"Being Here"

"Being Here" / 30x24 / acrylic on canvas

Well, I've completed my latest commission and I'm finally happy with it.  It was inspired by a personal photo of a favorite activity in a favorite place.  I'll be delivering it this week - fingers crossed that the patron likes it as much as I do.  I was struggling with it a bit (as I always seem to with commissions) when I finally thought of creating a pthalo blue glaze to tie the areas together and to mimic the blue cast created by a chinook sky and it worked (whew!).  I don't do an overall glaze often but find that it is sometimes required on my landscapes in particular (my tried & true recipe: 1 part paint, 45 parts water, 50 parts glazing liquid - with a large jar of water and rags nearby for adjustments as it dries fairly quickly).  What I like about glazing is that you can wipe back as much as you need, or in the opposite direction, add more layers in the areas that you feel are necessary.  I know when I paint, my work is part technical and a larger part intuitive.  When the work 'feels right' is when I need to stop.  I also add a third coat of gesso before I begin the work on purchased canvases - another old habit from college that I can't seem to break.  We were taught that each canvas required three coats of gesso whereas purchased canvases tend to only have two.  Though I also tint my gesso (red oxide in clear gesso) as I prefer to work on a coloured ground - first to reduce to intimidation factor of a white canvas and second to create a warm base (a Group of 7 tactic) - I like the texture created by using a large housebrush to add that final coat of gesso.  It adds a chalky tooth to hold onto the paint and it also creates lovely little grooves to change the appearance of the final coat of paint...whether I use dry brush or, in this case, a final glaze.  In awhile I'll be off to do my radio interview this morning - funny, I've done television, internet, magazines, books, newspapers, but never radio and I have to admit that I am a little intimidated by it, oddly enough.  Here goes nothing :)