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.

When it’s clear the view is fantastic.  You can see more of these views in the previous DweezelJazz Art blog post Egg Tempera Painting of l’Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix Mountains.

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.

Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until it was superseded, in the 1500s, by oil painting.  Egg tempera paintings are extremely durable, and don’t darken with age as oil paintings do.  Evidence of egg tempera’s long-term durability can be seen in ancient paintings we still have today.  It was used by ancient Egyptians on sarcophagi and portraits; it was used by the ancient Greeks; all the surviving panel paintings by Michelangelo were painted with egg tempera.

DweezelJazz Art Egg Tempera Gallery Page 1

A few days before Christmas I experimented with my egg tempera paintings to see how durable the method is when painted on paper, a process I’ve described in detail in How To Paint With Egg Tempera. I tested around 7-10 paintings, ranging in creation from several years to 6 months ago.

I found that for any painting over a year old it was possible, without damaging the painting, to:

• rub a dry cloth across the painting
• wipe the painting with a very heavily, dripping wet cloth

I wouldn’t recommend rubbing hard or wiping the painting with a very wet cloth in general, but it was a great way to find out if the paintings were durable, even if it was a somewhat risky test!

I also pushed my nail on the surface of the paintings and dragged it a centimeter or so, and to my amazement, no paint came off.  There was a small indentation on the painting where the nail had pressed hard into the surface, but it was otherwise untouched and the image was unblemished.

I discovered that it isn’t possible to do any of these things, without damaging it, to a painting that is less than six months old. Within six months of completion, it’s very easy to scratch or remove paint from the surface by rubbing it hard.

Luckily, it’s easy enough to fix scratches or blemishes if an accident occurs, by applying more paint, so that no damage or touch up is visible.

This turned out to be a very good thing one time when Jazzy, our african grey, decided she wanted to take a visit to the Maldives beach and finally (after many foiled attempts) managed to land on the painting when I wasn’t looking.

Jasmine took her job seriously as DweezelJazz Art mascot and she evaluated each painting.  She clearly had her favorites, because she would sometimes become obsessed with getting close to some of the paintings in particular, the Maldives beach being one of them! She skidded across the surface and created quite a bit of damage only a week after I had finished the painting. Fortunately, I was easily able to fix it and there are no traces of birdie tracks in the sand.

The length of time it takes for an egg tempera painting to become durable will vary depending on environmental conditions. The best approach is to allow a year for the painting to ‘cure’ and set into the durable, long-lived, bright images that egg tempera paintings are renowned for.

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:

1. Hanging the glass just as it is with the painting on it (the glass used in this case is tempered glass, 4 mm thick).
2. 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.

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:

Lotus Flower Egg Tempera Painting

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.

Egg Tempera Painting "Rocky Shores of Lac Leman"

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.

Here’s a larger view on the scenery at Stourhead:

Stourhead Park

Stourhead House overlooks the lake.  What a view!

View of Stourhead House Overlooking the Lake

Wheat almost ready to harvest

It has been a long time since the last post here on DweezelJazz Art blog.  There have been a combination of things that made this so.  What started it was that we lost our Internet connection for six weeks.  Our Internet Service Provider, who will remain nameless here, upgraded their service, but unfortunately they lost our connection altogether and never found it again!  So we switched providers.  In France it takes a long time for a new provider to set up the line. But we’ve been back online for a few weeks now and everything is working very nicely.

Green Summer Countryside

We’ve had a very unusual summer here – it has rained so much that everything has stayed green and it looks like the high Alps in summertime.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  The air has been cleaned every few days by another downpour and lots of wind, but we’ve also had a lot of bright, shiny sunshine.  It has been idyllic.

Corn Field

We’ve watched and heard the sparrows nesting in the eaves of our house.  The swallows and house martins, also living around here, are cleaning up all of the mosquitoes in the area – we haven’t been bitten once at home!  The swallows are fantastic to watch as they swoop gracefully back and forth, nearly colliding with the walls when they get close to the house.  The roosters and chickens in the large open field next to us have been announcing themselves loudly and are a real joy to watch as they bound and run across the tall grass, always busy.

