Saturday 25 June 2011

Cooking with ... oils

I'm getting to really like oils now. Despite the fact that watercolour is my first and true love, I like the fact that you can take your time with oils. There's no stress and you can correct mistakes as you go along. This one is done in  a different style to my last post. Rather than bold impasto strokes with hog brushes on primed board, I used softer acrylic and watercolour brushes on W&N oil paper and added Liquin to Artisan water soluble paints to get a better flow and a (hopefully) faster drying time. I took my time with this and I think it shows :)

I used a reference photograph taken one evening at sunset last winter as I was on the way home from work. The mist was rolling across the flood meadows and the dark low skyline of the neighbouring Roman town of Godmanchester just looked too good to miss. I thought at the time that it would make a good subject and so it was nice to finally get around to painting it.

I had a go at scanning this in using a pair of bulldog clips to hold the wet painting about 10mm above the bed of the scanner but it was so badly out of focus that I had to resort to using my camera. The rain is clearing and the heatwave approacheth .. off to the East Anglian coast tomorrow with my bucket, spade and a sketchbook ... with a bit of luck :)

Misty meadows, oil on paper, 7" x 10"

13 comments:

  1. This looks great. I also like your previous oil painting. I like both styles of using oil paint. You're working hard, despite the fact that you've also your everyday work. Anyway I think it's human nature to get busy when we are so enthusiastic to do or know something.

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  2. Lovely painting, Michael! I particularly like the reflection in the water! Is this water soluble oil paint? I saw a demonstration of that recently, very interesting.

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  3. Cora - thank you. I like both styles of brushwork too and I'm sure there are many, many more I have yet to discover :)

    Judy thank you. I use W&N Artisan which are water mixable oils so there's less smell, less mess and easier to clean hands, palette brushes and, in my case, clothing :)

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  4. This is very good made Michael.
    It fascinates me how good some people can paint water and fog. That is certainly something I want to learn.
    You're also doing well with painting. I wish I had time to paint something every day.

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  5. Dankje Renske :) I found it difficult to get the fog effect - it's not perfect but I think it worked quite well. I don't have much time to paint normally either because of work and home commitments but I've been getting up very early recently !

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  6. Beautiful! Although it's an oil, the colours you chose have the softness of a watercolour!

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  7. Thank you very much, Lucia. Watercolours are my favourite so it's really nice that you see that softness :)

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  8. My word! I nurse a sickly husband for a few days - and I come back to mountains of paintings :)

    Seeing them all one after the other is quite delightful in one way - even in the few I missed, I can see such development.
    Adore this one, Michael - you have a flair for oil too. Bravo!

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  9. Hi Pat, hope hubby is feeling much better now! Thank you for your lovely comments. You haven't missed any - I've only posted two oils in the last two days. I felt that I'd developed quite a bit too - maybe oil is the new watercolour - for me :)

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  10. You seem to be a natural with oils Michael! I get a feeling we will be seeing a lot more? You should visit Antonios blog (on my side bar) who is also a natural. He does a lot of oil paintings using knives!

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  11. oh, he's fine now, thanks, Michael :)

    Maybe oil is the new watercolour - having seen today's as well, you've definitely got a flair for it!

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  12. Pat, glad to hear that hubby's fine now :) Thank you for your comment. I've definitely seen an improvement in my work through blogging but oils has been the real confidence boost I needed:)

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  13. Thank you, Sandra. It's truly lovely of you to take the time and effort to comment on each of these posts individually. I will certainly visit Antonio's blog :)

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