ATELIER 101 BEGINS

As I've stated before, it was years before I picked up a brush to paint anything other than a wall or floor.  Last year, 2009, I finally changed all that.  I got a book, Classical Painting Atelier by Juliette Aristides.  

Then I got another, Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake originally written in 1847 under the title of Materials for a History of Oil Painting.  


Then another, Traditional Oil Painting by Virgil Elliot; and another
Rembrandt, the Painter at Work by Ernst Van de Vetering...and so on, 


realizing that I had never fully explored painting in the classical manner.  What better approach to take after such a long time off.

I went back to the principles outlined by the Venetian, Cennini in the 14th century (his Trattato della Pittura), bought oil artist's colors from Gamblin, an American company located in Portland OR whose motto is "the tools of contemporary masters" www.gamblincolors.com and started with a traditional grisaille palette.

My first monochromatic painting using gamblin artist's oil colors, Old Holland classic linen primed and stretched canvas ground, working from a small three dimensional  horse head bookend.  My photography skills didn't accurately render the original painting.  There is no grainy quality to the oil painting.