Jet D'Eau Geneva Switzerland

It has also been an eventful summer, as a result of something that happened way back in February.  I went to the dentist to have a fixed orthodontic retainer glued back on. (Visits to the dentist have taken me frequently into Geneva and so I’ve witnessed summer in town too, as you can see in the photos.)  This simple goal turned out to be far more involved than I at first thought.  The dentist took one look at me, asked me all about any symptoms I experienced and then he announced that he thought he might be able to largely remove those symptoms:  migraines, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing, lung discomfort, neck and back muscle cramps, lack of sleep, and so on.

And, to my utmost amazement, in addition to the removal of these symptoms, I found that I no longer had reactions to being around perfumes, cleaning products and other toxic chemicals I have hitherto found increasingly difficult to endure.  I didn’t rush out to put these things in my environment, but it was fabulous not to feel like someone had laid out kryptonite around me every time I went out somewhere.

Place du Bourg de Four, Old Town Geneva, Switzerland

I’ve lived with these difficulties all my life and had come to accept them as part of life, at least my life.  So it has been with amazement that I’ve discovered that these myriad symptoms are indeed entirely due to jaw misalignment.  I’ve learned a tremendous amount about this in the last months;  it hasn’t been easy and has taken a huge amount of thinking and observing on my part, all the while trying to learn fast enough so as not to fall back into the abyss of pain-ridden exhaustion.  Life rarely offers a magic bullet.  My situation isn’t totally resolved and I’m still trying to find out if there’s a long-term solution to correct the jaw alignment.

Parc des Bastions, Geneva, Switzerland

The great thing is that along the way, there have been times during the last months that I’ve been the most pain-free I’ve ever been – in fact, I didn’t know what it was like to be that pain-free – didn’t know what it was like to have energy, and long, deep nights of sleep.  Fantastic!  So I took advantage of it!

Looking up at back of Old Town Geneva from opposite the Parc des Bastions

In June I finished the Total Training Online Course on Adobe Dreamweaver, and within a couple of weeks I designed a completely new look for DweezelJazz Art site, with new galleries and descriptive content for the paintings.

Then I worked on a number of drawings for paintings in egg tempera, inked them…

Inked drawings ready to glue onto the tempered glass.

and then glued them onto tempered glass.

Drawings ready to be underpainted, and then prepped for painting with egg tempera.

As I was doing this, and also preparing some drawings for painting in watercolor, Tony came up with a brilliant idea: what about creating a book of paintings?  Well, I have wanted to do something of that kind for a long time, dreaming about it.  I decided to bite the bullet.  I chose the subject, in fact, if I survive the first book, I plan to do a series of them: each book dedicated to a town and area in the Pays de Gex, France / Geneva, Switzerland area.

I started with a plan to fill a 60-page book, large format.  So I created a storyboard for the entire book, including image sizes and placement.

Storyboard for the first book.

Then I started drawing and drawing and drawing.

A drawing for the book.

I’m including scenes in towns and in the countryside around them, so that the book will give the feel of the place as a whole.

This is what I call a "cow bus".

Quite often at the beginning of summer, you can see tractors hauling a trailer full of cows out to the fields, and again in fall taking them back to the warmth of the barns.  It almost seems like the cows are being transported to school or something, so I call it a ‘cow bus’.

I’ve completed 64 drawings and have 18 left to do.  Then, all I have to do is paint them! I’ll paint them probably using a combination of ink and watercolor.  And of course add text to accompany the paintings.

Sunflower

So, if you’ve managed to read this entire post and have reached this far: thank you!  Thank you for reading this blog, and if you’ve been a reader for some time, thank you for continuing to read DweezelJazz Art blog.  I don’t post as often as I used to because I’ve had to prioritize the precious commodity of time, but I do plan to continue posting and have some photos of pretty places and countryside ready for future posts.  I’m very happy if you find it interesting and fun.  Life is full of beautiful things, to cherish and enjoy, and I try to share a little of that here.

This sunflower, for example,  just wouldn’t pose correctly for the photo – I reckon it was a bit drunk out there in the fresh air – couldn’t focus on having it’s photo taken!  But it is beautiful, nonetheless.

‘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.