Be ready
Grisaile
Is a painting using only one colour creating variations of tone using white or in some cases a radiant (hue with titanium white added commonly used as underpainting to create luminosity).
Combinations I am using are:
Ivory black and flake white.
Radiant green and aspaltum.
Venetian red and flake white.
These can be used to create a final monochrome painting or as underpainting prior to going in with additional colours.
BLAH,Blah blah.
I started this blog with the idea that I was going to write a step by step blog detailing the process of oil painting I am being taught by Jac Saorsa over the next 2 years.
I reached 71 words before I was bored and distracted by Stanley, our studio tortoise, trying to rehibernate under a large piece of bark he was dragging along as though he were a hermit crab who had forgotten he already had a shell.
SO, this is not an oil painting process blog, I am not really sure what it is going to be yet, but it will be more about what I am thinking, seeing, doing, and that’s not just about oil; I am reading books on Philosophy and art, having discussions with Jac and fellow students, learning Spanish and playing with studio pets.
Starting with a fresh mind trying to leave behind previous, self-taught, methods I am starting with Grisaille paintings, of objects such as crab shells, half a human pelvis, a foot cast. In my first 2 weeks, following 2 days direction with Jac I threw myself into painting, desperate for the immersion I longed for since living in New Zealand. I quickly found myself falling into old ways, creating works using familiar untrained techniques and intuition, aiming for completed work with instant gratification.
Harold Speed, ‘Oil painting techniques and materials.’ talks about rigorous teaching and practice leading to accomplished work; not to master a technique can lead to lack of ability to create what you are trying to express. I believe there is a balance between deliberate, well informed action and intuitive impulse. I am currently in a space of being technically untrained with a heavier weight of intuitive impulse. Some would argue this may be no bad thing, in the past, my action, has yielded a ‘wow’ moment when a work sings or has an area of depth/interest. For me these occurrences are somewhat accidental and difficult to recreate on demand, the manipulation of paint being reliant on luck.
STOP, GO BACK you are missing important lessons:
ConstructionWhen I don’t start with construction of the composition with shapes, I find myself starting a painting then ‘faffing’ around changing sizing/perspective/angles, not in a way that adds interest to the work but in a messy and indecisive way that leads to hesitant/non-committal decisions and mark making that’s harder to adjust the more I commit. Such as a weirdly bent looking foot with massive toes or a crab shell that looks flat when it’s supposed to be on an angle. So now I limber up look for the shapes, sizes and angles creating quick sketches to gain understanding of the object I am dealing with.
