Colour, Alchemy, and Intent
The colour workshop was a valuable space; a necessary return to the basic chemistry of paint. It felt good to spend time—the first time in ages—playing with oil paints, really getting into the messy business of pigments and mediums. I left feeling assured about the nuts and bolts of colour mixing and the practice of achieving those elusive greys.
That feeling of confidence quickly gives way to a familiar craving: the luminosity of oil, balanced with exzema! There is a depth and saturation there I desperately want to draw upon. But, and this is the crux of it, the drying times are simply impossible to embrace right now. The sluggish pace stalls the necessary momentum in the studio. The limits of finances. Marcel Duchamp famously said ''do not paint, go and get a job''. I feel the pressure of family financial responsibilities and on balance not enough limitation to change the practice.
This workshop has led me to a bit of kitchen alchemy. I set out to bridge the gap between that desired oil glow and a workable pace. My experiment started with making a homemade oil paint using Prussian blue pigment and poppy oil. From there, the real challenge began: trying to engineer a water-soluble oil from that base. Mixing the oil paint (50%) with wax (50%) and Alkyd medium (Schmincke), using a double boiler, was an interesting link between traditional methods and modern urgency. The outcome was only partially water soluble, so I know more experimentation is needed. It’s a compelling problem to solve.
Ultimately, all this technical probing comes back to intent. The paint isn't just a covering; it's a vehicle. I want to use colour to evoke and suggest, moving beyond simple description. The aim is for the colour to create a feeling and open up subjunctive possibilities—to draw the viewer more deeply into the painted object itself.
