I don’t think I’ve shown this painting–Sunday Parade–before. According to my studio journal, today’s painting session is the fifth. It was too raw. Still is, really. The underpainting isn’t finished; but it’s far enough along that you can get a sense of where it’s going.
The unfinished ‘Sunday Parade’ on the easel
This design is put together from several photos of Manhattan. It’s not part of the new Playhouse Square series. The two paintings underway (many, many planned) in that series are not far enough along to share. They’re big (both 4′ x 5′) and it’s still early–the drawings aren’t finished.
The canvas’ gray ground can be seen throughout. The surface is an oil ground with neutral gray paint added to it. I applied the ground in this instance with a brush then lightly sanded it when it was good and dry.The ground is applied over 3 layers of acrylic gesso and 2 layers of GAC 100. I apply the acrylic gesso\GAC layers on every canvas. I still toy with the ground that’s put over the gesso. I go back and forth between oil grounds applied with a brush or scraped on. Scraped-on grounds are smoother; brush-applied grounds are more absorbent.There is something to be said for both types.
Sometimes I apply a layer of neutral-gray oil paint (not ground with its extra chalk) directly over the gesso. I am preparing a number of 40″ x 50″ canvases just now and I am going to scrape the grounds on them.
I love my neutral-gray grounds but I’ve used other tones in the past. For along time I used warm grounds based on burnt sienna. These days, I love the warm gray, like I said.