Blog

I'm guessing most of us would love to have a do-over for 2020. What a year! And aren't we all glad to get a fresh start with 2021?

I'm pretty familiar with do-overs myself. I love painting en plein air, but it doesn't always love me. I estimate about 20% of the paintings I do (or start) en plein air ever make it to the "keep" pile. The rest get scraped or wiped for another day. That does create a lovely patina for that canvas, and there's something fun about having the ghost of a former painting lurking on the board. 

But my goal is to try to produce a keeper every time I paint outdoors. 

So on the first Monday of the year, when my plein air group headed to a charming spot called "Becky's Garden Shoppe" in Punta Gorda, Florida, I tried to pick my subject carefully. That's no easy task at Becky's because there's color everywhere. Reds! Hot pinks! Deep purples! Blues, greens, yellows ... everything on the color wheel. And so many interesting things - funky chairs, pots shaped like Buddha, whimsical garden sculptures ... where do you start?

My usual mistake is to take on too much - too many elements for a morning painting. I almost doom myself to failure before my first brushstroke.

And that's exactly what happened on Monday. I was just going to paint a group of six or seven pots of geraniums lined up on a table. But it wasn't that simple: there was the table, for one thing, and then what was beneath the table, and what was behind it ... and before I knew it, I was two hours into a painting that wasn't working. 

When that happens, I usually try to work through it, thinking I can rescue it somehow, by some miracle. It almost never ever works. 

But this is a new year, and I'm up for trying new things. Which means ... scrape the painting that isn't working, wipe down the canvas and start over! And that is what I did.

I had only about half an hour before our regular critique session, so I couldn't do too much. Having already studied six geraniums for two hours, I decided to focus on one pot only, and got to slinging paint in bold, wide strokes. No time to fidget with eensy details - just get the main shapes and values down. 

When the half-hour was up, I had a pretty presentable painting. It needed a little tweaking here and there but the bones were solid. I was not unhappy with it. I didn't want to scrape it. 

Lesson learned: if it's not working, go for the do-over.

Saving extra paints

Let's face it - good paint is expensive. So we try not to waste it. But at the same time, you need to use enough paint to cover the canvas and to give your brushwork the depth and body it needs. And if you're mixing paints, it's hard to match a color you mixed previously so there's a tendency to mix a big pile of it so you don't run out.

But what do you do with the paint that's left on your palette? How can you save it before it dries up?

If you're working in oils, there are several choices:

• You can put your whole palette in the freezer. The next time you want to use the paints, just take the palette out and let it thaw a bit before you start to paint. Some artists feel this changes the consistency of the paint, but it might be worth the effort if you want to try it. Still, your palette takes up a lot of space in there.

• For a while, I was using one of those pill-a-day devices to keep paints in. That was a whole lot easier to stick in the freezer than trying to fit my whole palette in. 

• Someone recommended using a bit of clove oil on your palette to help keep paint fresher. (You can get clove oil in the pharmacy section of stores such as Walmart, or from health food stores.) At first, I would just put several drops on a small piece of sponge (maybe 1" square) and just leave the sponge loose on the palette. But it had a tendency to slide around whenever I packed up and moved my stuff. Now, I glue a small lid (a Gator-ade beverage lid works well) onto my Plexiglas plein air palette, and glue a small piece of sponge in the cap. That works well! The clove oil has the added benefit of attracting these tiny green metallic bees that don't seem to sting or bother anybody; they just like the scent of clove oil. (I also started using the bottle cap idea to hold small amounts of medium, like Gamblin's non-solvent gel or Neomegilp.) 

• Another option is to use a plastic lure box with removable dividers. It should have four long channels that will hold a standard paint-stirring stick. Cover a paint stick with aluminum foil. Lift your paint blobs from your palette and put them on the covered paint stick. You can fit up to four paint sticks in the container. Then cut a small piece of sponge and apply several drops of clove oil. Put the clove-soaked sponge in a corner of the box. The clove oil will keep the oil paint moist for several days.

• You can get empty metal paint tubes from various outlets such as Blick's. They come in various sizes. I haven't tried them but they seem like they would be handy.

• You can also get empty small plastic containers (like those that hold paint for hobby kits) - or if, like me, you have a ton of old empty film canisters, they're good for storage as well. 

• Use an empty margarine tub (or similar) as a makeshift paint-keeper. If you've mixed some colors on your palette, and want to save them but need to use the palette for something else in the meantime, simply take the lid off the tub, lay it upside down and scoop up your paint with a palette knife. Place multiple spots of paint toward the edges of the lid, making sure to leave enough space to eventually close the container, and saving the center for a little piece of sponge or a wad of paper towel on which you place drops of clove oil. Then place the tub on top of the lid and snap it closed. The clove oil will keep the paint fresh for a few days, depending on where it's stored. (Alternatively, you could forego the clove oil and just place your makeshift palette in the freezer.)

• The paint I have left on my palette after a session, I gather together into a gray pile. Every time I finish for the day, I'll scrape that excess paint into my gray pile, and it includes the colors I have been using so it will help maintain color unity in your work. Since I generally work with the same nine or ten colors anyway, I can keep that gray pile and draw from it during my next painting session. It's great for dulling down vibrant colors, useful in doing shadows, and a good choice to tone a blank canvas.

If you work with acrylics:

• Use something like the Masterson's Sta-Wet palette  ... or make your own. Get a flat plastic box with a decent cover that will seal tightly - something like a box you could store papers in. (Or if you just want a palette for the day, a foam meat tray without a cover will do. Thanks to Nicholas Wilton for that tip.) Fit the bottom with several layers of paper towels, or a sheet of thin sponge if you can find something like that. Dampen your paper towels (or sponge) and wring out so it's not sopping wet. (You can add a tiny bit of either ammonia or Clorox to the water the sponge is soaked in, to prevent mold from growing.) On top, you can use parchment paper or freezer paper cut to size. Your paints should stay usable for several days.

• Also, when working with acrylics, it helps to spray your paints with a fine mist while you're working, and again before you store them, to keep them soft and workable.

For watercolor:

• It's fine to let your paints dry out. They can always be reconstituted with water. Most watercolor artists will fill the wells of their palette with their paints and let the palette dry for several days, until the paints in the wells become reasonably hard.

• The paint pools that are left in your palette after a painting session, my teacher, Don Melander, called “gutter paint.” If there's a lot, you can collect it and put in in a container for later use. Or just let it dry on your palette, because when all those colors are mixed together, they become a useful gray, great for working into shadows or dark areas.