Dutch Style

Here I present one of my latest projects. Here I discuss my approach to this large painting.

I worked on a large (36x48 inches) floral painting in acrylic representing a beautiful bouquet that I photographed this summer. I tried to recreate the Old Dutch masters’ style with their fantastic luminosity. I’ve always admired this Golden period of Dutch art, with artists such as Margaretha Haverman, or Jan Brueghel.

I started on a black-primed canvas. After carefully tracing the drawing, I proceeded to paint a grey-toned first layer. This is called a ‘grissaille’, and allows me to concentrate on the value with no color interference.

I then painted layer after layer of transparent acrylics, with thin layers for light values and multiple layers for dark values. I started painting from left to right, so you still can see the gray original layer in parts of the painting.It is a ver… — I then painted layer after layer of transparent acrylics, with thin layers for light values and multiple layers for dark values. I started painting from left to right, so you still can see the gray original layer in parts of the painting.
It is a very slow process, and while I liked the result, it took lot longer than I expected. Pheeww! Next painting is going to be ‘A la prima’! (google that!). But look at the results in the next page!