| A painting demonstration in oil on an 18x24" canvas.
 
| In the summer of 1999, Sandra took a workshop from Jim Wilcox in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. While everybody went out to paint the Tetons all day, I stayed inside in Jim's Jackson studio and started this painting from a photograph. I toned the canvas with what was probably one of the ugliest oil washes I'd ever made and then I began to draw the form with a brush and some burnt umber. I had my slide camera with me, so I decided I'd try and take pictures as I went along. The image on the left was taken when I was about fifteen minutes along, the image on the right was the state of the painting after about an hour. |
| By the end of the first painting session, when Sandra and the other students came dragging in all sunburned and bug bitten, I'd taken the painting this far. I put down my brushes and went out and enjoyed the Tetons in the cool of the evening like a sensible person. Since I'd used earth colors, thin paint, and a walnut oil/alkyd resin painting medium, my canvas was dry by the next day.
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| Above left shows the painting at the end of the second session. Progress begins to slow down in spite of my always using the largest bristle brushes possible. I take lots of breaks too. I don't want my eyes to deceive me as I go along. In the image on the right, I continue to correct the drawing. Notice the shape of the cello. I refined the hands and face and laid in the chair. Cello strings are a challenge. I spent a long time on them. |
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| I finished the painting back at my sister's mountain home in Heber Valley, Utah. I used a mirror and myself as a model to help me get the hands right. I also used a pair of shoes and an old chair as models. I try and preserve the happy accidents in my paint. I also pay a lot of attention to edges. I used a painting knife on the background. I'd put down a slash of blue color along the subject's upper right arm. At this final stage, I've covered it over. However, bits of it come through to add a little visual interest. |
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