Friday, November 3, 2017

"Admirers," And New Paint Colors!

 "Admirers"
12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas
Sold

 I did a quick black-and-white oil study before launching into this one, right in my sketchbook, to plan out my composition and value structure.


I painted this during a demonstration of M. Graham's new paint colors at my local art supply store. M. Graham just expanded their line of fantastic oil paints from 50 to 75 tubes, big news! Some of my new favorites are Bismuth yellow, Pyrrol red, and Pthalo blue red shade, all of which I used in this piece.


I love having an audience when I paint - whether it's my online students joining me virtually, a group of workshop students, or friends who come out for a demo, the back-and-forth is always enjoyable. If anything, chattering away while painting seems to help my focus and concentration, go figure! 

I'm looking forward to demoing again, November 8-9, at the Tools of the Trade Show at the U of O. Come say Hi and pick my brain about M. Graham's new colors. I love em!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

When you say you do a B/W (I presume, oil) study in your sketchbook, what commercial "sketchbook" do you mean? I struggle to find a sketchbook that will even take pencil well, much less more complex art supplies. Even ones billed as "mixed media" often are jack of all trades, master of none.

I'd love to find a sketchbook that was robust enough for quick oil studies . . .

Sarah Sedwick Studio said...

Joanne - the sketchbooks I paint in are made by a company called Kunst Paper. I've used both wirebound and the more traditional book binding versions of their sketchbooks.

Unknown said...

Never heard of Kunst before. Thanks for the tip. I'll give one a try.

Do you then use alkyd paints, or just regular oils with OMS (allowing enough time for the paint to dry before closing the sketchbook)?

And do you coat the Kunst paper before with a gesso layer, or just start painting?

The "new" M Graham paint colors are only "new" in oils. They have had those colors before in their watercolor line. The M Graham watercolor paints are particularly nice for filling watercolor pans with. Due to a different formulation, they don't shrink and crack in the pans.



Sarah Sedwick Studio said...

I use regular oils for these sketches, thinned with OMS (Gamsol) - it does not warp the paper like water does, so there's no need to gesso or coat the sketchbook page with anything prior to painting on it. I have been known to just close the book after making these sketches, and they do get a little bit messed up (not as much as you'd think, though), but I take photos of them before I do that, so there's a record at least!

I knew the "new" M. Graham oil colors existed in their watercolor line, but I never work with watercolors, so they are new to me! Glad to hear that you love their watercolors as much as I love their oils. Great stuff all around! -Sarah