Saturday!

I gessoed a few canvases in black awhile back. I wanted to use the last one that I have left today. I've been surprised that painting on black panels is not difficult....but what about a landscape...could that possibly work? Well, to quote the inimitable Fred Picker *: "Try it!"
(My blogging friend Don Michael has indicated that he paints on black all the time..."no big deal"!)

Here are the steps I used. (I used one of my previous paintings for reference)

1. First I just put down some basic marks to indicate where the major shapes are.

2. Then I established the lightest lights right away (This is extra fun on black!)

3. At this point I painted all the major shapes simply using only 2 to 3 values.

4. Here's a "move" I just recently learned from Craig Srebnik. I dragged a paper towel right through the paint all over the entire canvas. (This is done with a medium-light pressure). The object of doing this is to integrate the colors together. 

5. After the paper towel "treatment" you'll see that the sky and the water are contaminated...but don't fret, all one has to do is re-state the colors where necessary.

6. So... in the end I learned that a landscape can be painted onto a black surface. (Thanks for the advice, Fred Picker (RIP), Craig Srebnik and Don Michael)!

(*The famous story I heard about teacher Fred Picker was that one of his students asked him a super-complex-involved technical question (that went on and on). "If I do this and then I do that and then I do this...will that be ok?" ...after a pregnant pause Picker said: "Try it!")

Painting: Celeste Bergin, Reflection, oil on 8x8 stretched canvas