Tennis Ball Blues

Here is the newest depiction of a lonely hound 'round dinner time. The big difference is this one is oil on canvas as opposed to my usual water-based mixed media. It measures 9 X 12 inches.

Cola color punch

Here's a study of an isolated color on a predominant color ground; basically red and green in that order.

This is again oil on a little Raymar panel; I like 'em and since they have free shipping right now I ordered some larger ones, too.

Pencil me in...

This pale composition features one of the many gourds (gourdi?) and squashes hanging out for adoption at the markets this season. Hard choices- but I chose this paler underdog.

Hallowe'en festivities are in full swing this weekend here in Key West......scary!

Still life with pitcher

Here's a little still life; oil on panel again as I get my bearings with this new-for-me. About a two hour session and measuring 6 X 8 inches.

Alkyds shorten drying time for oils

I got a selection of alkyd oils from Jerry's Art-a-rama. They are,by brand name, CAS Alkydpro.
They handle well and I could see their immediate applications for laying in a background color or blocking in colors for the next days painting; they'll be dry.

The remnants of thick oil on my glass palette had developed a crust overnight. In fact, the un-opened tubes need a pin prick to get the tubes flowing! After applying pressure to a new tube of Bismuth Yellow (a cool lemon yellow) I had a great quantity burst onto the palette. Fortunately, I had a trio of yellow abstracts nearby and they are enhanced and dry this morning.

I am using these pigments with Carol Marine's medium recipe.

Glass again and again...

Here are two shots of a 'shot' (it's actually a cordial that belonged to my grandfather) painted on 6 x 8 inch Raymar panels at Carol Marine's workshop.

One panel has a burnt umber study with highlights rubbed out from the paint/turpentine background. The other has three more of the 10 minute paintings I talked about yesterday.

I went up to Jacksonville with the simplest of props: this glass, two books differently sized
and colored. The others will be pictured in coming blogs.

Here's to 10 minute studies

Here are some ten minute studies of an antique glass. The 6 X 8 inch Raymar panels are divided into quarters. In this case a oil/turpentine ground of French Ultramarine (no relation to ultra-Carol Marine, but this is in here workshop) is rubbed into the panel surface. Then you just get going! First a burnt umber brush drawing then onto the color. All the work was done with a little desk lamp nearby to give me definite shadows and highlights.

The other shot shows a smudged panel of four more studies. These on an umber-rubbed panel. Again a 6 x 8 inch panel divided into quarters. So we're looking at a little more than an hour's work on this page.

Acrylic to oil?

One of the reason's I attended Carol Marine's workshop was to use oil paints and mediums for a few days and get a better 'feel' for them. We all know they dry slower than water-based acrylic; I have the smudged student work and colorful fingers as proof. Waiting at my gallery is an unopened box of alkyd paints. These dry faster (4 hours or so) and are oil based. I will report on those.

As oil is tempting me to its embrace, I think about all the half-squeezed (some neeeeearly solidified) tubes of acrylic in my studio. I now apply them to the larger, 100% rag mat board scraps. I mix some neutral mid-value grays (warm or cool) and rough brush them onto the board surface and let them dry. That surface takes more paint (oil or acrylic) and the rough texture grabs pencil or pastel marks. The ink bottle on the book is a value study in oil on one of these prepared boards. The striped
composition is another of those boards; I painted it as I cleaned my oil palette

Everybody's doin' it....

I'm David Scott Meier. I live near Key West and work there with my friends in a gallery full of our creations. I paint.

Maybe this will be a way to share some techniques with you from my studio near Key West.

Carol Marine is Blurry

I've just come from Carol Marine's workshop at the CORSE GALLERY in Jacksonville. I think this portrait of her, though not clear, is apropos as her students DO SQUINT a lot in class to identify values, or hard and soft edges. As a biped mammal you'll recognize it as a standing female at her easel. Looking more you see her shoulders are draped, her hair is curly, she's in the gallery and there's a brightly illuminated still life to her left. There's enough visual information for your brain to complete the picture.