This exercise called for a minimum of three experimental paintings using different application processes with thick paint to create an impasto effect.
im·pas·to – noun – the laying on of paint thickly
I started by creating a heavily textured ground. I felt slightly like being in unchartered waters and thought by creating texture and movement on my chosen ground it would help alleviate that feeling. A bit like having writers block when faced with a blank page.
On 3 pieces of card all of the same size at 24 x 27.5cm, I used standard white gesso and applied it in three different ways
Working from left to right,
1. Applied thickly with a card and scored top to bottom with the edge of the card.
2. Applied again with a card but held at an angle and spread like butter in a half circular motion.
3. Applied with a card in a thick but smoothing motion, as if I was trying to apply filler to a wall whilst decorating at home.
I applied the gesso very thickly and it took several hours in warm temperatures to dry enough to consider applying paint to them.
This exercise called for a simple still life of three or four pieces fruit however as I don’t eat much fruit I used a small Butternut Squash, a small suede and a field mushroom.
To start my experiments I used prepared ground No3. and applied the paint using a brush. I selected 5 colours including Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Magenta, Cobalt Blue & Mixing White, all in acrylic…
As I painted I made notes, the first of which reminds me how difficult I found it to “load my brush heavily & deposit thick smears of paint roughly in the shape of the areas of colour I wanted” which is what this exercise called for. It also told me to work quickly and resist the urge to spend much time with any careful blending. The temptation to get a smaller brush and begin putting in detail was strong which surprised me as I’ve not found that particularly easy in Part 4 and which my tutor had mentioned several times in my feedback. But somehow it was very satisfying smearing paint like this! Reminded me of smearing nail varnish when I hadn’t really learnt how to paint my nails properly! I scraped away most of the blue foreground, I disliked the tone and shade but too late so thought to scrape it away and change it, however I liked the scraped look so using angles to emphasise perspective I left it bare but stained.
Overall I really like the finished experiment. It has a very ‘old’ style feel to it, the textured ground reminding me more of cracked and crazed old oil painting. I used a gloss varnish finish because it really looked like it needed it and I like the difference. I’m very surprised at the overall finish, I’d assume using this method of applying paint would produce a much more crude image but the effect is surprisingly effective. I love the detail on the mushroom, looks so realistic but all achieved with very little or no finer detail. I wonder now how adding more detail and blending after that initial paint application would then effect the final finish.
My second experiment was on card No1 the scored/lined gesso surface using the same colour palette and still life subject as before but I changed the positioning as I wanted to explore a different composition.
This was really hard to lay down paint using a painting blade on to this surface! In hindsight I chose the wrong ground for the this tool but live and learn. I think the end result is flat and without anchor or depth and perspective, even the shape of the Squash is wrong. There is however one really good thing from this experiment which is the Suede. I really like the effect I’ve achieved here, the base light yellow ochre is apparent throughout the whole vegetable and the Magenta is just lying over the top. Its a realistic effect and one I enjoy.
My third experiment was on the final piece of card, No2. with the gesso applied in a semi-circular sweeping pattern, again with the same palette of colours and a slightly different composition.
This time I needed to apply 2 or 3 layers of paint which I would then scratch in to using the end of my brush or something similarly sharp or pointed. I used a metal kebab stick as well as a small colour sharpener chisel liking the use of the blade edge as well as the wider flat edge. There was a lot of decision making going on in respect to the base layers, trying to establish the right base tones even on such a simple still life with limited palette.
This is my favourite of the three paintings. I’m especially pleased with the mushroom, the simple scraping has produced a very realistic concave representation even though as I painted it I thought it extremely convex. Although the outer white is actually physically lower with less paint than the inside of the mushroom the optical effect is the opposite.
Points to note: The paint looked and felt very thick and gloopy as I applied it to the card however much of that thickness seems to have vanished after the drying process. Much of the texture and depth has dramatically reduced after drying.
THE NEXT STAGE: I want to paint another still life, this time using the effects from each painting that I really liked as well as also using a proper artists thickening gel. I hope that using an impasto product will help to maintain the impasto effect more effectively after the drying process is complete.
OCA Painting 1 Learning Log 
