'Sonar', 2001, was painted when I was producing at my peak, imho. The other works are all dispersed and this one has bounced around to too many galleries... I'm thinking it is time to retire it to my own collection. The title comes from the lower dark area (many shades of dark, not just black as it may appear) which reminded me of a sonargram you see featuring babes in the womb.There are scars to show for it's travels... and that's partly my fault. For a short period of time I switched from my spackle/gesso mix for base texture to a different gesso mix which the acrylic paint didn't adhere to as well... but I didn't know this until further down the road. Fortunately, this second mixture wasn't used very long or on very many paintings.
The first damage was discovered after I picked the painting up from a gallery that should have known better, I found it had apparently been propped against a sharp corner... didn't tear the canvas, but cracked the heavy surface on the front. Didn't see this until it was home, and felt there was no use raising a stink about it since I'd quit that gallery anyway. I could and did repair the crack, it just added a bit more surface interest which wasn't all bad. And now, it's recently returned from another gallery with a couple of small spots pulled away... probably from resting against another acrylic painting (the stuff bonds with itself) and that painting, whoever it belongs to, now is carrying two extra little dots of acrylic. Wear and tear is a fact of life, especially with unframed work, which is why I habitually carry a repair kit of paints and brushes with me when I visit out of town representatives.
This painting has a wonderful surface quality... largely due to the crippling base mixture I used. I really love running my hands over the surface, it's very sensuous. I think by keeping it home, I might be able to recapture that essence in current paintings... I'm going to try, but it will be with a more stable base mixture.
1 comment:
Karen,I was skimming the list today. (I'm not quite yet ready to start posting there, I don't have the energy to answer inevitable questions.)I saw that you were asking about Gamblin's varnish. I am totally impressed with all of their products. I changed to Gamsol, from turpenoid, and the difference is amazing. So I decided to use galkoyd instead of Liquin. Quite a bit of difference. Dries slower, but isn't as brittle. It makes a more enamel type surface. Does level some. I don't know how the classic oils are. It sounds like they have lots of linseed oil in them. I use old holland and holbien mostly, with some colors in grumbacher. Old holland is very stiff and always needs some medium. For my current paintings, I am glazing a bunch using the galkoyd medium. I don't know if it would thin the classic oils too much for your technique, but it is perfect for wnat I am doing. IF Gamlin says that its varnish thinly applied will work, I'm sure that it will. It is a synthetic, and is not supposed to yellow, one of the reasons I changed from Liquin to the Gamblin product. Their products are also less toxic. I have already noticed that I have not had a headache since changing. If Classic oils are heavy with linseed oil, thay could also yellow markedly over time. The natural resin varnishes absolutly do.
Linda Stanley I Love Sonar, can't believe it hasn't sold.
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