Here’s the egg tempera painting I finished recently:
Sunken Boat (18" x 7")
This is a boat in Greece that came upon hard times. As is true for all the egg tempera paintings on my site, the colors are richer and the textures are more subtle on the originals, changing more gradually and fluidly than they appear here in jpeg form.
This was probably the most challenging painting for me of all that I’ve done so far. I’ve been looking forward to tackling this one for a few years now. It’s very nice to see a painting take shape that has been formulating in my head for so long and to see finally how it actually turned out.
I love the faded, yet still vibrant, colors on the boat and the glossy surface of the water. Hopefully someone came to rescue this cute little boat so it could go places again.
Le Brevant is a place on the peaks across the valley from the l’Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc. Le Brevant is accessible by hiking up the mountain and doesn’t require any special equipment to manage it, but we prefer to hop on the cable cars to get up there!
The weather on the peaks can change quickly with clouds appearing rapidly, seemingly out of nowhere. This is a view from Le Brevant looking across the valley in the direction of Mont Blanc, but the clouds have moved in.
It’s among these craggy landscapes that I discovered some daisies growing. And that’s what inspired this 12″ x 15″ egg tempera painting ‘Daisy Rock’:
It’s amazing how plants and even trees can grow amongst the rocks in what seems like a fairly inhospitable environment.
It turns out that this area has lots of wildlife and plants and is part of a nature reserve ‘Aiguilles Rouges’. In the billboard below, the white area shows the nature reserve starting at Le Brevant which is down at the lowest point of the white area. To see this closer up click on the image to see the text more clearly.
(As usual, click on any of the images to see a larger version.)
The lake contrasts with the rocky arid area up at Le Brevant and shines like a jewel.
There are some very nice hiking paths along there too.
Looking round a little to the right of the lake you can see the rock shift gradually into greener slopes where it’s just that bit warmer lower down.
Looking even further, to the far right, there are spectacular jagged peaks, and this time the fog is rolling in and out giving the place an eerie feeling.
Closer inspection of the rocks shows them to be very interesting and the colors are beautiful.
All sorts of things live among them. I took a photo of a medium-sized black spider hiding in between the rocks, but I thought these daisies peaking out were a lot less creepy.
The fog started to dissipate and the mountains on the Mont Blanc side of the valley popped into view.
There’s a pleasant, though somewhat steep, walk down the mountain from Le Brevant – the ski route in winter. Trees and grass replace bare rocks and the scenes are more gentle than those in the rugged beauty of Le Brevant peak, but even here flowers nestle among the rocks. Beauty and life thrive even in the most awkward of places, perhaps making it all the more precious.
There are beautiful little alcoves and doorways all round Gex, a hillside town in the Pays de Gex, Ain, France. Walking around the streets higher up in Gex I caught sight of this doorway. It struck me as a simple entrance, without pretense, and yet it has a nobility about it that makes you wonder if it’s the way in to some great hall or building of historical importance. I don’t know whose home it is, or if the building has specific history to it, although being part of the old town of Gex is significant enough.
The painting is 12″ x 16″ (30 x 41 cm) and is done with egg tempera. This painting will also be a part of the ‘Gex Book’. I love the town of Gex and creating this book is my way of paying a small homage to that special place. I think the best thing in life is to share beauty, and so I hope you enjoy it too.
I received an email from Juliet, an egg tempera painter, asking a really good question about framing and I thought I’d answer it here. Here’s the question:
“I’ve been using egg tempera for a little while now (for religious icons) and I’m really hooked on the medium. I’ve been casting around for a suitable support for more secular pieces which is less laborious than preparing gesso boards, and your way of adhering paper to glass is really interesting. Do you find you have to frame your glass-mounted pieces afterwards or can they be hung as they are?”
The great thing about egg tempera paintings on paper adhered to glass, is that it allows for many options when it comes to framing. If you’d like to find out how the paper is adhered to glass, and why, the process is described in “How To Paint With Egg Tempera“. I’ve framed egg tempera paintings successfully in the following ways:
Hanging the glass just as it is with the painting on it (the glass used in this case is tempered glass, 4 mm thick).
Framing the painting in a standard frame, in the same manner as an oil painting is framed.
If the glass is tempered the painting can be hung directly on the wall just as it is. The “Maldives Palm” egg tempera painting is hanging on our living room wall. The painting is hung with a fixture attached directly to the glass just like mirrors are often hung. There’s card backing on the back of the glass. You can see the result in the photo below.
