Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Syncronicity


I havent been blogging lately cause things have been happening too fast! For a while now Ive been creeping back into the desire to paint. Not too activly pursuing but, feeling old wounds had healed and I was interested again. One small step I gessoed a wood panel.
While on FB I discovered the art Of Dino Valls and saw such a kinship in our vision... only his of course is flat out masterly! maybe an echo of what I could be. I felt even more inspired to paint again. I even read up on his medium egg tempera.

Not liking the acrylic gesso finish of my wood panel I began again to read about what was needed to make traditional gesso or gofun. I bought the whiting and calcium carbonate and read about how you must heat rabbit glue..sounded nasty. I hesitated to buy that. Was it really that important to make my own? Dont I have enough on my plate?
Well , I got a sweet message from a stranger through Esty. My work was admired and did I need some supplies?
I thought this was odd. Well I got to talking with this person,Annie and she asked me if I knew what black oil was.. I didnt. I found she is an oil painter and uses traditional methods to achieve luminous glazes. Grinding her own paint, painting on wood grounds and had also been researching gesso and gofun. Annie sent me rabbit glue she happens to have,piments and medium and promised to teach me Maroger's methods she learned from her husband who learned directly from Maroger.

Im very honored to be a sort of descendant of this knowledge! Marogers hands touched and restored these old master paintings and saw with his own eyes what Ive only seen in photos.
Mixing the pigment the smell of linseed oil was like an old friend gone a long time. Im looking forward to seeing what I can do different now.

Up above is "Secret of Plum" a WIP. Im planing on trying to paint her with these old paints as well. Shes an experimental piece.

8 comments:

  1. Ahh! There y'are! I was wondering why I hadn't seen any postings from you in a while. Egg tempera is a wonderful medium - I got seduced by it about 30 years ago & dabbled a bit, but being busy with family at that time never took it very far - I think it takes a while to master it, but I'm sure you will! Good luck with it - I look forward to seeing the results.

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  3. That is so cool! You have great painting abilities so yeah go for it. Using these old paints on your sculptures is a great idea, I think it will ad to the ancient feel they already posses.

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  4. it sounds like you are growing as an artist and that's wonderful, I guess I should tell you that your work just fascinates me, I envy your talent to try new things or push yourself in new directions.

    thanks for sharing this information, I never knew that painting could be so interesting.

    Marisa :)

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  5. Hi Everyone:) Nice to see I didnt lose readership why Ive been lazy in blog land.
    The egg temera is so bright and detailed. Im not sure yet If I will try it ,but the oils for sure Susie:)
    Yes I am addicted to ancient feel and now I will have authentic methods too. Annie says that store bought paints cant achieve the same old masters translucent look because of all the fillers etc.
    Thanks for speaking out Marisa. I try to be informative and share stuff that will encourage other artists.Even see they are not alone in this wacky emotional thinking artists have. We are almost a different kind of human!

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  6. Been missing you Nita and so glad you are blogging again, and with such an interesting post.

    Looking at the old masters' works (how I would love to see some in person), I don't think anything modern can compare to the pigments that were used years ago. How wonderful that Annie contacted you on Etsy and gifted you with some
    of these supplies. I'm thrilled for you, and I bet you are just itching to get into them.

    Keep up posted on how your painting and you new piece develops.

    Hugs,

    Sue

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  7. My mouth fell open when I saw this.
    Very beautiful.

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