Summer Afternoons One breath in, One breath out I stand, look again Ponder this summer opus A diptych of breath Rippling with breeze And leaves, the air So humid, so soft Colors want to melt Blur into creek And clouds as they Languidly play across twenty-four hundred square inches
Technical painting notes and close-up details: Summer Afternoons is a diptych painted on two birch-faced slabs. I used several coats of alkyd primer (sanded to a velvet finish). The initial blocking in of shapes was done with a soft rubber roller and thinned black and burnt umber oil paints. The paint surface was manipulated with solvents and silicone scrapers, then allowed to dry. Subsequent glazes and more roller strokes defined the vegetation, with limited use of soft brushes. I used mostly Liquin impasto medium to make the paints more transparent.
Below are two views of the diptych in progress.
