Mushrooms

Mushrooms, oil on canvas panel, approx. 5x7. SOLD

8/5. Alla prima was never natural to me so this daily painting practice has been good. Surface textures can get tricky, and my way of dealing with them is usually scumbling/glazing - this agrees with me as I'm the kind of person who believes he never gets things right the first time. Working wet-on-wet there comes that point when my tendency to "texture map" takes over and I get bogged down in paint, but I think now I'm more aware of it and at times I can make it work, even if not efficiently. At those moments when I feel I'm getting close I'm always reminded of the line in A. Hobson's J W Waterhouse (1989), about when the young painting student (later a master paint pusher) was required to submit a chalk drawing of a statue for admission to the Royal Academy:

His drawing of the Discobolus ... faithfully recorded the false lights and shadows due to accumulated dust and dirt, and was understandably rejected.