Good Hands

I grew up crazy for two things: drawing and horses. Living in a small New England city, one was for dreaming, the other to illustrate the stories of dreams. Part of growing up is getting to live your dreams. I have had that. The drawing developed into painting and training at a small school (Swain in New Bedford) that believed in basics. Most of my adult life has included horses. Of course as a subject, horses are grand. Love painting them. But there are other points where knowledge of horses and horsemanship relates to painting and the skill it requires.

“Good hands” is a term horseman use to recognize when a rider’s sensitivity with a horse is readily apparent.

Always when you get on a horse, you are training it, for better or worse. Pick up a brush and how, what you practice becomes a consideration. I have been working on a large, for me, painting on panel using a medium I like. It is a resin, Venice turp in this case with stand oil and spike, usually a medium sure to make a small work glow. Yet I am using it on a large piece and have been pleased with the results.

Things cycle through fads, what’s the newest and greatest, what’s the recipe used by the masters. And this holds true for painting as riding. And in both fads will hold sway.

In the horse world, often riders are looking for the perfect bit, that piece of metal that goes in a horse’s mouth and gives the rider control...like a medium. Snaffles, pelhams, full bridles, the terms may sound strange to a painter as would, stand oil, damar, spike oil, balsam to a horseman. Venice turp? A painter might mix it with linseed oil, a horseman would paint it on hoofs.

All these things are used to get a required result. And another thing that I think translates to each skill? The hand.

With a horse, you may indeed have a bit a horse likes better and that should be considered seriously. More, though, is the hand holding the reins, some are just better than others. Anyone may be more comfortable with one bit over another. Me? I am better with a snaffle or a pelham over a gag bit or a full bridle. (Annie will get this, lol!) For mediums? Give me a resin - balsam, Venice - with stand and a good turp, I will get results.

There is not doubt that, like a properly bitted horse, the right medium will enhance one’s ability to produce the painting one wants. So, it is good to be facile with different mediums when painting a picture, as with bits when training a horse. Knowledge of tools is good. But....but....it does all come down to the hands....and the brains behind them. The magic of the masters, equine or art, is not so much the tools used but the sensitivity of the hands through the brain.

It is not the mediums used, but the skill given. In riding the snaffle is considered a soft bit to the horse. But it can be as cruel as anything in a ham-fisted rider who has no feel for creature at the other end. As any medium, what happens at the end of brushes determines the beauty of the painting.

It has been said that good hands make the horse, perhaps the painting as well.

Checking email & other things

this is a test, seriously to see if adding your email to the box at right works. Not yet.

Beyond that, the local wine shop is having a sale, 30 buck Artesa chardonnay for $12. Is this better than the 9 buck Feltzer, yup, two bucks better for sure, but would I spring for 30? Hah! And if I was going to? well I'd ask a wine merchant a bit further away in Snow Hill her thoughts.

And to keep this art related, it is needed to cut shellack flakes with alcohol. Usually it is denatured alcohol, but you can use vodka. Shaken, stirred? Oive, lemon?Lol, who wants to test the bennys of using Grey Goose over Popov?

Oh! and emails? Please considering adding yours to the handy icon at the right top and join us chatting about painting.

Surfaces

This painting was done on a linen covered board, a commercially prepared piece I bought. I really like painting on the color of raw linen. Some of that can still be seen through the loose background I've scrubbed in here.

The color is nice, I like linen, the most difficult part of this is buying it. Just had to remember to stock up when I saw it. Which was often easier than doing it yourself. Sorta.

Because much as I like the color of the linen, the clear acrylic "gesso" used to seal these boards renders the surface so rough it it like, well, painting on #60 coarse sandpaper. Truly, with this "gesso" finish it does not matter what it covers, that material, even the finest cloth, will be rough. Until you have some base down, brushes wear out before your eyes on this stuff.

"Gesso" is in parenthesis because the word is becoming as universal as "kleenex", although I think any nose tissue on the market is closer to a "real kleenex" than these acrylic-based grounds (white, clear, whatever) are to true gesso.

Several board makers (New Traditions makes my fav, a bit $$$) make beautiful portrait grade linen on boards finished with oil grounds that are lovely to work on. I just feel these give the end painting a better finish. Right now the look and feel of portrait linen works well for me.

For many years I have painted on true gesso panels, have even made them, rabbitskin glue, whitening, chalks. Well, actually I used an easy mix that Natural Pigments offers. Real gesso is a smooth surface that can be thirsty but is wonderful for detailed work.

So I will use up what boards I have. And truthfully, much as I thought how neat that raw linen would look behind the painting, I haven't really used it that way.

thanks,

LindaE

Whites Test

Several years ago I did a test strip of the different whites that I used. They were mostly flake, or lead, whites and it was interesting to see which were whiter right out of the tube and which once yellowed over time. The time was six years at least, the test strip stayed out on a shelf in the studio under whatever light was available, and while it is good to note the differences, most of those whites are no longer available.

So it was time to re do the test with whites available, starting with what was in our paintboxes. Across the top left to right are six lead based whites: OH creminitz w/ zinc - OH Cremnitz - Natural Pigments lead white - Blue Ridge fleming white - Williamsburg flake white and Windsor Newton foundation white w/ lead. Next are three titanium whites: Old Holland, Blue Ridge and Grumbacher.

Right out of the gate, the NP lead white has a distinctive yellow cast. The Blue Ridge looks the whitest, followed by the OH cremnitz w/zinc, OH cremnitz, Williamsburg flake and the WN foundation which has a grayish tinge. Fot the three titaniums, the Blue Ridge is brightest and whitest but a little gritty. The OH pulled down better. It will be interesting to see what time does to all of these.

This is by no means complete but is some of the whites I regularly use and can be bought easily.

thanks, LindaE

Mediums Workshop - Tues. 1/17/12

A few months back thought it would be fun and useful to spend time learning and experimenting with mediums for oil painting. Talked some friends into coming down to my studio for a few days to do it.

This evening the first friend showed up in time to pack our paint boxes and head out to a duck blind overlooking the marshes here along the Pocomoke River. We were set up by 4:15 and the sun set at about 5:05. Was just fun to do a quick-quick sketch.

Back at the house, after dinner for ourselves and our dogs, we went to the studio to set up for the next day. The next two days were dedicated to a few key things: working with different mediums, ones we had used, or knew about and seemed interesting; checking out different paints each other had – you know, who doesn’t like to snoop in someone else’s paintbox? – and to paint some! Also combining our efforts could ease the wallet. Who wants to buy a tube of expensive paint without really seeing it?

There are so many different mediums, evidently useful for many sorts of applications geared towards making the process of painting and the paintings themselves better. All of us have some idea but do not often have a chance to experiment.