Well DANG

Well DANG. Sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some. And with this painting I have had a false start …only I am not quite sure for sure (insert face palm emoji)

Well DANG!!!

I started this painting by blocking in the sky. The colour I was after was quite tricky as the blue began to lighten gradually towards the middle of the canvas. I had a lot of paint mixed. It wasn’t quite right. I thought maybe some Cerulean may help with the tone. I squeezed some out and mixed it in. Nothing happened. I squeezed more out and once again mixed it in half the mixture. No change. Then I noted that the pigment was a “hue”.

Wondered if that was the reason for the paint not changing intensity or tone. So I grabbed the good stuff. The straight up expensive tube of Cerulean paint minus the “hue”.

I separated a puddle of my mixed blue and happily added in my freshly squeezed puddle of paint. Success – the paint colour was starting to look right. When I was applying the paint I noticed that maybe just maybe it was starting to dry a little quicker than expected. Like drying as I was working with it. I quickly discounted that idea and attributed this to my mini-split over head being turned on. And I painted all the blue bits and carefully preserves the remaining mix. Just in case.

Error in Plein Air

So fast forward a few days. I was happily painting away on the marshes in Hampton in New Brunswick. It was a chilly day which made me a bit determined to work fast in order to get back in the car to warm up. As the sun rose in the sky it actually got quite warm. Unseasonably so.

I started to mix the colours to paint the water. Started to block in. When it came time to add in the detail bits on the water area I noticed something weird. The paint was once again acting funny only it’s not funny. It was beading up and becoming almost linty. And drying way too fast.

Then it hit me. I reached into my container with my tubes of paint. DANG it! The Cerulean blue was my beautiful (and expensive) tube of Golden Acrylic!

Fortunately I only used a bit and was able to rub it out. I had to sub in a teeny tiny bit of Prussian. You know the messes I have created with that colour …right?

Confession and the AHA moment

When I returned to my studio I proceed to clean up after the days painting sessions. As I put that renegade tube of Cerulean Blue away safely in my acrylic paint storage drawers, I had this weird sense that I needed to think more about it. How did it get into my Plein Air oil pack? What was it doing out in the first place? I know I hadn’t used it on my recent two crow paintings.

Then it hit me. I realized that it was highly likely that this was the tube of paint I used to correct the sky in the sunflower painting. DANG! Only I couldn’t be sure. There is no option with maybe in this case. If I indeed mixed that much acrylic paint into my water mixable oil paint there was no point in continuing on with it. The paint would eventually flake off.

To the fire pit

Unfortunately the only option is to start over with a fresh canvas. This canvas was wrapped in a way that removing and replacing it was not an option. An expensive mistake indeed.

Confession: I so hoped that I learnt this lesson – this is the second time this year I made it!

Until next time, cheers!