My new Paynes Grey

I’ve been painting in egg tempera since 2017. At first, I used it to paint portraits.  I created a travelling egg tempera kit and took it with me to Carol’s studio where she had models come one morning a week. I tried to only bring what I needed as we didn’t have too much space and each week I’d hone my kit to make it even lighter and more appropriate.

Flower arranging for Spring Luck, 30 x 34 cm, March 2024

I stood at my plein air easel and worked flat, using the drawer to hold the pigments. Mini muffin tins were how I transported and used my pigments – I cut mountboard and taped it on two sides to prevent spillage. I had glass sheets which I used until they were full or dry and rotated a new one in, as there was no water in Carol’s studio.

Moses, egg tempera on panel, 22 x 26 cm, 2018

I didn’t have that many colours to start with. If I’d been wanting to copy someone else’s method I would have adopted a method: the Zorn palette, say. Instead I bought pigments that I liked.  I didn’t want to buy black. I wanted to make my black and after lots of experimenting I found alizarin crimson mixed with phthalo green made my favourite black. 

Our models often wore blacks and greys and dark blues so I was always looking at new ways to say these colours to avoid a ‘system’. Graphite was a wonderful pigment.  It was dull and matte and also had some lustre. I mixed it with other colours to create neutrals and for the models clothes.

In my most recent two paintings - one is at the top of the page, Flower arranging for Spring Luck, the other in my previous blog I have discovered graphite again.  It is my raw umber of the moment, my paynes grey, the pigment that works magic. One glaze on top of the purple background calmed everything down and made all the other colours work.