Gallery Annex 1b 2024-2010: This page serves as a bridge between Gallery One (oil paintings) and Gallery Two (works on paper). Works in both mediums are featured here together for comparison. My approach to drawing differs significantly from painting, as drawing allows for greater detail and smaller scales. Drawing also allows for greater experimentation.
Click images to enlarge. Contact me at: teaguemichael5858@gmail.com for purchase information on individual artworks.
Alloys and Alliances was exhibited at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles in 2011 as part of an anniversary show.
![Animus of Treacle (18" x 12" oil on canvas) [2]](BK-images/I-Paintings/Animus_of_Treacle.jpg)
Pre-Treatment of Canvas: Preparations of canvas for painting have evolved over the years. The archival quality of much that I created between 1983 to 1986 was up for grabs due to “experimentations” arising from art school. However, by 1988 I was painting on a lead ground consistently.
My softer edge technique from this period required more room to accommodate details. However, by 2010 I was making smaller paintings as my ambition to exhibit disappeared and long-term storage became an issue. My foundation lead white ground (a lead carbonate/zinc oxide mixture) gradually disappeared during this time because I started working exclusively on pre-stretched, gesso-primed canvases.
Though applying foundation white to a gessoed surface presented no problem, solvent was still needed to thin it. This solvent left the zinc less elastic and more brittle after it dried. Lead carbonate adds elasticity to zinc, but in the case of a few small paintings made in the early 2010s, some chipping occurred around edges after a couple of years. (I have not noticed this problem with larger oil paintings using the same foundation white.)
By the time this complication was noticed, I had already ceased using foundation white on pre-gessoed canvases for another reason. The absorbency of acrylic gesso sucked the oil binder out of my foundation layer and left it parched. Animal skin glue was used as a sizing for my initial lead-grounded paintings, as I described, and it did not produce this parched effect. Lead-over-acyrlic created a painting surface that was too absorbent and chalky. As was evident by my use of this method, I gained none of the special quality that lead paint ususally imparts: Lead primer is generally harder and smoother, and gives oil paint a metallic or glassy look. I stopped using this gesso-lead combo by 2015 since it was a waste of good lead paint.
A more likely reason for the 2010 cracking may be that, because I did not cover the gallery wrap trims of my canvases with the same foundation white as used for the top coat, this left a raised and exposed edge of foundation at its most vulnerable location, where paintings are subject to banging and abrasion. I have since painted the wraps on all my completed paintings, and have also added varnish as an extra level of protection.
Although I have never been a fan of acrylic gesso as a foundation, six of more thick coats of the stuff, when lightly sanded, gives me a desirable painting surface. A perfect balance is struck between hardness (needed for fine detail at small scales) and a softer (but slower!) absorption of oil when blending boundaries with a wet brush. This plate-like surface reestablishes some of my softer-edge blending effects that I used to achieve with a lead ground.
Recently I was given a bottle of Lineco sizing medium by a student, which can replace animal skin glue as a sizing for lead-grounded paintings. Animal skin glue is inconsistent when mixed by hand, since it potentially creates a strike-through problem with solvent leaking from the front of the canvas to the back of the canvas. Lineco sizing is synthetic and durable, and though I do not plan to use it to size cotton canvas, it should work for wood panel. This protective surface will allow me to return to a lead ground for some projects.
The Joy of Drawing: I attribute my unflagging commitment to drawing to my twenty-seven year history of making comics and comic strips. My drawing mania may be traced back to grade school in the 1960s. Drawings that were not comics were less common during this time.
Works on paper from the early Aughts are showcased on my fourth gallery page, and these pieces functioned more like paintings on paper than drawings since my drawing niche was then occupied by black and white comics. Once I began to wind down comics production in the early 2010s, my drawing style evolved. This current page reflects that evolution.
Works on Paper 2024-2010/ Back/ Home
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