Using Lead White in Oil Painting with Cadmium Colors
Using Lead White in Oil Painting with Cadmium Colors

Old masters' oil painting techniques fawn over the creamy, textural properties of white paint that contains lead. It dries quickly, has dreamy body (yes, still talking about oil paint), and has a certain warm silver cast to the color that adds an old master's look to your work. I was taught to be afraid of the paint interacting with other, synthetic paints, like cadmiums, but...

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oil painting techniques, Making PaintingsThimgan Haydenoil paint, painting technique, lead white, underpainting
Love Story, Love Art
Love Story, Love Art

In addition to painting, I love reading and growing plants.  I used to read a lot when I was young.  My backup career ideas as a teen were Library Science and English Literature.  Like some of you may have, I quit reading fiction when I got BUSY.  A few years ago, my mom gave me a hardcover copy of “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith (who also wrote the original 101 Dalmatians story and hit plays for the London stage), and I got re-hooked!

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Art Business, Making Paintings, Artists I AdmireThimgan HaydenBooks, I Capture the Castle, Why Collect Art?, creativity, favorite painters, inspiration
Still Life Inspiration from Sir William Nicholson (1872-1949)
Still Life Inspiration from Sir William Nicholson (1872-1949)

 I almost have the feeling that he would set about to paint something and honestly not know how he was going to pull it off. I don’t think he had any doubt in his ability to pull it off, it’s more that he was unafraid of different techniques and even rather unconventional points of view- odd angles, even including rather odd items or compositional elements. His unique perspective makes his work feel fresh to me.

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Artists I Admire, Antique Art, Making Paintings, plein air paintingThimgan HaydenWilliam Nicholson, favorite painters, inspiration, landscape, still life
On Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic”

She goes on to describe her encounters with the creative spirit.  She experiences an Idea as an entity that comes knocking, asking for you to help bring it to life, and if you pass on its offer, it’ll visit someone else.  She has some examples from her own life that are fascinating enough for you to go read them yourself.  Again, after getting over the strangeness of the concept, I had to agree that I have felt that sort of “magic” in my own life.

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Thimgan HaydenBig Magic, Books, creativity, inspiration
ON MY TRIP TO AN ANTIQUES SHOW IN BALTIMORE AND WYETH COUNTRY
ON MY TRIP TO AN ANTIQUES SHOW IN BALTIMORE AND WYETH COUNTRY

Inside three days, I whisked through hundreds of booths of amazing art, saw some favorite pieces in the Cleveland Museum of Art, and visited the Brandywine River Museum, as well as an a tour of Andrew Wyeth’s studio which he used until his death in 2009, if I understood correctly. The Brandywine River setting alone was breathtaking…some pastorals will come out of what I saw there.

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Artists I Admire, Collecting, Antique Art, Art BusinessThimgan Haydenart trips, favorite painters
High Cliff, Coast of MainebyWinslow Homer/ American Art
High Cliff, Coast of MainebyWinslow Homer/ American Art

The title quote is in reference to the oil painting, High Cliff, Coast of Maine,by Winslow Homer.  Apparently, he had showed this painting a lot for 9 years before it found a buyer.  It contributed to his frequent questioning of himself in his mid-life sales slump.  In his frustration he asked his gallery in Chicago, "Why do you not sell that "High Cliff" picture?  I cannot do better than that.  Why should I paint?"

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Artists I Admire, Making Paintings, Healthy Art MindsetThimgan Hayden
May Changes
May Changes

It's a good month for them.  For changes.

I decided to simplify my life and forget about a "website" for a while.  I have the worst luck building or having one built for me.  It seems too personal to have someone else do without having too many of my own opinions about the layout  And when I do it?  It looks like I did with all of the little technical know-how I have within me.

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Making Paintings, about new worksThimgan Haydenstudio practices
Life on The Slow Setting
Life on The Slow Setting

I consider myself a sensitive person (or a highly sensitive person!).  I’m often overwhelmed with the size and number of the world’s problems.  I try to live in such a way that I effect positive change and it’s these little tasks, the joy of family, and the beauty of art and nature that keep me from stumbling over the sorrows outside of my sphere of influence.

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Healthy Art Mindset, Making PaintingsThimgan Haydenlandscape, plein air, summer