04Aug

Taking the ‘gris’ out of ‘grisaille’

The last month and a half has been busy with non-visual art things like guests and cleaning and music gigs, but I did manage to start another painting. This one is on an old panel that I painted over with a titanium white/cad yellow mixture, and like the other fiddle painting, I started with a […]
  • On 2017-08-04
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  • color palette, Fancy Art Terms, musicians, oils, painting
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20Jun

‘Real’ colors at last

I’m always slow to abandon the freedom of under-painting and commit to working on the layers people will consciously look at, but I have to take the plunge eventually. With this painting I had some extra motivation: I was starting a second painting, and before I used the crazy yellow/purple underpainting scheme a second time, I […]
  • On 2017-06-20
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  • color palette, musicians, oils, painting
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15May

Nancy’s Fiddle: Adding some excitement

I started this painting in January, did one more session to correct some mistakes, and then abandoned it for a few months. I let it lie partly because I was busy, and partly because it lacked a certain something. Life’s too short to work on a painting that bores you, unless you’re being well paid. […]
  • On 2017-05-15
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  • Nancy's Fiddle, oils, painting, violin
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17Jan

Bright red columbine

This is from last night, and took about 45 minutes, complete with mistakes. No sketch first, which contributed to the ‘mistakes’ part. It’s all mixes of golden acrylics’ cad red (hue – I think the pigment is napthol) and titanium white, on one of the brown panels I prepped this weekend. It’s supposed to be […]
16Jan

Paintings start out ugly

It’s been over eight years since I last used oil paints. Yesterday, after a year in my new studio, I finally got brave enough to get them back out. I like to paint on panel, rather than canvas, and I usually make my own. It’s cheap, but it adds a significant delay to starting any […]
  • On 2017-01-16
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  • acrylics, musicians, oils, painting
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18Dec

New painting sketches

I’ve been in my studio for almost a year, but have yet to break out the oil paints. Now I’m one step closer. The sketch is based on a photo I took a few months ago.
  • On 2016-12-18
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  • graphite, Nancy's Fiddle, oils, painting, planning, preliminary sketches
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26Nov

Revisiting Old Art

Friends of mine in Portland own my second-ever oil painting, a still life I started as a university and revisited and finished a few years later because they wanted it and I was mortified to think of displaying it as-is (or as-was, I suppose). When I finished the painting, I painted the edges of the canvas black… except […]
  • On 2016-11-26
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  • musical instruments, oils, painting, piano, violin
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