North Georgia State Fair Food Booth - SOLD

"French Cuisine"

Click on images to enlarge.

6"x 8" Oil on gessoed board.

This subject was a real challenge. The type and many details, made it hard to simplify enough for a small study. An added difficulty for me was the desire to keep it loose and to focus on shapes rather than paint people and objects. Because I was working from a digital image I blurred (very blurred!) the photo on my monitor and painted from that until the painting was about half completed. Then I used the clear photo to finish. This was a lot easier on the eyes than squinting for hours! It really helped me to avoid painting detail from the start (duh! you cant' see them ). As I finished, I went slowly and was careful about not adding too many details, keeping my edges soft and working and reworking my brushwork to keep it consistent throughout. It's not exactly as I pictured it in my mind, but a lot closer to the desired result than my last post.

I tried a new substrate for these two fair paintings. I love Ampersand Gessoboard, but it is not available in my favorite size of late, 6"x 8". At Jerry's Artarama I found an Italian wood panel, Pannelli A Gesso in that size. There is a choice of super smooth and a texture called "cold pressed" which is similar to cold pressed illustration board. It is similar to a coarse watercolor paper without the rough fiber. On the corn dog painting I added an extra coat of gesso before painting hoping to smooth it out a little. On this painting I painted on the preprepared surface which was not the best decision. The ground just seemed to soak up the paint. The oil paint looked and handled more like gouache than oil paint, very matte finish. I think I'll try the smoother finish on my next purchase and see if I prefer it but I do like the fact that the panel is real wood, not the pressed stuff, and very light weight. The cost was very reasonable as well.