Ghost of Versailles..and Benjamin Franklin's balloon.

Yesterday Nova featured the making of Ben Franklin's balloon at Versaille.  Part of the program was about the colors that the were used to create King Louis' gold on a blue background.  There were very strict recipes.  The blue was a cobalt base, the golds were shades of ochre.  Very good...it confirmed my instincts about painting that gold tone.

This morning I've started introducing the deepest ochres.

My right hand likes to go fast with the brush.  The canvas is only 24x24" and I don't want sloppy drippy stuff going on all over the place.  It is very challenging for me as the right hand has an innate knowledge, and I keep saying, not yet, we'll save the best for last.

Below are various details of the painting, any of which, could stand alone as a painting. Sometimes I fall in love small sections of a painting and decide to rework an entire painting around that one small section.  Instead of starting another painting, or derailing the work in progress, the prints of these details get re-worked into monotypes.

best, and onward

deb.

Ghosts of Versailles

This is a work in progress, an oil painting of my friend Paula and I in the Hall of Mirrors, on the left, and a bunch of tourists.  The work is progressing slowly, I'm holding back on a heavy handed brush with this one.

Almost daily updates are updated on facebook.  I'm debbie.clarke.5011,

My daughter Elizabeth has asked me to start posting less on facebook and to

start blogging, so here I am. 

best, and onward

deb.