Michael A. Cooley, Broken Eggs – Mastercopy after Helen Van Wyk , 2014, Oil.
This painting, Broken Eggs was a class demonstration. I was teaching a student how to make an underpainting. Initially, we made a block-in drawing and transferred the drawing to a sheet of canvas. Once the drawing was transferred to the canvas sheet, I sealed it and made an imprimatura using raw umber cut with gamsol. While the imprimatura was drying, I mixed my palette, consisting of a monochromatic string of 10 values from raw umber a 1 value to titanium white a 10 value. If I were to use black, it would be a value zero, but I always add a bit of raw umber to ivory black to control the blue which is in black. Once my imprimatura was dry and my palette set, I began building the painting in step by step stages. In the same manner Marvin Mattelson taught me, I want my students to see step by step how one constructs a painting. The resource I used was a painting by Helen Van Wyk.
Michael A. Cooley, Pepper and orange, 2014, Oil.
This painting, Pepper and Orange was a personal exercise I did so I can begin painting on a weekly or regular basis. I set up the arrangement in a shadow box in my studio, controlled the lighting and made my observations. I set up my palette in strings of color they way I was taught by Marvin Mattelson and used my value string to control the chroma. Once my palette was set, I began building my still life painting in the classical method I learned at the easel of Mattelson.
Until next time,
Michael