“Summer Room” â“’ 2011 Michaela Harlow – (16″ x 16″ – Oil on Panel)

I started this piece in August of 2009, and finished this afternoon. Although it may be hard to appreciate the texture on a computer screen, if you click the image to enlarge, and look closely, you will see that there are multiple layers to this piece. The sheer, luminous underpainting is shrouded by blurry, rubbed out areas and scraped, opaque layers. Sometimes a painting will happen all at once (alla prima) and sometimes it will take months or years until completion. Oil paint takes a long time to dry, and in order to build layers I often rework a piece over many months or years until I get what I’m after.

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