Wednesday, February 19, 2014

'Men I Know' part 2

'Teo' 24½"x18½" Oil on canvas
Another painting in the series of oil brunailles that I have been doing of interesting people that I am lucky enough to know.

This is of Teo, a delightful, wee young lad... and I mean young, he was just two weeks old at the time. This one was a pleasure to do as he didn't move much (too busy growing to care).

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

'Men I Know' part 1

'Duncan' 24½"x18½" Oil on canvas
I have been painting a series of oil ébauche sketches done as brunailles. Basically this involves pouring an amount of "painters' soup" (a fluid mix of paint, oil, and turpentine that looks like ox-tail soup... hence the phrase "that painting looks a little bit "soupy"") over a white primed canvas and smearing it into an image. It's an old tonal technique, often done traditionally to produce an underpainting, although some painters such as Eugène Carrière have utilised it as the basis of their practice.

The theme of the series is "Men I Know", a wide range of subjects from newly-borns to elderly friends. They are all mainly "heads" (24½"x18½"), although there are a few slightly larger canvases. As I know a lot of interesting people, this might be a large undertaking.

So far I have only done just over ten, this one being of my friend the sculptor Duncan MacCallum.