Phebe Finis!

Taken just minutes after Elspeth applied the final brushstrokes this afternoon, these snapshots of her oil painting depiction of Phebe, a disciple praised by Paul in Romans 16, gives a little taste of the painting complete. 

More detailed images and the accompanying essay for the painting (including the long-awaited title!) will follow shortly.  This is the 41st painting completed for Elspeth and Al R. Young's Women of the Bible Collection.

Tips and Techniques: Squeezing Every Dollar from a Tube of Paint

By Al R. Young

Separate his and hers toothpaste tubes have helped many a marriage—there’s certainly more than one legitimate way to squeeze a tube and individuality should probably reign supreme.  But toothpaste doesn’t generally run over two hundred dollars a pop, and something like a really splendiferous cerulean blue can.  So what’s the best way to skin the oil-paint-tube cat—probably not by wringing it out in utter frustration, as shown at left, and chucking it out with a guilty promise of doing better next time.

A new tube of paint brings back all the grade school joys of a new box of crayons, and, frankly for a while, I just enjoy the sheer luxury of it all, and don't bother with whether the paint in the tube has been uniformly squeezed from the bottom. However, I do find it helpful to avoid wrinkles or crimps in the metal tube.

I keep a short length of 5/8-in. dowel handy for getting as much paint as possible out of oil paint tubes.  Since creating art is fundamentally a tactile experience, whether or not a tube of paint is crumpled or pressed may not suit every taste, but at $1.50 per milliliter for some oil paints, the following steps readily stretch a studio budget.

As the tube ages with use, I finally bring out the dowel and use one of its flat ends to press the paint first from a corner of the tube near its folded end and then all along the fold.  Then, using the dowel like a rolling pin, I flatten the used end of the tube; moving the paint toward the top of the tube.  Once there is enough flattened tube to grasp, I not only roll the dowel across the used portion of the tube, but pull the tube itself beneath the dowel, while holding it flat against the palette or a table top.

For a while, I leave the spent part of the tube flat because it's easy to grasp. Inevitably, however, I start folding the flattened part of the tube toward the cap.

When the rolled part of the tube can no longer be pressed against the paint remaining in the tube, to force it onto the palette, I reach for the pliers that are a much-used piece of studio equipment.

The pliers expel all of the paint, even being used at last to flatten the tube's collar.

And when the collar has been flattened, a small palette knife can be used to scoop out the little bit remaining.

Tips and Techniques: Turn the Problem Upside-Down

Elspeth works at her painting of Phebe, with the panel inverted, April 2011

Strange as it may sound (we often surprise Studio visitors with this one!), working on a painting while the panel is turned upside-down, as shown above, can be a marvelous problem-solver during an otherwise difficult painting session.  In the final stages of her painting of Phebe, for instance, Elspeth has spent several painting sessions over the last couple of weeks, with the panel inverted.  This technique enables the artist to "forget" that he or she is painting a face, an eye, a hand, etc. and, instead, focus only on the color shapes, contours, and textures of a given area.

Particularly in the case of a foreshortened hand position or problematic facial angle, working with the painting upside-down can erase preconceived notions about how a hand or face ought to look; in other words, such a practice objectifies an otherwise subjective task.  At other times, turning a panel or canvas a different direction allows the artist to add new brush strokes without smearing wet paint already applied to the canvas.

Custom frame order with gilded wall quote nears completion

Gold leafed quote in progress by Ashton Young

Ashton Young completing custom frame job

 The Studios is nearing completion of a series of thirteen framed giclees ordered by a client to be displayed on a gallery wall in the client's home.  The giclees feature images from the Women of the Bible series by Al and Elspeth.  Ashton is finishing work on the custom gold-leafed and antiqued finish for each frame.  In addition to the custom frame finish, the client requested frame nameplates for each image which Ashton has created for each image.  The gallery wall will also feature a gold-leafed quotation from the book of 1 Samuel.

On the Easel: Grisaille nears completion on 42nd painting in the Women of the Bible collection

Al R. Young in his Studio, April 2011

One of the first questions visitors to the Studio want to know is how long it takes to complete the kind of paintings that are part of the Collections in the Studios' portfolio.  And while the number of hours and months devoted to a particular work can be informative, the other part of the story is the manner in which those hours are scattered across the calendar. Some paintings, for example, follow an almost uninterrupted path from start to finish. Most paintings, however, do not.
As Al nears completion of the grisaille for the painting of the woman taken in adultery (John 8), a look at the painting's chronology, thus far, illustrates the kind of rhythms typical of the studio.  Each painting typically involves these phases:

           Finishing touches on the grisaille by Al R. Young                 

Conceptualization and design
Creation of costume, props, and setting
Composition and work with models
Panel preparation
Painting
Cure time
Waxing

Currently in the painting stage, Al's composition is designed to tell anew the story of forgiveness necessary in each individual's life and the Savior's power to heal, as expressed in this beautiful promise: 
"The gospel teaches us that relief from torment and guilt can be earned through repentance . . . there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no offense exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness."  From "The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness" by Boyd K. Packer, April 2005.