HTML - Poet and the Painter

April 1, 2010

Obsessing Over Oils

I'm obsessed with oil paints!  I've avoided them so many years--always sticking with the safer acrylics--but the moment I squeezed out my first oil palette, I was spellbound by the pigment oozing from the tube and the intensity of the colors.  I instantly loved the smell of the paint and linseed (strange, I know) and how the vibrant color was easily pushed around my canvas.  I couldn't apply it fast enough and was impatient with the drying time because I wanted to keep going and going.  I love the science of blending - how do I manage to get that perfect silky green simply by mixing cerulean blue and burnt sienna?  And how wonderfully eery my portraits look when I lay in the dioxazine purple, viridian hue, sienna and alizarin crimson to create the shadows then bring the faces to life with cadmium red and yellow and a touch of titanium white!  I am enthralled with every stroke and love the transition from week to week on my paintings.  A new obsession . . just what I need!