Demo start and Mural painting start

Last night I demo'd for the wonderful artists at New Braunfels Art League and Ron Watkins volunteered to be my model. Ron is an excellent portrait painter, both in oil and pastel, and sat sweetly still throughout my flailing about while painting and answering questions. I didn't get very far along on his portrait, but I did take a couple of photos and will try to finish it up before the end of the year.

The mural painting got underway during an online broadcast Monday evening. I'm going to continue working on it this evening during another broadcast, in case you want to join the fun gang of artists and well-wishers who keep me and each other company. Tonight at 6 p.m.

Um, I'm experimenting with speeding the drying time of an oil painting by putting it in the oven. I had it at about 150 degrees. The house got a little fumey so I've turned it off and have left it in there. Am I nuts? Has anyone else done this? I know Kathryn Stats has said she has put her paintings in a hot car to speed the drying. Last night I mixed some fancy painting medium I bought from the Windbergs into my white paint before the demo- it's supposed to speed drying. I've been so impatient lately with how long white takes to dry. Anybody have advice for me?

9 comments:

Shelley Bittick said...

Good morning, Here's a post about a paint drying technique:
http://artstudiosecrets.com/2009/04/14/demo-make-a-drying-box/

Mark Bridges said...

I have a "soft mixing white" zinc and titanium mix BUT with Safflower oil in sted of linseed, from W&N that takes a week to get tacky, where as my gamblin is like very tacky the next day. See ya tonight, your art is looking great.

Jo Castillo said...

Liquin seems to aid in drying time when you put some in your paint as you go. Plein air painters use it. Google it to read about results.

Nice job on your demo and start of the big painting. You do so well.

Diana Marshall said...

Hi Susan,
To dry a painting quickly, here's my low tech method:- I mix my white paint with liquin (also red takes even longer to dry I find) I also stand my painting on a window ledge, inside the house in full sun for a few hours that works well.
Happy painting
:)

Marian Fortunati said...

Nothing others haven't said, but I use liquin to speed it up a bit.

I must admit, I've never heard of the oven technique before. hmmmm

Regina Calton Burchett said...

um... use pastels?

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Susan,

The new open acrylics dry more slowly and can be mixed with regular acrylics, to dry in an hour or so, instead of right away.

I can't help you with oil. My Dad was a ZEC man, painted really thick and his canvasses have stood the test of time.

Take care,

Barbara

Mary J DuVal said...

I've used the car trick (helps to live in TX!)

Can't wait to see the finished mural - It's really looking wonderful. I had a sneak peek to the next stage on your video but didn't have time to finish watching. So great that you share your knowledge with others like this. Thank you!!

Gayle Bell said...

I have to agree with the others--Liquin is amazing for drying time. It can be a little tacky while working it but more than makes up for that by being amazingly dry the next morning--a big plus for impatient painters like me. Great work you're doing!