I painted this small, 8×10 still life study Wed. night. I only had a short time to paint, and since my goal is to paint every day, thought I’d better paint something. Anything. It was too late to go out, so I picked some flowers from our garden, found a vase, table cloth, and set up a still life in my “studio” (garage!).
I started with Ovanes’ method of washes. I probably should have left the background wash alone (it was a very deep red), but I found the flowers were not “popping” as I’d like. The background needed a color shift from warm to cool, and also from pure, raw color to a gray to give the flowers a stage to shine as the star attraction. You’ll need to click the image below to see full-screen to see some of what I’m talking about. It was fun pouring on the paint! It’s paintings like these that I’m glad in paint in oil.
I’m delivering this today to Viewpoints Gallery for my July show there.
Hi Ed, I really enjoy reading your Blog! Hey, I was wondering if you know anything about gessoing over old paintings. I have some paintings that didn’t work out, they’re on linen so I hate to throw them away. I’d like to gesso over them. I’ve heard about using oil primer, have you tried this or any other method. I know acrylic gesso over old paintings doesn’t work. Any info would be appreciated.
Mike