JEAN KIEGERL - ARTIST - Jean's Art Journal

JEAN KIEGERL - ARTIST

I got my marching (painting) orders:

2/12/2025

Stages of Painting with Oil (from my consult with Yvonne Reddick this morning)

Pencil sketch on support surface (canvas or board) prepared with GAC 100 and gesso.
Draw in India ink over pencil sketch so it can be seen through the oil glaze.
Erase graphite with kneadable gum eraser.
Glaze with transparent oil at 40/60 medium/paint.
Paint wet-into-wet grisaille, starting with white then grey shades. Do not over-blend!!!
Let that dry for about a week.
Add colour with transparent glazes on the grisaille (not a glaze over everything, but might glaze over sections, e.g. forest area, sky area.)
Add highlights in colours and opaques. Do not over-blend!!!
Let that dry!
Details and correction and punch up brights/darks. Do not over-blend!!!
Sign it. Let the painting dry!
After a few weeks, brush on retouch varnish (2 parts Liquin + 1 part Gamsol.)

I probably knew all this from taking Yvonne's workshops, but apparently not in an organized way. This list is really helpful. I can check what point each painting has reached and plan for overlapping work times for several paintings at once. That will keep me from returning to a painting to soon and running into still-wet paint. It might even stop me from over-blending!

Beyond painting, so many details

2/12/2025

And how to get them all done? How to actually remember them? How to use bits and pieces of time for the details, saving the hours for painting instead of frittering them away?
The Todoist app is my solution, I hope. A little wiring here, a little framing there, a little varnishing in between - and there they are - all ready for the show in April without stress.

Some progress, but time is moving on more quickly now

1/12/2025

OK, so I took a few days off - Sparkling Hill Resort was wonderful and so relaxing...zzzzzz.
Yesterday I worked on the two Daisy paintings with my artist friend Nancy looking over my shoulder.

I think I am avoiding the Nicola Valley paintings, now 3 started but not continued. Courage, deep breath, it's only a painting not heart surgery. Maybe do another grisaille to practice on... just as a delaying tactic.

Commission started

22/11/2025

I sketched in the outlines with watercolour pencil, then shaded it with PanPastels. Next use a spray retouch varnish to seal the pastel layer and paint the grisaille with shades of grey oil paint. If I am feeling brave, I might start with a transparent red!

Early start today

17/11/2025

I woke up with painting plans already lined up in my brain. Let's see if they work:
- gently blend out the paint ridges on NV/Overpass because I forgot to do it last night;
- start the colour process on the white daisy grisaille by using transparent yellow (leading to green later) and strengthen the whites.
Wow, let's see what happens after lunch!

Well, Nancy came over and detailed me through a couple more not-quite-perfect efforts. Her best tip is "Step away from the painting! Now!"

Then she left me on my own... I followed her suggestion to prune the crowded white daisies and then got my 16x20 of Nicola Lake ready to start tomorrow.

That was a busy day of painting, but in one or two hour blocks, so not stressful.

New day, new painting; but trying not to have too many unfinished at one time

16/11/2025

My very favourite view of the Nicola Valley is when we drive under the Mill Creek Overpass on Hwy 5 and the whole valley lays out in front of us. The wonderful thing about painting vs photos is that painters can leave things out - like the 4-lane divided highway that takes over the whole photo. :)

Signed

13/11/2025

Make mistakes and correct them, rinse and repeat.
I think I signed it because I wanted to stop. Maybe when the paint dries, I will have another look.

Be brave, just paint it.

11/11/2025

Do artists get stage fright? I kept looking at the two daisy grisailles and walking away. Tonight I said to myself (as I have said to students) - "Don't think any more, it's only paint, just do it."

Ok, 2 hours. I am not so happy with it, but at least my brushes got wet. I seem to have forgotten the painting sequence for layers today. I felt clumsy and kept changing brushes (blame the brush!) Now I am cleaning many many brushes before I go to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

How to waste a morning instead of painting

3/11/2025

Start by sitting down in front of a computer instead of putting a clean brush into wet paint.
Then spend 2 hours trying to get into my Weebly account to edit this website.
For future reference, when Weebly.com fails me:
- In Chrome, click on the 3 buttons on the top right corner, select History
- Then click History in the next panel, then Delete Browsing Data and make sure "for all time" is selected.
It's that simple, honest.

OK, now on to painting. I want to start a third Daisy underpainting, then differentiate the three panels into Yellow, White and Autumn (rusty) versions. A fourth, if I want more, could be the pink-purple Painted Daisy.

Later that same day...
No daisy, but the butterfly painting demanded to be either revised or burned so I can move on. I like it better already.

More daisies!

30/10/2025

Well, that was so much fun, why not try it again? This time I painted it in shades of grey without a coloured tone on the canvas first. I started with the darkest shades and worked towards white, since the opposite direction was too much of a challenge. I could not tell where the whites were painted on the white canvas (duh!) When I finished the flower, I had to put in a background just to see where the whites ended. This is a learn-as-I-go project, I guess. The next layer should be fun :)