I am on vacation this week, so I texted Thor to see when and where he was going out painting, so I could crash his painting day. (He doesn't mind.)
Pete Sinjin was also out painting today with his painter friend Tom Marsh, who is visiting here from the UK.
Thor said, "Let's go paint with Pete and Tom."
I said, "I know Pete is cool but do you think he'll mind?"
Thor said "Nah."
So I crashed Pete and Tom's painting day, and Thor came by a little later and did as well.
They did not mind at all.
The first painting I did is on the corner of Charles and W4th, 8x10 oil
Here is the second painting, Grove and Bleecker, 8x10 oil
Various assorted pictures:
Pete, Tom, Thor, Me
Pete had a light blue paint on his palette.
It was glowy in a very nice way.
So I asked him what it was.
He said he didn't know, he picked it up in France.
And he gave me a big glob of it from his palette! You can see it in the second painting.
Now, in case you didn't know by now, I'm a paint super-geek.
With the exception of small international brands, I know ALL the paint brands.
And I was pretty sure Pete's Mystery Paint wasn't a Sennelier, because I'm familiar enough with their line to know they don't have a lot of convenience colors. And I know it is something mixed with white.
Probably a phthalo of sorts.
The other French paint I know is Charvin, which Jerry's sells.
I know it's French but also kind of always thought it might be fake-French.
It's Real-French.
So I went to the Jerry's website and looked at Charvin and sure enough..........thought I found a match or two. One of the reasons I never got into the Charvin brand is that most of their line is different convenience mixes, and for the most part I only use single-pigment paint. With very few exceptions.
All those mixes are GREAT! for pastels but completely unnecessary in oil paint.
I asked Pete to send a picture of the tube when he got home and sure enough, it's a Charvin.
I got one.
And a purple too.
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The most important part of today wasn't the paintings or the lovely Charvin blue.
I texted a few pictures to Daya about the day and why it was so important.
There is nothing like the feeling of personal artistic achievement, and it doesn't have to be visible to others or showcased. I guess that's nice too, I wouldn't really know, but it isn't necessary to know your own achievement.
It also needs to be said that
just being around other people
who are better than you are
will advance you.
They are not there to be my teachers nor do I ask them to do that. It's osmosis, which is a very real thing. It used to come up at Pratt too- we were told never to sit next to the same people too much because all our stuff would start looking the same. It was true.
Will Weston invites former students into his classes just to draw and be present so the rest of the room can pick up the energy.
Stapleton Kearns specifically says he's an uploader, and it's 100% true. If you are ever in a class with him you'll get a huge download of information that isn't from him telling you stuff.
What I said to Daya:
Daya IS an advanced artist and I respect her for it.
It's probably my fault she got such a severe case of Artist Brain but at least she's really doing something with it.
*****
Just a note about time on plein airs... I do always track the time but it's for personal informational purposes. I never set out to finish a painting in a certain amount of time. The time thing just happens on its own. I have gotten faster but not because I meant to or even particularly wanted to. It's just something that has happened organically through experience.
I did push my speed today to keep up and it turned out to be a really good thing because I didn't get too caught up or slowed down in unnecessaries. But it was something that comes from experience. I couldn't have done it 2 years ago.
Ironically, it takes a very long time to get fast.
Same as how Doug always says "Make haste, slowly."
(and "When in doubt, thin it out!"- which does not apply to oils.)
