Dear Julian,
Nicest fig painting so far, I think. Beautiful. Receiving your postcard is a special event each day and one I look forward to with great anticipation. It's like opening up a small, special gift. Thank you!
G'Day, I totally agree with Pam, it is just like opening up a special gift, one that I look forward to every day as well. Julian, I'm sure you have no idea how much pleasure and beauty to bring to so many people around the world....it is a real gift....thankyou
Feat of strength. Everything is mute and romantic here like in Honeymoon's sonata of Beethoven... Mysterious alchemy between sounds, colours and feelings... and without any sentimentality.
To reach this high level of excellence, we have to master glazing technique; otherwise no ability to get the same sense of depth or this way to blend the fruits in the background. We have to realize how difficult it is to create the reverberations seen in the bottom of the background, whithout glazes. And no impalpable atmosphere. No feeling of actual and striking presence.
i have a technical question- i hope that is alright with you, Julian- if it's too much , just please ignore! : How do you glaze if you're painting it in one go? everything just mushes together for me, when i try it. thank you for these beautiful , resonant paintings that lift our hearts. too.
Actually there is no real glazing in this, as you point out Mariah it would be difficult in an hour long sitting. It is all done 'alla prima' the background and the dark shadows are thinly painted the lighter areas of the figs painted more opaquely, there is some scumbling (a light broken dragging of dryish paint) to enrich the surface of the belly of each of the figs with a warm reddish mix (which some might call glazing). This creates an illusion of transparency, helping to make them fleshy. The front lit area of the shelf was painted last with a thin (nearly transparent) opaque wash which allows the warm under painting ( a burnt sienna, raw umber wash applied intitially all over the board) to show through. Hope that helps.
thank you for the extra info,julian, re:glazing. every little bit helps...i am a palette knife painter mainly.and have wondered if i miss something by not glazing???
do love the ease of palette knife. gfs
Thank you , Julian-actually this is a bit how i work, but my scumbles are pretty amateurish as yet. But the underpainting bit helps a lot, i find that a lot of turps will dry it so i can paint over it... I love this underpainting of yours , works like a dream-these figs are flat-out gorgeous, magnificent.
Brilliant, brilliant! I love working with oils, despite the smell and clean up. I do wish I had more time to devote to painting to enhance my skills, or rather loosen my skills. I try to go for perfection in my paintings, forgetting about the key factor: implication.
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