Winter Beeches

This small painting (12″x9″) was supposed to be a ‘dry brush’ painting. It was, until the Yellow Ochre was introduced into the paint mixes. This was a new tube of paint and the paint was excessively oily in the tube. Without me adding any medium there was already too much to follow the ‘dry brush’ route. So a change of method to ‘wet’ was necessary. As it turned out, about 25% of the tube was medium which oozed out as a clear oily material. Apart from only 75% of the tube containing paint there is a more serious issue with this oily material. The paint would have been too saturated to be used if more medium had been added. I was OK as the rest of the painting had no medium added and this dissipated the excessive medium.

Its a good idea to allow paint, if its like what I described, to stand on a sheet of paper before its used. The paper will absorb the medium/oil and will be seen as an ever expanding circle of oil. Apart from wanting the paint dryer, for example to use as a ‘dry brush’ paint, the medium in the paint in the tube contains drying retarders to extend the shelf life of the tube. This will also extend the drying time of the paint on the canvas.

I will have the video of the painting in a day or two, see you then.