I’ve been working in our studio on an oil painting and using the techniques that I learned this week at Wayne Boucher’s studio. So far, I’ve applied the paint by

• using mostly oil sticks
• squeezing paint out of tubes directly onto the canvas
• moving it with rags
• scraping it with the rubber end of a pencil
• wiping it away with Q-tips and paper towels
• blending it with my latex-glove covered hands Continue reading →

Before today, the last time I had any instruction in oil painting, I was an international student in Germany. That was 40 years ago in East Berlin.

Since then, I’ve been to lots of watercolour , mono-printing and acrylic painting workshops, but never oil painting. I often think of  oil painters as fairly traditional realists who use muted colours, whereas I prefer strong colours and an expressionistic approach to my subject matter.

Last weekend at the Annapolis Region Community Arts Council (ARCAC) Annual General Meeting, I ran into Nova Scotia’s celebrated painter Wayne Boucher who breaks all of my stereotypes about oil painters. His work is bold, abstract and etherial. He loves colour and has a background in printmaking, which I think informs his choice of method and materials. Continue reading →