Tributary

As we move into Summer the dreaded ‘monotony of green’ has been delayed by the current dry spell. So there is a broader range of colours with green tempered by warn yellows and cool blues.

The solid structure of this composition was painted in a relatively flat mid green. There are no large shadow areas. In the final stages of the painting the flat green was altered on the palette into a range of colours by the addition of yellow and blue. These colours were mixed with large amounts of solvent and dropped onto the wet under layer of the flat green. This created even more variations by the flow of the very liquid paint, sometimes mixing or other times ‘glazing’ over the wet under colour.

There are 3 colours used in this painting, Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Sienna and Cerulean Blue plus black and white. No medium was used, only solvent – White Spirits. The areas where solvent was used extensively will dry to a very matt finish.

There are 2 possible reasons for this. The first is that the medium in the paint is carried into the ground. This is common on surfaces which are not sufficiently sealed for oil painting. Not good for the long term life of the paint layer. It is brittle and the thicker the layer the more likely it is to crack and flake off.

Assuming the surface is sealed, the second reason for the matt effect is caused by the volatile solvent migrating to the paint surface where it evaporates leaving a thin film of paint with very little medium and very little gloss. Some pigments in the paint are more prone to this so the painting will dry with patches of matt areas. The process of ‘oiling out’ corrects this by introducing medium onto this matt film. Because I use so much solvent my paintings dry with a very matt finish and ‘oiling out’ is always necessary.

Here’s the video of the painting process. See you soon.