Brush Cleaning

At the end of a painting session it is sometimes difficult to bring yourself to clean your tools of torture.  Ignore them, let them harden to rakes, and they will torture you.

I find that my cleaning container on my tabouret gets pretty grungy after a short period.  The surface I use to rub off the pigment on my brushes gets a grey scum on it and I end up with dirty brushes after I clean them.  Not much fun to paint that way.  So, how to fix this condition?

First, I retired my expensive stainless steel insert in my nice expensive stainless steel pot.  Next I retired the pot itself into garage duty.  I upsized my pot to a Tim Horton's coffee tin - large.

Measuring the mesh for the Timmy tin.

Then I layed out the tin on top of 1/4" zinc coated wire mesh.  I now have a lifetime supply.  A couple of bricks held everything in place.

Base Mesh

I left about 2 1/2 " extra on the inside diameter of the tin on each side.  Then I notched each corner down past the inside diameter.

Mesh in Place

And voila, ready to add cleaner.  I filled the odourless mineral spirits to at least 2 " over the mesh.  Rub the brushes softly over the mesh.  The pigment falls to the bottom.  Since the wire mesh is round and of little surface area almost no pigment stays there to foul your brushes.  I've been using this for a couple of weeks now.  The pigment on the bottom of the tin is close to 1/2" thick now.  I have saved a lot of time with this and tend to clean my rushes because I know it will be effortless and without frustration.

If you want to go luxe on this, buy a stainless steel pot with lid from the Canadian Tire.  To make it worth while, make sure it is upsized from the Tim's Tin.  You will of course be buying your OMS by the gallon.

Brush Renewal

Here are the tools of torture I faced this morning in the studio.

Sizes 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

I use hogs hair bristle flats.  There are a few of each in various stages of decay.  In any painting session I tend to use one of each but either the 10 or the 12.  I work with a rag in my left hand wiping off the excess paint between strokes.  Then I wipe the paint off my rag onto that left hand.  Then the left hand works at producing painting clothes out of everything I own.

I use flats and they wear themselves into filberts with round shoulders.  I don't throw any of them out.  They often wear themselves into a special use brush.  I like the flats because they hold a good load of paint.  I can control them to make small marks as a result of my use of the big brush.  All of the brushes above save for the #10 are well on their way to becoming filberts.  I like a visible brush stroke with a square tail.  So.......

New Flats

These will make me feel sharp and clean, just like coming out of a shower.  My outdoor kit is in worse shape so I'll change them up as well.  After all, I'm going out painting in the snow tomorrow.

It is great to have an inventory.

New Brush Stash

So I'll paint with my new flats, my hand made filberts, my palette knife, my rag,  and my fingers.  At one time I used rounds as did the old masters.  They are good for hiding your brush strokes.  The bright is a short flat.  Holds less paint, can be used as a chisel for sculpting paint.

I have had good luck with these Rosemarie brushes.  I order a couple of times each year from England.  Quick delivery, good price, good brushes.  The catalogue is a good read, but don't get hooked.  In the world of no right and wrong, this catalogue can get to you with "what might be".

Canvas Preparation

For my oil painting I prepare my canvases with an oil based ground.  This is done for several reasons.

• Oil paint on an oil ground yields a good chemical bond (not just a mechanical bond).
• The surface is much less absorbent than gesso so the intensity of the paint stays high.
• The paint sits on the surface.
• The paint is easily shoved around (manipulated) on the surface.

Here is how I start.  In this case I am using Grumbacher MG white.  I like a lead white as well.

Notice the contrast with the Oil White - Brilliant

Please pardon the colours in the studio.  The camera thinks this is a warm white.  Not.

In order to fill the pores of the canvas I spread the thick paint with a knife.

This is thick and gooey - and fast drying

I then smooth the surface with a brush.  The degree of tooth and texture is a personal thing.

Usually I use a large hardware store bristle brush

When this is dry you might want to sand it to your preference before future steps.  You can use as is with the brilliant white helping for high key paintings done in one sitting.  Or you can colour the canvas with the ground colour and value of your choice.  This aids colour harmony and makes colour and value judgement easier.  The following canvas was stained with a transparent red oxide, ultramarine mix applied with an alkyd butter.  This gives the surface a strong set of layers to work on.  It is really a second layer of oil base.  This makes the surface "fast" and stops the paint from sinking in and losing its intensity.

