Very nice Julian. Again, the light is beautifully caught. The reflected oranges in the shadows seem even more luminous than usual, the blue cloth brings them right out. Perhaps it's the autumn light, perhaps the balance of the complimentaries, but to me this painting has a softness and a gentleness about it despite the liveliness and vigour of the brush strokes.
Julian, if you don't mind me asking, I'm curious - the paint looks quite thin over much of this one to me, do you use a medium sometimes or just turps?
Hi Paul yes this one is quite thinly painted. I will describe my painting technique a little... I tend to work out lights and darks in washes of thinned transparent quick drying colours, like raw umber and raw sienna, and quick drying alkyd colors like burnt sienna and ultramarine. I like to keep warm washes under thicker light areas (white cloths etc) and mix shadows out of burnt sienna and ultramarine which gives again a warm undertone. The rest of the pallette is made up of bright cadmiums, yellow through to red, alizaron crimsom for mixing purples and a green and of course white. The lighter or or more vivid the key of the painting the thicker it's painted. I tend to shy away from staining colors but use pthallo blues and greens occasionally and lemon yellow, like here. Your painting went off this morning BTW. J
and no I don't use a medium with these small paintings but use sun dried linseed for larger thing when things have either got a little heavily worked, as this stops colors sinking in or going dead or conversely thinned for glazes, (not a technique I use much but you need to keep all your options open!) j
Thanks Julian, very interesting, especially your pallete choices and the thickness of the paint being determined by the light.
You've added a dimension to the enjoyment I get out of these paintings.
>Your painting went off this morning
Great news. Today is shaping up to be a pretty good day :)
Oh, Julian, I completely agree with Paul...this painting, as my son would say, is the "bomb". So delicately handled and the shadows are magnificent. You can smell those lemons. Thanks, also for describing your process. It truly does add to the enjoyment. Do some more!!!
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