It has been at least 1o years since I painted anything other than a wall in my house. But for some reason, that is changing and suddenly I have walked in to a new world of colour, texture, discepline and mess!
When
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I needed a fresh approach to my work and was in need of a new challenge. As someone who has used and taught with near enough every other art medium, I finally decided to plunge myself in to the world of oil paints. I naively thought that having experience with oil based printing inks would put me at an advantage – but I was wrong! The mess is inexplicable!
The first element of confusion was the use of peripherals; the mediums, linseed oil and solvents. I did some research on YouTube and bought as many basic colours as I could justify paying for, along with some linseed oil, medium and a few bars of soap. I want to be solvent free, so I decided to use a combination of oil and soap to clean my brushes. It works so, so well! I remain determined to not use any harsh chemicals and be as ethical as possible.
Painting with oil paints is like applying different colours of buttercream to a canvass. It has a deliciously thick texture, so you can apply it straight from the tube and create layers of colour and depth. Though joyful, it is also reasonably unforgiving to work with, but I have found a technique which yields the kind of results I was aiming for.
In short; I am limiting my mark making to vertical and horizontal lines of colour. These are placed strategically and carefully to demonstrate light, shade and form. By purposely utilising the same 2 square ended brushes, each artwork is visually linked to the others.
I have also been learning to use glazes to create further depth to my work. This is a labour intensive process which requires thinning the paint with a medium and creating an translucent overlay. An understanding of colour theory is absolutely necessary for this technique, because a coloured glaze will alter the affect of the light reflected from the original layer.
You can find my fungi paintings in my online shop by selecting from the tabs at the top of the page.
