Bruce Irons / Oil on Canvas /54 x…
I am pleased to announce that I have finished another painting for my Faces of Surfing Series of Bruce Irons. I traveled to Kauai to photograph him at his home for the painting.
After that trip, I met Barbara Golden of Golden Paints and Williamsburg Oils. She invited me to see their campus and factory in New Berlin, New York. I graciously accepted this offer and did visit them in October of 2016. She also sent to my studio a full color palette of Williamsburg Oils for me to try.
I dedicated the painting of Bruce to do just this - make it with the new palette of only Williamsburg colors. This was totally different for me because over the past 20 years I chose my palette based on my experience with two different brands of oils. I learned which of the colors in each brand worked best for what I was doing. Each of my paintings have been made with a mix of the two.
What I learned most from this new experience with Williamsburg Oils is the strength of their colors. When I would make a stroke with my brush loaded with paint, the color was on - and it was strong. Most of the time the paint would even cover over a wet layer below without mixing the two layers. I found this to be intriguing because sometimes I wanted the colors to mix wet on wet. It also made me rethink (after all of those years) my palette to canvas process which I have done without thinking for so long. This said a lot to me about the quality of Williamsburg Oils pigments. When adding cool darks to such as Phthalo Blue or Egyptian Violet to lighter colors like Naples Yellow (for example), I needed much less than I was used to using to get the change in tone I was going for. I feel because of this, Williamsburg Oils really did lend themselves to this painting and helped to capture the richness of the Kauai light on Bruce. I am excited to keep working and exploring with Williamsburg Oils for my next works. I am grateful to Golden Paints for getting me out of my comfort zone and introducing me to these incredible colors. Williamsburg Oils paints now have a permanent place in my studio.
