Don and Kim Jurney Traveling Fellowship (In Review)

I have been back in the sweet motherland of the low desert for a week now.  The Don and Kim Jurney Traveling Fellowship led me on a hefty two month exploration of Italy.  I consumed all things Italian and left bloated on paintings, sculpture, architecture, great pizza and wine.  Words cannot express the gratitude I have for Don and Kim Jurney and for the NewburyPort Art Association.  Throughout times society has always needed people that were willing to use their platform and success as a way to pool resources to send future generations onto the right path.  No doubt Don and Kim Jurney have become heroes of a modern day continuation of naturalistic art.  

Some thoughts on the trip...

I greatly enjoyed the endless painting opportunities that Italy's cities provide.  The people are very friendly and genuinely interested in what you are up to when painting out of doors.  I found myself overwhelmed by the amount of information and many examples of legendary art all around.  This trip to Europe really did solidify a bunch of things as an artist for me.  My love for the vastness and culture of the U.S.A., more specifically the American West.  Also how the importance of my connection with a person, place, or thing is paramount.  I resolidified my ethos that my journey is not to recreate the past but to document my present.  I enjoyed looking back at how the old masters were able to create such greatness with so little and it's been insightful and humbling.  

In Rome, painting in Trastevere at Mausoleum Ossario Garibaldino.  Huge views of the city on this hill.

Painting in Venezia.  Obscenely beautiful and obscenely humid this time of year.  The home made light diffuser was a god send.  

All in all, painting and drawing on location while traveling has been a beautiful way to cleanse my mind and reinvigorate my connection to home while furthering my empathy for different cultures around the world.  I plan on continuing this practice for as long as I can.

I hope to post with greater frequency here as I appreciate being able to go long form and fully express my ideas on painting, materials or random observations.  My hopes is that I can continue to expand my connection with the world on the internet without getting inundated by social media and what others are producing.  I do not see the benefit of looking at other's work with great intent and periodicity.  For me, this only leads to a perpetual state of inspiration and comparison, leaving me with less original ideas and even less work.

Heres to another beautiful day.  "Get out of Shavasana today." 

-Spencer H. Simmons

Unreal sunset view of Firenze.

Painting Abroad (Don and Kim Jurney Fellowship Revisited)

I would like to take this moment to thank Don and Kim Jurney and the Newburyport Art Association again for this generous opportunity and their support.  https://jurneyfellowship.weebly.com/

I am painting abroad for a couple of months here in Italy as apart of the Don and Kim Jurney Travel Fellowship.  I thought I might take some time to post about some of the materials I have taken with me and how they are holding up.  There probably aren’t many of you that are out there interested in this, but for those of you who are, cheers. 

Pictured above is everything I took to Italy.  (From left to right) Watercolor brushes in X-Lab Mezzo Cage Pod, Oil brushes, tripod, homemade easel mast, light diffuser, paint boxes, painting lights, watercolor paper, oil paints, water brush, backpack.  Not pictured is the rip stop nylon brush holder I made that weighs nothing.

I suppose it starts with the bag.

I bought a Northface Surge over a year ago and it has been a great bag.  It has plenty of compartments that hold everything I need (including a large fully openable laptop compartment that fits over 12*16 inch paper and panels).  It also comes in the color black which is favorable as many of the bags out there are obscenely bright, and I don’t care for standing out in a crowd.  

Cons of the bag would be it’s weight.  It comes in at over 3lbs.  To be fair, I did try it on along with many other bags at REI and it was the comfiest and had the best layout which fit my needs.  I know robust usually means longer life and better build quality, but when you walk around all day looking for spots to paint every ounce really matters.  For a similar price tag I could have gotten something that weighs just over a 1 lb.  I plan to remedy this soon.  

I should state, that lightweight gear surely is not the answer to anything except a little less back sweat in a hot climate.  I think if anything having lighter more compact gear on the ready always makes me want to get out there and work.

The easel.

This is probably the most important thing when regarding a pleinair setup.  That is of course pre-supposing that you indeed use an easel when you paint, some people don’t.  I bought a Davis & Sanford TR553-P228 Traverse Super Compact Tripod.  It has been indispensable in my setup.  It folds down to just over 12 inches and opens up to 53 inches.  The weight is 2.6 pounds.  

The easel mast, I made at home was inspired by Marc Delssio’s carbon fiber set up.  I made it from a piece of 1*2 inch oak.  It holds up to 16 inches which is about as big as I want to go when traveling around and doing smaller sketches.  I did however make a larger one for travel around my home turf.  The mast has a connection on it for my oil paint box as well which has become essential.

The paint boxes.  

The three paint boxes next to each other.  Two watercolor on the top small oil box on the bottom along with my painting lights to the right. 

I paint in both watercolor and oil on a very regular basis, which is a bother because I never know which the subject or the mood will call for resulting in packing it all up.  After using many different oil boxes I made a very small box which works perfectly for me.  It folds open and has two mixing surfaces as well a space for paints and my medium cups.  As previously stated it hooks up to the easel mast allowing me to not have to hunch to mix.

