Saturday 5 December 2015, 7pm
Fletcher and I set out on Thursday morning to do some work
around Texas. Chris particularly wanted to draw the Texas silver mine, the
local ecological disaster-in-waiting, and I was interested in a bend in the
road nearby.
We got to work. I was determined to do a few larger scale
acrylic underpaintings to be ‘oiled’ later on in the studio, in the same
fashion as ‘Gragin Peak’ (see earlier post). I’d kind of lost interest in
charcoal, after seeing what a layer of oil can do to a layer of acrylic. I was
sailing unchartered waters and enjoying it. Makes me feel young again.
So my work was all acrylic underpainting (most of Chris’ was underdawing), using the
complementaries of the actual colours, more or less. My new pigment wheel
wasn’t dry when I left, so I didn’t use it.
When we arrived on site, I discovered that I hadn’t brought
a 40mm wide brush that I thought I’d packed, so ended up using a 3/4'’ filbert.
“Silver Bend”
900 x 600 3/12/2015
I wasn’t quite happy with it at the end, so I put it under
the water tap on my ute and scrubbed it a bit with a non-stick scourer to bring
back a bit more light (higher key).
So we rode across the (shire) border into Texas and found
the natives friendly.
I painted the servo, with the flying red horse prancing above
it.
“Pegasus”
900 x 600 3/12/2015
When I finished it, I got a little gentler and washed it
with a rag. Feeling a bit more confident. Try finding a tap in the wild in
Texas. You can’t. Had to refill my drink bottle from the public dunny basin tap
in the end and use that. The most notable effect of this was that the green
paint was washed clean off the flying horse, in spite of the fact that it was
one of the first things I painted, so should have been dry. I think it’s trying
to tell me something.
I was starting to appreciate the crudity of the acrylic
medium, it was reminiscent of the primitive quality of large chunks of
charcoal.
Seen in the Texas Art Gallery –
We set up camp in the free campground on the banks of the
Dumaresq River, enjoying a nice current with some flows from Glenlyon Dam, with
ducks often scudding past us.
Like me, Chris is attracted by brutalist architecture in an
idyllic setting. This is his take on the campsite –
“Dumaresq”
Next morning, after a few stiff coffees, we moseyed out of
town and headed for a couple of choice compositions that we’d spotted on the
way down.
“Sheds”
900 x 600 4/12/2015
I'd learnt to keep more of the gesso showing through, so that I didn't need to wash it. Chris was busy about a hundred yards further up the hill –
“Shed on the Hill”
“Hill Under Shed”
I moved on a bit further –
“Texan”
900 x 600 4/12/2015
And Chris did another underdrawing –
“Study for a Figure
in a Landscape”
We had a great time and got a lot done. Looking forward to
oiling-up those paintings.
Chris was disappointed with his drawings of the mine and was
relieved when I talked about how focussing on the narrative can kill the energy
of an artwork. I suggested he approach it allegorically, which he’s good at. Be
interesting to see what he comes up with…………
I ran out of fuel on the way home as I crossed the threshold into the servo in Stanthorpe, rolling unpowered right to the pump. Second time that's happened with this ute. Reliable.
For those who’ve asked, I’ve replaced the crappy photo of my
Pigment Reference Spectral Wheel in the last post. On the other hand, if you
want a better choice of quality, you can find the largest file (5.12MB) at
You can find a medium-sized file (1.9MB) at
And a small one (1.1MB) at
I’ve passed 5,000 pageviews! Yay!
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