Friday, July 1, 2011

Egg Tempera V

Today's discussions involved tiled floors and perspective design. It's an interesting subject that I'll explore later. Later in the day Koo discussed protective coatings for tempera paintings--varnish, shellac, and wax--and demonstrated the application of shellac.

I got in some painting today. Not as much as previous days but I was feeling rather tired. I figured it best to go slow so as not to go backwards.

And here it is! My project for the week. Although a simple composition, there's a lot going on. Stone work. Turning form on the egg. Radially gradated background. Light and shadow on cloth. There are many mistakes in this piece which made for a lot of discovery. I estimate 20 hours work here.



It's been an incredible two weeks of art workshops, my first in person instruction. I am glowing with a warm satisfaction of fun and learning.

6 comments:

  1. Your painting look very good. I think you choose a subject that was perfect for learning. It looks simple but it possess all the technical difficulties that you will encounter with a more complex subject. If you master the illusion of form turning on a sphere(egg), you will be able to do it on a portrait. Thank you for sharing your experience, your generosity in all that. It was great for me. Hopefully one day I will be able to take the workshop. Hope to see more paintings from you. Bye for now.

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  2. John, it is amazing how much you were able to accomplish in only 20 hours, especially considering that egg tempera is a very slow process of building up thin layers! I love that you were truly able to capture the cold, rough feeling of the granite and the soft volume of the egg. Beautiful!

    Also, I love seeing it on your blog's black background - I hope you frame it in black.

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  3. More than one artist in the workshop had the same thoughts as yours regarding my choice of subject. I picked what I felt the "most simple" but didn't realize until well into it that is wasn't a simple subject at all. Thanks for following along and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. There will be follow up posts on both workshops.

    -- John

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  4. Hi Kate!

    It was a wonderful week of learning, wasn't it? I'm still basking in the glow of Old Masters and everything egg tempera.

    Do let me know when your egg tempera painting appears on your gallery site. I'm sure folks here will love to see what I know will be a most lovely painting.

    Take care,

    -- John

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  5. Amazing job with that infernal egg tempera, such a fitting subject! - Joyce

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  6. Thanks, Joyce. It's really a lovely medium,one that I will be practicing. I know what not to do and I have picked up more than a few tricks. More to come!

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