A traditional frame could be added around the glass in whatever sizing appeals. The flexibility of how these paintings can be framed leaves options open for a person to find whatever appeals to them. As you can see with the “Aguille du Midi” painting, it’s now possible to add a backing and/or a conventional frame around the painting.
I originally used the same glass that is used conventionally in picture frames; this glass isn’t tempered and is thinner than the tempered glass. I used wheat paste to glue the 300 g/m2 watercolor paper to both sides of the glass in order to strengthen it. As the paintings become larger in size, care does need to be taken because the glass does flex when it’s in larger sizes. However, they are robust and don’t bend if they’re not set down on uneven surfaces.
“Portrait of a Horse” is one of the paintings done on normal glass and it has paper glued on both sides of the glass. It has been propped against the wall on top of a cupboard with no ill effect. It could be framed in a traditional frame right over the edges of the painting with a solid backing to give it support, like the “Purple Flowers” painting shown here:
Another demonstration of the robustness of the paper on normal glass with paper adhered to both sides of the glass is the painting of the “Fisherman’s Bastion“, Budapest, which you can see in the photo is sitting on an easel without a solid support behind it. This painting is 14″ x 18″ (36 x 46 cm), which is fairly large. It has been on display long-term like this and it works just fine.
If you want to hang the glass just as it is, then it’s most definitely best to use tempered glass because this doesn’t flex even at larger sizes. I’ve put a lot of thought and experimentation into determining the best ways to frame the glass to ensure that the painting remains in perfect condition on a rigid surface. If you have any questions or suggestions for other ways to frame the artwork, I’d love to hear from you.
There are many stages involved in creating a painting of a scene. I’m an indoors type of painter so I like to use the convenience of a camera to record the details of a subject for future reference. Using photographs for reference is really great, if a few things are kept in mind and a couple of pitfalls avoided. The main elements that I have found to be of vital importance are:
composition
color
perspective
free nature of the art
Attention to Composition
The first thing to do is to capture the subject or place that you’re interested in with the camera. This can be a bit tricky. The number of photos I’ve taken only to find, when I get home, that they just don’t have what I’m looking for to inspire me to a painting. I’ve written a few posts about what I look for and strive for when taking photographs.
Cropping a photograph can make a tremendous difference to the feel of the subject. Understanding composition and using it to show off your subject in the most flattering way can change a prospective painting from dull and commonplace to really eye-catching.
I really liked this photo of trees in a park in England.
"Stourhead Majestic Trees" Reference Photo
Cropping it to an oval brings focus and a kind of movement to the trunks as the eye is drawn into the painting.
It’s also fun to put together a composition from a variety of reference photos, as was done with the “Knight and Monument” watercolor painting shown below.
The monument is a war memorial from a photo I took in London from a double-deck bus; the trees are from the French Jura mountains; the greenery in the foreground was taken from a flowerbed in Geneva; and the Knight and his horse are taken from a variety of shots of people on horses from a movie – the man on the horse is different from the one on that horse in the movie. Creating this painting was a lot of fun.
Another facet of composition to be aware of is to exclude any details that are present in the photo that aren’t essential to the meaning of the piece, or may even be distracting from it. In this reference shot of a road in the town of Gex, France, the removal of the trash cans and cars, along with all the markings in the road, helped to focus on the real essence of the scene.
Reference Photo for View of Gex Town Hall from houses and church
Below you can see the watercolor painting, “Gex Church View”, that resulted from using this photo as a reference. The lamp that you can see at the top of the photo wasn’t included because it distracts from the main focus of the scene and draws the eye up, when it’s important for the art to draw the eye into the painting.
The painting is for the Gex Book. The back of the Gex Church is to the left, and there are houses to the right. Looking down the street you can see the dark grey turret of the Town Hall; it has the same distinctive clocks on all four sides. Beyond is the Geneva valley. In the distance, Le Saleve is visible to the right.
The Importance of Color
Color is one of the things that is probably the most influential of all factors in a painting. At least, I’ve discovered that this is true in my perception of artwork. If the colors are appealing to me, I am often immediately drawn to a painting, and then I look closely at the subject of it.
Even though I’m strongly driven by color, it has taken me quite some time to begin understanding how to use color to the most benefit. A short, but very clear article, that I’ve found very helpful is at Indezine.com: “What Is Color Theory”. I have also found the image of the color wheel shown on the book called “The Color Star” by Johannes Itten to be useful.
