This
is an oil painting (now in a private California collection) that
I did before moving to Newport in the late 1990's. This left-to-right
sequence shows the evolution of the work in oils from beginning
to completion. First, the grey scale underpainting is in water-diluted
India ink. This was followed by a wash of burnt umber in diluted
oil medium which, in turn, was followed by the glazing medium of
the final image. Then came the final varnish coat. It is a very
old way of working, and it often requires days of waiting for glaze
coats to dry.
When it was developed, it was an alternate method of painting
instead of the egg tempera or fresco techniques of the middle ages
and
early renaissance.
Today
we have come back to water based media and paintings can be done
with acrylic, which is the best of both worlds. It
is water soluble and is easy to clean when mistakes are made. It
dries quickly,
allowing the artist to work with much more speed, especially
with glazing and final varnishing. It is waterproof and can
be
cleaned
with soap and water if it gets dirty. It eliminates toxic
fumes and pigments.