Homemade oil paint box open with fresh paint and medium cups.

The other two boxes are watercolor boxes.  One is made by “The Little Brass Box Company” in England.  It really is a little jewel.  It is called the “travel palette” and is no bigger than 2*3 inches and holds 13 different half pan sized paints and folds out to four mixing areas.  I probably could use this box for all of my watercolor needs but I enjoy the extra mixing space my other box provides.  This one mainly gets used for sketching and cafes.

The second box, is my trusty House of Hoffman “Small German Nickle Palette.”  It is an absolute beauty I’ve enjoyed for over four years now.  It folds out into a four different mixing areas and has the same thirteen color layout except for the fact that each well holds a whole tube of paint.  When I leave on a trip the only paints that run low or out of is ultramarine and burnt umber.  Both boxes were pricey but worth every penny as they suit my needs down to the bone.

Small German silver palette by House of Hoffman in use. 

Brushes.

A multitude of brushes that I brought with me.  Watercolor brushes on the left in their container, oil painting brushes on the right along with palette knife, Davis & Sanford tripod, easel mast and small sketchbook light. 

I use a large selection of brushes.  Maybe too many but I do not care and take pride in the collection.  For oils I don’t clean my brushes while painting so its necessary to have quite a few to switch around.  I use a combination of bristle and sable both filberts and rounds.  A majority of them are from Rosemary & Co but I try everything that is quality.  For watercolor I primarily use rounds.  I have a generous selection of squirrel hair quills, sable rounds, and synthetic rounds.  I also have some junkier rounds and a pin-striping brush for trees and random marks.  These are all primarily Rosemary & Co but I try everything.

Paints.  

Oil paints, M. Graham titanium sunflower white, Gamblin titanium white rapid dry, Jack Richeson golden ochre, Jack Richeson cad. yellow med., W&N cad. yellow pale, W&N cad. orange, W&N cad. red. pale, W&N permanent rose, Gamblin cad. red med., M. Graham viridian, Jack Richeson cerulean blue, Jack Richeson cobalt blue, Jack Richeson ultramarine blue deep. 

For watercolor I always have cadmium red, permanent rose, cobalt violet, burnt sienna, burnt umber, cadmium orange, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium yellow light, Viridian, cerulean, cobalt blue, ultramarine dark blue.  I could get rid of most of these and be just fine, but in watercolor there is the luxury of being able re-wet your paints indefinitely.

In oil I use cadmium red, permanent rose, cadmium orange, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium yellow light, Viridian, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue deep.  I rarely use earth pigments because of their dry time as there have been many issues regarding cracking. Though using them as an under painting for first layers, or in a single session painting are great.  

White.  While I prefer using lead white while in the studio or around where I live, I use Gamblin titanium white, and M. Graham titanium white.  I use these because they are American made, and because they are single pigment titanium white.  It is surprising how few companies there are that do not put zinc in with it.

I should also mention that I basically will buy American made art products whenever at all possible as they are of extremely high quality and usually lower prices.  So the paints are almost always M. Graham, Gamblin, Daniel Smith or Utrecht.  

*Update I bought a set of Jack Richeson Shiva paints and am truly impressed.  They were almost by a landslide the most inexpensive artist quality paints I could find and they perform just as well as anything else I have used.  I am a big proponent of not having a brand loyalty but rather picking certain hues you favor from different suppliers.  All that said, I recommend these paints. 

Paper.

I use Arches 140lb cold pressed and sometimes hot pressed.  I am greatly annoyed with texture of both canvas and paper as I feel that on a smaller scale the weave if not minimal is quite distracting if the work is at all detailed.  This coupled with high gloss varnish and horrible gallery lighting makes a lot of work impossible to actually see.  My favorite watercolor paper is 300lb hotpressed paper.  It has just the right amount of texture.  

Panels.

I almost exclusively use handmade panels with MDF board that are primed with acrylic gesso or traditional Italian gesso.  I really do enjoy the smoothness of it even it is a bit harder to paint on in single sessions.  For this trip I bought panels at local art stores. 

Light Diffuser.

I just copied James Gurney’s diffuser and it attaches to my easel.  One of the best things I have ever made.  I used it in a storm the other day and it actually kept the painting and palette workable.

Lights.

I paint at night all the time and found that the Mighty Bright HammerHead lights are the most even light.  I have had two for 3 years and they still work great.  Martin Dimitrov and I have been working together on a project and he developed a most genius large scale portable lighting system that one of us will surely write about soon.

Shelf.

Home made tripod shelf in action.

I made a shelf for my watercolor palette and brushes as there really isn’t anything acceptable out there on the market.  It works obscenely well and is very strong.  

