Oil painting with cloth (con't)

Pursuit and refinement of the new technique
At first, I limited my colors to very basic earth tones, especially those that seemed most transparent and therefore most conducive to getting the textural effects that excited me.

The brand of oil paints that I was using was new to me. I had always worked with Grumbacher paints but that brand was no longer available at my supplier and I was referred to a new company, Gamblin. Among Gamblin’s colors are some very transparent shades of browns, reds, oranges and yellows. Transparent Earth Yellow, Transparent Orange, Earth Red and Earth Orange were especially effective.

Together with Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna, I pursued my new subject matter and textured style. Gradually, I found other colors that could be used purely or mixed to maintain transparency but added brightness and more color to my palette. I found most greens too opaque but learned to mix Prussian Blue, a very transparent color, to the warmer colors to produce a full range of greens. The use of white and black were very limited. Different pressures on the cloth were used to lighten or darken the other colors, allowing the original white of the canvas primer to show through in varying degrees.