Faith on burlap

[Mike McCarty]

This is my friend, Faith, from the deli meat counter at the grocery store. In a moment of weakness she allowed me to photograph her.

Oil on stretched burlap 16 x 20.

Most of my paintings are on portrait grade linen that I gesso and sand three times. This produces a nice smooth surface. However, this beautifully smooth surface feeds in to my tendency to nit-pick and rub the life out of what I paint. One remedy is to paint with a much bigger brush than you think is right for the job. Another remedy is to paint on a surface that is so knarly that it won't allow this life sucking detailing to take place.

So, I got a big brush, mostly, and I found this burlap that was taken from between a saddle and a double humped camel - Camelus dromedarius, so named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, or would that be a dromedary? He digresses. Either way it made for quite a pungent experience. I'm going to varnish with a touch of Channel no. 5.