"Alla Prima" painting method is when you methodically mix colors to reflect the colors you see in life. Sounds simple, and obvious, right? But this is not necessarily the way all people paint (remember the Venetian Process?). Because color is so reactive, meaning that it changes depending on the other colors adjacent to it, this process can be quite repetitive, always remixing a color because what you have painted next to it has changed the painting.
So this was our first exercise in my painting class: to paint the colors we see, as close as we can. It was also an exercise in mixing neutral colors, paying attention to their temperature (warm or cool?). The subject is nothing fancy, probably to help us let go of all pretense and focus on the neutrals, and the exercise of mixing color. The photograph is not from the exact perspective from which I was painting, but you get the idea. Also this photo makes the colors that I mixed look so far from where I should have been... but it all seemed closer to the mark when I was in the studio. A really fun exercise - and really difficult - but I found the process very meditative. I can't wait to really invest some time in a nice painting.
This semester uses oil paint exclusively and we will paint mostly on prepared cotton paper (Arches Stonehenge covered in a mid-tone rabbit skin glue).
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