Making “Winter Swimmers”

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Hello! This is my first blog post here on my website. I’m not sure how often I’ll post here, but I’m hoping for at least once a week. They might not be only art-related posts, but I’ll try to keep it interesting!

Things have been a bit crazy lately, as I’m trying to fit in painting with my work schedule (as usual). This painting is one of three that I am entering in the yearly New American Paintings contest. I am part of the Midwest competition. This is the third time that I have entered, and as always, I do realize that perhaps thousands of people might be entering, and the chances are slim. But, it does motivate me this time of the year, when it’s dreary and cold, and you really don’t feel motivated to do much of anything. My New Year’s resolution was to create more art, and that’s precisely what I’m going to do.

The piece is created using a 20x20 splined canvas that I purchased from Dick Blick Art Supply. I’ll go into detail about my process in a later blog, but not to give too much away, I then cut XPS foam on a thermal cutter to the measurements that I have prepared. I use industrial adhesive to glue these pieces to the canvas. The canvas flexes a bit, and I might (and have) use wood panels in the future, as this gives a more stable surface to work on. However, working on canvas allows the piece to be super light, which can be beneficial in shipping when I decide to sell some of these pieces.

After the industrial adhesive sets up (I usually give it a least 24 hours), I’ll use gesso by Utrecht. Blick also sells this, as they acquired Utrecht in 2013. I pretty much buy everything from Blick (and the Home Depot). Most of my oils are from Utrecht, and I have been using these since college in the early 90’s. I highly recommend them. I’ll also use some Windsor & Newton oils if I need to buy them locally in a pinch, but I prefer the Utrecht.

After the piece has had two coats of gesso, its on to the fun stuff, the oil paint. I could use acrylics, but I honestly don’t like working in them, even though it would probably be healthier. I like the way the oil FEELS. I love the smell of the linseed oil, and I love the glossiness of the final product. The open working time of the oils is also a plus for blending. I don’t do much figurative work anymore, but I might try to incorporate this into some future pieces. This piece was mostly Titanium White. I add some linseed, mineral spirts for flow, and sometimes a bit of a drying compound such as Winsor & Newton Liquin if I know I won’t be doing any color blending. I added some lines of French Ultramarine to finish the piece up. Not a lot of color in this piece, but this was by design. After it dries, I’ll finish it off with some Gamblin Gamvar Gloss varnish. What’s nice about this product, as you don’t have to wait months and months for the oil paint to fully cure (as it doesn’t dry like acrylics, it’s a chemical process).

That’s really about it for this piece. Thanks for reading, and look for another post here soon!