Bone Meal Bread

Big Bear of a Locust Log

We cut this big dead Honey-Locust (Gleditsia triancanthos) at Boaz last fall.  I cut him in half out there free-hand, which took nearly 3 hours, then hauled him home.  After some flattening I cut the halves into 3.5″ slabs.  I still had to use the tractor to move them.

Crushed By Egg Tempera

DSC_0015

IMG_9134

Saint Thomas is now on the easel to receive a grisaille underpainting in oils.   After being crushed by my attempt to make an egg-tempera grisaille underpainting on this panel of Thomas and Jesus, et al.,  I have decided to move my historical experimentations to a panel of more manageable dimensions.  Moses in the Rock is the only picture I have made using egg tempera as an underpainting and it is quite small.  This represents the largest panel I have ever undertaken with the most fully developed charters as well.  Egg tempera is very slow (and I already work very slowly), and having already allowed a 5 year window to make this picture,  I shall try to fully embrace those other challenges in a noble fashion in addition to honoring my time.

DSC_0034

Mixing the medium for the thinning of colors for underpainting.

DSC_0040

Applying a coat of thinned shellac over the absorbent gesso and egg tempera.

Please take a moment to visit my friend Mike Schultz interesting post on his blog the other day.