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To capture a new subject image, as with all subject images, there is usually drawings, notes and many photographs taken, and these are brought into the studio and strewn onto the table. Then, what shape format? What size? To figure this out I need to experiment with ‘thumbnail’ sketches and adjustable cut-outs of white cards in various sizes, placing them over images to exclude what isn’t needed. Once the subject and its scale is determined the next step is to produce a canvas. Firstly a stretcher frame is made to those dimensions, stretched with Belgian linen, and finished with white gesso. The basic image is then drawn out (and manipulated where needed) with charcoal, ready for the first layers of thin paint to begin exploring the forms and preliminary colour relationships.
Stretcher frames My paintings are designed to suit the subject, encompassing the proportions of dynamic symmetry in singular rectangles, squares or combinations of both, and as such demand a specific size range and quality that is not commercially available. It is more practical and cost efficient to manufacture my own mortise and tenon stretcher frames in a good quality softwood, such as hoop pine or mahogany, to suit these varying formats. They can be in diptych or triptych form, and the largest to date is a triptych of four metres in length, which was commissioned by a Brisbane company for their boardroom (See Commissions).
Picture frames In The Work I explained how I want my painting subjects to be seen as confrontational and to convey the illusion that they are coming out towards the viewer, perhaps ‘escaping’ from the canvas. One of the methods used to promote this aspect is an oblique or flat picture plain, with the subject placed at the forefront. Minimal profile framing assists this process, allowing forms to ‘breathe out’ from the format, in contrast to the traditional and wider picture frames through which the viewer observes the subject, as if through a window frame at a typical scene beyond. This particular minimal frame profile, not available commercially, is also studio manufactured. Hoop pine (araucaria) and pencil cedar are excellent woods available, sized to specification, from local wood joiners. A router is then used to cut out the profiles, producing several sizes in bulk at the one time to economise. These woods colour easily and finish very well. The rest of the process, such as mitre cutting, fixing and joining, colour coordinating and fitting, is carried out before the due date of an impending exhibition.
The Support (Canvas) The support I use at present is Belgian Linen (Flax) with a medium density weave of suitable texture that has a good refractive quality for the finished painting surface. If required it has reasonable tooth (texture that is rough to the touch) when not sanded, which assists the adhesion of impasto or thick layers of paint. After the stretching process a premium quality acrylic gesso (white ground) is applied – usually three coats after an initial sizing of the canvas – and this provides an excellent painting surface. Sometimes, depending on the type of subject, the gessoed surface is coated with retouch varnish before the painting process begins. This reduces absorbency, allowing the first layers of thinner oil paint to have more slip (fluency). The subject outlines are drawn with charcoal before painting commences, and then removed as the first exploratory layers of paint are put down. Good quality (artist’s) oils, medium and solvents, brushes and pallet knives are used, and when the painting has dried thoroughly a coat of Dammar varnish is brushed over the surface, adjusting the solvent mix (gum turpentine) to produce the particular sheen required.
Colour complementaries Complementaries have such a major part to play in the sense that a whole palette for a particular painting subject can be set up to encompass them, and they can be used obviously or subtly. There are many examples of this. One would be light pathways running across a bed of rocks, covered by shallow water, refracting from its surface, showing blue on the edge of the light strips, with just a hint of bright pink on its outer edge. The pink will not be noticed much by a viewer of the finished product, but nevertheless it has made the strips of light seem brighter.
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METHODS OF PRODUCTION
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Copyright © 2009: Robert H. Berry. All rights reserved. |