This was applied with a rag

The surface is very nice to work on.  Holding the brush loaded with paint and making the stroke with the side of the brush deposits paint according to the pressure used.

Here is a loose canvas patch prepared the same way using yellow ochre, red oxide and alkyd butter.  The paint is applied with the flat bristles to deposit the paint.  I like the loose canvas when I am travelling by air.  Twenty canvases are around 1 cm thick - and light.  I travel very light with just a back pack.

Hold the brush using the full handle to deposit the mark

Wrong location?  Just change the brush angle to pick up the pile of paint and deposit it when it should go.  The angle used is like using a scraper.

No blending or licking, just pushing and moving

Recent Experiments

The lab has always been an interesting place for me.  In painting and in the support areas I am continually trying new things.  Its called development.  Recently I have been working on different grounds.  Even the best gesso I can find leaves a surface that is quite absorbent.  Since I like to paint wet in wet, I don't particularly like that.  Moving the paint around is defeated by such a surface.  In addition, the paint is sucked in at varying rates leaving a blotchy surface.  This happens during a painting session.  If you wait, the condition can be rectified with varnish or, in the case of continuing to paint - oiling in.  But waiting causes loss in immediacy.

In an attempt to change all that I did some research.  A Lead White ground apparently fixes all that.  To avoid the Lead I found a number of alternates and I have tried them on birch board and on canvas.  The oil paint sits on top of the canvas making paint manipulation possible.  That is you can take your brush and scrape up a mislaid stroke and place it in the right spot.

The painting looks as you painted it like this finished version shown before in a series of steps.  Varnish is then for protection.  I used no medium for this painting save for the beginning wash.

Bushwork, 12x12 Oil on Gallery Canvas

Here are the trial materials and the results.  The highest cost material is first.  I have been preparing the canvas to a semi smooth surface.  No sanding on the final coat.

Gamblin Oil Painting Ground - beautiful to paint on, slippery - slow dry, thick so one or two coats 

Grumbacher MG White - beautiful to paint on, slippery, medium time to dry, thick, one or two coats

Stevenson Oil Ground - nice to paint on, less slippery - slow dry, thin, three or more coats

Benjamin Moore Alkyd outdoor primer - nice to paint on, fairly slippery, quick dry, two or three coats 

Zinseel Outdoor Oil Primer (Alkyd) - nice to paint on, quick dry, less slippery, thin, three or more coats

Slow dry means up to a week or more...

Quick dry means less than a day.....

Slippery means the paint can be moved around at will....

If you try a commercial alkyd primer, make sure it is oil based, not shellac.  Make sure it is outdoor use.

All of these products are oil based, not acrylic.  The bond with oil paint is superior.  They contain natural or man made resins so they have varying degrees of odour.  I do my canvas and board prep outside in the garage - a problem as we get to the freezing point.  Clean up is not as easy as with Gesso.  For me the results are far superior.  You can buy canvas from people such as Fredrix with lead white prime.  Same goes for prepared panels.

Happy painting.

Level 8 Easel

I have never had a commercial easel in my studio.  I have made 4, and all but the first one are in use.  In the studio a French easel from plein air and 3 DIYs  are in constant use.  Since I started on a borrowed French easel, I have come to like my palette right in front of me between the canvas and me.  This keeps me further from the canvas helping with the discipline of avoiding a pencil grip and drawing practices such as "licking".  The location is great for mixing.  This easel was very inexpensive.  It has manual adjustments, up and down and angle of attack.  It is at a good height for standing while painting but can be lowered for a sitting approach.  It will take small canvases (6x8) and moderately large (48x72 or more).  Really large go on my garage easel.

Level 8 Easel

Here is the construction technique.  The table was rescued from a dark corner of my parents basement.  Many memories there.  Stripped it and glued it back together.  The drawer works.  A little musty.  Tubes don't seem to mind.  The rest is scrap wood.  1x2s and 1x3s form the H frame that is screwed on to a piece across the back of the table using small hinges.  The single leg at the back is also hinged.  Up the standing outer legs of the H are a set of 3/4" holes.  Dowel pins fit the holes and provide up and down adjustment.  A piece of scrap hardwood flooring goes across the dowels and the painting sits on a tongue of the hardwood.  I treated myself to a piece of baltic birch ply wood for the palette.  It sits on the table top.  It was treated with two rubbed coats of linseed oil.  It is cleaned after each painting session.  The can for medium is an empty Tuna tin.  Works great.

