AFTERNOON

"AFTERNOON"

I decided to try my hand at some palette knife work, or as some would refer to it--painting knife work.  This is an oil painting on a 16" x 20" RayMar Canvas Panel.

UNFOLDING

I painted this flower by using my usual glazing method.  That involves painting a complete, detailed, accurate, gray underpainting first.  Over that I applied many thin, glaze layers of paint, until I achieve the colors that I want for the rose.

 "Unfolding"...16" x 20" oil on Canvas

This composite of photos shows the stages of progress of this painting, from the drawing upon a lightly toned canvas, to the final glaze layer of color.

RIVER BOAT

I had a lot of fun painting this piece.  I painted this on a RayMar Linen Panel, and I used a photo that my son had taken of an illuminated river boat.  Trying to be a bit more "painterly", I used thicker paint, a bit larger brush, and I tried to only suggest the finer details.

 "River Boat"....16" x 20" oil on RayMar Linen Panel
SOLD

WATERFRONT

This is a 16" x 20" oil on linen panel.  

"Waterfront"

I really enjoy painting more impressionistic paintings of night cityscapes.  These RayMar Linen panels are wonderful surfaces upon which to apply oil paint.

MORNING LIGHT

I painted this because my other "sheep painting" met with such success.  However, this one got rejected in this year's Glendale Are Competition, at which the other sheep painting sold.  Stuff happens, as they say.

Wily Wasp

This is an oil painting that I painted on a linen canvas.  This painting just received a Best of Show at my art club's Fall show that was held in the West Valley Art Museum's Gallery in the Peoria City Hall in downtown Peoria, AZ.

"Wily Wasp"....16" x 20" oil on linen canvas

I began this painting by creating a very detailed, grisaille underpainting, upon which I then applied many thin glazes of color.

LOVING EWE

I just sold this painting at the Glendale Art Competition, 2016.  It is 16" x 20" oil on canvas covered, RayMar Panel.

I used a combination of two photos, and a bit of imagination in painting this subject.

I made the young lamb just a tad whiter, and "pinker" than the mom standing next to it.  The mom's a bit more careworn and "stained" because of her years.  SOLD

IMPRESSION MINNEAPOLIS

I call this painting, "Impression Minneapolis".  It is an oil painting on a 16" x 20" RayMar Linen Panel.  "Impression Minneapolis" just received a Best Of Show at the Fall Show of my art club, the Peoria Fine Arts Association. (PFAA), for which I was extremely pleased.  This painting also just received a First Place in Painting, at the Celebration of Artists Competition, in the West Valley Art Museum, located in Peoria City Hall, in downtown Peoria, AZ.

SUNDAY MORNING

Once again, I've tried my hand at creating an oil painting in a bit looser, and more "painterly" style.  I have found that just as with anything else, the creating of this painterly appearance can be learned, and once learned, I find that I can apply it whenever I wish.

This is a 12" x 16" oil on canvas. I actually painted it because I had a spare 12" x 16" frame that I bought on sale, and I needed a nice painting to place into it.  I call this "Sunday Morning". 

SOLD

RESTLESS

Recently, I was inspired by a work I saw by another artist, and decided to do a similar work myself.  This is a painting I created using one color, and White.  Raw Umber is the color, and Titanium White is the White.

I have titled this painting, "Restless".  It is a 16" x 20" oil painting on a RayMar, Canvas Panel

JUICY

I painted this Mandarin Orange as a test.  RayMar, the company from whom I purchase my linen, and canvas-covered panels offered me a sample of Arches Oil Paper, laminated to a thin sheet of DiBond (Aluminum Panel), so that I could test the surface on a real, oil-painted subject.  It worked very well, and this is the results.  This is a 6" x 8" oil paint on an Arches Oil Paper Panel.  I call it "Juicy".  SOLD

AITCH AITCH SEA

I painted this piece from imagination, the title of which is only significant to me.  This is 16" x 20" oil on canvas.

INSPIRATION

This is one of my newest flower paintings.  I entered it into my art club's fall show, and it received an "Award Of Excellence", which is equivalent to a "First Place".

