A favorite chair. I have used a white lawn chair in my paintings several times. I like its sensuous shape and the matte color provides an interesting contrast to the objects around it. The two paintings on the lower-right show my children with the chair, Jane on the far-right, Keith in the middle. The other…
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Shop Talk, Tips and Studies, Uncategorized
Painting Mediums Revisited
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Someone asked why I fudged the proportion of varnish in my medium recipe. Varnishes differ widely from one another. Some are made with oil and some are made with thinner. Some start concentrated with the expectation that they will be thinned later, while others are already thinned to some desired consistency. Damar, which along with…
Art Museums, Artists, Cleveland, Paintings, Uncategorized
I Can’t Get This Little Painting Out of My Mind
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The Cleveland Museum of Art, like most museums, rotates the paintings in its permanent collection. The museum recently rotated its Dutch School collection, happily bringing into view this little gem by Gerrit Dou. When I say little, I do mean little. This exquisite painting is a mere 6 3/8″ x 4 3/4.” Take a moment…
Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Bad, Bad, Bad (ingredients)
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Anyone who knows me knows that one of my hot button issues is premium-priced art supplies that are actually inferior, or, as is often the case, pure crap. So don’t get me started. Recently I opened a bottle of black oil from Williamsburg. Although the bottle had been purchased some time back, to my disgust,…
Uncategorized
Mirror
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An artist is like a man sitting in a dark room holding a mirror. There in the dark, little can be seen. But if he opens the ‘Nature’ window, light floods the room and an impossibly beautiful vista opens before him. He can study the beauties through the window or study his own face in…
Shop Talk, Studio Corner, Tips and Studies, Uncategorized
Painting Mediums
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Painting mediums are a never-ending topic for discussion and debate among artists. Mediums profoundly affect how oil paint handles, and many preparations are complicated or dangerous, filled with ancient lore and alchemical processes. Oil by its nature is flowing and slow drying, qualities that during the early Renaissance led to the birth of large-format paintings…
Shop Talk, Tips and Studies, Uncategorized
Tip: Painting Flesh
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There is not a single best way to paint Caucasian flesh. Any orange-brown tone can serve as a base that can be made lighter and darker, and cooler and warmer as needed. As simple as this sounds, it’s maddeningly easy to misfire when painting portraits or figures. The eye scans portraits and notices false notes…
Artists, Cleveland, Galleries, Reviews, Uncategorized
Review: Joseph O’Sickey at Bonfoey Gallery
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Just now there is a lot of news and information about O’Sickey. The Canton Museum of Art is hosting an exhibition of his work through July 21, and the Bonfoey Gallery’s exhibition runs through the 13th. The Bonfoey exhibition–Travels: Provence and Maine–consists of an outstanding collection of large works that provide those or us unfamiliar…