So how does the easel get its level 8 rating?  On the Ruby Rouge scale of 10 for the perfect easel, this easel does not have an automatic mechanism for raising and lowering (I drive a standard), it has no clamp on the upper edge to hold the top of the canvas (I don't have GPS) and it doesn't look pretty.  It just works.

New Brushes, Nothing Like It

Yesterday it was time for a treat.  New brushes.  Four new bristle flats.  Although I did break out a $3 #12 a while ago in my plein air kit, these were four good Manets (French) that I am using in the studio.  Under controlled conditions I could really pay attention to them.  Beautiful!

#6 through #14, All Hogs

You have to understand that I have never thrown a brush out.  I even have a #1 with no bristles left on it.  You never know when you'll need that specially worn ragged brush.  Sometimes the older and more ragged the better.

The new brushes feel great.  Suddenly you have (or think you have) control.  They do precisely what you want.  Crisp edges, chunk patterns, corners, sides, ends, all distinct.

How long do they last?  It depends.  For me painting on canvas 50% of the time just about daily, it doesn't take long to break a new brush in and then relegate it to the "used" coffee can.  I keep a separate set in my plein air bag.  For a #6 that takes about 3 weeks, a #8, maybe 4 weeks, a #10 5 weeks, and a #14 2 months.  I use the large brush a great deal along with a similarly sized long filbert.  The smaller brushes fill in as required.  The #6 I use to draw when the painting is complex to deviate from massing in.  Lots of brushes.  I pick up a few each time I hit an art supply store carrying the makes I prefer.  It is great to have a set or two in reserve just to perk you up.

I like the flats and long filberts for a few reasons.  First, they hold a good load of paint.  The longer bristles are conducive to calligraphic strokes.  They wear down to brights and short filberts which are good for shovelling paint.  I like both Escoda and Manet filberts.

Going to Canvas

Now I am working in the studio from the smalls done on my Road Trip across the western half of Canada. These canvases, along with the smalls on board, will be featured in my show at the RedEye Gallery in Toronto beginning August 17.

Some of the canvases will be taken from the smalls, but most will be from reference sketches, photos, and memory.  It will be interesting to see the differences between these three approaches.

This painting was done from reference sketches and photos of Lake O'Hara.  I spent a few days there and my memories are quite vivid.  It is an incredible place.  My paintings were all done from the shores of O'Hara.  The weather was sunny and bright (after two weeks of overcast and rain), but the upper hikes were pretty much snowed in.  I was so excited by the beauty I had trouble settling down when painting on site.

East on O'Hara, 11x14, Oil on Canvas

The base colours were greens with a bit of greyed red.  Close to a split complement strategy.  To mix the greens I used Viridian as my base.  It is a great mixing colour and can be made cool, warm, or grey to any level desired by adding combinations of Alizarin, Cad Red Light, Cad Yellow Deep, Cad Yellow Light, Mineral Violet, and Ultramarine.  The sky has Viridian and Alizarin in it.  You can see these colours by changing the angle at which you view your monitor.  My setup shows them well when I look straight on, but when I look down the image bleaches out in the lights.

The painting was done with a #8 bristle filbert brush.  No cleaning, just wiping the excess paint from the bristles.  I also used a palette knife and alkyd gel medium.  The white was Flake White replacement by Gamblin.

Shapes and Massing

When we train our eyes to see shapes as opposed to things, painting the concept gets easier.  When you identify shapes and their values (squinting) it is appropriate to "mass" in these shapes.  Opening the eye to see colour allows one to mass in the shapes with the colour eliminating the common underpainting step.  Given that there should be only 3-5 (OK up to 7) major shapes in a strong painting this process can work well, but it is opposite to what most of us learned as kids - colouring book and outlining.  You can even use the pencil to mass in the shapes in a thumbnail almost as if you are painting.  Try it and let me know how it works for you.

Melt This, 12x24, Oil on Canvas

Here you can see the major shapes quite easily.  For example, the sky.  Doing this helps one simplify.  This helps en plein air where the light is changing rapidly.  It also helps one express detail through "inference" rather that drawing in small colour patches.  This approach takes one into the realm of painting as opposed to drawing (not to say that drawing is not important).  This takes you closer to sculpture.