I have been painting everyday for a month here in Italy and unlike many other people who go abroad I am not trying anything new as far materials.  My settup has held up extremely well and is comprised of extremely high quality materials.  It will only become more refined as time continues on and I throw more of my money at it.  It’s hard not to do when your greatest passion is your job and hobby.  

I suppose I will make a materials tab on this website so that one can simply click it and see an ever evolving spread. 

If anyone has any specific questions about building something, materials etc... feel free to email me.

Making Sun Thickened Linseed Oil

This was truly a time sucker.  So if you enjoy balling up your time and tossing it to the wind such as I, read on. 

It is a pretty good assumption that when most painters start painting in oil, they begin to search for the "perfect" medium.  Certainly I thought I would find something that would basically paint the painting for me(DISCLAIMER, there is no perfect medium).  I stumbled on to Marc Dalessio's blog and saw that he was using something called "De Meyrne Medium."  A combination of sun thickened linseed oil, Canadian balsam, and turpentine.  I set out to making it from store bought goods.  I wound up loving it and use it as my primary medium for oil painting.  It doesn't really yellow, it has good body, and makes the paint level and brush strokes disappear.  It also speeds up the drying process significantly.  Using it for a glazing medium is gold and allows you thin your oil paint out to basically watercolor thinness without losing paint film strength.  The balsam drys very strong and is extremely hard to dissolve with solvents unlike damar which is used as a standard in many mediums but is widely regarded now as a poor archival practice.

Marc Dalessio's blog is certainly the go to if you are interested in the medium and making it but I thought I would write some of my thoughts on making it from scratch. 

The three ingredients (listed again) are sun thickened linseed oil, Canadian balsam, and turpentine.  

The sun thickened linseed oil is essentially just what it sounds like.  Cleaned cold pressed linseed oil that sits in a pan covered with glass and is whipped daily until you've produced your desired viscosity.  

I actually bought a couple liters of raw cold pressed linseed oil off Kremer Pigments website for something like $12 a piece and went through the entirely foreign process of cleaning the oil first.  This process can be found on the internet in various texts but essentially you take the cold pressed linseed oil and put it in preferably a clear large mouth container that has sealable lid.  Fill it maybe half way with oil and the rest with warm water and some pool filter sand.  Then shake rigorously for an extended period of time.  Let emulsion separate for a day or so then freeze until the water in the container is completely solid.  Pour off oil.  Repeat a few times if you want it really clean, you will see just how much mucilage is in the oil.  

The next optional step, is sun bleaching the cleaned oil.  This consists of taking the cleaned oil in a jar and leaving it in direct sunlight all day for several weeks to months depending on how pale you want the oil.  this makes the oil safe for using in whites with minimal yellowing.

Cleaned linseed oil.  In glass bottle ready to be left out for a couple months to really get pale. Notice the mucilage that has settled on the bottom. 

The next step is placing your cleaned, and possibly bleached oil in a lead pan.  The lead pans can be made with sheets of lead which are available for cheap on Amazon.  Just crimp the edges of pans and you are ready to roll.  You want to pour the oil into the pan to about a half inch depth then place a piece of glass over the pan to keep heavy debris from your valuable plant syrup.  Whip it up every day to oxygenate the oil and stop when its reached your desired viscosity.

Ghetto lead pan.

Ghetto lead pan with dirty glass.

I should note you want to do this with a few liters of oil at least because it takes a long time and you have the potential for accidentally wasting quite a bit.  

Canadian Balsam.  Unless you live next to balsam trees you ought to purchase the expensive tree sap on the internet from Natural Pigments or Kremer (Natural Pigments is way cheaper).  It is expensive but you are making a medium that is pretty fantastic so its worth it.  The first time I made it, I actually harvested balsam sap over a month period of time while I was in North Eastern Canada.  It is a real pain in the ass to collect it but it made me really appreciate being able to buy it on the internet.

Turpentine.  Old school pure double or triple rectified gum spirits are whats called for here, not odorless mineral spirits.  Full odor.  Turpentine.  The greatest perfume ever made. 

Next is combing them to make the medium.  the ratio is 2/4 sun thickened linseed oil, 1/4 turpentine, 1/4 Canadian balsam.  Shake vigorously.  Now its time to paint.  Send it!

I should note that as the oil gets thicker it will start to skim over more frequently which equates to more oil lost.  The only way I found to combat this is stirring the oil more frequently, as much as 3 to 4 times a day.  I used a paper paint filter which worked beautifully to remove the flys and solid lumps out of the oil.  I should also say that I live in AZ.  We get over 300 days of sunshine a year, so things may work exponentially faster here no matter the time of year.  

Pictured is the lead pan and paper paint filter.  The filters are dirt cheap and can be found at most paint stores and especially automotive paint stores.  There is a a plastic mesh on the bottom so even thick low viscosity oils like this flow through.  You can use a blow dryer to loosen it up for quicker flow through.

Love this mediums body and its functionality, give it a try, I am sure you will like it!