spontaneous truth on gold canvas

gobzine gold page painting

this is a violet oil painting on a gold (spray painted) canvas. It looks brown here from the ambient lighting, but I’ll photograph it outside for natural colors when it is done.

It’s for a page in my new zine, hence the word gobzine ( Go B Zine) it’s a self promo art zine! eventually it will be on display at gobzine.com.

This was totally spontaneous, I knew I wanted to get some of the zine done today but had planned a couple of other things. While I painting on two other canvases this one suddenly happened!

Since it wasn’t planned it feels like it has ‘truth’ whatever truth actually means it seems to be important in my art.

This is actually quite an easy technique to try if you haven’t done much in oils but have drawn and used other mediums. The beauty of oil paints are that they can be easily modified until they work right for you. 

You can lay it on thick and have awesome textures like Vincent Van Gogh or keep it thin and translucent like I’m using it here.

Oil paints are like stained glass, the light shines through them, so if you have a reflective surface underneath it will make a nice effect. I recommend you buy the most expensive gold spray paint you can find for the best effect, or really do it right and use gold leaf!

I mixed cobalt violet with a little thinner and cobalt drier (you can use cobalt drier on any dark oil paints whether they say cobalt or not!) and use pale drying oil on the, you know, paler colors. I keep my oil paints in mason jars which works out great as they dry on the canvas in about 20 minutes or so which gives you enough time to wipe away parts with cotton swabs or flick paint thinner on to make awesome random effects. Once a layer dries you can paint another layer right over it to make nice shadows! Try one!

Originally posted 2008-06-18 18:35:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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4 Responses to “spontaneous truth on gold canvas”

  1. For reasons I can’t quite articulate at the moment, the idea of “spontaneous truth” is resonating with me….

    Mrs. Chilis last blog post..Blind Date

  2. Hi Darren,

    I like this in the brown tones. Guess it’s cause I like the earthy tones of browns, golds, and greens (although blue and white are faves of mine too)

    Barbara Swaffords last blog post..The Biggest Mistake I Made In Blogging

  3. I agree with Barbara that it looks good in brown, but I can’t wait to see the purple effect. I love your blue and purple stuff.

    I am very excited to hear about your Zine!

    Wendi Kellys last blog post..The Addiction of Conforming

  4. I like them both. I photoshop my work just to see what would happen. Sometimes I go back and try to make it happen on the easel. I once couldn’t make a painting work until I photoshopped it and made it redder….bingo. I liked it a lot better.

    nouveaufauvess last blog post..Yosemite Calendar Pics

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