Paintstiks

My friend Lesly Finn referred me to Blogs4u where I discovered a remarkable demonstration by Sue Choppers-Wife on Shiva Paintsiks. I was hooked immediately. I had already made a decision to give my pastels a rest and I was planning to spend a few months doing oils. Sue's demonstration showed me that there was a way to use pastel techniques to produce an oil painting. The pictue is my first using the Paintstiks. As you can see I've got some serious glare problems in the dark areas but I think I can fix that with wax. I used a reference photo I took of a sculpture in Santa Fe.

The Paintstiks (called oil bars in other brands) are a joy to work with. They blend just like oil. The sticks form a skin over the tip which can easily be wiped away. The painting dries to the touch in 24 hours. In this case I made a charcoal sketch first to get my drawing accurate and then applied the oil paint directly over it. This painting is 24 x 30 on Colourfix mounted on foam board. The finished painting can be framed directly without glass. Galleries and shows accept these as oils.