Union Jackie

This painting is really a three part experiment, which is probably the least effective way to conduct an experiment.

The first part was the support - the canvas. When I was in school a professor told me that painting on linen was a heavenly experience. It's pricey stuff and I've never been able to afford it. I came across some reasonably priced stretched canvas in my favorite art store and couldn't resist the impulse. It was sealed with clear gesso, so I was thinking it'd be super toothy.

The second was the medium. Normally I use galkyd as my medium, but I rummaged out a bottle of oil that I mixed up near five years ago. I lovingly refer to it as Leyendecker Juice, as it's the closest approximation I've been able to find to the mystery medium J.C. Leyendecker used.

The last part was the color palette. I've been experimenting with a very limited palette (yellow ochre, cadmium red medium, titanium white, and ivory black) but sometimes you just need to paint something blue. So I introduced Payne's Gray to bias some things towards blue and the cooler side of the spectrum.

I consider this experiment a win; though later I realized that I couldn't tell if it was the clear gesso, linen canvas, or painting medium that I was responding to. I did some follow experiments which I'll be posting shortly.

Oil on linen. 11" x 14".