DweezelJazz Art Blog » Egg Tempera

“Sunken Boat” Egg Tempera Painting

DweezelJazz — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:40:04 +0000

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.

‘Daisy Rock’ Egg Tempera Painting: Le Brevant, Chamonix France

DweezelJazz — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:35:23 +0000

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.

“Gex Door” Egg Tempera Painting

DweezelJazz — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:23:09 +0000

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.

Durability of Egg Tempera Paintings

DweezelJazz — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:03:01 +0000

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.

How To Frame Egg Tempera Paintings On Paper Adhered To Glass

DweezelJazz — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:22:22 +0000

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.

“Lotus Flower” Egg Tempera Painting

DweezelJazz — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:31:15 +0000

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