Skip to main content

New journey

Oiled and on

It took me ages to finally dare and give the oil painting a try. I am still not certain about many things and especially about how to accept the enormous drying time and get used to the idea the painting has to wait at least a year to get varnished (yes, I'd like my oil to be thick I suppose, and for me not varnished = not finished).

But I will find out. I am happy I am trying. I love to learn. I suppose I will need to study the process and techniques from scratch again. Glad I have some great books and great teachers on YouTube. And I will not stop with acrylics, I don't think I will. Acrylic is a great medium and I still have lots of tubes with it to use.

So I started with some small studies in oil colours on well-gessoed acid-free cardboard. Unusual feeling your paint doesn't dry out on your palette within an hour; I still can use it the next day, and the day after. Happy with that. I love the viscosity of the paint as I am trying to paint alla prima. So happy with that, too. Great it almost doesn't smell, and I don't need to use solvents or turpentine as I started with Cobra, the water mixable oil colours. So happy I can clean my brushes just with water.

The first study is a copy of my still-life Blue Jar that was sold last year. By copying a recent painting I wanted to learn the difference in the process between acrylic and oil paints. I was rather satisfied with the result.
Then I tried to paint a street view of our village, and I understood there must be a totally different approach in painting the trees and the sky wet in wet rather than in layers. And today I've painted another small still life with lemons and oranges. I liked the process again, learning to use a dry brush to soften the edges. Well, I think I'll go on this journey for a while now.

And yes, still using my very same limited palette of five pigments, but now in oil.

So these are my first small oil studies. Perhaps soon a larger painting in my gallery.





Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your message. I will replay as soon as I can

Popular posts from this blog

You'll Get Over It

  What could possibly happen? Something tragic, I assume. I am sure you can imagine dozens of situations where this setting could be possible. Regret, revelation, anger, shock, despair, compassion, support, consolation, reassurance, forgiveness, unbelief, doubt, fear... All of these might apply to the people in this painting. And all these are actually expressed with hands. And there will be nothing of these when you think those hands away, I'm afraid.   This is another small one in my series Hands' Private Life. I painted it all prima with my limited palette of Burnt sienna, Ultramarine blue, Yellow ochre, Cadmium red and Titanium white. As reference, I used the photographs Paul and myself took of me and my hands, in four different settings.    While thinking about how to name this piece, with my music on, the Legacy by PSB suddenly started to playback. The lyrics were so true, my mood was quite down, and the title was chosen. (And first I was thinking of calli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Peaceful Fields, project completed

A very special commission indeed When I posted  this story in March   I still did not quite believe this project could ever be realised. Today I am  proud to tell and to show that the project was successfully completed and that I was honoured to play a small part in it.  But first things first. The most northern historical windmill in the Netherlands, called De Phenix, has been thoroughly restored and repurposed as a unique working both flour and oil mill with a large underground visiting area. Dozens of professionals and volunteers have been working hard for four years to make this happen. It became one of eight  Amelander Musea . Being a volunteer, I  was invited in February by the museum working group to collaborate in the design of the underground space of the mill. Besides the whole construction, I was particularly impressed by the very long concrete wall which I thought should stay just clear and unfurnished bearing only some decor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Matthew's POV

Challenging a masterpiece Since I've always wanted to learn more about chiaroscuro and tenebrism, I thought it would be useful to try and master-copy a (detail of a) tenebrist masterpiece. And what is my favourite painting by the great Master of Tenebrism? The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio, of course.  I can stare at this painting (or the photographs and videos of it) for hours, exploring and still discovering numerous aspects and details, often ending with more questions than answers. The one certainty is that the composition, colours and values, poses and gestures, and most of all, the light , that plays the leading role, are the work of mind of a true genius. I spent hours trying to find out about the nature and the position of those light sources (and there were surely more than one!), yet I still don't know exactly how Caravaggio designed that setting. For a long time, I hesitated, but one day I decided to try master-copying a detail of the painting. In any case,...
Post a Comment
Read more