After being away from home for three weeks I needed to test my painting ability again. When I don't have the opportunity to paint for an extended period, it both inspires and freezes me when I get back in the studio. To break the spell, I needed to just jump in and paint.
This is a study of some tomatoes from the garden, basking in full sun in a lovely old blue bowl that is one of my favourites. I've used my palette knife and oil paint in a regular sketchbook. Yes, you can use a sketchbook for oil paints. For me a sketchbook is a working tool, not a showcase of pristine pieces. My sketchbook is messy and I like it that way. Of course, with oils, I need to wait until the paint is dry before closing the page and I do take the precaution of adding a sheet of deli paper on the back while it dries in case any oil seeps through. However, once dry, I have never had any problems.
Yes, I hear the purists say "What about the future? The oil will degrade the paper!" That may well be, but as my current working tool, my sketchbook is not designed to be museum quality and if in a hundred years, it is crumbled, I have absolutely no problem with that.
I'm researching options for painting these tomatoes from sketch to completion live online, enabling interaction and others to paint along with me if they wish. I need to test some camera and equipment capabilities first, but it could be fun. I'm not sure of the platform yet, perhaps a YouTube Live Stream or UStream. Bear with me while I experiment!
