"Rock of Ages" 12 x 12 impasto oil on wood panel
Once in a while, it’s fun to change up your game. Several weeks ago we had a terrific workshop with Laurel McBrine on impasto or palette-knife painting. She had me at “no medium needed” and “no brushes to clean.” I had brought along a digital of one of my favourite cliff faces. Yes, I am aware that other, more normal, folks have favourite shoes or vacation spots or desserts. I have favourite cliffs, some of which I have already painted (see “Bay Bulls” 1 through 4 on my gallery website) and a great many more which I am just dying to paint. I visit this particular cliff on a regular basis, in all seasons, but had never gotten around to painting it until now.
Even though it is probably limestone and subject to constant change, I think of my cliff as “Rock of Ages” and get all fluttery whenever we paddle past it. So during that workshop I hauled out my reference shot and a cradled wood panel and went for it.
Working impasto is a bit like mud wrestling — sloppy but fun as hell (I imagine…). You load up the knife with a pile of pigment and toggle back and forth between control and chaos. Woo Hoo!
A hunk of my ancient wisdom rests on the knowledge that everything has its price. To start, this love child cost me a good pair of leather gloves because there was half a pound of quicksilver pigment on her by end of the day and I had to get her home. And while I may have noticed that I had used ten times the usual amount of pigment, I failed to translate that into drying time, especially when there is no alkyd to speed up the process. Good luck trying to find a dust-free dog-hair-free storage around here these days! Three weeks later, the surface is dry to the touch but I imagine that centuries will pass before the painting dries thoroughly.
Don’t care. This was too much fun to miss. And if we ever decide to clone Theodore, there is a mother lode of hair to work with.
Even though it is probably limestone and subject to constant change, I think of my cliff as “Rock of Ages” and get all fluttery whenever we paddle past it. So during that workshop I hauled out my reference shot and a cradled wood panel and went for it.
Working impasto is a bit like mud wrestling — sloppy but fun as hell (I imagine…). You load up the knife with a pile of pigment and toggle back and forth between control and chaos. Woo Hoo!
A hunk of my ancient wisdom rests on the knowledge that everything has its price. To start, this love child cost me a good pair of leather gloves because there was half a pound of quicksilver pigment on her by end of the day and I had to get her home. And while I may have noticed that I had used ten times the usual amount of pigment, I failed to translate that into drying time, especially when there is no alkyd to speed up the process. Good luck trying to find a dust-free dog-hair-free storage around here these days! Three weeks later, the surface is dry to the touch but I imagine that centuries will pass before the painting dries thoroughly.
Don’t care. This was too much fun to miss. And if we ever decide to clone Theodore, there is a mother lode of hair to work with.
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