This painting was done with a well shaped #14 bristle filbert brush and a palette knife.

The palette used was Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Alizarin, Viridian, and Titanium White.

Series

Quite often students ask about where to take a painting when they are struggling at some stage.  This often occurs when they begin to see other possibilities in addition to their original concept.  Normally I suggest that they continue with their original intent, noting the other possibilities.  Then do another painting with the new concept.  It often produces new learnings or a new direction.

A small group has been painting at the Alton Mill pond.


My first painting concept was to show the old mill in the sun, minor in shadows.  That meant I had to eliminate the new "addition".  The new addition bothered my aesthetic and I found myself reaching for composition (in addition I had another experiment underway at the same time).

Old Alton Mill, 10x12, Oil on Board

The structure dominated the composition to the point that there was little context of the Mill in its setting.

Here is the mill as it is today.

Misfit, 10x12, Oil on Linen on Board

Even if you start down a path that you find not to your taste it is your job to make a painting out of it.  That can be quite a challenge when you are not attracted emotionally.  The alternative is to scrape it off and start again.  I prefer the "make a painting out of it" approach.

Or you can start another after your effort to make a painting out of it.  Here, I turned and looked to the head of the Mill Pond.

Incoming, 10x12, Oil on Board

It goes to show you that you don't have to go far for a painting motif.

Back in the Studio

I spent some time in the studio with my "stiff" building.  Its presence ground on me and I found that the composition did not render any emotion.  Like most things, painting is mostly mental.  Maybe I will revisit and set the mill in its context, new "modern" addition and all.  In any event I set out to give the mill a bit of character and loosen it up some.  Your job, as they say, is to make it a painting.

On the Old Side, 10x12, Oil on Board

I worked on the texture and the edges with a gradation on the sun lit wall.  That gradation is in value, chroma, texture, and edges.  Had to compare values from memory.  Could have stayed with it and subordinated more shapes and masses.  Easier to complete on site.

In the studio I used a #12 bristle filbert and a palette knife.  The pigments left on my outdoor easel were still workable so I used them.

The Abstract of Nature and the Nature of Abstract

Have you ever wondered what makes a painting work?  Apparently we have only 5 broad tools at hand to help us put the right colour in the right place (Hawthorne).  We have shapes, colour, value, edges, and paint quality to compose with (Leffel).  If that is true, both abstracts and objective paintings would share these elements.

Dianne Shelton (well known abstract painter from Toronto) and I got together yesterday for a day of play trying the concept that a "good" objective painting and an abstract with similar shapes, colour, value, edges, and paint quality would both be viewed as "good".  To do this we traded objective paintings and then used them as a point of departure for an abstract.  This proved to be an entertaining day.  What a hoot.

Garlic, Distorted on the computer

This is the distorted image I chose from Dianne.  The original is in Switzerland.  The distortion was done to help me "see" the shapes, values etc. as opposed to the things.

I used oils for the exercise.  Dianne used acrylics because she finds them looser and more flexible.  This influenced me to use multi mineral spirits in the beginning.  I should also mention that I forgot my normal paints and had to use the "modern" palette I tested a few days ago.  That made for more "accidents" - a good thing.  I clamped loose canvas on to a piece of plywood and washed on a wack of transparent yellow, followed by a mixed dark, then with no thinking allowed some other blobs and shapes.

Before Assessment

Our working approach is quite different.  I am working vertical on an easel.  Dianne, who came from the world of water colour and painting flowers plows in and lets the painting tell her what to do right from the get go.  After my start with slop and a large brush, Dianne and I stood back and somehow we both used the same criteria for adjustments.  Her approach is quite interesting.  She used her fingernail to scrape off some paint subordinating a passage, I added some impasto the draw the eye.  We agreed that  few "incomplete" passages should remain.  We made sure there was a touch of green somewhere (A Dianneism).  Mine for Dianne was Hansa Yellow mixed into a mixed black.  I added a bit of Pthalo Green.  Then I used a tube of paint to lighten an area and add some texture in Quin Red.  Voila!

"I just love it!  It makes me happy."

The hard part to believe is that this lady dropped into the studio gallery attracted to the painting, and I am sure, our laughter.  Still harder to believe, she is from Switzerland!

