Sant' Antimo on the Easel

We are back from the beach now. It was great but high winds thwarted any further attempts at plein air painting there for the remainder of the week. A near-constant rain has kept me indoors so far this week as well, so I have started a new Tuscan studio painting to console myself ;) .

This is to be a new 24x30" canvas of the Montalcino commune in southern Tuscany, at the site of the Sant' Antimo Abbey.

Happy July 4th, everyone!

Tuscan Sun Wines launch this week in Italy!

I have gotten a number of inquiries about the wine labels I was commissioned to paint for Frances Mayes' Tuscan Sun Wines,  and when the wines would be available for purchase. Well my sources (namely Twitter) tell me that the first big launch will be in Cortona Italy this week on July 4th.  It is exciting for me  to see the art finally realized on the wine bottles for which they were intended.

Source: Uploaded by user via Chef Robin on Pinterest

It will be even more exciting to see (and taste) the wines in person; but we here in the U.S. will have to wait for that. The U.S. launch is slated for some time in the fall.

The dunes, once more

We have stolen away to the beach. Well, that's not entirely accurate, as with a toddler we aren't really "stealing away" anywhere any more. More aptly put: We have loaded the entire contents of our house into the van and 6 hours later unloaded it into the beach house just in time for a total melt down. Our toddler was none too happy either. ;) But somewhere around the 24 hour mark I think we all settled into a groove, and I actually got up yesterday morning and painted.

"Dunes, Early Morning" Oil on Panel, 10" x 8"© Jennifer Young

This was originally to be a sky painting, but I got drawn into the light on the dunes once more. This was painted from our balcony ( our footpath to the beach is on the left. ) It's a great spot, but east-facing, and in the morning, completely sunlit. I started this around 7:20 a.m. By 9 I was roasting and had to wrap it up. I am mobile blogging so the color is seeming a bit washed out, but you get the general idea here of the morning's attempt. (Updated image)

Clean your brushes

For a painter, this guidance is akin to Mom telling you to eat your vegetables , and every artist knows this is the right thing to do. Do I do it? Not as often or as thoroughly as I should. It's my dirty little secret. I do treat my sables a bit better, but my bristle brushes take some abuse. I am trying to do better, but even after all of these years, I'm not quite there yet. The proper approach to brush care is to give your brushes a good rinse in solvent (for oil painting brushes) followed by a wash from the ferrules down to the tip with a brush cleaner or dish soap, pushing the remaining paint out as you go. Once thoroughly rinsed, push the remaining water out and reshape with your fingers and just a dab of the brush soap, or just with water and leave to dry.

Don't leave your brushes head down in paint thinner (I used to do that). The bristles will lose their shape sooner and eventually the ferrule will loosen from the wood handle and fall off. Don't leave them head down in oil either (that's what I often do now- walnut oil- especially if I plan to return to the easel the very next day). Better but still not the best practice is to rinse out with oil and then paint thinner, and wipe clean with paper towels and reshape (this I do most often). When I do wash my brushes, I like Master's brush soap. It does a good job of getting off dried paint, which happens often enough with delinquents like me. Nevertheless, once the damage has been done, the shape of your brushes will never be the same. So save yourself a lot of time and money by doing it right the first time.

P.S. And while you're at it, would it kill you to clean your palette every once in a while?

oil painting materials

Touring Venice

There are some times when my habit of waking at 5:30 a.m. (on the dot, and usually no matter what!) comes in pretty handy. With family visiting these last 10 days, early mornings have allowed me a few hours each day to complete this new Venice piece:

"Touring Venice" Oil on linen, 24x20" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young

This painting ( the bones of which you can see here) is the same size and format as the other recent Venice painting I posted a couple of weeks ago. They are meant to serve as companions to each other, though I think either would work just as well on its own.

In all the times I have been to Venice, I have still never taken a gondola ride. I wonder if it's possible to paint en plein air while aboard a gondola? A girl can dream...