Work-in-progress Eagle Owl
Here are the current works-in-progress for the week. I started this owl painting, in watercolor on calfskin vellum, last year (or was it 2 yrs ago?!) and I have been trying to finish it. Now there is a DEADLINE… those dreaded deadlines. I must have it finished by the end of next week as it will be part of my submissions to try to get into a Bird Art Show & Sale at the Fairfield, CT Audubon Society next October.
These types of paintings are so intense for me that I had to get going on something else just to give my eyes and mind a little break from owl feathers. So I grabbed another unfinished work that HAS to be finished sometime in March for a show in May.
Lemon in a Large Planter, Villa Peyron, Florence
This is an egg tempera on panel painting that I actually started on location at Villa Peyron in the hills above Florence last September. I set out to prove to myself that I could actually use egg tempera on location and, by golly, I did. Now I do cheat a little in that I use Sennelier egg tempera that comes already mixed in tubes, but hey, they are Sennelier! And, I found egg tempera in tubes at the best art shop in Florence, Zecchi. It is a wonderful art store right around the corner from the Duomo and this is their description of their egg tempera paints;
It is the tradictional egg tempera, the same as used by Tuscan artists of the ‘300 and ‘400. Being reversible is also suitable for painting restoration. Best supports are: gesso ground panels or linens, or heavy watercolor paper. Dilution: water. Names of colors are the same mentioned in the “Craftsman handbook” written by the artist Cennino Cennini in the fourtheen century.
Wow! I know that’s not exciting for some of you, but for me, a sucker for historical tradition, I am entranced by the paint. The colors just glow and I am hoping that someday in the near future I can exchange the colors I only have in Sennelier for Zecchi’s.
I was part of an artist-in-residence program with 7 other artists at Villa del Palmerino in the hills north of Florence just underneath the hill town of Fiesole. Shear heaven! And we are to have a show of works produced there or inspired by at The Royal Gallery in Providence, RI in May. And yes, I have to have a little body of work finished for that event…