Dianne hard at play with a tiny brush

Notice Dianne is dressed for the occasion with her new sweater on.  here she is adding a detail to a small.  She has a show in two weeks and needs 20 pieces.  Go girl!

Saskatoon River

Dianne is working flat here.  This one was not working so I decided to use it as a point of departure for my version.  Interesting enough, we both had trouble in the same area.

So what do you think of our concept?

Refresh, Just Like a Season

My friend David has been filling my imagination with all his experiments.  He is quite like an alchemist.  This transition season (OK we are two weeks behind Toronto) is a nice interlude for changing things up.

I decided to change my entire palette.  This includes the white I have been using.  The change was a colour for colour pigment substitution.  All the pigments used are modern organics, except for the white.  It is a throwback.  The organics are high staining and transparent.  They also hold their intensity better than the Impressiomist pigments or the classical neutrals.  See www.gamblincolours.com for a great reference.  Here is what I typically use and what the experiment called for;


Old                                 New
Ultramarine                     Pthalo Blue
Viridian                           Pthalo Emerald Green
Cadmium Yellow Light  Hansa Yello Light
Cadmium Red                 Permanent Red
Alizarin                           Quin Red
Mineral Violet                 Quin Violet


For white I turned to David's favourite, Flake White.  By the way, his approach to speeding the drying of the white is to add Grumbacher's MG white which uses natural resins as opposed to alkyds.  Gamblin says this about Flake White;

It's the leanest of the Gamblin whites and the best underpainting white. Its beautiful opalescent quality is of special interest to portrait painters. Flake White Replacement has all the working properties of traditional Flake White: long ropey stroke, warm color, translucency and short brush mark. Not only does our FWR come without the lead but it also doesn't suffer from the fast drying time of traditional formulations, which contributes to the cracking of oil paintings over time.

Out I went to the trail in Silver Creek.  About 20 metres in I set up and tried to paint "what I saw".  These pigments mix in an entirely different array of hues compared to my usual.  A good reason to keep a palette stable - then you can be spontaneous and just reach instinctively for the pigments required.  Now the Flake white is another animal.  It is stringy with a mind of its own.  Carry on we must.  Here is what came of the two hour session at 5C on a beautiful morning.

Six Gliders Circling, 12x12, Oil on Canvas

For brushes I used three.  The #14 bristle flat was used for the wash of green and red.  Later on it was used for some edge work and to simplify a few passages.  The #12 bristle filbert was used without any mineral spirits and it was used on the cooler darks.  I only wiped the excess pigment off the brush to keep it dry.  A #8 long filbert was used for the warms and lights, again keeping it dry.  This is the brush that got into all that gooey white stuff.  As the Flake white dried I added some alkyd butter to the palette to make it workable.  Brush strokes hold beautifully in the Flake White.

Go to your room and practice.........

Oiling Out

I like to paint wet in wet.  This forces you to become sensitive to your brush pressure and the paint viscosity.  Doing this allows you to use techniques usually done wet on dry.  When I do get into a situation where the paint dries before I am able to complete the painting, I either repaint areas so I can continue wet in wet or "oil out" to put the painting back into its as - painted condition.  This not only means wet but it also means that the various pigments look like they were just applied.  When a painting dries, the binder in the "fat" pigments are absorbed at a different rate than their "lean' cousins leaving the surface looking blotchy and the colour saturation uneven.  Oiling out normalizes this look so your eye has something consistent to see when continuing the painting process.

Oiling Out - a 12x12 in the studio

The process consists of the following steps;

1.     Apply Alkyd medium and Odourless Mineral Spirits mixed 50% each with a brush

2.     Let the mixture sit for a few minutes to make a bond with the underpainting

3.     Rub off the excess mixture with a lint free rag

4.     Continue the painting process

This procedure puts a layer of binder in the middle of the finished paint layers.  This is superior to using retouch varnish which deposits a layer of medium.

Here is the painting at the next stage of work.

Corn Snow Dreaming, 12x12, Oil on Canvas

If required, the process can be repeated until the painting arrives at its destination - the original (or modified) concept.

Paint Applying Tools

It is always interesting for me to visit artists studios.  They apply paint and do other studio tasks in an endless variety of ways.  Below are the tools I currently use most frequently for applying paint.  There are a few other tools I use frequently in addition to these.  First is the palette knife (somehow omitted from the picture) second is a set of fingers - that first painting tool is alive and well.  I use it a lot.  Third is the lowly rag or paper towel also used in most paintings.

