Cobble Stones
30 x 40
Oil on Linen
Paros, Greece

Delphic Oracle
16 x 20
 Alla prima and glazes using copal medium (Robert Doak)
Oil on cotton canvas

Threading the Needle
18 x 24
Modified Verdaccio and glazes
Oil on cotton canvas

Red Sands
16 x 20
 Alla prima painting using copal medium (Robert Doak)
Oil on cotton canvas sold

She Who Preserves the Waiting Place
14 x 24
Bistre drawing, and glazes
Oil on Linen

Red Cloth Study
12 x 24
Bistre drawing, and glazes
Oil on cotton canvas

Clouded Vision
16 x 20 
Oil on cotton canvas

Muddy Sunrise
12 x 20
Alla prima painting using copal medium (Robert Doak)
Oil on Linen sold

Evening Rays
16 x 20
Alla prima painting using copal medium (Robert Doak)
Oil on cotton canvas

Running Out of Time
She Who Mandates the Boatman
18 x 24
 Alla prima painting using copal medium (Robert Doak)
Oil on cotton canvas

A Saving Grace
Esther of Susa
21 x 30
Bistre drawing, and glazes 
Oil on Linen

A Saving Grace
She who conceived compassion
20 x 44
Bistre drawing, or Modified Verdaccio and glazes
Oil on Linen

He Who Waits
24 x 40
Alla prima painting using copal medium (Robert Doak)
Oil on Linen

She Who Commands the Serf
Verdaccio drawing - Pthalo green and ivory black
20 x 22 
Oil on Linen

Red Oxide Nude
Bistre drawing using transparent oxide red, ultramarine blue, viridian green and terra rosa pigments
12 x 20 
Oil on Linen

Just a Feeling
Red Oxide Nude
Bistre drawing using transparent oxide red, ultramarine blue, pthalo green and terra rosa pigments
16 x 24 
Oil on Linen sold

D'ART -  Critic's Corner 
I enjoy the contrasts between the sepia background arrangement, through his almost-cadaverous body, and onto the richness of the drapes/cloths. You also evoke the sense of relaxation in the human body perfectly, as one would anticipate from a sculptor.
david:>) Posted On:  6/13/2007 11:11 AM

A solid composition, cool patterns and your understanding of anatomy is remarkable.
An amazing work.
Trollcat Posted On:  6/29/2007 8:17:00 AM

Seven Layer Glaze Study
12 x 16
Bistre drawing and glazes
A Rembrandt Study 
Oil on cotton canvas

Dancing Bacchante
Alla prima painting using copal medium (Robert Doak)
16 x 24
Oil on Linen

After Dusk
Bistre drawing, glazes & Veiling
24 x 36
Oil on Linen

Two Hearts
Bistre drawing and glazing using Copal
11 x 14
Oil on Cotton sold

A Journeys Turn
Charcoal/graphite drawing, Alla prima painting/glazes using Copal
26 x 42
Oil on Linen

Idle Moments - Memories
Charcoal/graphite drawing,  glazes using Canada Balsam and Stand Oil
22 x 34
Oil on Linen

St. Veronica and the Veil
Charcoal/graphite drawing, Imprimatura - English Red using Copal and leaded glass
30 x 40
Oil on Linen

Rembrandt Palette Knife Study
Testing out some new dry pigments I got from RGH and Sinopia. Link
After grinding the pigments I took about a half hour testing them with each other.
The paint piles you see on the sides were not all used.
There is just something magical about hand ground oil paint.
11 x 14
Oil on palette

Palette Knife Study July 07
Testing some paint combinations.
After grinding the pigments I took about 20 minutes testing them with each other.
The paint piles you see on the sides were not all used.
I should have put this one before the Rembrandt study - it was done in July at one
of my Open Studios. A customer was weird about me having her scrape it off the palette.
11 x 14
Oil on palette

Idle Moments - Opa Del Morey
Drawing - charcoal/graphite
Imprimatura - studio paint
Dead Colour -charcoal black and flake
Glaze - skin dead color to mid tone
Painting Style - viscous impasto using hand ground pigments
Not a great composition, but the idea I am after is technique and paint handling.
I guess we can not have it all - all the time. 
28 x 34
Oil on Linen

Idle Moments - locuri
Double ground - Red Ochre and Khaki 
Drawing - pigment
Painting Style - viscous CSO - using hand ground pigments and Lootwit
It was hard to capture this painting with my camera. The dark background is a very deep red lake/black.
This painting is the first from a new palette from my study of Rembrandt and Velasquez.
I figured a 3/4 pose would be well enough.
26 x 32
Oil on Linen

Idle Moments - Hic et nunc
(Hear and now) Morning Glory
Double ground - Red Ochre and Khaki 
Drawing - pigment
Painting Style - viscous CSO - using hand ground pigments and 
Lootwit (Lead White and calcite)
26 x 46
Oil on Linen

Charles Andrew Portrait
Double ground - Red Ochre and Khaki 
Drawing - pigment
Painting Style - viscous CSO - using hand ground pigments and 
Lootwit (Lead White and calcite)
22 x 30
Oil on Linen

Artist Notes

Materials and Methods

As a firm believer of doing things right the first time… The artist’s materials and practice of applications of such are as important as the slow and fast line of a strong composition. Is the foundation of the old Masters like the Dutch and without knowing the materials, the artist will struggle too get the idea on the canvas and it will show. There lies the principle reason that we are able to enjoy the works of the Old Masters work today, they knew their materials and the applications.

I will not claim I know the materials and method secrets of the OM, but there are Artists and persons in Archival Science today that have dedicated their life to not only uncover these secrets, but improved on them to the point that we may have succeeded them.

There are materials and methods that have been past down through the ages by masters in oil painting that have been guarded and then reveled, horded and scandalized to a point that has created a confusion in most, and a almost religious following in some.

Some members of this oracular following are Robert Doak, James Groves, Robert Howard and Tad Spurgeon and similar practitioners to name a few that are living and have a web presence, without cracking a book to learn from. Their dedication and teachings are unparalleled as far as I am concerned. The knowledge and application of their craft is apparent, patrons and artisans alike would do well to have a look. Get Robert Doak on the phone in New York or Rob Howard in a forum and you will find out all the things you may be doing wrong.

Though I am diligent and meticulous in what I do and how I do it, I have only applied these “OM” materials and methods to Sixty paintings in the past two years and have found these methods of the utmost importance in the artistic form of oil painting. I have been a professional artist in one form or another for only 25 years, so I may not know what I am talking about. I do know that it works very well for me. I struggle not, except with myself to get the idea on the canvas and always planning for the next project.

I continue to enjoy the idea that my paintings not only have been enjoyed by others, but most important to me is the paintings have been done right by utilizing the highest quality materials and methods that I have collected from literature and other artists like those I have named.

James Taylor
Jan. 2007

Web log -info@jamestaylorstudio.com

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