Last Saturday was the first time out with the Saturday sketchers in three weeks, and it happened to be the hottest day of the year. We gathered at the local art center as usual and motored out to one of the lesser-visited city reservoirs. It's as small lake behind an earthen dam, surrounded by mature trees and parkland. Even though it was well above ninety degrees, the wind brought some coolness from the lake. I set up on a picnic table in dense shade where I could see the top of the dam beyond a big expanse of water. The small domed building is at one end of the dam, presumably housing technical equipment.
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| "Maffett Dam," casein on panel, 6x8 |
People who have read this blog lately know that I've been contemplating a return to casein for outdoor work. Saturday was the day for a lot of reasons. For one thing casein dries very quickly so if it was useable in high temperatures and windy conditions it's likely it will be useful at other more hospitable times. For another, my small paintbox contains everything I need except water and brushes, so the medium is pretty portable too. I painted Maffett Dam on a panel previously toned with burnt sienna. You can see hints of the toning in the foreground and at the zenith of the sky. I began with a faint graphite layout of major shapes, then dove right in with color. Casein dries in minutes, rather like acrylic, and doesn't reactivate with water the way gouache or watercolor do. So it's ideal for quick layering of color, which is how I approached the painting. Throughout the work you can see examples of layered colors. The image gives an indications of the heated, hazy air, a feature of casein as it dries matte. It does photograph well, which accounts for its use among illustrators of decades gone by.
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