Brushes on the Studio Palette

Here is a description from left to right.  Let me start by saying that the first five brushes plus a palette knife, fingers and rags is what I use en plein air.  I also use these in the studio along with the larger and smaller brushes on the right.  En plein air I frequently use either the largest brush only or add to it one brush like the red one.  The first and second brushes are larger bristle brushes - a #14 flat and a #12 filbert.  These brushes are great for laying in a wash and for establishing the main shapes and their edges determined by squinting.  After the wash these shapes can be established in a few minutes thus trapping the shadows and other features that move most quickly.  I have found that using these larger brushes alone develops your ability to use the six sides of the brush effectively so that small shapes/strokes can also be done with the large brush.  This keeps you out of copying and detail mode.  The red brush is a #8 bristle flat.  If I use this brush it is to avoid cleaning the large brush and get a clean family of colours.  It also allows me to dry brush and cover a large area quickly.  The forth brush is a worn #6 bristle filbert.  Next in the line up should have been a palette / painting knife.  These can be used to mix clean colours and to create any number of knife strokes giving variety to the texture or the surface.  Most of the time these knife strokes must be modified to avoid hard edges and other undesirable effects.  Knives are easy to clean and therefore help with speed without hurrying.  Out of doors I use a one inch knife with a rounded point.  In the studio I use several sizes of knives as the painting gets larger and larger.  The next dark handled brush is a Langnickel sable.  It is very soft.  I abuse this brush in a number of ways from edge modification to drawing to loading it with substantial paint and poking and ramming the brush into the canvas.  Good stuff, but they wear quickly.  The yellow handled brush with the blue mark on the glass behind the tiny bristle is another specialty brush.  It started out as a #6 bristle filbert.  It became a two bristle wonder after using hot water to wash it.  The glue melted and the bristles came out in a clump leaving behind this "whisker" brush that can be loaded with paint to do special jobs.  Never throw out these relics, they might make interesting marks.  Then we move on the the short handled bristle brushes.  In general I use these on larger paintings and go larger as needed.  Some of thse come from the hardware store.

You will notice a few different brands of brushes here.  I use what I find works best.  Usually you get what you pay for.  I wash the brushes carefully at the end of each painting session using warm water and mild liquid hand soap.  Then I form the bristles and clamp them to train them so I can make the marks I desire.

In the Beaver Valley

Driving home from a day of skiing we passed by a scene from the foot of Old Baldy in the Beaver Valley. Today I decided to paint it from reference.  My Sister in Law, who is beginning to paint, watched the process as I chatted along.

Driving Along, 12x 12, Oil on Gallery Canvas

Looking at this photo it is hard to believe that we have fresh snow conditions.  The photo was taken inside the studio, so the camera was fooled even when the light was corrected.  The eye works the same way with apparent colours caused by the effect of surrounding colours.

The other challenge here was deciding what to include and what to leave out.  I painted directly starting with the barn on top of a wash of Ultramarine and Alizarin.  All the other masses were painted minimally thereby subordinating them in favour of emphasizing the main character the barn.  This rather set back my Sister in Law.  She wanted to put things in that did not exist, including a horse.

I will take another photo in daylight to see how it reads.

In the studio today I had a larger palette that what I use en plein air.  I just leave the piles of paint for the next day and add as I see fit or as I wish to experiment.  Today I had Mineral Violet, Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Viridian, Cadmium Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Middle, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin, Yellow Ochre, Transparent Red Oxide, and Titanium White.  I used my primaries plus Viridian, Mineral Violet, and Cadmium Lemon Yellow the most.  Like Viridian, Mineral Violet is a great weak mixing pigment.  it is hidden in numerous colours in this painting.

I used a #14 bristle flat for the wash and most of the painting.  In addition I used a few other bristle brushes, a palette knife, and a #8 Langnickel sable.  I use the sable for some drawing and also quite brutally for some thicker passages of ragged effects where I push on the brush and splay the bristles which are heavily loaded with paint.

Comments are welcome.