I haven’t read Itten’s book however, since one of the customer comments on Amazon.com mentioned that his books are extremely good, but that they are rather heavy in theory and somewhat complicated. Perceptions of complication are somewhat subjective, and whether it’s the case or not for this book I don’t know, but I decided to wait and see if I could achieve what I wanted with paintings before committing myself to further study!
The thing about cameras and computer screens, and printers for that matter, is that most of them all portray the same colors a bit differently. Some cameras are set to give a very bright, colorful rich image, while others tone down a lot of colors and almost give a blue tint to everything. My larger camera does the latter.
So it’s important to remember the colors and lighting of a place or subject that you saw as best as you can. Some artists do quick sketches and watercolors on site so that they can better remember the essence of the light and atmosphere of the place. Then they combine this with the use of photographs to provide more details. James Gurney has good articles on this and many other subjects at his blog Gurney Journey; one in particular on this subject is Using Photo Reference.
The reference photo shown below is somewhat limited in its color appeal. And there’s a tourist in the way! (No, I didn’t take this photo, but I was there.)
Reference Photo for View of Le Saleve and French Alps from Gex
I decided to portray what I know of the atmosphere and feel of the place in the following way with the painting, “Gex View Across The Valley”:
This painting too is one I’ve just completed for the Gex Book. There are spectacular views from the town of Gex, which is located in the foothills of the French Jura Mountains. In this painting you can see to the south of Gex, across the valley towards the city of Geneva in Switzerland. Le Saleve is the first set of hills on the other side of the valley. Le Saleve is in France and not Switzerland, the Swiss border ends pretty much at the foot of Le Saleve. The mountains beyond it belong to the Mont Blanc Massif.
Draft page layout Gex Book
Here you can see how it looks in the page layout for the book. In a previous post I mentioned that the other sketch that wasn’t yet completed on this page (which happens to be this painting, and is now completed) would be of a view down the valley towards Bellegarde – well, turns out it wasn’t – this one also faces towards Le Saleve! But there is a view looking down towards Bellegarde in at least one painting still to be done for the book, and it will be painted and shown here on DweezelJazz Art blog eventually.
Look out for Proper Perspective
Many camera lenses distort. Even with anti-distortion on, the distortion of lines, especially towards the edges of the image, can still be very pronounced. I was so surprised when I started looking more closely at just how much distortion can go unnoticed by the casual glance at a photo. It’s almost as if the eye makes up for it. But in a painting, I think it’s a different story. If the perspective is odd, then it most likely will get noticed, especially if it’s unintentional!
Making the Art Unencumbered and Expressive
It’s super easy to get lost in all the detail that a photograph provides. It can become an all-consuming goal to try to portray the scene or subject in all it’s complexity, with the utmost accuracy. Unless this is done with extreme care, this can quickly kill the feeling, life, and atmosphere of a piece. It’s very good to consciously decide in advance how much detail is wanted, and how it will advance the aim of what the painting will convey. Always staying aware of atmosphere, feeling, and even the emotions of the piece will help to maintain the focus of the goal for each painting. It will also help to consider these things when choosing the predominant colors for a painting.
More important than detail or accuracy is the conveyance of meaning, atmosphere, life, and what the artist finds uniquely interesting in a scene or object, rather than to present all its details in accurate duplication. Individual expression and viewpoint is what makes creating and observing art so endlessly fascinating.
Last week I painted a lotus flower. I really liked its glow of golden yellow light that merges and fades into the brilliant pink petals.
The painting is 18″ x 9″ (54.5 x 22.5 cm). Here it is (the original painting is slightly more red-pink purple, rather than the more blue-purple as it looks here; the colors also blend more smoothly in the painting, but I’m unable to faithfully reproduce red-tone colors digitally). But this gives the idea:
There are many many views from the shores of Lac Leman. Town views, beach views, home-front views, country views… There’s no end to the variety of scenes that can be found along the lake. It’s approximately 73 km (45 miles) long and 14 km (8 miles) wide. It is the largest body of freshwater in continental Europe, and 60% of it belongs to Switzerland, with the rest belonging to France.
There are quite a number of beaches along Lac Leman. There are sandy ones,
A Beach on Lac Leman, France
…and then there are more pebbly beaches. You can see the Jet D’Eau in Geneva, in the distance:
Distant view of Jet D'Eau, Geneva, Switzerland
Many homes have gardens that end right at the waterfront.
