A New World

An art student for life

I am stoked, thanks to my first attempt at alla prima oil painting. Not just intended for oils, alla prima is a technique where the artist applies wet paint to wet paint and completes a painting all in one session.

As a member of Oil Painters of America, I can watch free instructional webinars. One webinar piqued my interest in still life paintings, thanks to OPA member and webinar facilitator Kelli Folsom. An outstanding, accomplished artist and master teacher, Kelli so clearly explained the process of how to arrange effective still lifes, that I was encouraged and confident I could venture into this painting genre.

As a bonus, she offered us webinar attendees seven educational videos – each with substantial content – accessible through her website. I watched all seven videos this week and was inspired. In these videos, viewers actually watch her paint alla prima still lifes, and this has been so incredibly helpful to me.

There’s nothing wrong with painting and repainting over already-dry paint layers, which is something I’ve been doing for 20 years. I will continue doing this, especially with landscapes and my Breast Cancer, Female and Young series.

But now I’ve got new methods and strategies to use in my arsenal of oil paint know-how, thanks to Kelli.

Alla prima painting allows the artist to capture light and shadow well. And, while I’m patient to wait for layers to dry before I add wet paint, the wet-on-wet technique provides a way to complete an oil painting – from start to finish – in one painting session.

Holding the paintbrush properly was challenging for me. In a previous post, I discussed how I choke up on the brush instead of properly holding the brush at its end. The key to oil painting is to use one’s shoulder to create the brush strokes instead of the wrist. So I attempted to paint while holding the brush the proper way. But my hand cramped up repeatedly, and my fingers went all sort of wonky. So I held the brush the way I always do, but I will keep trying to hold the brush by its end in each painting session, and maybe one day, it will feel natural.

Kelli recommended that in still life, the artist should set up at least three objects to paint from life. I originally set up a vase, a lemon, and a red onion. As I didn’t have the endurance, and this painting is a practice one, I left the vase out of the painting and focused only on the lemon and red onion. The background would be a dark value, and the tabletop would be the same color, just a lighter value. To eliminate the stress of creating a larger painting with a new technique, I used a 12” x 9” canvas.

My first alla prima oil painting. I need to improve, but it’s a start!

I created the fruit before the background. You’ll notice that I didn’t cover all the canvas near the edge of the fruit; that’s because I was scared of ruining the fruit’s edges.

My major mistake was mixing the incorrect colors for the bottom of the red onion. So when my daughter checked to see how my artwork was going, she chastised me for this error, quickly mixed the right colors, and fixed the bottom of the onion so that shade is more properly reflected into it.

After that hiccup, I added more color to both objects and indicated a highlight on both of them with the narrow point of a palette knife.

Basically, I feel I did alright with my first alla prima attempt. Not great, not bad. Just OK. And I’m satisfied with that.

Being exposed to the alla prima painting technique opened up a new world for me. I must still learn a plethora of techniques. But learning a new technique is an amazing, intensely exuberant feeling. It is refreshing, fun, and joyous to see a product started and completed in one painting session. And I can’t wait to create more alla prima paintings.