Back when I had a studio with a north-facing window, I appreciated working in the cool north daylight (as artists have done for centuries). Plus, since I also do a lot of plein air painting, I was already used to painting outdoors in natural daylight.

However, the light from my relatively small studio window needed a bit of a boost, especially on cloudy days and morning or evening painting sessions.

I did some research and discovered that GE offers some good fluorescent options. By combining their warmer 40-Watt “Sunshine” tubes with their cooler 40-Watt “Daylight” tubes, I found that the resulting light seemed to mimic the north daylight coming through the window. (I combined six “Sunshine” tubes with two “Daylight” tubes in four two-tube fixtures.)

Don’t tell the Old Masters, but my current studio has no north window. However, the four two-tube fixtures still seem sufficient.

I find that painting under the cool fluorescent simulated daylight gives me good color results for later viewing in either cool or warm lighting situations. After all, it’s important for the colors in a finished painting to read well wherever the client ends up placing it.

What lighting works best in your studio?

(Numerous art supply companies offer ready-made stretched canvas and canvas panels for artists. And many are good choices for a quality support at a fair price. However, this post is mainly for those of you artists who stretch your own canvas or make your own canvas panels.)

As you may know, I’ve been making my own linen panels for several years. (Click here to learn how.) But you might not be aware that I paint almost exclusively on panels. Here are eight reasons why.

1. No loosening. Stretched canvas can become loose and require re-stretching. I’ve had this issue in the past when shipping paintings to a location with a different climate than mine — from Colorado to Florida. In fact, the artist I spoke with at the show had to tighten the stretched canvas on his show painting when he arrived at the event. Alternatively, canvas properly glued to a panel should not become loose.
2. Less mounting difficulty. Stretched canvas can be difficult to mount squarely on the stretcher bars. And it takes some muscle to stretch it tightly. Canvas panels are easier to make and are square as long as the panel is cut squarely.
3. No stretcher bars needed. Stretching canvas requires a supply of stretcher bars in the various lengths needed. Also, supporting crossbars are necessary for large canvases. Canvas panels require only canvas and panels large enough to make the needed sizes, plus glue.
4. Less surface movement. The surface of stretched canvas can move with vibrations and changes in temperature. This can disturb the layers of paint over time and cause the paint to crack. The surface of a canvas panel is much more stable. For example, the pictured painting (detail) by Rembrandt in the LACMA collection was painted on a wood panel in 1632. The surface still looks brand new. Click here to see more close-ups of the painting.
5. Portability. Canvas panels are more easily portable for plein air painting. Plus, light can’t shine through them from behind during an outdoor painting session as can happen with stretched canvas.
6. Durability. Stretched canvas can be punctured fairly easily. I’ve done repair work on a few paintings (not mine) with holes in them that clients have brought to my gallery. (After one client had propped a painting against a wall, his large dog knocked it over and created a large, unsightly hole in the canvas with his paws. Oops!) Canvas mounted on a panel can also be damaged, but I think needed repairs would be much more minor. And if Miracle Muck® glue was used when mounting, the canvas can be removed from a damaged panel and mounted onto another panel. (Miracle Muck® is heat re-activatable.)
7. Easier cropping. A canvas panel can be cropped much more easily than a stretched canvas.
8. Easier storage. Canvas panels take up less space than stretched canvases. (Blank or painted.)

Back to the conversation with my fellow artist. He agreed with my points in favor of using panels. But he tends to use both types of supports for his work. Panels for smaller pieces painted outdoors and stretched canvases for larger studio paintings. By the end of our discussion, we also agreed on a few points in favor of stretched canvas.

1. Spring-like feel. Stretched canvas has a spring to it that a panel lacks. One can feel the slight spring action of a stretched canvas against the brush.
2. Larger sizes. For extremely large paintings, a large enough panel may not be available. I know Gatorfoam® panels and other similar products are available up to 60″ x 120.” I haven’t looked for sizes larger than that.
3. Shipping unmounted. Unmounted paintings can be rolled up for shipping or storage and later stretched onto stretcher bars. This could be a big advantage and money saver when shipping large paintings overseas.

Do any of you have other reasons for or against the use of canvas panels?

After graduating from college with a degree in commercial art, I still had a lot to learn about fine art painting. Around that time, I bought the brand new book Alla Prima by Richard Schmid. In the book, Schmid lists the palette colors he most often uses. I adopted most of his list and set out to learn how they all worked together. Black wasn’t a color he listed, so I learned to make it by mixing other tube colors together — a valuable lesson. (By the way, chime in below if you’ve experienced the joy of making Schmid’s color charts. I think I spent two months on mine.)

A few years later, I had the opportunity to watch a live painting demonstration by Scott Burdick. He masterfully painted a portrait from a model outdoors using a limited palette. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone paint with a four-color palette. You may have heard of the four-color “Zorn palette” named for Swedish artist Anders Zorn. Scott used a similar palette that day: Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red and Ivory Black.

Scott’s painting blew me away. I had no idea of the range that could be achieved with so few colors, especially with one being black. Afterwards, I set out to experiment with the Zorn palette and other limited palettes myself. The pictured painting is one that I did from life using the four-color palette that Scott used. Click here to see close-ups.

