Cereal grain and juniper berries versus pine sap

VODKA AND GIN VERSUS REFINED TURPS

I was more than a little shocked when buying a small bottle of refined turpentine. WOW! It’s gone up since 1968! Although well known for watercolour I do enjoy working in oil on a rugged, rough toothed hemp canvas when I can get it. Sorry but acrylic paint simply does nothing for me, hence the Oil Painting thoughts in this issue with the turps thrown in for good measure.

Born in the village of Bushey in Hertfordshire England, first aroused to art by the smell of Lucie Kemp-Welch at the Margaret Frobishure studio, I love  the smell of the pine tree sap we know as Turpentine. Even the word is beautiful to me. You may also have realised from the pieces written over the last year or so, that I am a bit Victorian in my love of palette, choice of colours and the ‘ritual’ of Painting in Oil as against Oil Painting. You may find me of a different approach to many talented younger artists today, enjoying traditional quality art materials, a painterly smell of Linseed, Turpentine and the ritual to go through in my work.

A good friend and neighbour, watercolourist, the late Betty Birchnal Delph, one day walked in with friends saying “this is what a painters studio should smell like.” She was old school as well. The Earl of Radnor, who died on August 11 2008, aged 80, was the owner of Longford Castle in Wiltshire; he preserved and enhanced his inheritance, and was a knowledgeable custodian of an exceptional collection of Old Master paintings.

It stems from when and where the skills developed from those who I was privileged to meet or work for from about 1954. My serious art education was at lunchtimes in the Bond and Bruton Street galleries as the studio boy, tagging along with experienced artists, to whom I was originally dog’s body, at the Mayfair advertising agency. It’s difficult to talk about one’s life in an orchard without talking about the apples.

One of our directors, Pleydell-Bouverie actually Earl of Radnor I discovered last month, but just Mr. Bouverie to me, owned a vast collection of serious art in his home in Longford, Wiltshire where chance lead me to his grave last July. A friend I visited happened to play the organ in the church where he is buried, only metres down the road. What an amazing group of advertising people from the top down, how fortunate I was to be included in my teens as the studio boy. All our secretaries were debutantes, the fashion executive Joan Arney – later Mrs. Palin – says a great deal about financial respect for top women in the London fashion business ex Vogue or Harpers Magazine. Others were Marcelle, a stunning mature ex French Resistance fighter and brilliant fashion artist, the man who taught me the most and the best of British war time forgers, Tom Jones, who prepared Odette Churchills German passes and papers, Harry Blacker, a devotee of FHK Henrion and Laszlo Maholy Nagy. The copy writers were all known poets: Peter Porter, Marchand Smith, Edward Lucie-smith and Oliver Barnard. Ted

Hughes Poet Laureate husband of Sylvia Plath visited our attics while courting dear Assia Wevill. These are now only memories for which I am very grateful; they were all very nice to me, the Creative Director to be. What an opportunity. Hopfully I have done them credit. How the tone changed when Sattchi & Sattchi bought the company.

So what has Gin and Vodka got to do with that on a hot afternoon? Not a lot really. We all drank Macon or Medoc at home, and guzzled Beaujolais at work in the afternoons. No matter how much I personally like to sniff Refined Turpentine, the cost is $70 a litre. Gin and Vodka are only $25 to $40 a litre. Refined Turpentine is amazingly double the price, I find that extraordinary.

At the back of my mind I have it that Mallord Turner used Gin. It is said to work equally well, however can I live without the sniff? No way! Horrors, one company advertises ‘low odour Turpentine’ to me that’s like roast beef with tasteless mustard. So what solution should I try?

I think I will try Vodka right away, as I enjoy a Bloody Mary after feeding my dog, Leah, nightly. Could the occasional bottle go on the art materials expenses list I wonder? One should combine lifestyle with work. Certainly Vodka was mixed with watercolour painting water, when in sub zero temperatures, as a kind of anti freeze – maybe try it out and report back – please do. Gin seems to work best.

Life is too short, have fun

Life has to be fun, as does painting and writing this Artist Forum – otherwise don’t do it: “Dougie, life is too short. One must remember not to drink your paint mix old son – the linseed could really stuff up the gut.”

An oil painting is really very close to being common Lino that always brings to mind dingy toilet floors, rather than the magnificent works in the Monastario El Escorial in Spain. Maybe we should contemplate Titian and his experimentation with the Flemish use of oil paint on wood panels, then on linen canvas using his usual pigment colour, local venetian turpentine, varnish, wax and binders etc, all easily located in his day. I suspect that paintings could be rolled up, shipped by sea, then on wagon or donkey to El Escorial in the middle of Spain, this may be why we favour our modern continued use of a canvas support as the norm.

The artist in Italy could supply large works at a distance for the first time, impossible with a wall or a massive wood panel. But enough of that – Vodka, better Gin, sounds like an interesting painting medium and a little distilled turpentine spilt on my painting rag or on my beard, makes for an intriguing combination, like Vicks Vapour Rub, also containing refined turpentine which may keep the head clear as well. I will report on the sensation and the work achieved in a later editorial along with your comments please.

Perhaps I am sounding flippant because I have recently seen the ‘Glasgow Boys’ exhibition in Kelvin Grove, Glasgow and a film of Joseph Boyes lecturing, also Georgia O’Keefe at the Tate Modern in London. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the thoughts and wanderings of a long time practicing creative, and find my random thoughts helpful, maybe informative or amusing. Art has been my passion and life, not as an interested viewer but as a ‘player’. Life among the artists where the ‘doing’ brings quite a different perspective to those who merely look, write or talk.

Remember don’t drink from your dippers – Slainte!
Happy Easter!