"Essence" Nude Sketch of a Very Pale Model

7" x 9", "Essence" on "Sand" Canson Paper,

SOLD

This sketch was done in a technique called

"Peinture a l'essence" that was commonly used

by Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. I think I may

have mentioned this previously a few months

back. To do this, you have to soak the oil out of

the paint on blotters or paper towels overnight.

Then, you transfer the paint to a paletter, and

use it, without adding any medium (this is very

important), but just diluting with solvent ("essence")

means "solvent" in French). This enables you to paint

right on any paper, without preparing it with a ground,

such as gesso, rabbit skin glue, or shellac.

The effect is a very mat one, and sometimes people

think these paintings are pastels. Toulouse-Lautrec's

famouse paintings on cardboard in the National

Gallery were all done this way. And, while they are

more than one hundred years old, there is still no

oil stain around the images.

I am going to be teaching a workshop in this soon.

Thanks for visiting today.