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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mellow Yellow...

Yesterday was my last teaching day at LAAFA for a while although I plan on being back for the semester beginning January 4, 2010 unless I decide to live in France.
Very unlikely since I JUST bought a house here it seems. On the water. Very excited at the painting possibilities there.

This was a recent teaching demo from my class. I have been experimenting with different whites in my life painting particularly as it was the end of the semester and I could have a little fun.  If I had a bomb it didn't matter. There is not much to prove toward the end of a teaching semester. You are either a crowd-pleaser or not at this point. Those who don't care for you have long left the room.

My usual white is Permalba but I have had fun playing with zinc white which is way more transparent but also quite stiff until you add some medium.

Not sure I would use zinc on a commission. Permalba is a good sturdy all round white it seems to me. But I do like the glazing qualities that zinc white has. Seems like a real 'cool' shade of white too. I wonder if it cracks more? Probably unless one is careful observing fat over lean principle.

I had fun building the paint up in on the light side but it took a while. At first it felt like I was making a milky soup kind of mess.

I also like painting yellow...I had asked the model to bring a yellow ballerina gown my class had painted her in before.  Vermeer painted yellow so well using lead tin yellow a lot which is close to our lemon yellow today.

I found a company called Natural Pigments http://naturalpigments.com/which is really worth checking out. They are replicating much of what the old masters used for their paints from natural pigments, hence the title, including lead tin yellow and the blue azurite that Vermeer apparently used. Yellow and blue were a color combo he often used. These two paints aren't cheap however. But for those of you painting on trust funds...no matter. Vermeer had no such luck. He was broke most of the time and traded bread for his paintings and paintings for his supplies from his benefactor. 

Amazing. 









3 comments:

Marian Fortunati said...

They will miss you I know...

I'm hoping that I (and the rest of your fans) can keep up with your activities as a "Frenchie" because you'll still be blogging.

I know you'll have an absolutely fabulous time!!!!

Also congrats on your future home... One of these days after your return risk nose bleed and drive up your way far far up north.cholicti

Johanna Spinks said...

thanks dear friend...are you the only person really reading this blog? Coould be....

laurghita said...

Of course someone read this blog, put the Followers Gadget and you will see at least those who feed on you. But the most important reader its yourself, this is like a journal, you always go back in time and read old posts and get in touch your old innerself,... Twitter dont have this time value its all about now, present... and Facebook its not about you, its more about what others friends want from you...
After 100 years think what your relatives like to read from you, what you eat, what was your life connections or what you think its so much important to deserve a post on your online journal...