Grigor

I met Grigor ("Gree-gore") Eftimov at a convention several years ago. He's been doing some serious (and seriously good) oil work. I'd like to link you to his most recent blog post at http://existentialdreams.blogspot.com/ .


It's a figure painting (nude), and some may consider it Not Safe For Work, but if you're able to navigate over there, I highly recommend it. The piece is right up top (edit: it is no longer the most recent post, so it's no longer on top). It's called Seated Figure and it's worth clicking on it to view the full size. Pay attention to the careful brushwork. If I weren't a starving artist, I'd ask to buy it. Ha!

WIP Celebration painting

Closeup of the trees:
This painting is taking an incredible amount of time.. and that's one of my weak spots. One of my goals is to improve my speed, reduce mistakes and paint it right the first time. These things will help me build a body of work and enable me to show more in a single show.

Some plein aire painting

I'm gonna head over to the fountain at Celebration.. see if I can get some plein aire painting in. Might be hot so if I'm not actually there you know what happened to me! I'm going to try and capture a scene similar to this photo I took of the area:

Portrait of a homeless man

This painting is part of a series of portraits of a homeless man that I interviewed on the street.

Medium

I've been looking for a good painting medium for a long time! I like the look of Liquin, however, many people are against using it due to its properties. It is very permanent and makes it hard to clean a painting later when an artist uses Liquin. There's the Stand Oil/Turpentine/Damar Varnish combo, but my studio is my apartment, and I don't want to be breathing all those vapors in my sleep (this combo is the harshest for humans and animals).

I think I am going to try a Galkyd/Linseed combo or Galkyd Lite or, if I can afford it, Galkyd Slow Dry to see if I can unify the paint surface (make it all equally lustrous) and we'll see if I like the consistency to keep using it.

This was a painting I did of riders in Central Park, New York City. I painted this on location and from photos in 2005-2006.

Test using very intense hues

Ok, so I did a *very* quick painting to study the new medium mix I am using. It's an 11:1 mixture of Galkyd/Refined linseed oil. The paint doesn't dry too quickly for me, and it is nicely and easily spread around the canvas. I didn't think the painting would stay as wet as long as it did, but it is now almost three days later and there is still wet paint around the edges, though I am too chicken to test anywhere on the painting for fear of screwing it up.

I chose very intense hues (bright colors) to compose the painting, because I wanted to test the capacity of the medium to really allow the color of the paint to shine through the surface. Many of my paintings appear somewhat dull compared to the bright fruits I selected to paint, and it was always a struggle to get the painting to be true to the still life I'd set up. I knew that it was due to the surface properties of the paint, and light reflecting off those surfaces, obscuring the viewer from the true color of the paint.

To escape that, around five years ago, I'd painted with Liquin as a medium. I had a teacher recommend it, but it has fallen out of popularity with painters and professionals because it is not easily removed (cleaned) from the canvas once its been dried. Also, it dries a little too quickly for my taste. After I stopped using Liquin, I used.. nothing. I took classes with Don Sondag at Crealde in Winter Park, and he used nothing, so I used nothing. To increase the flow of the paint, I just thinned it with odorless mineral spirits (OMS). Don's paintings looked great! Mine looked flat.

Here is the painting: