Just when I thought I was done, the painting pulled me back in. “Jennie No.2” is a painting that I thought I had finished. I even wrote a blog post about the painting titled “Spontaneous Endings.” Well, the ending became even more spontaneous after I stared at the painting on my wall for a few months and decided something was missing.
Read More
Painting with Patience
One aspect that drew me to this source photo on the Museum app, was that the eyes weren’t the main focal point like in most portraits. Focal points are generally areas with the most detail; strongest contrast between lights and darks; and the strongest hues. I felt that the focal points for Mustached Man in a Hat would be the ear, the wrinkles around the eye, and the mustache/mouth area. I worked these areas more, but kept the outlying areas simple.
Read More
Jennie Portrait No. 2, oil on canvas, 20 x 18 inches by Vancouver Island artist Joe Enns.
Spontaneous Endings
Some of my best paintings take the least amount of time. If a painting takes too long, I get the feeling that I’m over-working it and the colours become muddy. Often, I gesso over the painting and start again from scratch. One or two paintings have taken me years to complete (I procrastinate a lot and then get bored of them).
Before I started this painting, titled Jennie No. 2 Portrait, I came up with these objectives:
Prepare the canvas with oil to use as a background,
Paint quickly in alla prima (wet-on-wet paint),
Use as few layers as possible, and
Keep detail to focal points.
Slaughtermelon, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches
Expression with Accuracy
Every painting of mine is a balance of expression and accuracy, speed and detail. I try not to get caught up on details and slow down, but I often forget. I was consciously trying to leave details for the very end (especially the eyes), and I think this helped. But in the end, I got bogged down in the palette knife work. It wasn’t exactly how I imagined.
Read More