Oil on canvas, 5″ x 7″
Sun setting behind low clouds while waves beat on the rocks.
I painted this using three oil paints that I made recently. The reddish brown I made today using Italian Burnt Umber Warm pigment from Natural Pigments. The black is Iron Oxide Black 306 Bluish, from Kremer Pigments. I also used a little bit of a violet earth pigment, Augite Porphyry Violet Light from Agulis Pigments, but it was mostly covered by the black at the top. The light areas are just the burnt umber scrubbed on thin and then scraped off.
I was using a stiff brush, a Titanium #4 bright from Robert Simmons, which has some dried paint in the bristles to make it extra stiff. It’s one of my favorite brushes.
Before starting this I wanted to smooth the texture of the canvas a little, but for some reason I still haven’t gotten any gesso since I ran out a long time ago. Instead, I took some clear acrylic gel medium and mixed marble dust into it. Then I spread it over this canvas board with a plastic palette knife. It seems to have worked perfectly. The deep gaps between the canvas weave were mostly filled in but there’s still enough tooth that it held the paint well enough.
The burnt umber also has some marble dust in it as an experiment. 🙂
I can really see the movement in this piece of work! Well done : )