Corsier, Lac Leman, Switzerland
Some of the homes are large and private, in beautiful spots.
Lac Leman, Switzerland
The towns along the lake often have many yachts and boats moored at the water’s edge.
Ouchy, Lac Leman, Switzerland
There are also many quiet coves with piers for docking the boats.
Cove at Bellerive, Lac Leman, Switzerland
It’s a great place to sit and watch the water. Last week I painted an egg tempera painting (10″ x 18 “) of one such tranquil scene, “Rocky Shores of Lac Leman”, where the water seemed to laze under the rays of the sun.
Last week I painted a scene of a set of trees that I’ve been intending to do for a couple of years now! Finally it has been done. Here it is (to see larger click on image).
These trees are in a National Trust site in England, near Bath, at a place called Stourhead. I loved the look of the tree trunks close up, and how very alive they look, along with the ground around them. They seem immense, powerful and yet very inviting and warm.
Hi, I’m Nat Wildish. There are a number of ways to paint with egg tempera. Below, I explain and demonstrate how I paint with egg tempera. If you’d like to jump to a specific topic, here are links which take you directly to them:
I hope that you’ve found this information on egg tempera painting helpful. You’re welcome to look around the DweezelJazz Art Gallery to see more egg tempera paintings by Nat Wildish. And if you have any questions I’d be glad to hear from you, just leave a comment! Cheers,
What Is Egg Tempera Painting?
Egg Tempera is an old painting method. It was used by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and also in the Byzantine Empire. During the Italian Renaissance before 1500 AD almost every painter used egg tempera, including Michelangelo.
The egg tempera technique uses egg yolk to bind the pigments for painting. As can be all too clear when it comes time to do the dishes, egg yolk dries quickly and if left for some time, is very hard to remove. This property is used to the painter’s advantage by mixing colors with it to make paint.
Egg yolk cracks when left to dry in a thick droplet. To avoid cracks in a painting it’s necessary to apply it in thin layers. In order to achieve this, only a small amount of egg tempera paint can be applied to the paintbrush. As the egg yolk dries very quickly in these quantities it is therefore essential to this technique that small amounts of paint are applied in short brush strokes. Almost immediately after applying the paint it’s dry enough to apply more straight on top of it without lifting what’s already there. It’s clear that the characteristic features of egg yolk, and how it dries, largely define the egg tempera technique. The paint is applied in short brush strokes, one thin layer over another until there are many layers. Different colors with varying levels of opacity can be applied in the different layers. To achieve a smooth appearance the brush strokes can be applied in all different directions so that no one direction is given preference. And any number of textures can be created, for example by making the strokes cross-hatched, or by having them all flow in the same direction.
Egg yolk dries as a crystalline substance, and on its own, allows light to pass through it and also to be reflected back up through it. It acts almost as a jewel, bouncing, diffusing and reflecting the light that enters it. With pigments present in the egg yolk, the light will act differently according to the absorbing properties of the pigments and their opacity.
Light entering the painting is scattered from each layer, and brush stroke, in an infinite variety of ways. Some of the light is scattered and reflected back before it reaches the bottom surface of the painting, some is bounced back from the base of the painting. If a bright white surface is used as the base of the painting this can reflect up into the painting, giving it an almost back-lit feeling. The result is a light-filled, almost luminescent, bright work of art.
As you might gather from this description, painting with egg tempera is a slow and very painstaking process. It requires meticulous attention not only to the detail of the subject matter but also to how the medium should be applied. An advantage of this technique is that it allows the artist to create paintings of incredible detail and accuracy.
There are many other binding agents used to make paints, including gum arabic (used in watercolor paints because it dissolves easily in water), oil, egg white, and casein (a milk protein). Around 1500, the use of oil paints largely replaced egg tempera. Oil paint can be applied in thicker and larger amounts allowing for much faster application, and therefore oil paintings often have a much deeper color saturation.
One great advantage egg tempera paintings have is that once they’re set, egg tempera paintings don’t change. Oil paints darken, yellow and become transparent with age. Egg tempera paintings don’t fade or change color; they’re permanent. Examples from the first few centuries AD still exist. Here’s one of my (yes certainly more recent than centuries ago!) paintings.