Studio Work for a Snow Scape

This painting was worked up from a small 10x12 done on site.   The location was near the Bruce Trail in the Silver Creek area north of Glen Williams (where I live).  It was an early morning about -9C and sunny.  I had hiked in several hundred metres from the road with the trusty French Easel.  Fresh fluffy snow had appeared over night.  I was up to my knees in it AND out of range of the timer.  Eventually I felt the cold creeping in and the pace quickened.  The set up was good with shade on the palette and canvas but with an irritating requirement to keep the sun out of my eyes by putting a branch between me and the ever moving sun.  I was able to squint appropriately for values and face the painting wide eyed.  The small one was a gem.


Now in the studio and going bigger one loses most of the ability to squint - the conditions are static and the distances are different.  So the struggle is to recall the scene and make the effort to catch the essence of the small without copying and getting stiff.

At the Edge of It, 36x48, Oil on Canvas

Here is a photo of the work near the end of the painting session.  I can tell you that the actual colours and values are significantly different, further underscoring why working from life is so enthralling.  Now to get back outside to rekindle my freshness.  I spend about 25% of my time working on site and the rest in the studio.  However, more than 50% of my paintings come from on site work.

In the studio I used larger bristle filbert brushes (#14 and #16) for most of the painting and finished with #8s and #10s.  If you keep your brushes tuned they can be used for fine lines as well as wide strokes and everything in between.  After all there are six sides to a brush.  Also in the studio I may choose to use more pigments so I can use colour changes for plane changes more easily.  There was no earth tone pigments used in this painting.  All were mixed.

Preparing for a Second Day on It

An unexpected day of quiet in the holiday season.  Two in fact.  To the easel.

It has been difficult to forget the large painting on my easel.  Christmas Eve, Day, and the Day after with a room full of guests could not detract the critic from looking over everyone's shoulder at the start of a snow scene taken from the small done on site.  The agony of being unable to attend to errors, omissions, large canvas alterations etc.  So now that I have some time, I already have a list and a sense of direction to pursue.

Coffee up, put on the play list, and get in there to squeeze out.  Scrape off the dried up pigment.  Lets see, squeeze out Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow Middle, Alizarin, Veridian, and Titanium White.

Restarting "At the Edge of It", 36x48, Oil on Canvas

There are more piles of paint than those you say.  True.  The paint mentioned is the foundation for the painting and are squeezed into large masses - for example the Titanium worm is 8 or 9 inches long and an inch wide (palette is 14x36 inches with glass over a warm backdrop to aid in seeing the colours).  The other paints were put out in smaller piles since they were not used much in the preliminary round for this painting.  Here I put out Mineral Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Lemon, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Orange, and Cadmium Red Middle.  I try to put out enough pigment so that I will not starve the palette in a 5 hour session.  (Failed with both the white and the cobalt).  The worm shape is convenient for keeping a clean pile available for mixing.  The pattern on the palette comes from the Practical Colour Wheel.   Light yellow in the middle, warm colours to the left, and cool to the right - in the same sequence as the wheel but straightened out along the top of the palette.

You will see that I built this easel (less than $20).  It works fine from 6x8 to 42x60 and larger.  Since I stand to paint the majority of time I don't miss crank and pulley adjustment of canvas height.  To the left you can see a bit of my French easel.  It is now holding my reference painting.  It has its palette directly below the painting and between you and the easel.  I like this location for the palette.  It keeps you away from the painting surface thus promoting the use of the long handled brush and forcing me to stay away from trying to render detail or going to the end of the painting before doing the beginning and middle.  The middle value palette helps with seeing colours when mixing and the close proximity to the painting also assists in this regard.  One flaw is the space accorded the coffee cup.  It seems to have an affinity to Cadmium.  As Vincent found, this is not a good thing for the artist.  On the make it yourself theme, notice the use of Salmon tins for thinner and medium.  Paper towels are to the left, and my tabouret is to the right.  The overhead light is coming from the open kitchen and the outside light is North.  There are a number of push pins along the palette.  I am not sure what I have used these for.  Also on the palette is a container of brush cleaner and a container of gum arabic.  Both are used for brush restoration so should be somewhere else.  Also to the right is a ceramic brush holder I made in a pottery class years ago.

The painting did make some good progress today.  #12 and larger brushes and thicker paint.  Not enough light for a photo.  I'll finish off next year.

Saturday is a paint out at Scotsdale farm.

In the Studio from a Small

It has been 10 straight days in the studio.  Need to get out for a few hours to sharpen up.  Maybe Wednesday.


