The Emergence of Green

Its not an overnight event, the greening of the landscape, but a gradual emergence. Its more interesting for a painter than the later green overload we get in this part of the world.

This was painted on a piece of scrap oil painting paper. I’m awaiting a supply of my usual ground which is a prepared canvas sold in pads and made by “Fredrix”, a US manufacturer, available here in Ireland. Canvas has a ‘tooth’ or texture and this makes the art of painting in oils a little easier. This ‘oil painting paper’ was not easy to paint on. Although it had a ‘canvas like’ texture pressed into the surface, it was not rough enough to scrape the paint off the brush. After a few layers of very thin paint are applied the texture is saturated and thereafter the brush is effectively sliding over the surface picking up more paint than is laid down. Allowing under layers to dry really does not relieve the situation as the texture is now non-existent and you are painting on a smooth surface.

My comments on this paper is in relation to my particular method which involves placing blobs of paint on the canvas surface and mixing and manipulating to get the desired effect. The final painting will still have the canvas texture visible so the actual paint layer is very thin but way too thick for the paper.

Remember, painting surfaces sold for use as acrylic or oil painting may be too absorbent for oils. I have found this to be the the case with all such products and in the past would ‘size’ the paper with a thin coat of Rabbit Skin Glue Size, the recommended sealant for oil painting surfaces. A simple test for a surface which might be too absorbent is to place a few drops of solvent on the surface and see does it go straight through to the back of the sheet. If it does the paper will be translucent when viewed against a strong light. There should be a little bit of absorption to anchor the paint layer to the surface but too much will make oil painting impossible as the oil and solvent soaks into the surface leaving a ‘chalky’ sticky pigment very different from the paint as it left the tube.

The colours used here were Winsor Lemon Yellow, Indian Red and Cerulean Blue. No medium used, only solvent (White Spirits). I used 2 brushes, a No. 8 filbert bristle and a nylon rigger. The painting is 12″x9″ and was finished in a single painting session of an hour and a half.

Here’s the video, see you soon.