It is 16" x 20" oil on canvas

MY FAVORITE VARNISHES FOR OIL PAINTINGS

As much as I may detest the use of "synthetic materials" for use as ingredients in my oil paintings, I greatly enjoy the use of synthetic resins as varnishes for my oil paintings.

It all has to do with compatibility.  I don't feel that alkyd mediums are compatible with traditional oil paints.  That makes them very questionable for use with traditional oil paint.

However, when it comes to the final varnish that is applied as the final, finishing coat to the surface of a finished oil painting, synthetic resins are to be favored, in my opinion, and it it BECAUSE of their incompatablity with  the ingredients in the surface of the oil painting.

A good, final varnish for an oil painting should exhibit 3 important characteristics:  1)  It should improve the appearance of the painting, by leveling out the high and low (glossy and dull) areas of the painting.  2)  It should provide a degree of protection against dust, dirt, stains, and abrasions for the surface of the painting.  3)  It MUST be easily removable, and without dissolving the surface of the painting, itself.  This is for conservator purposes, as the painting ages, and the varnish becomes discolored over time, and must be removed.

The synthetic resin varnishes meet all three of these requirements.  The synthetics are just a bit INCOMPATIBLE with the painted surface, and that makes them very desirable for use as a final varnish for oil paintings.  The synthetics are not likely to bond, or cross-link, molecularly, with the natural ingredients (oils, solvents, resins) within the surface of the oil painting, because they are simply not composed of the same "stuff".  Synthetic resin varnishes are easily removed with the weakest of all the solvents--Odorless Mineral Spirits, and without attacking the surface of the oil painting, itself.  This makes synthetic varnishes the best choice for the protection of any oil painting.  Most synthetic resin varnishes also exhibit at least some degree of Ultraviollet light protection, making them much better than most natural resin varnishes, in that respect.

My choice of synthetic varnishes is the following:  For high gloss, I use GamVar Varnish, made by Gamblin.  And, when I want more of a "satin sheen", I use Winsor & Newton Artist's Varnish, and I mix equal portions of their Gloss Varnish and their Matte Varnish, to create a "satin sheen" appearance.  Each of these varnishes can be easily removed with Odorless Mineral Spirits, without fear of dissolving the painted surface beneath it.

LAMPLIGHT

This is a quiet, city street at night, with a solitary woman leaning against the wall of a building.  This is a 16" x 20" oil on a RayMar Canvas panel, that I have titled, "Lamplight".  My granddaughter likes this painting.

WHERE OLD GHOSTS MEET

Painting a bit outside my "comfort zone" once again, I created this painting from the lyrics of an Irish

 song, "Raglan Road".  This a 16" x 20" oil on Raymar Canvas Panel, titled, "Where Old Ghosts Meet".

It received a 2nd place in our PFAA art club's fall show.   SOLD

The lyrics go something like this:

On a quiet street, where old ghosts meet,
I see her walking now,
Away from me so hurriedly,
My reason must allow

That I have loved not, as I should,
A creature made of clay.
When the angel woos the clay, he'll lose
His wings at the dawn of the day.

ROSE BUDDIES

I am entering this painting in an annual, Fall art competition that our PFAA art club hosts each year.  This is a 16" x 20" oil on canvas, that I have titled, "Rose Buddies".

Is anyone familiar with the term, "Bokeh"?  It comes into play very well in this painting, I think.

SIMBA

I just finished varnishing this painting, and I plan to enter into the Arizona State Fair, this year.  It is a 16" x 20" oil on RayMar, Canvas Panel.  I'm calling it, "Simba".

 

 "Simba" received an Honorable Mention at the Arizona State Fair, 2013

PETAL PUSHER

This is a little, 8" x 10" oil painting that I created on a hardboard panel.  I call it, "Petal Pusher", and I may enter it into a local art competition.

