Watercolors and inks on paper were my first painting love. I still find their loose and unpredictable quality very satisfying; I like that I can't really control them - I work "with" them like a dance partner.
The oils were my second love. As a professional interior and decorative painter from 1998-2015, I mixed many different recipes of oil glazes and finishes. I wanted beauty and efficiency; my product needed to look good and be completed on time.
I worked in oils to combine what I loved about watercolor with what I knew worked in my commercial painting practice.
These three paintings are what's left of these efforts. The glazing liquid was made from regular commercial paint thinner, commercial boiled linseed oil, and commercial Japan drier. Two out of three of these ingredients are now illegal in California due to VOC toxicity!
It was fun while it lasted! I could move the slippery oil paint quickly around the canvas. I could wipe it off if I wasn't happy, load on more, and then had about two hours or so of working time. If I liked the result, I stopped and let it dry to the touch - overnight! This was unheard of with regular artists' oil paints that dried over days, weeks, or months even!
I don't miss the fumes and keeping multiple jugs of dirty solvents lying around our premises, but I look fondly on these oils as an important stop along the artistic journey!
In 2005, I showed about ten of these oil seascapes in the atrium of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Several of the pieces are now in private collections. These are the last of that group.