Week 3: Vase of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem

Hello Friends,

This Tuesday was my day at the National Gallery of Art this week. At the end of last week I sorted out a game plan of how to tackle this painting. Which is by setting a goal of working on a small portion of it each week, say a 5x5 inch or so square area of the painting and bringing in up to a certain level, knowing full well that I will need to come back at another time to lay another layer of detail or glaze on top of what I have already completed. By breaking each area down into smaller chunks, the complexity of the painting becomes manageable, and at the end of the day I feel like I have accomplished something. I think it would be very easy to become discouraged working on this painting...

Working with oil paint thinned with a linseed oil and damar varnish medium, I set to work and by the end of the day was pleased with where I left off.

{status at the end of week 2}

{Status at the end of week 3}

For this week's painting session I only used a sable brushes, a #6 kolinsky cat's tongue filbert and a #2 kolinsky cat's tongue filbert by Escoda. Each time I am surprised by how much can be accomplished with such tiny brushes and how in the future even more delicate brushes will be required...

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