The Germany-based art supplier Kremer was the best source for hard-to-find items not long ago. Now? It’s impossible to complete orders online, not difficult–impossible. I recently attempted to place an online order with Kremer’s U.S. location. The order contained two items that Kremer flagged with special handling requirements. One of the items is black oil…
Category: materials
materials, Shop Talk
Brush graveyard
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•My brush graveyard is getting too big. I throw out most of my worn-out brushes. I’ve also been known to snap in two misbehaving brushes. Those I also throw out. But my favorites I inter into the graveyard after distinguished service. I started pruning the graveyard to make room. Having a lot of brushes extends…
materials, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Transparent earth colors
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•Oil paint can be profitably judged for either its covering strength or transparency. This comports with some well known bits of studio wisdom: “fat over lean,” and “thick lights, thin darks.” Covering colors, often called ‘body’ colors, hide everything beneath them. Transparent colors modify what is beneath them while leaving them visible. In watercolors, transparent…
materials, Reviews, Uncategorized
Review: Michael Harding oil paint
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•Grumpy review, materials, Reviews
Review: Van Gogh oil paints
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•When I started my oil paint brand reference, I excluded ‘student grade’ brands. The distinction between student grade and other brands was based on price. Everyone understands that you get what you pay for but art supplies is one product area where the old adage is not reliable. Art supply manufacturers include some of the…
Amusement Park series, materials, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Winner!
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•The first painting in my Amusement Park Series, Winner!, is moving along. I finished the underpainting and moved onto the overpainting, as you can see in this photo of the canvas. Yesterday, I strecthed a 40″ x 54″ canvas for another painting intended for the series. I also prepared the stretchers and cut canvas for…
materials, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
The problem with blended commercial oil paint
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•The ideal palette consists entirely of single-pigment colors. Such an ideal palette provides artists with total control over values and tones. This is especially important for artists, like me, who use lead white. These days, even high-end brands use titanium white in their multi-pigment colors. Old Holland, for example, uses a blend of titanium white,…
Amusement Park series, Art history, Drawings, materials, Paintings, Photography, Shop Talk
Amusement park series
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•I visited Lake Erie’s preeminent amusement park, Cedar Point, five times this summer. I am using the thousands of photos that I took from these visits as reference material for my new series–Amusement Parks. I have 10 finished designs and I’ve started the drawings on several canvases. Yesterday, I finished the drawing for the first…