different painting each and every time you work on it. That is if you are not using brushes but are using squeegees and brayers. Not that you cannot use a brush, but I am trying to use the paint in a thinner application to build up layers and also hopefully dry a little faster. In fact, over time I probably will use a brush as I was itching to get one out to do some negative painting on these two that I worked on today. BUT, I think I will still do the preliminary work with the squeegees and brayers to keep it drying faster until I know where I am going with the painting.
These pieces are 20 x 20 x 2 inch wood panels I bought from a local canvas shop…..great people, making a wonderful product, at a good price as well as made in the USA….. Sunbelt Manufacturing in Longview, TX.
One piece…….when I left the workshop looked like this.
early stage when I left the workshop
This is what it looked like after I worked on it a little more today. I kept turning it around…and it looks possibly more contemporary turned in the opposite direction but for some reason I like it this way, at least at this stage. This could be an intermediate stage or the final one. Who knows right now? I need to keep looking more.
Intermediate or final version
Here is the second one that I worked on today.
early version of painting 2 (also labeled 4 on the image file)
This painting was just TOO brightly a permanent green. My idea was to break up some of that with some softer, warmer greens and then go from there. WELL… you know how I said you can get a new painting…not quite but also a different look. It could have been drastically different but I softened and changed and it started taking on a better look. These photos are just I-phone pictures so sometimes the glare even without a flash makes for bad color. They are not what I call true to color. Sometimes I get good ones, sometimes not. This second painting photo is more intense and has more contrast..especially the too light violet in the bottom right.
2nd painting intermediate stage
Like the first one, I will keep looking to see if I like this new version or if I need to work more on both.
I, also, determined before I went that I am going to gesso the sides of these panels and paint the sides like I do my acrylic paintings. I just have not been liking MY work with the bare wood sides. You can only imagine how much paint ended up on me as I would forget and pick them up. Next time, I will add paint on the sides as I start like I do with acrylic paintings.
I will work on the other two next session…. put them all there on the side of the room to just evaluate for a time.
All this is a little out of my comfort zone working with a medium I haven’t used since the 60′s BUT it’s good to shake things up now and then.
Oil and Cold Wax painting
I decided I had worked long enough on those little 8 x 10 inch canvases trying out the oil and cold wax. I can’t get the gesture in little paintings. I am better off working with collage when I work with a more intimate size. I got out a large (and heavy) 32 x 32 x 2 inch wood panel and set to work. First, since this is oil I needed to gesso this panel I had made for hot wax that should not use acrylic gesso. I got out the gesso I had not opened in who knows how long. It was pretty thick since it was in a gallon pail and I had half of it in there. It was really thick but worked fine. I laid in two coats and ten decided …what the heck I would also put some lightweight texture paste since it was okay for oils as well as acrylic painting.
The next day I started mixing up the cold wax medium ( I only had a pint of Gamblin) with some variations of yellow, yellow orange and a tinge of red. I used a good bit of the medium and troweled and brayered it all around until it was covering the face of the panel. Oh yeah… I taped the edges of the panel except for the 1/4 inch face of the plywood that I planned to have paint on in the end. This is slower going that applying the ground with acrylic on canvas I can tell you.
I had some violet paint out on the palette so I just dipped into it and made marks with the diluted violet and a brush like I might usually do with my acrylic paintings. The only instructions I have for working with cold wax come compliments of Rebecca Crowell and her ning site, oilandwax.ning . Since Rebecca works so much differently than I do, I just have to wing it except for reading about the things I can or cannot do and there are not that many of them since you don’t have to think of some of the technicalities of oil painting alone. The cold wax medium helps all the paints to dry without thinking of fat over lean, etc.
I was going to post the picture but it is on my FB Contemporary Abstract Paintings page here. I have continued to work on this painting……..Ialso posted another layer on down the line on the FB page…………. This is what I have now. This painting may get a little more work. In fact, it almost for sure will. I don’t have plans at this juncture to make a big about face and change it totally.
It looks like my paintings pretty much except in person, it is different due to the nature of the oil and wax. I still have not gotten to the point of using a retouch varnish or final varnish yet so these paintings will have a little more luster. They are matte in nature with the wax medium and some people prefer that. I am used to the more satin finish of my other work.
I’m already thinking…. what to title this as it initially used colors I think of in spring….. Maybe it should be titled, “Wishing for the Heat to End”. It also makes me think of the pastures down toward the creek bottom here.