I soon added Ivory Black to my regular palette after seeing the range of colors I could make with it. I continue to use it for studio painting as well as plein air painting. (Pictured is a tube of Ivory Black from M. Graham & Co.)

I think the only danger to be aware of is that any color can become a “crutch” if not used properly. An artist could easily use black as a lazy choice for darkening colors in every situation rather than simply using it as a dark color that is cool in color temperature. (An early crutch of mine was Sap Green. Since it’s such a normal-looking green, I used it to make all the greens in my paintings and didn’t really analyze and mix the exact green I needed. So I replaced it on my palette with Viridian — a much more unusual green which usually requires mixing with other colors to make the exact green I need.)

Were any of you taught to avoid using black? Have you rebelled and used it anyway?

Painting along merrily, I began to notice that many artists I admired were not painting on cotton, but linen. Thinking I’d discovered the secret to better paintings, I bought a linen panel and gave it a try. To my dismay I remember thinking, “What’s the big deal?”

I think it was just too early in my development for me to notice the difference. There are more important things than surface quality to think about during the painting process, right? Subject matter. Design. Drawing accuracy. Value. Color mixing. Which brush should I be using? What color is that shadow? Did anyone just see me spill my mineral spirits all over the floor? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Eventually, after repeating the process on a few hundred more unsuspecting cotton canvases, I got a bit more comfortable with my painting technique and a bit less likely to create a colorful, rectangular frisbee. And I tried linen again.

This time I found that the surface seemed to be sealed better. The paint didn’t soak in as much. I could wipe paint away to an almost white canvas underneath. Plus, the linen had a more unique texture to it. There were imperfections that could be left to show through for extra character. Tighter and looser weaves were available for more or less texture. And it even cost more!

Through some further research I learned that linen canvas (made from flax) is usually primed with an oil-based primer. Cotton canvas (made from, well, cotton) is often primed with acrylic-based gesso. As an oil painter, I decided that it makes sense to paint on an oil-primed surface for better bonding between primer and paint. Plus, I liked how the surface enabled me to better control the paint application.

So I became a linen snob. I most often buy large rolls of double-primed Claessens #15. In the past I stretched it onto stretcher bars of varying sizes. Now I prefer to glue it down on panels. (I’ll save that reasoning for another post. By the way, if you would like to learn how to make your own linen panels, click the link see my earlier post about that.)

Give oil-primed linen a try sometime if you haven’t already. Or if you decide to stick with cotton for awhile, do yourself a favor and keep your distance from the cheap, off-brand canvas panels that are mounted on cardboard. Craft stores sometimes carry some awful ones that will absorb almost as much paint as you throw at them. If you’ve already got a stack of those, brush on a coat of oil primer from an art supply store.

Is anyone else out there a linen snob?

I was recently notified that my painting Through the Snow was chosen by Nancy Guzik as a Finalist in the 2013 RayMar Fine Art Competition.

I also recently learned that my painting Familiar Sight (Oil on Linen, 16 x 12 inches, pictured) was awarded an Honorable Mention by Dr. Gregory Hedberg in the January/February, 2013 Salon Competition hosted by Plein Air Magazine.

I was also excited to find out that my painting Beachcomber (Oil on Linen, 12 x 16 inches, pictured) was chosen as a Finalist by Eric Bowman in the March, 2013 BoldBrush Painting Competition.

I’m honored to be included among such talented artists in each of these competitions. Thank you to the judges and to everyone else who works hard to make these contests possible in order to promote excellence in the fine arts!

Plein air painting (painting outdoors) presents several unique challenges to the artist. Changing light conditions, weather and insects to name a few, not to mention translating the vast landscape onto a small canvas in a short length of time.

In this video, I demonstrate my step-by-step approach as I create a plein air painting (Through the Eucalyptus) from start to finish in beautiful Ojai, California.

Join me as I take you through my process and give important principles for the plein air artist to remember. As I develop my painting, I share a simple approach that can help you achieve success with your own plein air paintings.

Introductory discounted price through January 31, 2013: $39.95 (Shipping charge calculated during checkout. California residents pay 7.5% sales tax.) DVD runtime: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Click here to watch a preview!  •  Click here to ORDER!

Produced by:

Thanks to Anette Power, Dennis Griffin and the rest of the group for inviting me to demonstrate!

Tonight we attended a celebration for the award winners and enjoyed meeting others in the community while sampling some of the delicious food supplied by the winners in the restaurant categories.

It was such a special honor to be chosen for this award, especially since we moved to Ojai and opened the gallery just last year. There are many great artists in the Ojai Valley, most of whom have been working here much longer than I have, so I am quite surprised to be chosen. Thanks to all of you who voted for me — I’ll proudly display the award in the window of my gallery.

Last night, artists and patrons enjoyed a fabulous gala banquet and painting sale in the train barn of Sonoma residents, John and Nancy Lasseter, who are major supporters of this plein air show each year.

The remaining paintings were presented for sale to the public today outdoors in Sonoma Plaza and visitors enjoyed the opportunity to meet the artists in person (Bryan Mark Taylor, pictured with exhibit visitors).

Among my paintings sold (that I haven’t yet shared here) was Rolling Hills (Oil on Linen, 8 x 10 inches).

I was honored to be invited to participate in this event and to have a great excuse to paint the beautiful Sonoma area. Many thanks to the event organizers and to the other artists who made it such an exceptional week!