BEHIND THE CANVAS

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I'm a painter, an oil painter, I paint on stretched canvas and linen, but I also love painting on hardwood ply.  I've developed a technique of painting that's evolved from University education which I mostly loved to individual training with great artists I respect greatly.  After that it's been day in and day out in the studio experimenting, playing, exploring, destroying and reviving. I'm still experimenting, to describe my techniques simply I'd say I put a fairly opaque layer on, followed by a transparent layer, when these are about 70% dry I cut into the paint with super sharp tools, cutting, scraping, abrading.  That's the 1st step, the warm up, the underpainting.  If the gods are kind to me at this point the painting will be fresh and inviting singing with possibilites.  the 2nd step begins with a thin glaze that is allowed to get tacky, this happens fast in the summer and slow in the winter, I judge it by feel with the brush.  This is a wonderful stage, I begin working fairly opposite values, hues and intensities.  If a passage was a vivid red (medium value) then it might get a layer of greyed down blue.   I also begin burnishing the paint at this stage.  When I use the word burnish it involves a light pressure brushing over and over and over until the paint no longer comes off on the brush. .