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.
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