Arcangelo 2

Arcangelo 2, oil on linen, 40 x 30 inches

I have been working on this painting for a few months now but I think it's finally finished. It is a larger, more expressive version of an earlier canvas, which was 24 x 20.  

I say I have been working on it for a few months, but 90% of it was done in the first week. I would let dry, find something else I want to fix, work on it, and let that dry. Every few days I'd see some little thing that I want to change and it and each time it would take a few minutes to a few hours of work, then another few days to dry. In this way, the last 10% of the painting took 90% of the time though most of that time was just waiting for it to dry.

Some marks had to be made wet into wet, while others had to be done on a dried surface, so it was a slow process even though the brushwork looks speedy and expressive. 

The palette I used is, as you can plainly see, very limited; Black, White, Transparent Earth Red, and Yellow Ochre. I used a lot of Liquin and Gamsol. I also did a lot of glazing, wiping, scraping and generally abusing the canvas in different ways.

I love how this turned out. Archangel Michael is a superhero of sorts, so the larger scale was very appropriate. In fact, I've started another, even larger version. I can't wait to see how that turns out!

The sculpture is by Peter Van Verschaffeldt, a Flemish (?) architect and sculptor, and this particular piece was created around the middle of the 18th Century.  It stands in Rome today.