There are a number of ways to paint with egg tempera. This is what I do:
Sketching The Drawing
Pencil drawing on paper
I make a drawing in pencil on hot pressed Fabriano Artistico extra white 100% cotton watercolor paper. The cold pressed paper isn’t as smooth as the hot pressed; the smoother paper provides a better surface for the egg tempera paint.
Then, with diluted Winsor & Newton Calligraphy ink (using distilled water to dilute the ink), I redraw the image and erase the pencil lines. This allows being able to see the drawing later on, without it being visible on the final painting.
Inked artwork glued with archival wheat paste to tempered glass.
It’s necessary for an egg tempera painting to be on a rigid surface so that the paint doesn’t crack. Egg tempera paint uses egg as its base, and egg dries in crystalline form. It cracks if it’s painted on too thick, or if the surface its on bends. Using archival wheat paste, I glue the paper onto tempered glass, as you can see in the photo above. Tempered glass is totally non-toxic, doesn’t warp and looks very pretty.
I have put glass that has paper glued to it with archival wheat paste in the bath tub to soak to try to get the paper off. After leaving it for several hours I found that I still had to scrape vigorously in order to get the paper off. I decided to see what would happen if I soaked it, took the glass and paper out without scraping, and then let it dry. The paper dried just as if I’d never soaked it, and it was still completely stuck to the glass.
Archival wheat paste is a very impressive way to firmly, if not almost irreversibly, adhere paper to glass! It has the added advantage of being non-toxic, non-acidic and will not damage the artwork or paper in any way, and it doesn’t deteriorate over time.
At this point it’s time to make the base of the egg tempera paint: egg yolk mixed with a very small amount of water.
Preparation of egg tempera paint base
1. Crack the egg (preferably use ‘bio’ or ‘organic’ eggs) and remove the white, keeping only the egg yolk.
Separating the yolk from the white
2. Place the yolk on a tissue, I use a couple of sheets of toilet paper.
Separated egg yolk
3. Pierce the thin (but sometimes rather resilient) transparent sac around the yolk.
4. Squeeze the yolk gently and pour the orange-yellow liquid into a small jar.
Pouring egg yolk into a jar
Steps 3 and 4 ensure that only the yolk itself is included in the paint mixture, providing a very smooth base for the paint.
5. Add approximately half a teaspoon of water (preferably distilled water), it varies according to the size of the egg.
Add water to the yolk
6. Stir.
What you’re after is a mixture of egg yolk and water that looks a light creamy color. And that has the thickness and viscosity so that when you lift the teaspoon out from the mixture you get one or two drops leaving the spoon.
Egg tempera base of egg yolk and a small amount of distilled water
It’s always better to add small amounts of water and to keep adding until you reach the correct consistency. It becomes very easy with practice and this whole process only takes a few minutes once you’re used to it.
This is all there is to producing the base for painting with egg tempera.
Now the paper, with the ink sketch on it, is ready to be prepped for painting with egg tempera. This is done by painting three layers of the egg tempera base evenly over the entire surface of the paper. This must be done with thin layers, applying a little with the brush and spreading it evenly, just like when painting with egg tempera, so that it doesn’t crack when it dries. Essentially this is painting with egg tempera, just without any coloring pigment in it.
Artwork surface prepped for painting with egg tempera
You can click on this image to see it larger. This paper has been prepped with three layers of egg tempera. I also had started painting on it, but this is the only photo I had of prepped artwork. You can see the distinct yellow coloring of the egg tempera base on the page – this vanishes after some days in normal light.
At first an egg tempera painting can appear a little dull because of this egg yolk coloration, but once it fades, the image left is nothing less than stunningly bright and colorful. This is one of the huge bonuses of painting with egg tempera, and in addition, if light-fast color pigments are used in the egg tempera base, then these colors don’t fade or become yellow over time like oil paints do.
Traditionally artists have ground their own solid pigments, making them into a smooth powder, which they then mix into the egg tempera paint base, the mixture of egg yolk with a small amount of water. The egg provides the oily base, while the pigment colors the artwork.
Grinding pigments can be a highly toxic process and requires safety precautions to prevent inhalation of the powder and from absorbing it through the skin. It can also be a fairly time-consuming activity and requires some organization and storage space; often the pigments need to be stored in a liquid in jars.
I keep them in plastic bags to prevent them from drying out.
