Some Botanical Studies

The first is an intimate study of I think a sprig of a willow oak(?) and other things in a garden. This was from several years ago when I first started doing plein air work in oils. I was using a prototype sketch box, couldn't find a good medium for my purposes, was in the early days of experimenting with my supports, and was totally at a loss for how to get the effects I wanted in a short period of time. This was on foamboard sealed with acrylic gesso. I had issues with bleeding and therefore tried something else for my next sketch. Keep at things with faith and you will eventually succeed, with the help of God.

The next are some works done a few years later on paperboard sealed with glue.  The glue allows the underlying color of the paper to show through, though it always warped it badly (you can de-warp small papers like these usually with an equivalent coat of glue on the other side, and also with some time under weight if all else fails), and was too absorbent to be pleasant to work upon. 

This one was done on glue sealed bristol paper.  If I recall, this is a rare example of me using pure oil and pigment paint, though I believe I added an oil and wax medium selectively to a few colors that session.  It's too hard to get a brushstroke that doesn't fray at the edges without resin, and also the impasto is a little too sharp, and detailing wet-into-wet is hindered with pure oil and pigment paint.  Hence I believe there were resin mediums in use by the Hudson River School artists (plus we have textual evidence they were as well). 

The last is also on glue-sealed paper.  I was using my first formulation of the Ridner medium, which contained too little wax as I misread the proportions (I think it might have been a little short on resin, too), but it was still very usable.  I wanted to see how close I could come to painting every leaf.  I failed miserably, but it doesn’t look so bad without nature in front of me to compare it to.  It is satisfying for its brushwork, anyway.  There’s a long history of artists applying leaves as raised brushstrokes – the Hudson River School didn’t start that practice.