First, I'd like to thank those of you who have written nice things about the painting. I'd also like to thank those of you who may not like the painting and have refrained from telling me so.
Chris,
The primary background colors were based on Gamblin's Asphaltum and Gamblin's Transparent Earth Red. I'm sure there were lots of other colors in there too, but I don't remember offhand.
Photography of paintings is deceptive, of course, and really doesn't show a lot of important information for us. The background is actually full of textured paint, smooth paint, transparent passages and opaque paint. I used a knife as well as a brush. Large flat passages can be as difficult and challenging as drapery.
Mike,
I always enjoy and appreciate the things you write on this Forum. The canvas is Utrecht 66J and I carefully primed it myself; it's stretched on Utrecht heavy duty stretcher bars and attached with copper coated tacks. The size is 36" x 28".