Saturday, June 14, 2008


Last Of The Lilacs 10" x 12" oil on panel
Another painting that was painted fairly close to home. I wonder why I did not see this subject before now.I know for sure that I have passed it many times in my wanderings.
This particular piece was painted on a Masonite panel. The ground for the panel was two coats of gesso followed by a 'runny' coat of thinned alizarin oil paint. The thinned alizarin was applied at the site and left for a few minutes to air dry. (almost)
I then proceeded to lay in the drawing of the composition using a combination of alizarin and ultramarine blue, loosely mixed. Continuing, I put in the larger masses using darker values of the local colours. This left me a dark value in order to lay in my lighter colours on top and a good foundation for my last details. I must mention that I used little or no medium in this painting until I started to render the finishing details.
My palette for this painting was ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, alizarin cadmium red, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium lemon yellow and I also added as I saw fit, yellow-green, naples yellow and little ivory black that mixed with the yellows to make some of the greens. It is a 'split palette' plus the addition of colours that I mentioned.
I was pleased with the painting even though I feel that it is a bit 'fussy' for my eyes. (smile)
'til next

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Gorgeous. Great to see you working on a larger piece. You've been very productive these days Frank!

Jayne

Frank A. said...

Thanks for your compliment,Jayne. With no other posts, I was begining to feel lonely... : )

The book seemed to take up a lot of my painting time. I am happy with it and at the same time, glad it is finished.

I hope that things are subsiding in your area and getting back to summer normal. Good luck with getting time to paint.

Take care.