9″x12″
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt.
I kept the palette limited for this painting, making the greens more aqua, and teal, and keeping the warms red orange rather than the range of what they really were.
Here is my reference photo, which allows you to see how I tweaked the colors:
24″x 18″ pastel on sanded board
“Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas” – “Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses
-Ovid
10″x8″ oil on panel
Dallas has a beautiful lake right in the center of the city. White Rock Lake. It has a path that goes all around, about 10 miles of pedaling (or running) to circumnavigate. Most of us enjoy this treasure of wildlife, beauty and community from the shores. We cook out, picnic, run, bike, play, and the lucky…paint. The sailers however, are looking back at us. They see Dallas from the inside out.
10″x8″ oil on panel
Perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon (sailing and painting).
I use paint brushes daily, I usually use a filbert or a flat. My go to size is 8. For 3 decades I have used well made natural bristle brushes. I have a few really fine sables, squirrel hair, and mongoose hair brushes that I use for water color, and oil portraits. My daily landscape brushes are mostly hog hair.
I take excellent Care of my brushes, and they last for a really long time. Above are the brushes that have been my go to brushes for the last year. I recently started a painting and noticed that the brush was shot, the bristles had lost their ability to hold an edge, and they were droopy. I reached for a second brush, which was also shot. So I looked through all the brushes that had been in circulation. Three were in almost perfect shape despite constant use. They were rosemary and co. Ivory filberts. Synthetics! I was ordering some portrait brushes about 4 years ago from Rosemary and Co, and the person on the phone asked if I had tried the Ivorys. I told them I didn’t usually like synthetics, but would give them a try, I ordered only 3. Initially they were fine, no better or worse than a bristle. However they have held up MUCH better than the natural bristle brushes.
My current 3 favorite brushes are all Rosemary and co Ivory brushes. Filbert size 6,8, and 10
Here they are, after hundreds of paintings! Still going strong. If you like control or are new to painting, I recommend a short flat or a filbert. If you like a looser painting, I reccommend a long filbert or flat. Egberts are the longest bristles and will give the loosest most lyrical strokes.
If would like to know more about paint brushes, here is a well written article that covers just about every type of brush. There are so many good brushes out there, but these ivorys are kind of like buying a Honda, dependable work horse with lots of miles in it.
Happy painting!
Photo by Dickie Hill
This is my studio, which has beautiful north light. I love it! I count my blessings everyday when I go to my easel.
Here is my taboret , if you look at the photo of my studio, you can see it. Just beyond that taboret (not pictured) is a washer and dryer. That blue piece of cloth is not an apron or a rag, far from it…it is one of my husbands nicest dress shirts. He absentmindly took it off and laid it on my palette covered in paint. Guess what? The shirt not only repels wrinkles, but oil paint too! Just kidding. That is where Jack’s Lindseed oil soap comes in. It is what I use to wash my paint brushes. It is non toxic, and smells like my Aunt KC’s tack shop in her barn (one of the best smells from my childhood). I use the soap to keep my brushes in tip top shape.
An artist recently told me that artists have two types of clothes: those with paint on them, and those that don’t have paint on them YET. Jack’s linseed soap removes wet and DRY oil paint from clothes and paint brushes. The soap saved the shirt!
Buy studio soap here
Method I use to wash my brushes:
1. Wipe off excess paint on tissue or tag
2. Swirl brushes in gamsol (wrap in foil at this step if I just want to hit pause on the painting session)
3. Wipe off gamsol
4. Wash with Jack’s studio soap and water, careful not to splay the bristles, I use a painting motion back in forth in the palm of my hand. Rinse. If bristles need shaping up, I put a bit more soap on and form the bristles back into their proper shape.
I take great care of my brushes, and it shows. I have brushes that are 30 years old and still going strong.
16″x12″ oil on panel. $250
These just arrived, and I plan to give a full report later this summer when I have read them. I would like to sell more of the beautiful art I create everyday, and opening my studio for a show and tell/ sale appeals to me. So if you live near Dallas, watch for upcoming info on the studio tour. If you are an artist, I will review these books as I finish them so can glean the highlights or perhaps decide to read them yourself.
10″x8″ oil on panel
Sailing races at White Rock Lake. Beautiful afternoon!
24″x18″ pastel on sanded board
I started with an oil wash underpainting. I used thinned alizeran crimson and ultramarine blue and LOTS of mineral spirits. I loved the subtle colors blocked in. I finished the painting with touches in a hot coral pastel. The painting was beautiful, but didn’t quite look enough like summer, so I added some orange touches. That did the trick perfectly!
