Four Corners & Colorado Plateau series - #12, 13

Two more, as we head west and the road forms a tangent with the monocline.  I worked on these yesterday, and continued to have issues with the paint - it became sticky-tacky not long after the initial blocking in, which made wet in wet reworking impossible.

Frustrating, but I think I may have figured out part of the problem:  two of my paints are W&N Artisan water-miscible oils.  I've been painting with WMO's for years; in fact, I started with those vs. traditional oils as no solvents are necessary.  As time went on, I began to add traditional oils, as I wanted to try techniques like glazing and washes with mediums (eg, Liquin) that negate any advantage to the WMO's as far as not using toxic solvents for clean-up.

The two colors - Aliazarin crimson and yellow ochre - are thick and not at all buttery like the Gamblin paints.  I've been adding a combination of walnut oil and glazing medium to them to improve the consistency, but it doesn't last.  I know walnut oil tends to speed up the drying time, but it's almost like I'm painting with alkyds!   When I was painting in multiple thin layers and using glazing techniques, the rapid dry time was great.  Now...not so much.

Along the monocline

6x8 inches

oil on canvas paper

SOLD

Try to ignore the badly-painted highway lines...the definite shortcoming of the painting.  

Uprising

6x8 inches

oil on canvas paper

One of a few more that indulge my fascination and adoration of the geology, although it doesn't show as well as I'd hoped.  The uplifted sandstone forms a wedge with fissures eroded away on its surface, in which pinyon and juniper trow.  This painting fails to show that scale of this massive rock slope.

Off to the store to replace those paints...