Studio Time

I spent the last week or so dragging a large Vizsla (mix) and a larger American pit bull (mix) up and down the rivers of the Ozarks in a canoe. It was pleasant if exhausting. The Ozarks are a beautiful area. I did not get any painting done.

This fourth session… done since I’ve been back, looks like the above picture. I know it’s not really all that pretty… hopefully, that will get resolved. I’m still working out colors and forms and trying to define this as the “city”. I think I’ve got some of the hustle and bustle and the general feeling of a crowded city street down, as well as some distinct characters to define a bit more fully: the Corinthian, Hippie octopus, Lovers, Mother and Child, The Boxer, Rioters, the Toe sucker, etc. The structure of the buildings is going to require a bit more work.

Colors this time include:

Sennelier’s Rive Gauche copper for its metallic properties and color. By themselves, metallic colors can look a little hokey. Under a few glazes, in abstract passages or as highlights on forms they can be really useful. Rive Gauche is Sennelier’s fast drying line of oils. That can be really useful as well.

Winsor Newton’s Terra Rosa and cobalt turquoise. Terra Rosa is an essential part of my palette… cobalt turquoise was something I picked up on a whim. It is sort of interesting but it’s definitely a color that spends more time on the shelf than it does on the palette. One tube has lasted me 30 or so years.

Sennelier’s Modigliani ochre, Hooker’s green and Indian yellow. Indian yellow, being extremely transparent, can sort of instantly and easily colorize any form. Modigliani ochre is a nice base for fleshtones and it recalls its namesake. I see it as sort of essential.

The medium is linseed oil and cobalt drier again.