I’ve been using a piece of a well-washed textured towel to create dynamic feathery marks in the paint, then controlling the movement with a piece of an old t-shirt, very soft fabric. I guess people don’t imagine painters using rags for anything other than wiping their brushes, but I couldn’t paint without them as tools for moving paint around. I use them to lift off paint and find the subtle surfaces of layered glazes, to give me texture in larger areas, and to make broad general motions in the paint. Lovely.
In the detail picture here you can see how the rag has controlled the white glaze over the brown layer beneath it. As this feather work gets still more controlled and detailed you’ll still see the general sweep of texture, giving the feeling of solidity to the whole wing, but with the details to bring out individual areas.
My comrade Steve Aufhauser of Continental Arts has decided to sponsor the closing reception of Paul’s show, so I dropped into his store last night to pick up his banner for display in the gallery. He gave me a tube of Ceramic White paint, which I’ve not seen or used before. It’ll be interesting to find out what this pigment can do – he says it’s almost luminous. He did warn me that it’s incredibly expensive and I would be cursing him if I liked it, but given that Flake (lead) White is almost unavailable these days I’d be really happy to find a decent white.
