A Bluebird’s Song – Original painting girl and bluebird

Working with cold wax and oils on canvas is quite the challenge. You want to work a lot of texture in with the wax but the canvas does give a bit. My alternative was to layer various papers and acrylics on first. Then adding the wax and using oil pastels to draw in the girl and bird.

Allowing a good week or so for that to cure I begin painting in the features with a mix of wax and oils. Altering the background and textures as I went.

I would still like to work with thicker paint and am thinking I should mix it up in advance by a few hours so that it sets up a bit before applying it.

As with all of these cold wax paintings photos just do not capture the experience that you have when seeing them in person. The texture, the depth of layers and the richness of the color is somehow muted by the camera. Of course I am not a professional photographer either and I am sure a professional could better capture it all.

I really wanted to represent the idea of the bluebird singing to her almost in a whisper. Can birds whisper? I know from having a canary that they can at times sing oh so quietly. That is what I was thinking here.

I was also thinking about rain. We have had just enough rain to get bright yellow green blades of grass on the lawn. And just enough to have the magnolia blooming it’s big white blooms. It smells lemony and fresh when you walk past it. Which I do several times as it is a favorite path when walking the dog. I think he likes the scent of the blooms too.

I tried to get a close shot of the texture of her hair. I did several layers here building up the wax and the oil mixture. I would like the next one to have even more body to it.

Typically my acrylic paintings have very little texture and predominately it is in the background. I am finding that I enjoy working with these thicker paints on certain aspects of the figure/ body.

My palette was rather varied for this piece. The dominate colors are: burnt sienna, turquoise blue, dioxazine purple, cadmium yellow light, sap green, payne’s gray and prussian blue. Rather more color choices than my typical palette.

I have just finished prepping two more panels (wood this time) and have a surreal landscape that I am working on now. I hear thunder from outside so I am off to post this.