"Goat House on Murrell's Inlet"6"x 8" oil on gessoed linen panel.
I'm painting again from my recent beach trip photos. We were staying near Murrell's Inlet where all the seafood restaurants and the night life was hap'nin. Behind Drunken Jack's is an small island where goats and peacocks are raised. It's fun to walk along the marina pier and watch the entire goat herd run from one end of the island to the other and stir up the many birds roosting there. Good memories.
I feel like a dummy. I recently read on someone's blog about coating one's canvas with a clear medium mixture of turps and lindseed oil in preparation for painting. Or you can mix white oil paint in with this same mixture and use a white medium to coat your canvas. It was explained that this would help in painting skys and distant landscape elements.
The reason I feel like a dummy is because I ask myself - where have I been? I never knew about this. Being self taught so far, I just missed this valuable step. Maybe lots of artists do this and maybe not, I just don't know. On this painting I was using one of my older linen panels that is coated with a clear gesso. I have in the past added another two coats of white gesso and still disliked the surface. I took one of these linen panels (already coated with the white gesso) and painted on a light coat of a mixture of half turps and half stand oil. I loved how the paint just glides on much like when painting on the oil primed linen. Again, where have I been! So this is how to paint on canvas!
By the way, linseed oil is supposed to dry faster and cure harder. I'll have to purchase some, but the stand oil seemed to work fine. You still have to think about the fat over lean principle while building your painting, so I didn't thin my paint with turpentine for the bit of under-painting I put down. I'll definitely do some experimenting with this. Please anyone jump in a make comments about your experience using a medium to coat your canvas! This was an alla prima painting completed in about three hours.
I feel like a dummy. I recently read on someone's blog about coating one's canvas with a clear medium mixture of turps and lindseed oil in preparation for painting. Or you can mix white oil paint in with this same mixture and use a white medium to coat your canvas. It was explained that this would help in painting skys and distant landscape elements.
The reason I feel like a dummy is because I ask myself - where have I been? I never knew about this. Being self taught so far, I just missed this valuable step. Maybe lots of artists do this and maybe not, I just don't know. On this painting I was using one of my older linen panels that is coated with a clear gesso. I have in the past added another two coats of white gesso and still disliked the surface. I took one of these linen panels (already coated with the white gesso) and painted on a light coat of a mixture of half turps and half stand oil. I loved how the paint just glides on much like when painting on the oil primed linen. Again, where have I been! So this is how to paint on canvas!
By the way, linseed oil is supposed to dry faster and cure harder. I'll have to purchase some, but the stand oil seemed to work fine. You still have to think about the fat over lean principle while building your painting, so I didn't thin my paint with turpentine for the bit of under-painting I put down. I'll definitely do some experimenting with this. Please anyone jump in a make comments about your experience using a medium to coat your canvas! This was an alla prima painting completed in about three hours.
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