My tools and techniques
Like most artists, space is precious as is light. My studio has good lighting and space. I work off a standing table and easels.
In terms of creature comforts, music, mainly jazz and avant-garde composers, folk and mediaeval music.
And some reference points.
- Turps Banana magazine; a magazine for painters by painters
- Works by and about Abstract Expressionist painters, and interesting modern abstract painters,
- Abstract ink and pigment painters, such as Sumi-e (China and Japan)
Paints & Inks
I keep a swatch colour book and a binder of colour cards with pigment codes. To prune the tree of the many colour names used by the manufacturers which can be misleading, I focus on the pigment codes and quality of the material itself.
I like materials that break down (fall apart, granulate) so the pigment comes out of solution. As I glaze a lot, reducing inks and paints to homeopathic consistencies lets the light interrogate the layers.
I use single pigment acrylic paint, Japanese Sumi-e inks, and pigment powders, mostly earths.
Applying Paint
I use painting knives, cloths, paper towels synthetic bristle brushes, or hog. For Sumi-e, I have a selection of wolf and goat hair brushes in various sizes and some handmade brushes, from Japan and China.
Supports
I work on paper, wood and cotton canvas. I don’t stretch the paper.
Paper, 300 to 850 gsm, is from paper mills (St Cuthberts, Moulin de Larroque). Sumi-e requires very light Chinese and Japanese papers (e.g. ‘rice’ paper, shikishi, xuan) and I buy from China or Japan.
I have used wood panels e.g. thin plywood panels cut into various sizes, or found panels.