Monday, September 15, 2008

Union Pacific 020


My wife was dissappointed after I did my usual finishing glazes on this painting. According to her I lost some of the original vibrant colors. For some reason, I like to add a layer of grunge to all my paintings, and yes, I do lose some of the freshness every time i do it. I've always thought this was strange of me to do this considering I grew up in beautiful Hawaii. But then again, I did grow up in Kalihi which wasn't so beautiful part of Oahu. Those that know Honolulu who might be reading, you know what I'm talking about...

Anyways, the glazes that I concocted for this painting was a mixture of Sap Green and Burnt Umber on the ground and a mixture of Indian Yellow and Transparent Orange on the top half. Oil on canvas / 27" x 17"

6 comments:

Christopher Thornock said...

Hey Donald- Glazing is a tricky business. Do you ever wipe your glaze after applying it. I know an artist who does a black glaze then wipes it off. His colors sing! The black gets in the nooks and adds contrast without dirtying the image. Your glazes remind me of sunglasses, they act as a unifier. But they can darken or kill certain colors. It's all individual preference.

Unknown said...

Hey Chris,I have not done a black glaze yet. I should try that. And yes I glaze mainly for a unifying effect because each time I set up my palette, my selection of colors changes. In addition I will use my previous left-over paints, save it in a ziplock, and use it as a chromatic grey on the next panel I paint on. All of this is done differently according to my mood at the moment, so I am definitely not as systematic as I want to be. This is again very strange in that I am highly influenced by the Photo-realists of the '70s, who came across to me as very focused and organized group of artists. You need to send me that link to your artist friend, I'd love to see his work! Lastly, good luck on your one-man show coming up!

Christopher Thornock said...

Donald-
The artist I referred to is Bruce Hixon Smith. I couldn't find too many decent images on the net of his work. Coda Gallery in Palm Desert has a few paintings. Oh, and I just saw this painting at A Gallery! Nice!

Anonymous said...

Hey Donald, I thought of you when I contemplated painting a Santa Fe engine in San Luis Obispo last week. Didn't do it because the surroundings were too clean and uninteresting. Grunge rocks!

When I was at Art Center, black glaze was all the rage because Matt Mahurin did it. His was not a "final" layer, but many many in-between layers. Sort of a short-deadline Rembrandt, is what we called the technique. On my larger cityscapes, I use a dark glaze sometimes; transparent earth red + ultramarine.

Unknown said...

I've just discovered your blog surfing link by link, great paintings, thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

Chris, thanks for stopping by and good luck to your show coming up this month! Terry, good to hear from you and I am honored that you thought of my paintings when you were out there on the frontlines of Plein aire! Thanks for the tips also. and Thomas, thanks for visiting and the kind words!