Oil Painting - After Marine

Hey! I actually painted in my new studio last night! I finally got the lighting installed and I needed to give it a try. I mounted a standard fluorescent light fixture with two 'sunshine bulbs' in the ceiling of my studio at the condo. Much better than at the old house, where there were no overhead fixtures. I used to have to use multiple clamp-on style fixtures. I tried many types of bubs, but always felt that the lighting spot lighted the canvas and I over compensated with too bright or too dark values. With the new fixture, it is much better having a nice wash of light.

I decided I needed quite a bit of practice to get back in the groove of oil painting, so I am using several of my favorite daily painter blogs' paintings as reference. I do not plan on exhibiting my paintings of these subjects in public, nor selling them, or even finishing them, but using them as learning tools as artists have done for centuries. This practice was more about the application process than the end result and to get back into mixing colors/values. I worked on this painting for about an hour and felt I did good. Its not really 'done' - there is much that needs corrected and refined. It does not look too much like the artist's work other than the subject layout, but I figure I got back what I was wanting so I will move on to another example. This was painted on Judson's 'carton' board which I coated with black gesso. The boards are cheap stuff and not precious enough to worry about creating a masterpiece and wasting a more expensive support. It's a thin tan colored cardboard that has been treated with resin, then I added the black gesso to experiment.  I will save the more expensive panels for my own designs.

Here is my 'student work' from last night using a painting from the wonderful painter, Carol Marine, as reference:

"After Marine"  8 x 10, oil on carton board coated with black gesso