Dennis Hollingsworth

Ahora

Bart suggested that I roll the matt medium onto the panels rather than the usual handiwork I do with a brush. I like to see the fabric and I don't like the quality of gesso as an initial condition... unless it is mixed with marble dust and sanded in many layers by careful loving hands. For days.

So a roll of the clear acrylc medium is a roll of the dice too. The last time that I had veered from my usual prepratory routine, the oil seeped into the weave of the linen and altered greatly a very fine painting. (It's still a sucessful painting though.)

I know that paint will continue to change after I apply the last touch. Paint will contract and consolidate for a time as it dries. Surface features that might be faintly seen in fresh paint will usually become more pronounced, sharp and decidedly more visual in a drier painting. Generally, I just don't want the changes to get all crazy, or at least crazier than I intend.

Of course, there is the fine example of Sigmar Polke, who went all Ryman-like with resin soaked fabric over stretcher bars. See thru. I note Ryman because the whole of the physicality of the painting can be seen as to be equal to the status that pigment has on the surface of painting. For both of them, stretcher bars were on the pallette too.