Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Busy on large commissions today


Twilite Cartwheel- 24x30 oil on canvas
Not for Sale



The Courtyard

24x30


not for sale








This is the first of four large paintings for a client in raleigh. theyre all due pretty soon so i wont be posting any small pieces for a few weeks, between this project and the workshop i'm teaching next week in manteo.

i watched a workshop video by james kerr a few weeks ago and saw where he used medium made of 4 parts mineral spirits and 1 part stand oil. so i made up some and used it on this largish painting. i absolutely fell in love with the medium. it will revolutionize my painting career because i havent in the past enjoyed painting large, in fact i disliked it intensely. i think the reason was because i used paint straight out of the tube with maybe just a tad of thinner if it was too sticky or thick. painting big was really hard using no medium to make it cover large areas and slippery. well kerr's formula is heaven. it covers well and makes it moooshy. then you can play in the shapes all day because there so much stand oil in it.





well thats it. galleries have been after me to paint bigger pieces and i've resisted. now that its fun and not work.... i'll take em up on it.



anybody else have a sweet medium formula. please share it by clicking comments below or email me with it.


i'd appreciate it. thanks.

3 comments:

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Mike, I like 1 part stand 1 part damar and about 3 or four parts more of turps. I've started using some liquin and like it, but I hear it is a real KILLER, so I am thinking of stopping with that. Has anyone else heard bad things health wise about liquin?

mike rooney studios said...

i havent heard about any health issues with Liquin.
what does damar do for the medium and am i missing out on something if i dont use it?

Frank Gardner said...

Not sure about that Mike. Maybe it dries it a little faster or more evenly. I would think that without the damar it would stay tacky for a long time. It is just the way I was taught to mix it.
I have never tried a mix without it.
I have also painted with just saflower oil as medium and brush cleaner while traveling and painting. It does not stink up the car. Heard that it might yellow some, but I have not seen that in any of the paintings that I have used it with.