March 27, 2008

"Sleeping Nude"

Oil on archival, museum quality, 1/8” Ampersand Gessobord™ panel – 8" x 8"

It’s been a while since I played with a little nude. {;-)> I miss my old palette knife more than ever. Painting flesh requires lots of color mixing. If anyone out there has an old Japanese Loew-Cornell 41F palette knife they’d be willing to part with, let me know.

Painting the figure on such a small scale is challenging to say the least. I tried not to get fussy with this piece; oops, too late. I have more respect than I already had for Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Vermeer and Jean Leon Gerome this morning. Miniature painters are a mad bunch.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't know if this helps or not...

http://www.dickblick.com/zz031/07/

-gary

Mark Adams said...

Gary –
Thanks for the thought. I am familiar with Dick Blick. I purchased a new “improved” Loew-Cornell 5T (the same relative shape of my old knife, just slightly larger) which replaced the 41F. The blade appears to be stainless steel and is easily twice as thick and has half the spring of its predecessor. Oh well. Perhaps my Uncle Bob has it right; if you find something you really like – buy two. They are sure to either stop making it/them or they will “improve” it.

Jacqui Faye said...

such a beautiful painting. love it.

Don Gray said...

Not a fussy painting, just a beautifully painted one.

Mark Adams said...

Thanks Jacqui and Don, for the kind words. I am not displeased with the results of this piece, far from it. I started this painting with the intention of it being a loose sketch with some fun free brushwork. The closest I got to that was the leg of the chair. Once again my inner photo-realist took over and voilà; I am hoisted by my own petard. There are worst fates. We all want what we cannot have. When I was a boy I had straight hair; I wanted curly hair…now I’d settle for some hair.

Sherry DeGhelder said...

Mark, I do believe you have made the
"Hall of Fame" Painting in a day. And for this to be painted 8"x8", great work!

Mark Adams said...

Thanks, Sherry. That's very sweet of you to say.

Diana Moses Botkin said...

This is beautiful Mark. Flesh painted loosely just doesn't have the same convincing appeal that you've achieved here. Looks like you had fun even though you probably felt like you were being way too tedious. The end result is wonderful, whatever your intent!

Mark Adams said...

Thanks, Diana!

I brought home some fun masks from New Orleans that I want to introduce into my figure work. Stay tuned.