I was not enthusiastic about painting with oils not wanting the turps etc around to make me sniff and snuffle. At last, when I had discovered that I could work the acrylic well but wanted to get that time honoured look of what many call a true finish to a painting I explored oils.
I discovered water miscible oils paints - oil pants that will mix with water. They need oil to work with them but the thinner is another oil or water and brushes and such are water washable using detergent soap.
So I hoofed it to my local art suppliers and purchased a palette of colors, some brushes, a palette knife, a palette board and some oil and thinner.
Color palette is made up of:
Ivory black, Titanium white, Cobalt blue, Cerulean blue, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Aliziran Crimson, Magenta and Cadmium Yellow light. I will add a darker Yellow maybe a hue and for a favourite green I chose Viridian.
The result of all this after a couple of practice canvasses and some research on the internet is a warm feeling of achievement when two paintings emerged. One a Kent rural scene and the other an exercise in technique rather than a subject.
Getting the red in to compliment the green and trying to create an atmosphere was enough.
To start I first gave the canvasses an extra seal. One with Gesso and the other with a coat of acrylic yellow ochre and gesso mixed. The results were quite different. The gesso took the light colours and accentuated them allowing me to get that sunny day look and the mixture allowed me to create an atmospheric scene that although it dulled the colours allowed me to create striking highlights and a depth that I could not achieve in the other.
Country scene with base of gesso on the white canvas experimenting with brushes and the palette. The luxury of being able to paint over a a wet color and get a depth that makes the object stand out a little and yet blend in is a treat. The power poles are there but no dominating and having the range of tints and shade that can be manipulated when tacky to create windows. fence posts and the dark and light of tree foliage is freedom.
This canvas was first covered with the gesso and ochre mix. The blue was added in layers from dark to light and then blended with the cloud formation added wet. The light blue was continued to almost the halfway mark and then, working up from the bottom a layer of green putting the lake in followed by the hills. The darker trees and the wall were added and lastly the geese taking off. The red and yellow flowers by the wall were an afterthought. I liked the way the ochre modified the colors.
I used an old canvas that was used for experiments with mixed media. The old painting was rubbed down and covered with a strong coating of yellow ochre. I had no idea what I was going to do with this one but inspired by a recent visit to Dungeness I took some some elements of that and started this picture. A work in progress and experimenting with oils I am happy with the result so far. It is intended to do more work on this to try out a few ideas and make use of a rough canvas.
In all I like the media and will start doing some serious paintings. Watch this space as they say!