Thursday at the Goldreyers and some thoughts about Glaze Paintings

Here are a few px from our last session. We were really painting en plein air. It was gorgeous and we will be here for one more session. Remember to bring a jacket, sunscreen and water. It's harder painting from life without photos. There's so much information and the light is changing but the discipline in deciding what is important in the composition and sticking to it is great practice. And later on when you go back to photos it's easier.

I got a little behind on my 'Glaze Painting' lesson due to the New York trip but here is a start.

The technique we have been using in the class up until now can be called direct painting. We use an underpainting to start then paint right into it to finish the work. In the Renaissance, artists didn't work so quickly. A paintings took months to execute with a staff of many assistants and apprentices.  Without the art store, paints had to be made and recipes for colors and glazes were carefully guarded so that other studios wouldn't steal them. Here some works by artists who used glazes; Titian, Rembrandt and Vermeer. If you Google these names and click in images, there are more wonderful examples to see.

Titian

Rembrandt

Vermeer

A glaze painting starts with a very well developed underpainting. Burnt Sienna is a commonly used color as is raw umber. The underpainting is allowed to dry and then the artist begins to work by applying thin layers of colors to the shadows.
I will do an underpainting this week and start with maybe one or two glazes then I'll bring it to class. It's a slow but very satisfying process. Once all the darks are glazed in, the lights are developed with opaque  thicker paint creating great drama between the darks and lights.