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NOTES FROM JENNIFER VONSTEIN

Glazing with Atelier Middle Medium

As featured in Australian Artist Magazine - click to download the article

One of the time-honoured techniques in painting is glazing. Glazing is the method of applying transparent or semi-transparent layers of colour on top of other colours, resulting in an optical colour mix - where your eyes mix the colour - as opposed to a physical mixing of colour on the palette or the surface. With glazing, you are able to achieve subtleties of colour that are not possible with a mixed colour, and the new Atelier Middle Medium is perfect for this technique.

L as Whore After Wyeth - an example of glazing used throughout a painting

I used the Middle Medium extensively in this painting, L as Whore After Wyeth,  s well as the painting of D As Mother, featured in Australian Artist Magazine. Not only did I use it as a general purpose medium to help Atelier Interactive come off my brush easily, but I used it for multiple layers of glazes throughout the painting. The Middle Medium is named for its mid-viscosity consistency, and when used for glazing vertically, my glazes did not dribble and run.

Atelier Mediums At work

Glazes allowed layers of luminous color to come through, and I was able to capture the subtle changes of light such as in the curve of the breast and face. While it was possible to capture these changing planes by painting wet-in-wet, I found that a more nuanced approach worked better in these paintings and created colors only possible through glazing.

Glazing to capture subtle curves and light changes with soft shadows

 

Detail of curves and colours on face and neck

Using a ratio of about 4:1 Middle Medium:Paint, I applied layer after layer of transparent or semi-transparent glazes of colours such as Permanent Alizarine, Raw Sienna Dark, Arylamide Yellow Deep, Blue Black and Naples Yellow. My standard practice is to apply a glaze and then wipe it back.

Although this is a large painting (122cm x 153cm), I was able to complete it in about 24 hours.  One of the reasons why I could do so is because the Atelier Mediums - the Thin, Middle and Thick Painting Medium - dry fairly quickly, allowing me to apply layer after layer. If I created this painting using oil paint, it would have taken much longer to resolve.

Please send me an email or let us know on Facebook if you have any questions about this process or the Atelier Mediums.