I’d hoped to have this painting wrapped up by April but here it is in September and I still have some things to complete on it. 2025 has been somewhat interesting… and a bit overwhelming. The year threw some curveballs at me in the form of a health issue, and while I’ve been working on new ceramic pieces for some upcoming shows, an idea for a new series of paintings sprang, unbidden, from my psyche. More on that in another blog, perhaps— but I’ve been just hopping to meet all of the deadlines.

The third panel in the Seasons series, Winter, was designed directly on the oil gesso ground. The Windsor & Newton product is tough stuff, able to withstand direct drawing and erasing. The 3-layer ground was applied with a foam roller for minimal texture and has 3 layers of acrylic ground between it and the hardboard panel.

The “skin” layer is a thin layer of earth colors mixed with a bit of alkyd resin to speed drying and to bond with the gesso ground. It seals the graphite drawing. By applying color and wiping the color away, I can begin to establish the overall value structure of the painting.

Here’s how I start to go from the drawing to the painting: With a fine point sharpie, I re-establish the drawing so I don’t lose it when I start adding my paint layers. The black lines will eventually be obscured as delineating paint color is applied to the shapes and edges.

Then I start blocking in the colors which I’m imagining for each of the elements. I can, of course, change this any time.

Starting to get some deeper values and more modeling with added layers.

Here, I’m adding more layers as I imagine where my light and shadows are falling. I’ll adjust this many times in the next several layers.

I’m getting closer to finishing this piece…

As soon as I can finish the painting and get a good shot of it, I’ll post it here. Thanks for your comments and for checking in on my work— I appreciate it!