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Paintings
Tea Time Portrait

Looking Glass Falls

Here's a recent oil portrait. You can see the original at "Three Little Fishies", HWY 70 in New Bern

Thanks to Joel Smith of
m3 Consulting & Services who does so much to assist my design and CSS dilemas. I'd still be using tables (and be a little less batty) if not for him. Joel and Christian are amazing people with terrific knowledge and skill in many many software and graphic programs. Christian is a FileMaker 7 Certified Developer and a member the FileMaker Solutions Alliance. Joel is a Apple Certified Technical Coordinator as well as a Apple Certified Help Desk Technician. His memberships include: Apple Consultants Network, FileMaker Solutions Alliance, Dantz Partners Program (for Retrospect backup software), and the International Quicktime VR Association (IQTVRA)

Working with oil on canvas

Looking Glass Falls (LGF) is an oil painting I'm making with a variety of brands of paint. As you can detect in some of the edges of the painting, I'm working over a primed canvas (in this case a red and burnt umber base).

this is the full panel view --35" by 70"

One of my favorite "canvases" to work with is oil primed linen. Most people never try this --some folk only think of canvas as Fredrix brand cotton duck prepared panels or stretched canvases. Oil primed linen is flexible and relatively smooth except for fabric texture. The thing that is great about it --it's like painting on glass --paint isn't sucked into the ground and the brush flows so easily. The effect is the painting is more like what we see when we look at master artworks. It isn't dry and dull looking.
Of course, I use a variety of materials and usually buy cotton canvas by the roll. My last roll was 72" by 30 yards of a very nice medium weight gessoed canvas. I cut off pieces and either stretch them on handmade frames or tape them to large smooth panels. I'll not worry about size until after painting a while and then I stretch the under-painting to a custom size. If you can't get oil primed linen you can approximate it by completely covering cotton canvas with a buttery oil paint blended with only linseed oil. Cotton Duck is usually primed with an acrylic gesso --which is marble dust and a heavy acrylic base that completely covers canvas and serves to protect canvas fibers from the deleterious effect of linseed oil. Most amateurs paint on the white gesso with a direct method of painting --that is, without under-painting. There is nothing wrong with direct painting, and in fact, if you did it on oil primed linen you would be delighted with the experience. Painting on gessoed canvas is not fun, or I should say not as much fun for me as it has a tendency to feel like you are painting on a piece of carpet.

you can see progress on the rock wall and a branch of laurel

I will approach a subject like this LGF painting by having my studies printed with a grid pattern and after lightly making a scaled grid on my canvas I begin either drawing in charcoal as many distinct dark features as I can see or I paint them in with a dark mix of paint with only linseed oil --no other medium. You don't want to have too much linseed as it will crack later --the perfect mix seems to me to be like butter. Old brushes work fine at this point since you really have to grind paint into the canvas. I don't leave a pore of the gesso showing through. You can wipe the scrubbed canvas for streaks and added texture, use a knife to scrape lines, and add color variations but be sure to cover the entire canvas. Examine the piece from the side, against a light, to see if you have shiny spots from too much oil; if so, work it out and equalize the look. Remember this is an under-painting that will serve you as you work on top of it. Some minor show though of this layer may be desired but for the most part this layer sets the pace for what is to come.

Drying time will be about one to two days. If you didn't put the paint on too thick you should be able to approach it the next day. If the paint is tacky leave it alone as you can pull it up when painting over it. I keep small canvas scraps nearby and use my excess paint to prime them for future use. Nothing gets wasted and old paint moves off my palette to serve as a base on a new panel. Sometimes this is a welcome distraction. I love to see what happens as I play with paint without my usual agenda.

More about paint next time. --JHA

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One of my recent projects.

It's a large canvas of Looking Glass Falls near Brevard, NC. LGF once was in the estate of George Vanderbilt. Imagine, the Biltmore estate stretched all the way from Asheville to Brevard. I've been to this waterfall many times. It is one of the easiest falls to see since it is right next to the highway. A quick walk and you can get down near the stream. This is the view from center stream.

I just finished the waterfall and am pretty happy with it. Next I need to work on the rock and vegetation area to the left. There is so much to do but it really is a lot of fun. Having been to LGF I relive the experience with each brush stroke.
Notice the hulk of tree trunk at the base of the falls. It previously stood next to the large pine at the top.

Older paintings I made had the old weathered trunk rising high along with the great pine. I was sorry to see it down, although it makes for a great foreground to the cascade. Being in that place and realizing the geological changes and the birth and death of trees is an humbling experience.

I will update images of Looking Glass Falls in the next few days. Next time I'll speak about the technique.

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Real Live Artist will be updated frequently. Please check back soon. © MMVI John H. Anglin All Rights Reserved

Real Live Artist will be updated frequently. Please check back soon.
© MMVI John H. Anglin All Rights Reserved