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December 14, 2005
The Life and Times of Johnny Palette
Yet another reason why this art business, or at least the particular branch of the creative tree I have decided to crawl on, is not a nine-to-five occupation, is the nature of oil paint.
Oil paint takes its time. It’s a sloooow medium, it doesn’t like to be rushed. Which is a Good Thing. Acrylic paint is all quick, quick, get it on, oh, don’t worry about the – oh, quick hurry…argg – it’s dry. Oil paint is not like this, it’s old and mellow and generally slips about on the palette for a couple of days, getting into its stride.
The paint is organic and, at the risk of sounding pretentious, the palette is almost alive. It certainly has a lifespan. As I’ve mentioned before, it takes a while to get a palette up and going. The paint starts off all separate across the top of the palette, then slowly begins to mix down. The colours emerge gently as the palette warms up.
This doesn’t last forever, the palette reaches a delicious optimum state about twelve hours in, then the oil paint begins to dry, and as it dries it gets sticky and can drag on the panel, not nice. There are ways of slowing this down, using linseed or poppy oil can keep things smooth for a while, but too much alters the eventual texture of the paint, giving it a bit of a dull sheen. Not what I’m after at all.
Coming soon: The Further Adventures of Johnny Palette, starring Burnt Umber as the Siccative, Prussian Blue as the Pirate and Titanium White as the Good Fairy. Bet you can’t wait.
Posted by john at December 14, 2005 11:25 PM