Working Some More

Warm days are around the corner, but to many it seems like spring is taking its time to get here. It has been raining every other day and cold wind makes it feel like it's still winter. But at least we have longer days, and spring light is always welcome in the studio. I have been working steady on a couple of paintings. In the past few weeks I've been using a gel painting medium similar to Maroger and it's working great. After a few minutes the paint becomes short and almost dry, great for adding multiple layers in one session. One thing I'm still trying to deal with is the smell of it, it's pretty strong. This is not the first time I've worked with this medium, but for some reason last week I began to feel light headed from it. The smell was stronger than other previous times. But I haven't experienced that effect since.

I began working on the landscape again. After covering it with Burnt Sienna and bringing it back up I started to follow my old pattern and soon the painting was looking as messed up as it did before. I set it aside for a while as I worked on the last two still lifes and came to think that I would have to start from scratch. Take the canvas off the stretchers and stretch a new piece of linen. I came close to doing this many times but something kept stopping me. Before making my final decision I started working on it and so far I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'm still dealing with issues on mixing greens but I think I'm getting a little better. I'm also beginning to enjoy the surface of this painting. After so many layers of paint, texture is starting to be very apparent, the hand at work, the history of the painting is very obvious and I like that.

I have also began to add color to this painting. I had left it alone after the first night, I guess I was trying to gain courage to start something so big and complex. What I have realized is that I have to take my time with things, I can't keep rushing these paintings, but I do have to remain consistent.