Road Runner

Road Runner
5x7 Oil on Hardboard

Now... we all know how much I love birds.  This one was a little different to sit down and paint.  Love the "hair doo." 
I have been trying out a new toy.. its an oil paint medium that I really have come to love the feel of.  A few years ago I tried Lukas Med. 5 that gives the paint the same wonderful silky feel as the Maroger.  I would have still been using the stuff but the odor was just awful.

The Maroger doesn't have that,  in fact it smells wonderful and it also gives the paint an automatic varnish quality.  Though there are two drawbacks with it though.  One being the price, which is pretty high compared to other mediums.  The second is that if your using a paint with a lower pigment load you end up with more of a glaze than a layer of paint.  I did break down and purchase several tubes of M. Harding's paint to see if my suspicions were correct.  Harding's product has a higher paint pigment load and to my delight his paint did help with keeping an impasto build up.  The photo of 'Road Runner" doesn't show the depth I achieved in painting with the Maroger, but its there.

"Awaiting High Tide" Ref-photo chosen from the dreaded "When I Am a Better Artist Box"

Awaiting High Tide
11x14 Oil on Hardboard

The ref-photo for this work was taken out of my "When I Am a Better Artist Box."   Yes I really do have one of those boxes.  It is where the reference photos which scare the heck out of me end up.   Love the ref but just don't feel accomplished enough to tackle it.

Here is how it works.  Every month or so I stick my hand in the box, mix up the photos, and without looking I pull one out.  The rule is that no matter what the ref is I 'have' to paint it.  I have found picking from the box to be as intimidating as willingly putting one's hand into a hornets nest. I guess its needless to say the box is intimidating, but also rewarding too.

I'm not keen on doing boats as they have such a weird shape to them, I was so very tempted to put the photo back in the box.  But rules are rules and it turned out much better than I thought it would.