Bored today so figured I’d post some paintings

[Wookie]

Recent stuff in process from NY, Nantucket and Boston.

[MrBirdman]

Just getting back into oil painting myself. Boy, I am worse than I remember! But it’s fun and relaxing (once you get over the hump of putting paint down). Yesterday I actually was mulling some old lead white pigment I never used in hand refined oil I made right before I stopped painting. The handling is pretty cool for light impasto - a lot of work though and the safety requirements are a pain.

Great stuff! You capture the lighting in the foliage paintings especially well. 

[teamrandr]

Thanks for sharing. Those are really well done. 

[Wookie]

1 hour ago, MrBirdman said:

Just getting back into oil painting myself. Boy, I am worse than I remember! But it’s fun and relaxing (once you get over the hump of putting paint down). Yesterday I actually was mulling some old lead white pigment I never used in hand refined oil I made right before I stopped painting. The handling is pretty cool for light impasto - a lot of work though and the safety requirements are a pain.

Great stuff! You capture the lighting in the foliage paintings especially well. 

Thanks! I use lead carbonate PW1 for portraiture, but all purchased, not hand mixed. I’m not sure it’s worth the safety issues but if Michelangelo and Titian used it it I want to try. I paint with a lot of professional landscape artists and none of them uses lead white…tinting power sucks. But it has a warmth for flesh tones, just barely, IMHO.  Funny that all my pro friends say there is nothing relaxing about painting…I tend to agree, but it’s fun to try to get edge, tone, form, hue, looseness/tightness the way you want it. Thank goodness I don’t have to rely on painting sales for a living!

[Wookie]

31 minutes ago, teamrandr said:

Thanks for sharing. Those are really well done. 

Thanks! Did you go to UMich? I was class of 1988. And Sig Chi Frathouse. 

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Wookie said:

Thanks! I use lead carbonate PW1 for portraiture, but all purchased, not hand mixed. I’m not sure it’s worth the safety issues but if Michelangelo and Titian used it it I want to try. I paint with a lot of professional landscape artists and none of them uses lead white…tinting power sucks. But it has a warmth for flesh tones, just barely, IMHO.  Funny that all my pro friends say there is nothing relaxing about painting…I tend to agree, but it’s fun to try to get edge, tone, form, hue, looseness/tightness the way you want it. Thank goodness I don’t have to rely on painting sales for a living!

First, no it isn’t really worth the safety issues to make the actual paint - I’ve just always been interested in materials. I think the safety concerns with using premade lead are largely overblown, if you avoid sanding or getting any in your mouth you’ll be fine. And I agree that painting can be stressful but it’s a rewarding kind. If it was my profession though it would probably be another story.

I actually add about 20% titanium white to my lead to boost its tinting power and opacity, and for areas I want to keep cool like skies I stick with titanium white. I like having lead on my palette because it makes subtle modulations easier and I like the added transparency for certain effects, especially with lighting in midtones. It depends on what else is on your palette though - a lot of landscape artists use strong tinting modern colors, especially synthetic organics like the pthalos, where you need titanium to deal with them. I like weaker tinting pigments like cobalt, viridian, and natural earths since they’re easier to work with (for me at least). 

Lead white has also gotten really expensive over the past decade, so if I had to make my living painting (especially with larger works) it would be a different story.

[westg]

Impressive!