I have been switching to painting on Ray Mar canvas panels which I re-prime with a white lead ground made by Natural Pigments. I really like working on these panels prepared this way. In the past I had been mounting Claussens linen to Dibond aluminum panels. But since I don't seem to work as quickly as I have in the past, I am always looking for a more efficient way to use my time without raising the cost of my materials. Using these panels and preparing them as I do has meant only a very slight increase in cost to pay for the Natural Pigments ground. Although, I make up for that in preparation time. I can prep 20 panels of various sizes in about 2 hours, instead of taking a full day to do a dozen panels the old way. Drying time is longer, but I just prepare a variety of sizes at one time ahead of when I actually need them. Doing it this way, so far I have not run out of panels to paint on in the sizes I want. With the exception of a special commission piece, that needs to be a specific size, I don't imagine I will be in need of panels to work with. As a famous burger joint advertises, "I'm lovin' it!"
One of the nice things about living here is so many things are right off the many Farm to Market Roads winding through the Texas Hill Country and surrounding areas. This especially helps old guys like myself who don't get around as well as we used to. I found both of these paintings just a short ways distance from each other. The light was good and the subjects cooperated. So here we are, two 9"x12" oils on panels and being brand new where you can still smell the varnish are available from my studio which you can contact me here or my Facebook page, John Cox Fine Art, for more information on these. I hope you like them.
"The Red Calf"
9"x12" Oil on panel
"The Three Amiga's"
9"x12" Oil on panel