In the studio I paint several ways.  Sometimes from imagination, sometimes from life, on occasion from a photo, often from a sketch.  Here I am working from a small done on site.  In this case the small is a 6x8 and it is only going up to an 11x14.  Here is the set up.

Dark and Deep in process

When you paint larger, more information is required.  Here the rub is that I have only the 6x8.  So I have to try to remember what I was trying to do.  It helps that I have been on site for the small and that I have done this before.  I did a pencil sketch with notes for the small, and I have a photo.  However, I liked the small and decided not to bother with the other reference.  I decided to develop more depth.  After this photo was taken I realized that I still had considerable painting to do.  You will notice considerable paint on the palette.  I don't like to stop to squeeze out - breaks the zone.  I leave the fresh paint on the palette after the day of painting and clean up the mixing pools.  For the next day I add more fresh paint to the existing.  You can see the paint on the palette from left to right - Alizarin, Cadmium Red Middle, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Yellow Middle, Cadmium Yellow Lemon, Viridian, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Mineral Violet, and Titanium White.  To this point I used only a #14 bristle filbert brush.  I may move to # 6 and #8 as the painting progresses.  So far the painting reflects only the correction of the main colour masses in the mid values.  The lightest and darkest values have been saved for hi-lites and accents.  In this case these are quite colourful.

Clean Up Time

When my brush cleaning pot gets so full of mud it just oozes up into the brush I'm trying to clean, I just have to set time aside to clean it out.  It's a dirty job.  I'm an oil painter.  So, what does one do with that goo?

Clockwise from top, Cleaning Pot, Container of Sediment, Coated Board and a few tubes of paint, Colour Wheel

I scrape the sediment out into a container that has a lid.  Then I use the beautiful gray mixture to coat my plein air boards for a coloured mid value ground.  This facilitates a fast pace while painting plein air since a mid value already exists for the painting - just add darkest dark and lightest light.


In this case the sediment is a warm gray.  I use left over paint from my palette in the same manner.  The result is an array of coloured grounds to choose from.  The grays are particularly useful when painting tonally.  However, they are brutal when painting the effect of light on local colour.  There I most often start with a white canvas which is covered very quickly with flat colours for the major masses.

Block Study, cool overcast key

I have been painting so much in overcast conditions the last month or so that I feel like I am stale.  It is more and more difficult to make a cool weather key painting interesting.  So back to basics.  Today I began Thursday still life sessions just like a musician practices scales.


In the photo you can see the set up.  I relented and did this one indoors by a window with no interior lights on.  Outside is better.  Winter forces more pace into your painting.

Cool overcast 3:30 PM, Oil on white board, first block in

Here the set up consists of three wooden blocks painted blue, red, and white on a wood surface(Local Colours).  The overcast light source is coming in through the window.  The purpose of the exercise is to study the effect of the prevailing light on the local colours of the masses (train the eye).  The blocks are primary and secondary colours.  Any number can be used.

The process is first to paint the blocks and the surface they sit on quickly to eliminate the white surface.  This is done as a first step in order to eliminate the white canvas as an influence on how the eye sees the colours and the effect of light on them.  This is done by choosing a colour from your pigments that most closely resembles the colour on one of the surfaces of the blocks that is easiest to identify (get the value as close as you can).  Even at this stage you can see that the blue block has variations of blue on all three visible surfaces and that the white block is not white.  When the white of the canvas is pretty much covered up you will see colours that were not visible to you before.  You will see that the colours are probably off and the values may also be off.  In the second round, make corrections to the colours that are now apparent to your vision.  Do this by scanning from one surface and object to the other comparing value (light/dark), temperature (warm/cool), and chroma (bright/dull)(Note that the pigments on the"Practical Colour Wheel" are all bright out of the tube whereas earth tones are not).  The second round will get the effect of the light on the objects closer to reality.  In the next step you will begin to notice variations within the individual colour masses.  Apply them by scanning and comparing.  Finally, tighten up the colours and their variations and adjust edges.  The more you do this the more sensitive your eyes will become.  It won't take you long to realize that simply painting from pictures has grand limitations.

Repeat this exercise in various light conditions.  The you can graduste to more complex rounded objects and portraits and finally to the complexity in the landscape.

The approach may be used in your regular painting process.