The gift of a life...

And a couple of gifts for you

ps… I made a mistake in the link to the store. It’s Armadillo Art in Belle Meade, NJ. Email them via this link to purchase the primer I talked about. Sorry about that…

I’m sitting in our studio alone, thinking about what is important. Yep, that ages old pondering that comes to the forefront of thought, in the midst of the holiday insanity that we call the ‘Merry Season’. And it is just that, a time for family, for some quiet, for some joy… usually… Merry. A season when the nature of the outdoors seems to settle in for a little rest. All gratitude for the gift of life. At times that is the only gift that truly matters.

Since I know that all of you are still in the middle of the holiday countdown, I’ll go for brief here. (turns out I didn’t) So far, our holiday has been one for the books. Both my partner, Dottie, and I, have had the health of a child, scare the shit out of us this month. In my case, my oldest son who is running a kitchen, and is the chef, in the oldest Hotel still operating in Wabasha, MN, had a kitchen accident. I’m very proud of him for being the chef he is, that he is, in his ancestral home town, employing his brother and a few others, when what he’d rather do is to be at his easel with paints and brushes, and a large canvas. The traditional food at the Anderson House Hotel is Dutch/home cooked, farm food, a lot of rolls and bread being a large part of the menu. On Dec 2, he was making the caramel sauce for some rolls when the unimaginable happened, and it spilled onto his right hand, severely burning him. He’s right handed. The 350˚degree caramel boiled his hand, burnt through the nerves on his fingers, and has left him with some very nasty scarring as it heals, the kind a parent never wants to see. Fortunately, it’s healing with out having to deal with infection, and it looks like he’ll be ok. I’m thankful for that and consider his hand not being worse than it might have been, a gift.

My partner Dottie’s child fell very ill and is in the hospital, where Dottie has been all week. Prognosis is still guarded, but we’re hopeful that he’s on his way to being well again. That has been an incredibly scary event, one that has taken a toll on all of us. I’m only mentioning this because she has written about it in her Substack publication. She’s a REALLY good writer, not a hack like me. I invite you to read her Substack publication for wonderful thoughts about life and painting. This weeks post isn’t so wonderful due to the health scare she’s enduring with her son, but she still beautifully describes the desperation of the situation that she’s in with him, that we’re all in as part of this family.

A link to her writing is below… that’s my first gift to all of you.

CAPTURING LIFE IN PAINT - by Dottie Turner Leatherwood

Next, I want to share a product with you that I have been using/hoarding, when I could get it, for about the last 8 years or so. Somehow I ended up with a partial can of it years ago. I tried it and fell in love. Most of our art supply stores carry Art Spectrum products of one sort or another. NOT this primer!? Then my search began trying to find more.

It’s a primer made by Art Spectrum out of Australia. It’s for oil paints, and is called Art Spectrum Oil Prime Artists’ Linseed Oil Based Primer. This is an amazing alternative to acrylic primer, for oil paints. No dealing with the expense and hazards of lead based primers. It does not have a slippery surface, like some other oil primers on the market. Paint sits on it beautifully, and looks so much better than it does on an acrylic primed surface. It’s water clean up, fairly low odor, is dry in a day, and can be painted on in 2 days. I usually let it sit a few more days so it hardens off more.

The first 2 cans I bought cost me an arm and a leg, and were destroyed in shipping because of poor packaging. I had to order it from AUS, the shipping cost me about twice as much as the primer cans did. It took forever. Then one day the postmaster from the local office called me telling me that there was some sort of nasty looking stuff in bubble wrap sitting on the back porch of the post office building. And that if I wanted it, “come and get it” because she was not “taking it back into the post office!” The store in AUS shipped it by taping the two cans together, top to bottom, then wrapping it in two layers of light weight bubble wrap and tape. That was it! The cans were dented, smashed in, the lids came unsealed, and the primer was all over the place. I mentioned this on Facebook at the time just to let people know. Maybe later that year, don’t really remember the time frame, a friend/painter who was working in AUS bought some and shipped it to me when he got back to the states! I was blown away. Such a thoughtful thing to do. Well, I’ve about gone through all of the primer that I’ve had on hand, so I have been looking for a new source for it. I have hesitated to tell other painters about it, because I knew of no way to find it… Until NOW! I have done some serious digging, and I found a source in the US. I’m sharing this with you so that if you’re interested in a really great product, a great primer, you might want to give it a try. Disclaimer is… these things are personal so it may not be your favorite thing. It’s not too expensive, so you could gift it to another painter if you get some and are not as thrilled with it as I am. The more of us who purchase it… demand… the more likely we will be able to find it in the future. So this is a selfish gift.

There is one store in the USA, in New Jersey, that distributes the primer. I’ve ordered some from them after corresponding with a very nice lady there who’s name is Lori. They sell mostly to other retailers, but I have the been given permission, by them, to let other artists know that you can order it from them. Lori says they sell the primer all over Canada, but not much at all to the US art supply market. I don’t know why not? Water clean up, much less expensive than other oil primers, and a quick dry time, and it is very nice to paint on. Below are the fine points about the primer. Remember, this is for oil painting only, not for acrylic painting.

The store is in Belle Meade, NJ and is called Armadillo Art….

Art Spectrum^® Oil Prime is a unique and complex formula containing an oil and resin blend combined with Titanium Dioxide.

Product Application:

• No glue or clear acrylic sizing is required

• Shake or stir well

• Use undiluted or thin with up to 15% water to assist with application of first coat. Final coat should always be undiluted. Two coats are recommended

• Apply with a brush, roller or sponge directly onto canvas or wooden panels.  Oil Prime is ideally suited for priming wooden panels because of its excellent linseed oil penetration into the timber substrate

• Oil Prime has a short drying/curing time formulated to be touch-dry in one hour and a second coat may be applied within the same day. Oil painting can begin the following day, or as soon as the water has evaporated from the priming system.

Best wishes to all of you out there who are receiving Crayolas Set Me Free, for a healthy, safe and peaceful Holiday weekend and season. I’ll see you after the ‘3’ changes to the ‘4’.

Keep the brushes wet,

Cheers,
Marc

A recent oil painting - “Smoky Fall Marsh”, 24x24 oil on panel.