What are you working on?
- Thread starter Artyczar
- Start date
Desforges
Well-known member
- Messages
- 1,295
Thank you!
Grapes
oil painter
- Messages
- 1,257
I'm working on a fresco after Botticelli's Venus. This is a wip photo from this morning and I've never done this kind of stuff nor this size before so I'm figuring things out while working. Before starting I thought this kind of painting is impossible for me but I'm ok with it at this stage. I've seen the original in Florence, I think it was in Uffizi, can't remember for sure and I was blown away how small the painting itself is!
This wall is about 2.5 x 2 meters. The figure is about my own size. The paints are proper to last in very cold temp. but I need to work on +20 C. So, I'm working on warm weather only. There's no rain hitting this wall. I'm taking this photo in the sauna door but more further away there is the bath top and the idea is that the Venus shows in the doorway when one is taking a bath. I had no idea big paintings are so much fun to do.
View attachment 2149
This wall is about 2.5 x 2 meters. The figure is about my own size. The paints are proper to last in very cold temp. but I need to work on +20 C. So, I'm working on warm weather only. There's no rain hitting this wall. I'm taking this photo in the sauna door but more further away there is the bath top and the idea is that the Venus shows in the doorway when one is taking a bath. I had no idea big paintings are so much fun to do.
View attachment 2149
How cool, Mosc! So will you be painting into wet plaster, or is it a fresco in the "painted on a wall" sense? It's so interesting that you're doing this since I also have a painting that I'm considering based on the BoV, but mine's a little out there so I won't go into details. How did you happen to get this commission (at least I presume it's a commission). Anyway, please post updates!
Desforges
Well-known member
- Messages
- 1,295
Moscatel, I really like the Venus.
I love painting large surfaces. It feels like a true one to one encounter. I don’t really have the space but I bought a roll of canvas, stapled it to a board which hung from hooks on a wall and stretched it on a support only once it was done. Even with collages, it worked. I wet the back and it got tensed like a drum. Then varnished it.
It's beautiful. It reminds me quite a bit of Barbara Fugate's work. Are you familiar with her?
HalifaxCB
Member
- Messages
- 43
I wasn’t until now, so thanks!
stlukesguild
Well-known member
- Messages
- 2,751
I've started work on a new drawing/painting tentatively on the theme of Death and the Maiden... the raven being a harbinger of death... but that theme may change. I've let off work until this evening. It's currently 93 degrees here with high humidity. My studio is upstairs and not air-conditioned. With the multiple floodlights on it's easily 120 degrees+
It looks like a great start! I like the composition a lot and will be looking for progress images.
But the temperature where you are sounds awful. Have you ever considered LEDs? There are some good ones available with high CRIs - not like the old compact florescents with their sickly colors.
But the temperature where you are sounds awful. Have you ever considered LEDs? There are some good ones available with high CRIs - not like the old compact florescents with their sickly colors.
brianvds
Well-known member
- Messages
- 1,155
I've started work on a new drawing/painting tentatively on the theme of Death and the Maiden... the raven being a harbinger of death... but that theme may change. I've let off work until this evening. It's currently 93 degrees here with high humidity. My studio is upstairs and not air-conditioned. With the multiple floodlights on it's easily 120 degrees+
As always, I look forward to seeing the finished piece. One advantage with my working as small as I mostly do is that I don't need a studio, so I can at least be comfortable while failing at yet another picture.
stlukesguild
Well-known member
- Messages
- 2,751
I've begun laying in the reddish primer that the pastel, acrylic, and gold leaf will go over. I haven't yet fully realized what I'm going to do on the lower right so I've left that alone. I think I need to raise the painting up higher to work on that area as well as the torso. The dark brown/black hair is also a primer coat that I will go over in pastel and color pencil. I won't be working on the hair for a while... but putting down this primer allows me to better see what I am doing.
Desforges
Well-known member
- Messages
- 1,295
I have a lot of paintings that I never finished because I couldn't or had lost the thread. There are some good elements on them that I started re-using. I cut them out with a blade and work them into something else. My last rabbit painting has a boat made entirely from a discarded painting, something I had painted for an Indian poetry book cover, which was never used.
Last edited:
PaintBoss
Contributing Member
- Messages
- 966
What a lovely thread! Really enjoying everyone’s contributions, sharing their works and thoughts,
I have several paintings to finish. I have 2 I am itching to get started. My health sidelines me. Stamina, breathing, strength and now terrible eyesight that is from meds. Risk of blindness....agh!
But, I still want to find a way. I will find a way. Maybe a respirator but that may make my condition worse. I don’t know. All I know is that if I start I hope to finish. I have a nice big open wall I sit across from, and I can see the paintings done and hung.
I had the most remarkable idea come fully fleshed out to my mind last week. In a flash, there it was. And SO unlike my usual work. It is a political piece of all things, and I think it is a great idea. Maybe I have something to say with my art after all, and not just painting “pretty pictures”( as warned about by my art teachers). Took me long enough. Told my hubby, and he wants me to get on it. So, now I am trying to decide on a medium. Oil is out. Acrylic is problematic also for breathing. I have severe asthma not responding to meds and the most reactive airway that is measured. I stop breathing. They are frightened to send me the hospital. Even kicked me out due to triggers there. Hand sanitizers...! Not sure about watercolour on this scale as it’s unforgiving. Pastel...no- bad trigger.
But ignore all that, I am still going to paint/create gosh darn it. One way or another. My hubby thought I should get rid of all my art supplies as I can’t use them. The horror! It is like losing myself. Maybe you all can understand that.
No, I will do it somehow. And I am smiling just at that very stubborn thought!
I have several paintings to finish. I have 2 I am itching to get started. My health sidelines me. Stamina, breathing, strength and now terrible eyesight that is from meds. Risk of blindness....agh!
But, I still want to find a way. I will find a way. Maybe a respirator but that may make my condition worse. I don’t know. All I know is that if I start I hope to finish. I have a nice big open wall I sit across from, and I can see the paintings done and hung.
I had the most remarkable idea come fully fleshed out to my mind last week. In a flash, there it was. And SO unlike my usual work. It is a political piece of all things, and I think it is a great idea. Maybe I have something to say with my art after all, and not just painting “pretty pictures”( as warned about by my art teachers). Took me long enough. Told my hubby, and he wants me to get on it. So, now I am trying to decide on a medium. Oil is out. Acrylic is problematic also for breathing. I have severe asthma not responding to meds and the most reactive airway that is measured. I stop breathing. They are frightened to send me the hospital. Even kicked me out due to triggers there. Hand sanitizers...! Not sure about watercolour on this scale as it’s unforgiving. Pastel...no- bad trigger.
But ignore all that, I am still going to paint/create gosh darn it. One way or another. My hubby thought I should get rid of all my art supplies as I can’t use them. The horror! It is like losing myself. Maybe you all can understand that.
No, I will do it somehow. And I am smiling just at that very stubborn thought!
