Over recent years my artwork has been research-based with varied outputs, notably artist’s books. But I’ve always felt my main practice is as a painter and draftsman. I am now concentrating on these. I am taking the Turps Banana Correspondence Course to reinvigorate my painting practice through online mentoring.
The a-n Artist Bursary is part-funding a complementary programme of individual advice from experts in career development and photographic documentation.
I’m breaking new ground in my art practice, and also developing this new raised bed in my garden. Of course I couldn’t keep the art out the garden. I approach it as an artist-gardener. The new raised bed will be home to my collection of plants. It will be much more practical with automated watering. It will be necessary to organise the plants according to their needs, and also for the bed to work as a whole with seasonal interest and structure. Much like marshalling ideas, and planning art projects.
This post discusses some practicalities of preparing the ground for painting. I’ve been working with the motif of a figure mopping a corridor. Specifically, a female cleaner mopping a floor. It’s a prosaic subject: a solitary figure wielding a brush over a surface.
I am indebted to artists at Turps Art School for suggestions.
Surfaces for Oil Painting
I’ve been thinking about using paper as surface for oil painting. I started using oil paints again after many years, and want to do a lot of studies to familiarise myself with my new paints and resolve some ideas. I’ve been weighing up the perennially conflicting requirements of quality, convenience, price (in May 2019).
Commercial Oil Paper
Convenience – ready to use.
Arches Huile Qualities: 300gsm, uniquely this paper is like watercolour paper, Jackson’s classes it as “exceptional”. But see their slight caveat here. Price: 1.3m x 9.15m roll, £166
Clairefontaine Oil Painting Paper Quality: 240gsm, textured (embossed or linen effect). Price: 1.1m x 10m roll, £115
Fabriano Tela Special Oil Paper Quality: 300gsm canvas-effect grain. Price: 1.5m x 10m roll, £86
Personally I’m unconvinced about these faux canvas textures. Others may be able to tune them out. Primed paper is a suitable substrate for oils, there’s no need to pretend it’s another material. Rolls of pre-primed canvas are around the same price.
DIY Priming Paper for Oils
Convenience – this is inevitably not as immediate as ready-made paper, but preparation can done incrementally as required. I can’t compare the prices per metre square, but this option is more flexible financially and the paper is can be used for other purposes. DIY priming is an opportunity to lay the tinted ground as part of the same process. Quality: paper 300gsm, smooth. Additional texture: your choice! Price: 80p per A1 cartridge paper. Consumables: 1 litre Acrylic Gesso £14 tinted with acrylic paint , and wide soft brush.
Soaking and stretching paper is always a chore for me, so I’m testing other methods of preparing paper for oils. Initially I just taped my paper to a board, and it buckled. However after drying, I rolled and flexed the primed paper, and it was fine for a study. Turps artists have suggested:
Using acrylics for the tinted ground, I’m aiming for smooth flat tone . I’m going to try Flow Improver additive to reduce brush marks.
My reason for using oils over the acrylic ground is the malleability window during their slow drying time. This provides a few days to reflect, alter, or even wipe off entirely leaving the ground intact. Cleaning off marks and erasing is part of painting.
I met Matt through Open Forum advice sessions. I’ve now joined Matt Roberts Arts which “is a dynamic not-for-profit organisation founded in 2006 to create opportunities for artists in new locations and contexts. Matt Roberts Arts offers support to creative practitioners by providing a range of professional development programmes and national and international touring exhibitions.” Our meeting was encouraging and informative, with incisive analysis of the art scene, and bespoke prompts for career development.
The other element of the bursary activity is sessions at Untitled Print to enable me to document my work. At the first session Matthew Conduit focussed on image capture, lighting, colour calibration.
I’ve been buying the equipment ready to take better photos of my smaller work. I already have DSLR camera and 50mm and 85mm lenses, and have Photoshop.
I ordered a Kaiser copy stand from a photography shop in the Netherlands, an outlet of a German company. It arrived in a few days. I wonder if this sort of shopping will be so easy and well-priced in the future. I found some small spirit levels to use with this, one on the base board and another on the back of the camera.
Previously I had soft boxes (photo lights), but I found them too hard to ‘pop up’. Instead I’m now using two angle poise lights (Tertial from Ikea £9 each) with daylight bulbs (6400 Kelvin, 1900 lumens, E27 fitting).
Other kit: polarising filters are useful for reducing reflections work on shiny work, and grey and white calibration cards. I already put a charcoal thumbprint on the white calibration card – an occupational hazard!