DaVinci Didn't Paint With PLASTIC, and Neither Do I

I have followed the tenets of the old masters in terms of my oil painting mediums, primarily because it seems to me that if their paintings can survive for centuries, I’d like mine to survive that long, as well.

I use traditional materials in my painting mediums, which I mix myself, from a recipe that I invented, based upon logical information I have gathered over the years, from other artists who enjoy the benefits of traditional materials.  

Today, there seems to be some sort of attraction for the use of the more “modern” painting mediums, such as the alkyds.  Alkyds, while not truly being "plastic", are synthetic (rather than natural) resins, whose beginnings sprang from their use in the painting of industrial machinery, bridges, park benches, and the like.  They were never engineered for the creation of fine art.  It was only through insidious, and cunning marketing that they ever gained recognition in the field of fine art.
 

When the manufacturers of this stuff decided that they could package it in attractive, designer containers, and sell relatively small quantities of it for three or four times its industrial value, the focus of the manufacturers then became that of trying to convince fine art oil painters that this stuff was somehow advantageous for them to use, compared to the time-tested, traditional medium of the old masters.  Their ploy seems to be to convince oil painters that these materials have been engineered to solve some sort of problem that truly never existed in the first place.

The popularity of these alkyds seems to be centered, primarily, around materials such as Liquin, by Winsor & Newton, and Galkyd, by Gamblin.  These are both examples of alkyd mediums.  I truly question their compatibility with traditional oil paint.  Liquin becomes gummy, draggy, and tacks up quickly on the palette while you are working with it, but doesn’t seem to really be all that “fast-drying” once it hits the canvas, where it usually remains tacky and sticky for days after it has been applied.  It is cloudy because of a clay ingredient, known as Kaolin—the same stuff that is in the anti-diarrhea medicine, Kaopectate.  Why any oil painter would prefer a cloudy oil painting medium is beyond my comprehension.  It does not keep well, and after a few weeks or months will turn brown and become hardened in its own bottle.  It smells like kerosene.
 

Delamination of layers of paint containing alkyd mediums has been reported, which seems to be caused by the fact that alkyd mediums dry fast, like a “lean medium”, yet remain flexible, like a “fat medium”.  This makes it nearly impossible to predict with any degree of certainty, just where they should be placed in an oil painting, containing layers of more traditional drying oils, resins, and solvents.  

Most of  these alkyd mediums set up on the palette much too fast to be able to do any effective glazing or layering, and they all pretty much smell like petroleum products—gasoline, kerosene, and the like.  If it is a fast-drying medium that is the attraction, I can offer several recipes of traditional ingredients that will easily fill that requirement.

One artist whom I know once referred to Liquin as “Satan’s Vomit”, and I pretty much concur.  My constant goal is to convince the beginning oil painter to avoid the use of alkyd mediums with traditional oil paint, as I have, and to intelligently mix their own layering and glazing mediums to accommodate their own painting methods.  (Linseed Oil or Walnut Oil, and a solvent are the basis of a sound, user-friendly, painting, and glazing medium.)

Even Winsor & Newton claims that they do not recommend the mixing of much Linseed Oil with their Liquin, because they claim the applied paint "may dry unevenly", or that doing so "might cause problems over time", which logically leads one to ask the question, “Then, of just what does Winsor & Newton think oil paints are made, if not Linseed Oil?”  That seems to smack directly at "incompatibility", by my simple logic.

I have ceased pleading my case for avoiding this atrocious alkyd material with traditional oil paint on the various art forums upon which I am a member, merely because there are too many painters who have been misled into the use of this plastic stuff, thinking that “modern” automatically means “better”, and they constantly refute my advice to beginners to avoid using alkyd medium.  I don’t much care, because through experience, I am in position to have seen through, and past the attraction for it, but I only desire to convince those who are new to the medium of oil paint that traditional mediums not only “work better” in terms of allowing one to apply paint in an easier fashion, but are more logical to use in terms of archival integrity, as well.

Anyone who may be interested in having my recipe for what I consider the best, most useful, traditional, glazing medium I’ve ever used, please e-mail me with your questions.

williamfmartin@cox.net