Underpainting

With the design drawn on to the canvas and the outlining completed its time to lay down the first layer of paint; “under painting” a thin layer of oils “thinned” out with turpentine, the odour fills the downstairs of the house but only lasts for a couple of days. Once dried I commence to “layer” the canvas with oil paints mixed with a little linseed oil, what a fragrence; a reminder of warm sunny summer days. The knocking sound of “leather on wood” echoeing around the grounds of the village green, men and boys dressed in whites are scattered strategically around the freshly cut pitch of the village green. “Cricket bats”, crafted from willow are oiled, feeding the wood to preserve its shape and stability.

The marks made on the stark white canvas now begin to resemble “Highland Cows”, with some colour layered on and their features “emerging” that feeling of “fear” as “daunting” as the whiteness of the canvas was lift as at last I can begin to enjoy the process. Each image taking on its own unique character as the paint begins to build.

Day 2; where to start….

As any artist will tell you, the start of a new piece of artwork is both exciting and daunting. Despite several weeks of research and a few trial sketches, whilst the enthusiasm remains I am now faced with the task of “getting started” and being faced with a large canvas such as this all I can see is a blanket of whiteness before me, my inner voice screaming “where do I begin?”. As always, the hardest “Mark” to make is the first, but….here goes!

 1 – arrival of canvas

The courier company arrived dropping off the custom canvas I had ordered, 6.6ft x 5ft the largest canvas I have worked on to date.

The frame of the canvas is made from high quality soft wood with additional supports added to support the fine linen gesso coated 40mm deep canvas. As you can imagine, despite the soft wood framework it is quite a “weighty” sized canvas……daunting though it is to have such a large “blank” canvas staring back at me….