Secret Technique #1 Just Add Water

One major way I differ from my heroes in the Hudson River School is that I am greatly interested in technique.  All the HRS artists downplayed technique and stressed hard work and study from nature in the few documents we have that clue us in to their aesthetics, BUT that doesn't mean they did not invent or use their own techniques to depict nature in ways they deemed appropriate.  Anyone looking at Cole, Church, Cropsey, or Gifford can see that there was much more at play in brushwork and other effects than just pure oil and pigment and direct painting.  They tended to believe technique should be subservient to subject, and that the treatment should match the subject.  But that is another story...

Anyway, I have read dozens and dozens (probably more like hundreds if you count articles and excerpts) of books on art history, art conservation, and technique.  I would like to share some little-known things I have found that I think would be helpful to today's artists.  I'm much too young to be willing to give up all my secrets, but I think what I offer will be appreciated.  At the very least, you shall get a better idea of the sort of artist that I am.

So, Secret Technique #1, Just Add Water

The big issue for artists who grind their own paint without additives is that the colors don't always keep good consistency in the tube.  Well, for certain colors there is a way to amend that.

To the right is some yellow ochre I ground up.  Note how the big pile slumps slightly.  It is rounded and has some gloss.  In most cases this is a good consistency for me if used presently (I usually add varnish mediums when it makes it to the palette), though I have experienced yellow ochre get unpleasantly longer in consistency than I have ground it if not used up a short time after grinding.  In case you are wondering, this is made with about 40-50 grams of yellow ochre pigment.  I don't know how much oil, as I just eyeball things while making paint.

Here I have a few drops of water.  Any type clean enough to drink will do (and even saliva will work in a pinch if in the field -- though I don't know why you wouldn't bring water with you).

See the water on the oil paint in the middle of the pile.  It will not combine readily and must be forced into union with the knife.  You must be quick, but it's nowhere near difficult.  Add it to a pile like I have here.  If you add it to a large, flat expanse of color (like after it is spread out by a muller), the water is liable to rapidly shoot itself to the edge of the paint and perhaps off the slab (I have seen it happen), which is really fun to watch but not good for our purposes.

Behold!  See how much the paint has shortened in consistency after the water is coerced in.  Note the sharper peaks and higher pile.  It also loses some gloss.  It is as stiff as it looks, good to tube if meant to be kept for much later, especially if meant to be used outdoors in the heat and cumbersome situations.  

You can add more water to get the paint stiffer.  It is possible to make the paint immobile, and more water will further matte out the paint.  If you added too much water, spread out the paint thinly and leave it for a while.  The effect goes away when the water evaporates.  The water trick works with some other earth colors (if I recall, it works with raw sienna, but not burnt sienna), it does NOT work with the Mars colors.  But the best part is that it works with Ultramarine, the color all who grind their own paint complain bitterly about due to its otherwise unavoidable, watery ropiness that only gets worse when stored in a tube for any long period of time. So what are the problems with this secret?  The most it can do is help for storage or temporarily amend the consistency on the palette.  When the water evaporates, the effect is gone.  So if you stiffen up some ultramarine, that does not mean you can use it as an impasto -- I have tried for the purpose of experimenting -- it will slump on the painting support and potentially run if applied too thickly (you must add a medium to impaste something like ultramarine).  

I also imagine a more cautious person might object that the water can cause problems in the paint film.  It's such a small amount you add, and the water will evaporate out before the paint dries, so I see no reason to fear.  Besides, if your pigment clumped together into balls due to exposure to humidity, you're liable to get the effects of the water trick without adding water.  I thought Gamblin's ultramarine pigment must have been impure for years before I knew about the water trick because it made a good-consistency paint (their pigment was pure but it was balled together from humidity when I received it).  Besides, I learned this technique from no less an authority than Gilbert Stuart, a technically-conservative artist who regarded all fancy techniques and mediums, beyond occasional megilp use, as mere trickery.  

In John W. McCoubrey's Sources & Documents in American Art 1700-1960, on p. 24 we have the quote.  Gilbert Stuart told Matthew Jouett "To take out the oil from (yellow paint) stone ochre when it works ropy with your palette knife and a little water work it about on your palette and it will soon lose its clamminess and work short and agreeably."  Stone ochre or stone yellow was the archaic term for yellow ochre.  Of course, Stuart is incorrect about the oil being taken out, but we get his point.  A little water stiffens yellow ochre.  

Jasper Francis Cropsey also used the water trick for grinding ultramarine.  You can read about it in one of Alexander Katlan's two volumes on American Artists' Materials Suppliers Directory (my photocopies are buried right now, so I can't recall which one and on what page -- though it was the one that also had a chapter on Cole).  Cropsey sold ultramarine on the side and according to his account book, Church and Kensett had purchased some from him (this can be found on p. 78 of Talbot's dissertation on Cropsey).  So understand many great artists utilized the water trick I have related to you.

I know I was happy when I found a way to keep my ultramarine from puddling in the tube.  I hope you all find this useful.  I can't say if my future hints will be as helpful, but it's something.