"Sharing Secrets" - A Progression

Here is one of my most recent paintings. While I still don't have one particular method that I use for starting and completing a painting, I share here the process I used for this  painting. I hope it can be of some benefit to other artists. Stage 1: I drew some basic shapes for the composition on the white canvas using vine charcoal, and immediately began blocking in the painting using a thin wash of Gamsol and Rembrandt transparent oxide brown. I allowed some of the drips to stay, and dabbed some of the others with a paper towel. I also left some of the white of the canvas showing through (once you lose it, you can't get it back!). I was working for the first time on lead-primed linen (commercially prepared), which I found to be too absorbent for my taste. However, even though I… Read more »

"Sharing Secrets" - A Progression

An Exploration of Winged Figures

I'm thrilled to be working on a new series of paintings involving winged figures and ballerinas. It was this painting from last year, "Little Warrior," that got the whole thing started: "Little Warrior" (2013) - by Anna Rose Bain - 14.5" x 24"  Oil on linen glued to board - Private Collection Before beginning the series, however, I decided to study up on the history of "winged figures" in art and culture. I realized that I knew quite a bit about angels in the biblical sense, but was at a loss as to how our modern-day image of the angel came to be. In my mind, I needed to justify why I would be taking a deliberately cultural (and not literal) take on angels, knowing that the Bible strictly describes them as masculine beings who serve as either mess… Read more »

An Exploration of Winged Figures