Dear Art-loving friend,
Shortly after carving stone in Bulgaria this past
summer, I then went to Istanbul for a few days.
I did not buy as much as I wanted, however, I am a sucker for burning
things… so I bought a couple of the tea light candle holders that glow with
glorious hues from the colored glass mosaics.
One of those became a model in my next project, “Turkish Light.”
I have always moved slowly; ask
my parents if you believe this not. But
while I have come to accept this part of myself, I still work to improve my
productivity in creating art. And when
it also helps me to improve the quality, well, … you know that accepting the idea is a given.
I have also come to accept about
myself that I have a self-sabotage mechanism in my brain. To that end, I refer
to the idea that no matter how many times I do “shape exercises,” my first attempts at drawing anything are way
off. It is difficult for me to do demos
when I teach in part because of this problem.
[Another problem is talking while drawing… they rarely mix in my
brain.] Anyway, despite the
encouragement by some to simply start my compositions in paint, I prefer to use
charcoal.
“Pentimento” is the
Italian word that describes the concept of “the sins of the past will continue
to haunt you.” I know that oil paint
goes transparent after many years and I know that red is a tricky color. I do
not want my bad drawing to show through.
And I know that on this composition of red, white, and black… I increase
the odds a bit of having problems. So,
you see me figuring out my design in charcoal on a mid-toned primed wooden
panel.
I was not sure that I wanted the vase thingy
as close to center, but later decided to leave it as is. I liked the shapes between the objects,
too. Once my drawing was close enough, I
used egg tempera to paint in the light shapes.
This is opaque and dries very quickly… like acrylic, but I think that I
like egg tempera better, and hopefully it leaves more of a tooth for the oil
paints.
I then layered in some of the cadmium
orange and the serious reds. The black
came later. These colors take forever to
dry (an exaggeration, I hope you understand) and I had to be careful not to
smear a thing, yet keep the edges I wanted soft … soft. This painting then went up on a shelf to dry
for about a month, I think.
I took her down occasionally to develop the painting in layers, letting each one have about a week to dry, if I could manage that. My models stayed in place while I worked on other easels. Ok, so THAT part of the process is not particularly efficient for productivity, but hey, I love red and black, both slow driers. It was the egg tempera trick that gave me light and speed. There… I
have given away all of my secrets. So, I
will go home now.
I started “Turkish Light” in
mid-July. I finished her in
mid-October. Sadly, in my new flat, I
have not yet figured out how to get a high-quality image of an oil
painting. But here is the shot that I
have.
“Turkish Light” is
available. She is a 50 x 35 cm (19.6 x 13.7 inches) oil
painting on Italian Geso-vero’d primed wooden panel. Please contact me if you would like to own
this gem or gift her to someone you love.
Thank you for your interest and
enthusiasm,
Kelly
~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter,
writer, teacher
