Painting in Oil

I love to paint in oils. I use Windsor and Newton and Gamblin paints and mediums. I especially like to use Gamblin alkyd mediums. These work well with alkyd spray paints and allow me to work quickly mixing the techniques. I also find that the alkyd mediums work well with oil sticks, coating the surface lightly, then drawing with the oil sticks and working afterwards with one of the brush shaped silicon tools. This is a painting I did for a fund-raiser promoted by a friend.

The event, produced by my friend Kelly, was called 'The Masquerade,' and was held to raise money to support local arts and the local children's theatre. Kelly had been a fellow non-traditional student, a fine artist and a talented, tireless promoter. The event was held at a local restaurant which has several rooms and multiple outdoor decks. My participation was to execute the painting and take part in a vignette of painter and model in a Parisian boudoir. I started the painting a couple of weeks before the affair so that it was well along in the process and then we set up the vignette to match the painting. The background for the painting was the fireplace in the restaurant and I met with the model to make sketches and photos. The night of the affair, I donned my tuxedo and top hat, set up my french easel next to the chaise, the model took her place on the chaise and we proceeded to perpetuate one of the fiction of art.

In the spirit of the masquerade and since the Lenten season, the beginning of which is marked by Mardi Gras, is drawing to a close, I thought I would add a little New Orleans piano blues.  



Enjoy.

Brad