Evening Light

Evening Light - oil on panel - 8 x 6 inches

Well so far so good...no end of the world in our neck of the woods as far as I can see!  We are gearing up for Christmas though.  The shops were kind of crazy today... good thing I only needed to make one stop. whoa!  the parking lot at the liquour store was nuts. I've never seen the place so busy, everybody getting their holiday cheer in various quantities. I bought rum, i love the Cuban sort, nothing quite like it with eggnog.  

After the shops,  i met the train; my daughter Jane arrived home from the big smoke in Toronto...lots to chat about...she works on CBC's Dragons Den.  January will see her  going on some audition tours, they do a lot of them, 40 cities in all, though she wont do them all. She'll be going on the one in Ottawa and one in St. Johns NFLD.  She's excited about it. I'm excited for her too.  I've never been to St. Johns, but I'd love to go sometime...but maybe not in January. heh heh.   

Above is tonights effort in the studio.

Glazing 101

Still Life with Fruit - oil on panel - 16"x12"

Last evening I picked up my friend Bonnie Brooks, who lives nearby,  and off we went to the class we're taking on glazing with Dan Hughes.  It was good to get back to the class as I had missed one session while I was away in Vermont. We worked on paintings from a still life that Dan had set up, and last night I painted a thick glaze of van dyck brown over my previously painted but now dry painting.  After the glaze was applied, and waiting about 1/2 hour, I began to wipe out the areas in light with a clean rag revealing the underpainting in areas.  Next we painted back into the tacky surface.  It was fun to learn how to work with the glaze when it's still wet like that. 

The best way i can describe the process is to compare it to having a conversation.  The painting reveals something...and I respond with my brush...when that response is applied, it sets up other areas that need working out, and so on. I will be delighted to ad this method to my own work when i feel i can use it.  It's a  meditative way to work, and i enjoyed it.