evening glow

I've been working on this painting for over a year now. I started it just before the first snow of 2009, somewhere in November if I remember rightly. It was a landscape at first out the 3rd floor window, then I started a self portrait and finally switched to figuring out the medium. I was looking for something that would replicate the surface of the boat paints that I had been using but gave up simply because I didn't want the chemicals in the home environment. I thought there must be a way to make a medium that doesn't rely on synthetic resins and other nasty products that seems to be popular with artists these days. So I was looking for something that would self-level, be luminous and have a fluid feel with application. This piece uses a lot of Venetian Turp and Stand oil. I realized several things at this point: so many of the paintings from antiquity that use resins and oleo resins are still luminous and salient, and perhaps maybe the commercial products artists tend to use today speak of a mercantile nature, I know I don't want to be that.