Monday 6 September 2010

Painting in veins


For my painting “Morning fog in San Francisco”, I used a veining effect. “Veining effect” is an expression I made-up to describe the impression created.


Morning fog in San Francisco - Oil on linen canvas (50 cm x 60 cm) by Benoit Philippe


This effect is an attempt to emulate the veining that occurs in some stones, where brightly coloured veins are set against the neutral colour of the stone.


Veining effect (Click on the picture to enlarge)

In this instance, I used pure Turquoise paint mixed with some Lefranc & Bourgeois Flemish Medium paste (clear) in tube. This product is designed for impasto as it contains cobalt-zirconium siccative and touch-dries in around two hours. It is glossy and transparent and makes the paint it is mixed with “sticky”. In practice, this means I was able to add these stokes of Turquoise blue on the fresh underground without smudging the paint.


Lefranc & Bourgeois Flemish Medium paste


The final effect is interesting because the Turquoise blue paint brightens-up the sky while the overall neutral tone shows through.

I believe it also create interest to give the viewer a different impression when he looks at the painting from afar (where optical mixing happens between the Turquoise blue and the background) and then closer (where he can see the Turquoise veins in the sky).


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1 comment:

Melody said...

I just stumbled across your blog today. I like the veining effect. I love the texture that it creates.