The egg yolk temporarily contributes a yellow color to the paint and this can make it a little difficult to estimate what the color will turn out to look like on the painting once the egg yolk yellowness has vanished after some days. So I made a color chart just using the watercolor paint with water, and I use this for reference when choosing which color to use for painting.
My Reference Color Chart
Using this watercolor paint reference chart removes most of the guesswork. I find this works a charm for estimating the final color outcome. Although, you do need to expect additional depth and brightness of color on the painting because it’s combined with the egg tempera paint base and not just water.
I usually prep one egg yolk for the day, very occasionally two. First I put a dab of Winsor & Newton watercolor into the bottom of one of the pallet wells. Then I use a small spoon to fill much of the rest of the palette well with the egg tempera base from the jar. I use an old paintbrush to mix the watercolor pigment with the egg tempera.
Painting Palette, glass of distilled water, egg tempera paint base and paintbrushes.
At the side I have a very small (shot) glass with distilled water in it. I use distilled water for the entire painting process.
Distilled water
If the room humidity is low then, at intervals through the day, it’s often necessary to add a little more water to the egg yolk and pigment mixtures in the pallete wells.
I paint with watercolor Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brushes. Are you getting the impression I rather like Winsor & Newton? I got a lovely watercolor box set on sale a few years ago and that set me onto them.
As the day progresses, more and more colors are added to the palette and colors are mixed with others.
Painting with egg tempera this way is efficient and also very economical. Excuse me for the blurry photo.
Usually I start with the darker colors that will appear in the painting and layer colors, sometimes interweaving dark and light colors to give the appearance of texture.
The thin crystalline layers of egg with pigment in them create a beautiful transparent effect, so that colors that are in layers below can be seen through the upper layers of paint, so long as the pigments used are not too opaque to see through or there are not too many opaque layers above.
Light travels down through the layers, bouncing off them and coming back up to the eye from all the different layers. This creates a myriad of stunningly bright, vivid facets to the image and is very appealing.
Here’s a short slideshow of the stages involved in painting “Annecy Restaurant”.
Using Layers of Egg Tempera Paint To Create Textures and Colors
Typically I paint all the parts of the painting that need the same color at the same time so that I can be efficient with the paint. I build up the paint, layer by layer, mixing layers of different colors if I want to have a textured effect.
Below you can see this in detail. The following five photos show how the wall becomes progressively more textured by adding layer on layer.
#1 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting
#2 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting
#3 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting
#4 in sequence showing painting of wall in "Annecy Restaurant" Egg Tempera painting
This last photo is how the wall looked for the finished painting. The variations in the surface are not cracks and they provide a very realistic texture for a wall. As you can see, the darker colors that were placed in the layers below are visible through the upper layers.
There are even contours visible on this painting, which adds nicely to its effect. If you click on the images, they’ll appear larger. There you can see that it’s possible to vary the paint height, for example the yellow lights, by painting more layers over particular areas. You can add as many layers of paint as you like and, as long as each layer is thinly applied, it won’t crack.
Painting sky and water with egg tempera is shown in this article through the painting progress of two egg tempera paintings by Nat Wildish: “Purple Flowers” and “Geneva Lighthouse“.
The great thing about egg tempera paintings on paper adhered to glass is that they can be framed in many ways, allowing each person to select what appeals to them. This subject is covered in detail in this DweezelJazz Art post.
Egg tempera paint sets to be very durable, and within a year of completion, paintings can be rubbed, wiped with a wet cloth, and pressed hard without damage to the surface. Further details are given in this post.
It’s great fun to paint with egg tempera!
I hope that you have found this information on egg tempera painting helpful. You’re welcome to look around the DweezelJazz Art Gallery to see more egg tempera paintings by Nat Wildish. And if you have any questions I’d be glad to hear from you, just drop me an email! Cheers,
‘River of Tulips’ started as a 16 x 10″ (41 x 25 cm) egg tempera painting. I spent many hours of labor over the details of the tulips. But I remained unhappy with the result. So I took a photograph of the painting and, last week, painted over it digitally until I arrived at a painting that now conveys the idea I originally had in mind.
Digital Painting of 'River of Tulips' by Nat Wildish
I could easily paint on the original egg tempera painting with egg tempera paint until I arrived at the result you see here. Maybe one day I will!
Here’s the original egg tempera painting of ‘River of Tulips’:
Original Egg Tempera Painting of 'River of Tulips' by Nat Wildish
I can see merits in both versions of the painting. Which one do you like best, and why? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.
