Oil Discovered!

Since Kline was working before the invention of acrylics, he of course used oil paint, as do I usually. All my previous posts have been acrylic, however, since I wanted to get stuff done fast. The problem with acrylics, unless you use a whole chemical factory of retardents, flow equalizers, and texturizers, is that they dry very fast with a consistent plasticky surface. Or if watered down, very very matte in appearance. Worse, you can't rework it except by going over it again and repainting, which makes for headaches of a different kind. And let's not talk about wasting $15.47 worth of paint to mix just the right color before you get a phone call and come back and find it's all dried and you have to start again.

Oil on unprotected paper is that great modern art class no-no, because it's not archival and will rot the paper eventually, perhaps 200 years from now. This is school of thought Number 1. School Number 2 says, screw it. If your work is deemed important to preserve, it will be preserved. No one is going to let Picassos rot away, or even Klines.

So here's oil on collage, though I covered the collage with a cheating coat of gloss medium to make a nice slippery surface. I wanted to be able to move the paint around with brush and fingers yet have it sit above the surface, letting the phone book show through.



I tried to work some white in, but it still seems too white to me, but it's time to move on. I might knock it back a bit later, adding a little ochre or umber. And all my moving of stuff around did matte and dirty the surface a bit, but I can live with it. I felt a bit tentative doing all this, for some reason, maybe because I really liked the collage underneath. Next one I promise will be bold.