Crosssroads Paint Sling #1 - June 4, 2016

CONGRATULATIONS are in order to the brave souls who jumped in the deep end to sling a bit of paint with me on Saturday!!!

My swimmers, without hesitation jumped into the deep end with me and managed a good effort on a complicated project at best. The composition wasn't important or how well they executed it or even if they finished it. They set a benchmark to gauge their future work against.

They were handed the same (3) references I used along with a 20x20 sample painting I did a few days before. The swimmers had the option to merge the three any way they wanted as I painted. On the surface, relatively simple shapes with reasonable colour values already established they could play with. They would also need to adjust the  composition to their painting surface.......mmmmm

SWIM TEAM

Lone swimmer - took a different approach:=)

The seats...."thinking about jumping in"

 THE DEMO

FRAMED WITH SAMPLE  BELOW

A FEW THINGS LEARNED

We're going to change the seating and swimmer arrangement going forward. The seats "thinking" of jumping in" to my left ask questions - good questions too:=)  

The swimmers on my right are working hard to stay afloat but often my back is to them blocking their view while chatting with seats. Thank you Linda for bringing that to my attention.

To make sure my back is never blocking their view again my tools will be on my "left" as opposed to on my right here.

Also the swimmers will be much closer to me.

Painting surface (canvas) I take for granted was the major weakness holding my swimmers back. Oil paint, if you want it buttery and juicy and at the same time make great edges with a brush, the paint needs to stay on the surface so it can be moved around.

The surface has to be reasonably smooth and well sealed. Otherwise you have to fill the surface with a lot of paint before you can move the paint around. Some like an open weave and it will give you interesting textural effects but edges are more difficult to control. I would never rule it out. What I saw yesterday was paint playing second to an absorbing canvas - paint too thin to fill the surface. 

Some solutions:

Tempered Masonite with a few coats of gesso is a good inexpensive painting surface. One swimmer who used this captured luminosity quickly.....in fact managed (2) paintings.

I used a fine woven linen with (2) light coats of oil primer - in my case as it turned out to be an inexpensive solution. Jerry's Centurion double oil primed linen cannot be beat. The paint stays on top. The weave is constant, smooth and tight. The paint grips the canvas and does not slide about as it often does with heavier coatings that end up with a slicker semi gloss surface. This canvas is well thought out and available in a wide range of products to suit any need....and by comparison CHEAP to any other out there!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we are painting flowers - peonies from photo references and perhaps Hydrangea's from life.  

In between at lunch we will chat about materials and paint and when it's time to be concerned about using the "BEST AVAILABLE  MATERIAL"

I know they need to use more paint, larger brushes and have a proper work surface.